488 ANNUAL KECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



billed as to leave no excess of either component ; a desidera- 

 tum which is very seldom reached, as the soaj) is either too 

 alkaline, in which case it parches and dries up the skin, or it 

 is too fat, and thus makes the skin greasy, so that the dust 

 readily adheres to it. The former inconvenience is the more 

 serious of the two, as it very soon leaves its impress upon the 

 skin. For this reason soap-makers are in the habit of em- 

 ploying an excess of fat, notwithstanding the inconvenience 

 mentioned. Mignot now informs us that silica introduced 

 into the soap, in the form of infusorial earth, will tend to neu- 

 tralize any excess of the alkaline elements of the soajD, as it 

 is soluble both in soda and in potash, and it will at the same 

 time take up the surplus of fatty matter by absorbing it, and 

 combining with it to a certain extent. Infusorial earth, as is 

 well known, occurs in difterent parts of the world in great 

 quantity, and immense deposits are known in various por- 

 tions of the United States, especially in Idaho, Nevada, and 

 California. 3 B, March 6, 1873, 414. 



\ PATENT WAGON LUBRICANTS. ' 



A resin-lime soap, prepared by stirring eighty pounds of 

 dry-slaked lime into one hundred pounds of rosin-oil, and 

 heating, with continued stirring, until a pasty mass, free from 

 lumps, is formed, which finally runs from the stirrer like 

 sirup, is a principal ingredient of difterent forms of patent 

 axle grease. Some of these are prepared as follows : Blue, 

 by boiling five hundred pounds of crude rosin-oil one hour 

 with two pounds of dry -slaked lime, allowing it to cool, 

 drawing off the oil from the sediment, and stirring into it, 

 while still warm, ten to twelve pounds of the above soap, 

 until a blue mass of the consistency of butter is obtained. 

 Yellow, by adding to this six per cent, of an extract of tur- 

 meric, prepared by boiling one part of turmeric with twenty 

 of soda-lye. Black, by adding two pounds of lamp-black, rub- 

 bed up with rosin-oil, to one hundred pounds of the blue mass. 

 Patent palm-oil lubricant is made by melting and stirring to- 

 gether ten pounds of the resin-soap and ten pounds of palm- 

 oil, and then mixing in five hundred pounds of rosin-oilj and 

 enough soap (two to three pounds) to give the consistency of 

 butter; and, finally, seven to eight pounds of soda-lye, ob- 

 tained from seventy pounds of calcined carbonate of soda, 



