POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



765 



prehistoric vestiges of Colorado." Captain 

 Berthoud believes, from his observations, 

 that man existed in the Rocky Mountain 

 region prior to the deposit of gold in the 

 Colorado mountain-slopes, Creek, Bar, and 

 Placer diggings, about latitude 39 30' to 

 41 north. Captain Berthoud has not only 

 found flint tools and chips in the gold-bear- 

 ing glacial drift, with remains of fossil 

 elephants, but also in the drift of older 

 date below this gold-bearing drift. Flint 

 tools have been also found in company with 

 estuary shells of not later age than older 

 Pliocene as determined by Prof. Conrad. 



The Decline of Savage Races. Virchow, 

 in an address upon the present position of 

 anthropology, makes a few very just obser- 

 vations upon the subject of the decline of 

 savage races in the presence of civilized 

 man. Thus he remarks that we must not, 

 in the case of an entirely isolated people, 

 judge of their capacity for culture from the 

 signs of it which exist. The extinction of 

 uncultured races, he thinks, is rather to be 

 ascribed to the barbarousness of Euro- 

 peans, and to their incapacity to educate 

 savages. There is no evidence that un- 

 civilized races must become extinct in- 

 deed, the contrary is proved by the history 

 of Europeans themselves. If the civilized 

 people of the present day are the product 

 of a higher development, we cannot regard 

 the possibility of such a development as a 

 cause of the extinction of races in the same 

 stage of culture once occupied by ourselves. 



Estimation of Alcohol in a Watery Mixt- 

 ure. Dr. Werner Siemens has designed 

 an ingenious apparatus, by which a stream 

 composed of alcohol and water, mixed in 

 any proportion, is so measured that one 

 train of counter-wheels records the volume 

 of the mixture, while a second counter 

 gives a true record of the amount of abso- 

 lute alcohol contained in it. The principle 

 is described as follows : The volume of 

 liquid is passed through a revolving drum, 

 divided into three compartments by ra- 

 dial divisions, and not dissimilar in ap- 

 pearance to an ordinary wet gas-meter. 

 The revolutions of this drum produce a 

 record of the total volume of passing 



liquid. The liquid on its way to the meas- 

 uring-drum passes through a receiver con- 

 taining a float 'Of thin metal filled with 

 proof-spirit, which float is partially sup- 

 ported by means of a carefully-adjusted 

 spring, and its position determines that of 

 a lever, the angular position of which 

 causes the alcohol-counter to rotate more 

 or less for every revolution of the meas- 

 uring-drum. Thus, if water only passes 

 through the apparatus, the lever stands at 

 its lowest position, and then the rotative 

 motion is not communicated to the alcohol- 

 counter, and this motion is rendered strictly 

 proportionate to the alcohol contained in 

 the liquid, allowance being made in the in- 

 strument for the change of volume due to 

 chemical affinity between the two liquids. 



Preservation of Iron against Rust. We 



find in Van Nostrand's Engineering Maga- 

 zine an account of Dr. William H. Sterling's 

 process for preventing the rusting of iron. 

 The principle of this system, we are in- 

 formed, consists in the saturation of the 

 iron with a non-oxidizing or non-oxidizable 

 substance while the iron is in a properly 

 heated and expanded condition, produced 

 by heating in a vacuum or in a simple 

 chamber. One method of applying this 

 system is given as follows by the inventor : 

 " A vessel of iron, or any suitable material 

 of sufficient strength, is made in the form 

 and size best adapted to the shape and di- 

 mensions of the iron which is to be treated, 

 with the lid so constructed that the vessel 

 may be closed hermetically, and at the bot- 

 tom suitable pipes are arranged for convey- 

 ing steam and water alternately, for the 

 purpose of heating and cooling the inte- 

 rior." Suitably connected with this vessel 

 is a power-pump to produce the necessary 

 pressure, also appliances for obtaining a 

 vacuum. The iron is now heated to the 

 desired degree and placed in the vessel, 

 the top closed hermetically and superheated 

 steam turned into the pipes at the bottom, 

 to keep the metal at the required tempera- 

 ture ; at the same time an atmospheric 

 vacuum is produced by an ordinary air- 

 pump connected with the chamber ; the 

 proper quantity of pure paraffine, having 

 been also previously heated, is now let into 

 this chamber and forced under pressure into 



