482 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



be eaten with leg of lamb, that roast goose required a corrective in 

 the shape of apple, and that while a pre-established harmony existed 

 between salmon and lobster, oysters were ordained beforehand by 

 Nature as the proper accompaniment of boiled cod ! Whenever I re- 

 flect upon such things, I become at once a good Positivist, and offer 

 up praise in my own private chapel to the Spirit of Humanity which 

 has slowly perfected these profound rules of good living. — Cornhill 

 Magazine. 



♦ » » 



SULPHUE AND ITS EXTRACTION. 



Br C. G. WAKNFOKD LOCK. 



THE following notes relate exclusively to native sulphur (brimstone). 

 Though the amount of sulphur annually mined in the form of 

 sulphides of various metals (e. g., iron and cojDper pyrites, galena, 

 blende, etc.) probably far exceeds that obtained in the uncombined 

 state, still, the separation of the sulphur in an inoxidized condition 

 from such compounds is never attempted, for the simple reasons that, 

 in the processes for extracting the several metals from their ores, the 

 first step necessary is the elimination of the combined sulphur, which 

 is most easily effected by a roasting or oxidizing operation, whereby 

 the sulphur is at once converted into sulphurous acid, itself a valu- 

 able commodity, and, moreover, capable of being readily oxidized one 

 step further to form sulphuric acid, the chief purpose for which sul- 

 phur is consumed. 



There are two mines of sulphur worked in Austria-Hungary, one 

 not far from Cracow, and the other at Radoboi in Croatia ; both de- 

 posits are of considerable extent, but the annual yield is insignificant. 

 The whole district around Mount Biidos, in Transylvania, is rich in 

 sulphur. Some thirty or more diggings have been undertaken in a 

 circuit of eighteen miles, but the area covered by the deposits is more 

 than three times this size. The sulphur occurs in unequal strata one 

 to nine inches thick, beneath one to three feet of mold. The soil is 

 everywhere saturated with sulphur, and in this permeated earth pieces 

 of the pure mineral are found. The whole is the result of living sol- 

 fataric action, and the accumulation will continue to grow as long as 

 that action survives. Samples of the impregnated earth, taken over 

 an area of 16,000,000 square fathoms, yielded from forty-one to sixty- 

 four per cent of sulphur. Allowing for interruptions in the deposits, 

 and taking these at an average thickness of three inches instead of 

 nine, the total sulphur output of the Austrian Empire, in 1863, was 

 1,754 tons, at an average rate of £12 15s. per ton. The imports are 

 about five thousand tons per annum. 



Large quantities of sulphur are found in and about the crater of 



