658 SCIENTIFIC RECORD FOR 1885. 



])erforated tile, and opened at the ends to admit two carbon electrodes 

 an inch and a half in diameter. Through these is passed the current 

 from a dynamo of 30 horse-power. By this arrangement such a temper 

 ture is obtained that not only platinumiridiuin may be fused, but the 

 most refractory oxides, such as alumina, silica, &c., are reduced to their 

 elements with formation of carbon monoxide. 



The ai>paratus is especially used in the manufacture of aluminum 

 bronze and of silicium bronze for commercial purposes. 



The application of electricity to smelting is not so novel as commonly 

 su])posed. In 18r)3-'54, G. A. Pichon used an electric furnace in which 

 ores of iron, mixed with one hundredth of coke or charcoal, is fed be- 

 tween the poles of a series (two or more tiers) of large electrodes; fusion 

 takes place and the metal and slag iall into a heated receiver below. 

 ( Practical Mechanics' Journal^ vi, 257). In 1S8l', C. W. Siemens invented 

 an electric furnace in which electrodes are arranged vertically one above 

 another, the negative passing through the lid of the crucible into the 

 metal to be melted, the other through the bottom of the crucible. The 

 length of the arc is controlled automatically by the electro-motive force 

 between the electrodes. This furnace was, however, for melting iiud 

 not for smelting. {Chem. News^ 1882, 163.) 



The furnace of Messrs. Cowles and Mabery yields good results on a 

 larger scale than those of others. 



OEGANIC. 



A Plea for the Empiric Naming of Organic Compounds (by Professoi 

 Odling). — Verbal translations of the structural formulae assigned to or 

 ganic compounds possess certain advantages as names for the several 

 compounds. Thus, they are applicable to all organic compounds of 

 which the structural formulae are made out; they are the only sort of 

 names applicable to complex isomeric compounds; and their use can- 

 not be dispensed with wholly in the case of even less complex com- 

 pounds. Notwithstanding these advantages structural names consti- 

 tute unsuitable names for gener.il use, more especially as applied to 

 fundamental hydrocarbons, alcohols, and acids. They are objectionable 

 for this use by reason of their length, complexity, and want of ready 

 indicativeuess, by the circumstrince of their being based on concep 

 tions of chemical constitution of a kind pointed out by experience as 

 eminently liable to change, and by the further circumstance of theii' 

 representing a one-sided, and so far an untruthful, notion of the bodies 

 ilesignated. Structural names expressing other than a distorted view 

 of the constitution of all but a few of the most simide of organic bodies 

 are imi)racticable by reason of their length and complexity. Hence, to 

 avoid the distortion inseparable from the use of any single structural 

 name for an organic body the only expedient is the assignment to each 



