42 KANSAS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 



ney demolished, states that the lightning came down like a huge ball of fire. The 

 second chimney was about in the predicament of the first. The lightning had descended 

 to the kitchen stovepipe, then followed it across the room sixteen feet, and tearing it 

 apart, jumped two feet into the brick lining of the house, thence into the guttering on 

 the side of the house, melting it in three or four places, thence down the pipe, tearing 

 off the corner-boards of the house, and made its exit in a barrel of water. 



The family were troubled with a sort of lassitude for two or three days, and with 

 myself were affected with a severe nausea for about a week. 



This wonderful, invisible, subtle element which is so terribly sudden and potent in 

 its operations, we now look upon with more mystery than ever. 



NOTES ON TEA ANALYSIS. 



BY H. R. BULL. 



The following notes on tea analysis were made while pursuing an inquiry concerning 

 the adulterations found in our ordinary articles of food. 



I had collected from our city grocers a variety of samples for analysis, ranging from 

 the highest-priced to the cheapest teas in the market. The general methods used 

 were those given in Wauklyn's work on tea, coffee and cocoa analysis, following the 

 scheme proposed by him in the determination of ash and extracts. 



Wauklyn's method of ash-determination was to incinerate a weighed quantity of the 

 tea in a platinum crucible. I found, after a rather costly experience, that it would not 

 do to use platinum crucibles. We had in the laboratory two new crucibles, which I used. 

 I noticed, after the first incineration, that the bottom of the crucible was affected, and 

 after the second it was cracked and eaten so badly that it was unfit for further use. 

 Supposing it was due to poor platinum, I tried the other new crucible, and it was like- 

 wise ruined. An old crucible, that had been long in service, and was known to be of 

 good material, was next tried; after two or three incinerations it also was spoiled. A 

 little study on this convinced me that the bad effects on platinum were due to the 

 presence of phosphoric acid, which is decomposed by heat. The platinum unites readily 

 with phosphorus, forming the brittle silver-white, easily fusible phosphide of platinum, 

 which spoiled the crucibles. Upon a subsequent quantitative determination, I found 

 tea ash to contain 21.24 per cent, of P 2 5 . 



Porcelain crucibles were afterwards used, with quite satisfactory results. The per- 

 centages of ash in seven different teas were as follows: 



Best Japan, price unknown, 5.15S 



Black Oolong, price unknown, 5.957 



Japan, (</ 70c, G.056 



Japan, (S 50c, ' 6.421 



Japan, @ 50c, 6.085 



Young Hyson, @ 25c 6.953 



Japan sittings, (§ 25c, 12.849 



By adding water to the ash in a beaker, grains of sand could be seen in every case. 

 Probably some sand is necessarily accumulated in gathering and in transportation, but if 

 the ash much exceeds 6 per cent, it is questionable whether it is not partly intentional. 

 It may be noticed in the results given, that the ash increases much as the price dimin- 

 ishes. 



Zoller has found that the ash of tea leaves from which all sand had been carefully 

 removed contained 4.35 per cent, of silica. In the specimens under consideration I find 

 the total amount of silica as follows, the figures being percentages of the ash : 



