1875,] Mineralogy. 273 
by means of rabbles furnished with peels set obliquely. The rabbles rest on 
cones, and may be moved by either manual labour or steam-power. 
Some improvements in the manufacture of iron and steel have been intro- 
duced by Mr. Willans. During the re-heating of the iron he injects into the 
furnace oil, creosote, carbonic oxide, or other substances containing carbon or 
hydrogen, in order to prevent the oxidation of the metal. Steel tubes may be 
made by employing soft steel, which is easy to draw, and then annealing this 
in the presence of deoxidising agents. 
A process for tempering steel, invented by MM. Garnaut and Seigfield, has 
been acquired, it is reported, by the United States Government. It consists in 
heating the steel to cherry-redness, and then sprinkling it with common salt. 
At a later stage of the working a mixture is employed, containing chloride of 
sodium, sulphate of copper, sal-ammoniac, carbonate of soda, and saltpetre. 
Finally, the steel—having been brought to a cherry-red heat—is plunged into 
a bath containing alum, carbonate of soda, sulphate of copper, saltpetre, and 
chloride of sodium. 
Mr. J. M. Oubridge, of Middlesbro’, has recently read, before the Cleveland 
Institution of Engineers, a paper ‘‘On the Construction of Foundries.” He 
sketches the way in which he believes a foundry should be constructed, and 
enters into technical details suggested by his own experience. The paper has 
been reproduced in the columns of ‘ Iron.” 
For many years past antimony ore has been worked and reduced in Borneo 
and of late years mercury has also been extracted. A description of the 
methods followed in mining and smelting these minerals has been laid before 
the Tyne Chemical Society, by Mr. T. Down, jun. The antimony mines are 
at Jambusan, about 30 miles from Sarawak. The ore—which is principally 
the sulphide, although native antimony and the oxide also occur—is found in 
veins running through limestone, and in derived boulders. A charge of about 
30 cwts. of ore is introduced into a specially-constructed reverberatory furnace, 
where it is liquated. The crude metal is run into cast-iron moulds, while the 
oxide which has been volatilised is collected in long flues. The cinnabar 
occurs disseminated through a rock, said to be a basalt, at Tegora, about 
10 miles from Jambusan. 
MINERALOGY, 
In compliment to Hofrath Kopp, of Heidelberg, the name of Koppite has 
recently been given—by Prof. Knop, of Carlsruhe—to a mineral from the 
Kaisersthuhl, previously mistaken for pyrochlore. It is found to be a niobate 
of various metals, including calcium, cerium, lanthanium, didymium, potas- 
sium, sodium, &c.: a part of the oxygen appears to be replaced by fluorine. 
Koppite occurs, with apatite and magnoferrite, in the granular limestone of 
the Kaiserstuhl. 
Some interesting researches on the composition of Autunite, with special 
reference to the condition in which the water exists, have been undertaken by 
Prof. A. H. Church, and the results published in the ‘‘ Journal of the Chemical 
Society.’’ Specimens recently raised in the neighbourhood of Redruth were 
subjected to examination, and compared with others from near Autun, in 
France. The powdered mineral submitted to dry air, confined over oil of 
vitriol, lost between 8 and g per cent of water, at the same time becoming 
fragile and losing its transparency. These changes seem to indicate that the 
water thus removed is not moisture accidentally present in the interstices of 
the substance, but water which is absolutely essential to the constitution of 
the mineral. Over oil of vitriol im wacuo a further loss of water occurs, 
reaching about 15 percent. Prof. Church’s analyses lead to the following 
formula for the unaltered crystals :—(U203.CaO)P20;.10H20; and show that 
Autunite dried in vacuo has onty two molecules of water instead of ten. 
Torbnerite, a phosphate of copper and uranium, closely allied to Autunite, did 
not exhibit a similar behaviour when dried. 
Prof. Weisbach, of Freiberg, has described a mineral brought by Herr Simon 
