408 Progress in Science. [July, 
cork, through which passes a small tube. To prepare the apparatus for use, 
about 8 ounces of the absorbent liquid are put into the bottle, the larger tube 
partly filled with glass splinters, and depressed so that the apertures dip 
about half an inch into the liquid. The conveying tube is now introduced 
into the pipe or chamber from which the sample has to be taken, and the 
aspirator attached to the other. The liquid will now rise in the larger tube 
until that in the bottle has been drained to the level of the apertures, and the 
gases which have already been partly washed in their passage through the 
stratum of absorbent liquid will now pass through the small apertures, and 
through the column of liquid in the tube, where their absorption is favoured 
by the breaking-up action of the glass splinters, and the agitation consequent 
on the passage of gas bubbles. When a sufficient quantity of the gases has 
been drawn through the apparatus, it is detached and shaken, so that the 
soluble gases existing in the atmosphere of the bottle may be absorbed. The 
cork is now removed, the glass splinters thoroughly rinsed into the bottle, 
and the liquid made up to any required bulk. 
A paper on ‘‘ Toughened Glass’? was recently read before the Society of 
Arts by Mr. Perry F. Nursey, C.E. The subject being of importance, we do 
not hesitate to give a somewhat lengthy notice of the paper. After a 
reference to the origin and progress of the manufacture of glass, Mr. Nursey 
says :—Many years since M. de la Bastie was impressed with the desirability 
of rendering glass less brittle, and so extending the sphere of its usefulness. 
Aware that the fragility of glass results from the weakness of the cohesion of 
its molecules, he argued that, by mechanically forcing the molecules closely 
together, and rendering the mass more compaét, the strength and solidity 
of the material should be increased. This is exaétly the line of argument 
an engineer would follow—it is one which led Sir Joseph Whitworth to 
produce such splendid results in the well-known Whitworth metal, and it is 
one also which has led to success in casting in other departments of 
engineering. It is, however, not one which landed M. dela Bastie on the 
right side of all his hopes and fears, inasmuch as he found, after long trial 
and experiment, that mechanical compression failed to influence glass in the 
