646 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



The inventor claimed that it was fifty per cent stronger than the 

 ^"ominon upright tubular boiler. 



The chairman then presented the following items of scientitie 

 news : 



The Torpedo in Oil Wells. 



Col. E. A. S. Roberts has been successful in the use of his tor- 

 pedo. Hundreds of oil wells in Pennsylvania had ceased to flow, 

 and the only alternative left in such cases seemed to be to bore 

 again in the same vicinity. Col, Rolierts, believing the stoppage 

 of a well was owing to an accumulation of paraffine, debris, and 

 other clogging matter at the bottom, conceived the idea of remov- 

 ing it by means of an explosive compound. Nitro-glycerin {echar- 

 h'neot) having far greater explosive force than gunpowder, and 

 being easily used in presence of water was found to be admirably 

 adapted for such a torpedo. Its explosion in a well where oil had 

 failed to flow has the eflect of clearing out the old channels and 

 perhaps of opening new apertures, so that in many cases the old 

 well has nearly equalled its first yield. Out of 200 wells ope- 

 rated on by the torpedo within the last four months, about fifteen 

 now flow from 60 to 250 barrels per day; about 130 have been 

 improved to the extent of from five to 100 barrels increase daily. 

 On the average three out of every four wells experimented upon 

 have been greatly improved. Thus the torpedo has been the 

 means of increasing the quantity of oil produced more than four 

 thousand barrels daily, and of adding to the revenue of the oil 

 region at the rate of at least 5,000,000 of dollars per annum. 



Alcohols Containixg Silicon. 

 The Comptes Bendus, of Paris, describes the interesting process 

 by which Messrs. Friedel and Crafts have succeeded in replacing 

 a portion of the carbon in certain alcohols by silicon. Silicium 

 ethyl (C2 Hg)^ S'i-{ec/iaIo7nal')-\s subjected to the action of chlo- 

 rine which replaces one and two atoms of hydrogen. The result- 

 ing products are heated in a closed tube with acetate of potash 

 and alcohol. Among the products formed is a liquid which boils 

 between 208° and 214° C, and has a faint acetic and ether-like 

 smell. In burning it is luminous, giving off white fumes of silicic 

 acid {alcet). Its formula is Si Cg H^g (Cg Hg O) O and is formed 

 by the replacement of chlorine by oxacetyt in monochloriuated 

 silcium ethyl. When this body is subjected to caustic potash 

 (potamalt) dissolved in alcohol, a new liquid is formed which 



