6G8 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



"U'ire mask, sdmilar to those used in fencing. The heated rock is 

 afterward cooled by a jet of cold water ; the disintegrated portions 

 are then removed, and the furnace is advanced to resume opera- 

 tions. In confined places and galleries, the attendants are sup- 

 plied with air for breathing hy special tul)es. This apparatus c^in 

 double, treble, and sometimes quadruple the work of gunpowder 

 iu the same space of time. 



Origin of Anthracite. 



Dr. Percy, F. R. S., in his tenth lecture on Chemical Geology, 

 after describing an experiment of Daubree, who subjected frag- 

 ments of Hrwood in a close tube with water, to a high tem})erature 

 and pressure, and thus transformed the wood into a black mass, 

 havino- a bright luster and resembling anthracite, proceeds to say : 

 It has loug been supposed that bituminous coal is converted into 

 anthracite simply by application of heat; but, something more 

 than this is required to satisfy the conditions, for if it were simply 

 a matter of heat w'e ought to get, not anthracite but coke, also a 

 proportionate increase in the quantity of fixed organic matter, or 

 ash, in the coal. It seemed to him there must have been some 

 other condition obtaining in order to account for the conversion of 

 bituminous coal into anthracite. He believed that water played 

 an important part in this conversion ; that anthracite has been the 

 result of thermo-hydric or hydro-thermic action, and that wat-er 

 has in some Avay or other removed to a large extent the inorganic 

 matter or ash. 



Crystalline Red PiiosriioRus. 



The red phosphorus obtained by Schrotter's process, having 

 many properties differing from those of ordinary phosphorus, is 

 always in the amorphous condition. Blodlot has, however, lately 

 succeeded in changing white into red phosphorus without loos- 

 ing its crystalline form, by the mere action of light. Ordinary 

 phosphorus, after being carefully dried, was placed in a flask, the 

 neck of which was drawn out and sealed. After twenty-four hours 

 the oxygen within the flask was absorbed and all phosphrescence 

 had disappeared. The flask was then placed in a water-bath of 

 the temperature at which phosphorus melts, and the whole pro- 

 tected from light. After a few hours, small brilliant points we<"e 

 observed in the upper part of the flask ; these increased iu num- 

 ber and size until at the end of a few days they had changed into 

 a magnificent white crystalline arborization, covering all the sur 



