612 



ILLUMINATION. 



It is proposed to construct the cribs in still 

 water, plank their bottoms and sides water- 

 tight for several feet up, fill them with as much 

 stone as they can safely carry, tow them to 

 their places, and sink them by letting water 

 into their bottoms, and then to fill them up as 

 promptly as possible to their tops, with stone 

 previously provided. Cribs of this shape and 

 size it is thought would be stronger, and better 

 calculated to resist the action of storms, than 

 cribs of the same width and construction 

 placed in a stright line. The shafts are to be 

 air-tight iron cylinders, jointed together in sec- 

 tions of six to ten feet, and nine feet in diameter. 

 The estimated cost of excavation and masonry 

 for the tunnel is $143,000, or $13.54 pe lineal 

 foot ; and for the tunnel complete, $307,552. 



The investigations are based upon facts ac- 

 quired by boring for an artesian well on the 

 lake shore, where it was found that about 

 twenty feet below the surface a clay formatioH 

 commences, which continues upward of one 

 hundred feet further. Wherever the investiga- 

 tion has been made, the bottom of the lake, 

 where the water is more than twenty feet deep, 

 is found to be clay. 



In conducting the investigations two large 

 ecows, with all the necessary apparatus on 

 board, were towed to the proper locality, and 

 there secured by four anchors. In the space 

 between the boats, a two-inch gas pipe is low- 

 ered, and rests upon the surface of the earth, 

 the top being two or three feet above the sur- 

 face of the water. The auger is then passed 

 down through the pipe, and worked by two 

 men : the pipe being held in place by others. 

 Both the outside pipe and the auger are length- 

 ened, as circumstances may require, by the ad- 

 dition of joints or sections, which are readily 

 screwed on. The pipe and auger are drawn 

 out and lowered, by means of a derrick about 

 25 feet high, with rope and tackle. Up to the 

 present time three localities have been ex- 

 amined. The first three fourths of a mile from 

 shore. Here the water was 23 feet deep, with 

 a bed of four inches of sand. They penetrated 

 30 feet deep, and found nothing but blue clay. 

 The second locality was If miles out. Here the 

 water was 31 feet deep, with about the same 

 depth of sand. The auger sunk 30 feet with the 

 same result. The third, and the last locality is 

 about 2 miles due east from the water works. 

 Here the water was 36 feet deep, clear and 

 cool. The earth was penetrated 30 feet below 

 its surface. The surface is covered a foot in 

 depth with a mixture of sand and soft, marshy 

 clay. After penetrating six or eight feet, the 

 clay becomes thick, and is harder the deeper it 

 is penetrated. It is of a bluish slate color, of 

 very fine grain, with little or no grit, and 

 would probably make excellent brick. It is ap- 

 parently fine enough for pottery ware. The 

 clay is of about the same character the entire 

 depth, wherever the borings have been made. 



ILLUMINATION. The following, as among 

 the more important results developed during 



the year past, in respect to the nature of ma- 

 terials for illumination, and the modes of their 

 preparation and use, are deserving of notice : 



Approximate Chemical Constitution of Bitu- 

 mens, Solid and Liquid. From an article en- 

 titled "Contributions to the Chemical and 

 Geological History of Bitumens, and of Pyro- 

 schists or Bituminous Shales " (" Amer. Jour, 

 of Science," March, 1863), by Prof. T. S. Hunt, 

 we extract the following, in relation to the 

 chemistry of bitumens : 



The solid bitumens (asphaltum, etc.), in ap- 

 pearance often resembling some forms of bitu- 

 minous coal, are distinguished from the latter 

 by their being almost or entirely fusible, and 

 by their solubility in benzole and bisulphide of 

 carbon. Their chemical composition varies 

 much, being representable by formulas ranging 

 from C 3 4 H 22 O .s that of an elastic bitumen 

 from Derbyshire (Johnston), to C 24 Hi 4 .e 2 

 that of an asphalt from near Naples (Eegnault). 

 Five analyses of bituminous coal made by the 

 latter chemist, yield from C 24 H 8 Oo. to G 24 

 HJO O 3 .a; while the mean composition of sev- 

 eral analyses of coal, by Johnston, was C fl4 H, 

 with from O 2 to O 4 . The asphalts are thus 

 seen to approach in composition the bituminous 

 coals. 



In the conversion of woody fibre into the 

 successive stages of peat, lignite, and bitumin- 

 ous coal, the abstraction of variable propor- 

 tions of water (HO), carbonic acid (CO 2 ), and 

 marsh gas (O a H 4 ), may give rise either to hy- 

 drocarbons like C 24 H 8 , which represents idria- 

 line (a hydrocarbon with minimum of H), and 

 the basis of most bituminous coals ; or like C 9 

 Hio, which is the approximate formula of the 

 hydrocarbons of many asphalts ; or like C 24 

 H 24 , which approximately represents crude pe- 

 troleum (apart, of course, from water that 

 may he intermixed with it). Anthracite, which 

 is nearly pure carbon, and petroleum, which is 

 (among natural bodies) carbon with a maxi- 

 mum of hydrogen, stand as the two extremes 

 in the process of coal-formation. 



Chemical Constitution of American Petro- 

 leum. M. Schorlemmer has examined the re- 

 fined but still composite coal oil known as ker- 

 osene, obtained by distillation of cannel coal at 

 low temperatures. He finds it to contain a 

 series of homologous hydrocarbons, their gen- 

 eral formula being OnIIn + 2, and which may 

 be regarded as the hydrides of alcohol radicals. 

 The oil, which boils below 120C., contains the 

 four hydrides 



C, H,.,=hydrlde of amyl, boiling at 89C. 



C| 2 H] 4 = " hexyl, " GSC. 



CM H, 8 = w heptyl " 98C. 



C, 8 H, 8 = * octyf. " 119C. 



Precisely the same products were found by 

 the analyst in American rock oil, or petroleum. 

 He states that in this both benzole and toluole 

 exist, but that these are present in larger pro- 

 portion in cannel-coal tar. He purified the 

 oils by strong nitric acid, which leaves the 

 greater part unattacked, but removes the ben- 



