346 



ILLINOIS. 



maximum absorption of gas by the palladium 

 wire was obtained. It may be charged with 

 any smaller proportion by shortening the time 

 of exposure to the gas. The tenacity of palla- 

 dium wire is reduced by the addition of hydro- 

 gen, but not to any great extent. .Taking the 

 tenacity of the wire unalloyed at 100, the te- 

 nacity of palladium and hydrogen is estimated 

 at 81.29. The electric conductivity of palla- 

 dium is 8.10 ; of palladium plus hydrogen 5.99. 

 The addition of hydrogen manifestly increases 

 the small natural magnetism of palladium, as 

 experiments demonstrated ; from which it ap- 

 pears to follow that hydrogenium is magnetic, 

 a property confined to metals and their com- 

 pounds. Magnetism, however, is not percepti- 

 ble in hydrogen gas, which was placed both by 

 Faraday and M. E. Becquerel at the bottom of 

 the list of diamagnetic substances. But mag- 

 netism is so liable to extinction under the 

 influence of heat, that the magnetism of a 

 metal may very possibly disappear entirely 

 when it is fused or vaporized, as appears with 

 hydrogen in the form of gas. As palladium 

 stands high in the group of paramagnetic 

 metals, hydrogenium may be allowed to rise 

 out of that class and to take place in the 

 strictly magnetic group with iron, nickel, co- 

 balt, chromium, and manganese. The higher 

 palladium is heated, the more permeable it is 

 by hydrogen. The highest velocity of permea- 

 tion was observed in an experiment where four 

 litres of hydrogen per minute passed through a 

 plate of palladium one millimetre in thickness 

 and calculated for a square metre in surface, at 

 a bright-red heat a little short of the melting- 

 point of gold. This is a travelling movement 

 of hydrogen through the substance of the 



metal with the velocity of four millimetres a 

 minute. The chemical properties of hydro- 

 genium distinguish it from hydrogen. The 

 palladium alloy precipitates mercury and calo- 

 mel from a solution of the chloride of mercury 

 without any disengagement of hydrogen ; that 

 is, hydrogenium decomposes chloride of mer- 

 cury, which hydrogen does not. This explains 

 why M. Stanislas Mennier failed to discover 

 the occluded hydrogen of meteoric iron by dis- 

 solving the latter in a solution of chloride of 

 mercury ; for the hydrogen would be consumed 

 like the iron itself in precipitating mercury. 

 Hydrogen (associated with palladium) unites 

 with chlorine and iodine in the dark, reduces a 

 persalt of iron to the state of protosalt, con- 

 verts red prussiate of potash into yellow prus- 

 siate, and has considerable deoxidizing power. 

 Mr. Graham sums up as follows : that, in pal- 

 ladium fully charged with hydrogen there 

 exists a compound of the two in a proportion 

 which may approach to equal equivalents ; 

 that both substances are solid, metallic, and of 

 a white aspect ; that the alloy contains about 

 20 volumes of palladium united with one 

 of hydrogenium; that the density of hydro- 

 genium is about 2, a little higher than mag- 

 nesium, to which the metal may be supposed 

 to bear some analogy ; that hydrogenium has 

 a certain amount of tenacity, and possesses 

 the electrical conductivity of a metal ; and 

 finally, that hydrogenium takes its place among 

 magnetic metals. The latter fact may have its 

 bearing upon the appearance of hydrogenium 

 in meteoric iron in association with certain 

 other magnetic elements. Mr. W. E. Eoberts 

 rendered valuable assistance to Mr. Graham in 

 this important investigation. 



ILLINOIS. Of the 36,000,000 acres of 

 land which constitute the area 'of the State 

 of Illinois, 21,000,000 were to some extent 

 improved, and 10,000,000 were under actual 

 cultivation in the year 1868. The resources 

 of the State are rapidly developing under the 

 operations of enterprise and industry. The 

 geological survey, which has been going on for 

 several years, and which has been liberally 

 encouraged by the Legislature, is now sub- 

 stantially finished, and the third volume of the 

 Report of the State Geologist has just been 

 published. It will require three more volumes 

 to contain a full record of the results of this 

 great work. This report contains an account 

 of the mineral wealth and the natural re- 

 sources of each county in the State, and will 

 have a great permanent value. It is found 

 thaMnexhaustible supplies of coal underlie the 

 soil in several of the counties, and some notion 

 of their value may be formed from the state- 

 ment of the geologist that a single stratum in 

 Perry County contains a quantity sufficient, if 



estimated at one dollar a ton, as it lies in the 

 bed, to liquidate the entire national debt of 

 the United States. The annual product of the 

 mines already in operation is about two mill- 

 ion tons. Iron is also found in considerable 

 quantity, and there are already many flourish- 

 ing manufactories in that metal. Other manu- 

 factures are rapidly springing up, and even 

 now the State has eighty-seven wool-carding 

 mills, and one hundred and thirty-three manu- 

 factories of woollen fabrics, with a capital of, 

 $3,600,000 invested in buildings and machinery, 

 and employing 3,450 operatives, and consum- 

 ing 4,000,000 Ibs. of wool. 



Yet Illinois maintains her preeminence as 

 an agricultural State, and Chicago has proba- 

 bly become the greatest stock-market in the 

 world, more animals having been received at 

 her stock-yards in 1868 than in the markets of 

 the three great cities of Cincinnati, St. Louis, 

 and Milwaukee combined. The following 

 tables exhibit the receipts and shipments for 

 the year : 



