666 



REFORMED CHURCH. 



REFRIGERATING AND ICE MAKING. 



osition having been made to transfer to the council 

 of Hope College, Michigan, for Western investments, 

 certain funds held by the Board of Direction for 

 the benefit of that institution, a committee appointed 

 to inquire into the legality and expediency of such 

 a transfer, and the power of the General Synod to 

 make it, reported that by the terms .of its charter, 

 the Board of Direction was obliged to invest trust 

 funds under its direction within the State of New 

 York, and could not invest them otherwise, without 

 rendering its members personally liable ; the peti- 

 tion of Hope College could not therefore be granted. 

 An amendment to the resolutions of the committee 

 was offered authorizing the transfer to the council 

 of Hope College of such funds for its endowment 

 as were given directly to it, provided it could be 

 made without bringing personal responsibility upon 

 the members of the Board of Direction ; and with 

 this amendment the report of the committee was 

 adopted. A special committee was appointed to 

 report to the next meeting of the General Synod a 

 summary of the history of particular synods. The 

 publication of the Liturgy of the Church in the 

 German language was authorized. The Theological 

 Seminary at New Brunswick, N. J., was represented 

 as being embarrassed by a shrinkage of interest on 

 its invested funds, the income from which was now 

 $4.800 less than in 1882. Measures were taken to 

 meet this difficulty. The Board of Foreign Mis- 

 sions was authorized to employ a field secretary to 

 visit the churches in the interest of the cause. A 

 delegate also was appointed to attend the General 

 Assembly of the Italian Evangelical Church, which 

 was appointed to meet in Florence, Italy, in Octo- 

 ber. 1898. 



II. Reformed Church in the United States. 

 The statistics of this Church for 1898 give it 

 1,029 ministers, 1,G60 congregations, 242,299 mem- 

 bers, with 11,677 confirmations during the year, 278 

 students for the ministry, 1,466 Sunday schools, 

 with 24,770 teachers and 182.134 pupils. During 

 the year covered by the reports $202,726 was raised 

 for benevolent purposes and $1,093,791 for congre- 

 gational expenses. These figures reveal an increase 

 during the year of 7 congregations, 7,683 members, 

 835 teachers and 1.200 pupils in Sunday schools, 

 and more than $7,000 in contributions for congre- 

 gational expenses, and a decrease of 200 confirma- 

 tions and $35,000 in benevolent contributions. A 

 vote taken in the classes on a proposal for the 

 establishment of a new foreign mission in China, in 

 addition to the one already in operation in Japan, 

 was adverse to that step. 



III. Reformed Church in South Africa. The 

 Reformed Church in South Africa is divided into 

 several branches, among which are the Dutch Re- 

 formed Church of Cape Colony, the Church of 

 South Africa, the Presbyterian Church of Basuto- 

 land, the Dutch Reformed Church of Orange Free 

 State, the Hall and Protestant Reformed Church of 

 South Africa, all of which are connected with the 

 Presbyterian and Reformed Alliance; the Re- 

 formed Church of Cape Colony, the Reformed 

 Church under the Cross (at Strydenberg), and the 

 Christian Reformed Church of South Africa. 



The Reformed Church of Cape Colony numbers 

 13 churches. The General Synod, consisting of 6 



Ereachers, 21 elders, and 2 deacons, met at Middel- 

 urg, Jan. 31 to Feb. 3, when a deputation from the 

 Church under the Cross at StmU-iibcrg, n secession 

 from the Dutch Reformed Church of C;i|>e Colony, 

 applied for recognition. One point of difference 

 exists between the two bodies, in that the Reformed 

 Church sings psalms only, while the Church under 

 the Cross permits hymns. The Synod resolved to co- 

 operate with the Church under the Cross, and to aid 

 it as needed. The matter of recognizing it as an 



ecclesiastical body was referred to the Synod of the 

 Reformed Church in South Africa considered as a 

 representative body of the smaller Churches col- 

 lectively. 

 IV. Evangelical Church of Italy. The Evan- 



fjlical Church of Italy was organized in 1870 by 

 ather Alessandro Gavazzi, in Milan, under the 

 name of the Free Church. It now returns, in its 

 yearbook for 1897, 29 organized congregations, 

 with mission work at 132 other places. Its clergy 

 consists of 18 ordained pastors and 9 evangelists. 

 It sustains 6 day or parochial schools, with 29 

 teachers and 922 pupils ; 8 evening schools, with 

 18 teachers and 397 pupils ; and 2T Sunday schools, 

 with 92 teachers and 1,349 pupils. Under its sys- 

 tem of Bible colportage 1,137 Bibles and 1.G13 New 

 Testaments were distributed in 1896. The theo- 

 logical seminary which was sustained at Rome for 

 several years was discontinued in 1895. Since then 

 courses of theological lectures have been delivered 

 in Florence by one German and two Italian theo- 

 logians. 



REFRIGERATING AND ICE MAKING. 

 The production of artificial cold is an industry that 

 has had a steady growth during the past generation. 

 The earlier machines were not economical, but ex- 

 perience has developed methods that compete with 

 thestoring of natural ice, so that refrigerating plants 

 have become common, not alone in cold-storage 

 warehouses, but in large hotels, manufacturing es- 

 tablishments, etc. In several cities of the United 

 States, notably St. Louis and Denver, plants have 

 been established for the general sale and distribution 

 of cold, through pipes, to the premises of subscribers, 

 and the service is said to be both satisfactory to the 

 customer and profitable to the investors. The am- 

 monia-expansion system is most commonly used, 

 and may be employed for either ice making or re- 

 frigerating. The delivery of the cold direct into 

 the premises where the temperature is to be reduced 

 is about 40 per cent, cheaper than the production of 

 the same low temperature by the making of arti- 

 ficial ice and storing it in the cold room. The 

 principle upon which the manufacture is based is 

 that a gas when compressed gathers heat enor- 

 mously, and if robbed of this heat and allowed to 

 expand at a future time it seeks to regain its lost 

 heat by withdrawing heat from its surroundings. 

 Almost any gas can be used for this purpose, but 

 ammonia gas is commonly preferred, because it can 

 be liquefied with comparatively little pressure. An- 

 hydrous ammonia is employed, being obtained by 

 distillation of common ammonia to remove thu 

 water. This is compressed by a combined steam 

 pump and compressor, much as air is compressed. 

 The resulting liquefaction induces heat, which H 

 economized by circulating cooling water about tho 

 vessel or pipes containing the liquefied ammonia. 

 Thus the ammonia is cooled and the heat largely 

 transferred to the water, which is then pumped 

 back to the boiler that supplies the steam pump, 

 thus economizing fuel. Ihe liquid ammonia is 

 then carried in a pipe to the place to be cooled, and 

 being there admitted by a valve in a small stream 

 to expansion coils that afford plenty of room for its 

 evaporation.it begins to return to the gaseous form, 

 and to draw heat from its surroundings, which 

 gradually reduces the temperature. This may b<s 

 regulated by the amount of ammonia evaporate*, 

 in the coils. If the consumer wishes to make ice, 

 he has only to place proper cans of water in contaci 

 with the expansion coils, and in due time ice i 

 formed. 



For refrigerating, the brine system is frequent!) 

 preferred to the direct-expansion system. A strong 

 brine made with common salt will bear a very low 

 temperature without freezing. The plan is then 



