392 



METHODISTS. 



rous oxid and zinc oxid in the slag. In the case 

 of alloys of iron it increases and diminishes with 

 the increase and decrease of the basicity of the 

 slag. The 'same law holds good with respect to 

 the influence of a higher percentage of lime and 

 mnnganous oxid -in the slag. The conclusion 

 reached regarding the effect of the composition 

 of iron alloys may be explained by the supposition 

 that the capacity of manganese, and perhaps also 

 that of iron carbid, or at least of iron rich in 

 carbon, to absorb sulfur is very low, while that of 

 pure iron and phosphid of iron is very high. 

 These facts show that in metallurgical operations 

 in general it is impossible to eliminate entirely 

 from the product the whole of the sulfur con- 

 tained in the charge. The extent to which de- 

 sulfurization can be carried depends on the co- 

 efficient of distribution that is, upon the com- 

 position of the two phases occurring during the 

 process. For this reason, the desulfurization of 

 irons rich in carbon and manganese (ferro-man- 

 ganese and pig-iron) is more complete than that of 

 irons low in carbon and manganese, such as the 

 irons produced by the open-hearth of the Bessemer 

 process. In the Bessemer process, the phosphorus 

 exercises an additional counter-influence to de- 

 sulfurization; but this appears to be possible 

 only when the phosphorus is largely decreased; 

 in such case, however, the carbon and the man- 

 ganese have almost entirely disappeared. In 

 order, therefore, to keep the sulfur down to 

 the lowest possible margin of iron which is 

 very low in carbon and manganese, we must 

 select a charge that contains the lowest possible 

 sulfur, consisting of pure iron or iron that has 

 been desulfurized ; or must repeatedly remove the 

 old slag, permitting the formation of new slag. 

 In this method a mixer could be employed with 

 good effect, since it supplies a raw material low 

 in sulfur, and its use also necessitates the re- 

 moval of the mixer slag and the formation of 

 new slag. The possibility is suggested of a third 

 phase, a mixture of oxids and sulfids, occurring 

 together with the slag and metal. The phe- 

 nomenon seems to occur during certain segrega- 

 tions. , 



Experiments were carried on at McGill Univer- 

 sity, Montreal, by Profs. Anderson and Nichol- 

 son, in which filings or turnings of brass, iron, 

 copper, tin, or other metals were forced under 

 pressure into solid bars of metal differing very 

 little in appearance and strength from such as 

 are found in ordinary use. By bringing a pres- 

 sure of 78,000 pounds to the square inch to bear 

 upon them, the filings or turnings were welded 

 into a solid whole. They were first encased in a 

 jacket made of steel and conical in shape. At 

 the end of ten minutes of continued pressure the 

 tube was removed and opened, when a solid bar 

 of metal was found. It was even found easy to 

 solidify the filings of Pittsburg brass, which is 

 perhaps the hardest brass manufactured. The 

 metal proves to yield readily to pressure. 



METHODISTS. I. Methodist Episcopal 

 Church. This Church comprised in 1902 129 an- 

 nual conferences, 11 mission conferences, and 15 

 missions. The following statistics are given in 

 the Methodist Year- Book for 1903: Number of 

 bishops, 21 ; of ministers in full connection and 

 on trial, 17,922; of local preachers, 14,024; of lay 

 members and probationers, 2,997,772; of Sunday- 

 schools, 32,669, with 351,402 officers and teachers 

 and 2,758,429 pupils; of churches, 27.875, valued 

 at $126.085,111; of parsonages, 11,742, valued 

 at $20,519,559. Contributions: For missions 

 (church, $9 13,565; Sunday-school, $431,679; Wom- 

 an's Foreign, $396,499; Woman's Home, $296,- 



908), $2,038,651; for church extension, .$145,499; 

 for the Sunday-School Union, $25,502; for the 

 Tract Society, $21,830; for Freedman's Aid, $135,- 

 218; for education, $280,072; for the American 

 Bible Society, $30,595; total, adding $1,765, the 

 distribution of which is 'not indicated, $2,679,132. 

 The number of members shows an increase for the 

 year of 47,257 with 61,316 pupils added in Sunday- 

 schools. The increase in benevolent contribu- 

 tions was $307,501. The enrolment of the Ep- 

 worth League comprised 21,366 senior chapters^ 

 8,082 junior chapters, 202 affiliated Christian En- 

 deavor Societies, and 100 affiliated Junior En- 

 deavor Societies. The Twentieth Century thank- 

 offering fund of $20,000,000, to be applied to pur- 

 poses of education in the United States and for- 

 eign lands, charitable and philanthropic work,, 

 city evangelization, support of conference claim- 

 ants, payment of debts on church property, and 

 any specific objects in mission fields, which was 

 undertaken on the recommendation of the bishops 

 in 1898, was completed in the later months of 

 1902. 



Committee of Church Extension. The Gen- 

 eral Committee of Church Extension met in Phila- 

 delphia, Nov. 5. The receipts for the year had 

 been, on the General fund, available for donations, 

 $183,694 ; on the Loan and Annuity funds, $435,- 

 368; making the total amount available for use,. 

 $619,062. Three hundred and thirty-eight 

 churches had been aided. The total net receipts 

 of the committee from its beginning in 1865 had 

 been $7,748,781, and the whole number of churches 

 aided had been 12,356. The committee had been 

 assisted in making additional grants in certain 

 conferences beyond the amounts regularly appro- 

 priated to them by occasional frontier and 

 memorial gifts of $250 each ; and it desired to 

 form a new Permanent Building fund, to be ad- 

 ministered on frontier conditions. The work of 

 building frontier churches by the application of 

 special gifts of $250 each had been largely ex- 

 tended. More than 700 churches had been made 

 possible by this form of donation. By the aid of 

 these gifts churches are erected worth $1,250 

 above the value of the ground. More than $9,000 

 had been given and a loan of $3,000 granted to 

 churches in Porto Rico. The sum of $5,000 (by 

 special memorial gift and grant from the Church 

 Extension funds) had been sp"ent on a church in 

 Manila, Philippine Islands. The sum of $892,214 

 had been received in response to a call for a 

 Twentieth Century thank-offering for church ex- 

 tension of $1,000,000. This fund was to be ap- 

 plied partly to the erection of churches, one for 

 each year of the Christian era to the end of the 

 twentieth century, partly in securing additions 

 to the Loan fund, and partly in the cancella- 

 tion of debts on churches which had been aided 

 by the committee. The estimates for the coming 

 year called for the collection and appropriation 

 of $334,000. 



Freedman's Aid Society. The annual meet- 

 ing of the Freedman's Aid and Southern Educa- 

 tion Society was held at Troy, N. Y., Nov. 10 

 and 11. The total receipts of the society and the 

 schools for the year ending June 30, 1902. had 

 been $480,500, showing an increase of $101,073 

 from the previous year. Of these receipts, those 

 from conference collections had amounted to 

 $105,182. The debt had been diminished by $25,- 

 698, and was now $110,249. Cash annuity gifts 

 had been received during the year and invested of 

 $35,935. and were held to provide for the gradual 

 liquidation of the debt. Of 24 schools among the 

 colored people, 18, with property valued at $1,410,- 

 000 and 6,306 students, and of 21 schools among 



