1848. 



GENESEE FARMER. 



271 



care is taken to introduce no hard substances, 

 such as iron and stone, into the mill, one set of 

 knives will last for a long period. It will grind 

 from three to four hundred bushels before the 

 knives require shai-pening. When in good 

 order, with a two horse power, it will reduce 

 from three to four bushels of dry hard corn in 

 the hour, and nearly double that quantity when 

 soft. 



Mr, Pitts has made an improvement on this 

 machine, by enlarging the diameter and width 

 of the operating wheel and increasing the num- 

 ber of knives, by which means a much larger 

 quantity can be ground in a given time. We 

 have been informed by Mr. P. that it will grind 

 in this form from ten to twelve bushels per hour. 

 The price of the small mill is •$'40, and the larger 

 one $50, and are manufactured by John A. 

 Pitts, Rochester. — American Journal of Ag, 



Action of Water on Lead Pipes. 



Some few months after the introduction of 

 Groton water into our city, my attention was 

 called to investigate its action upon the lead 

 pipes which were used to carry it into dwelling 

 houses, &e. In several instances I detected 

 lead in the water which had stood in lead pipes 

 over night, in situations where fre^ use was 

 made of the water during the day, and, in some 

 instances, this daily use had continued for sev- 

 eral weeks. 



I have also found notable quantities of lead 

 in Croton water which I drew from a lead pipe 

 in the third story of a house, at least a year after 

 the pipes had been fitted in the house. The 

 water was but seldom used from this pipe, and 

 that which I drew from it for examination, had 

 probably remained in it more than a week. 

 Subseqnent to this I made a series of experi- 

 ments, with a view to determine the action of 

 Croton v/ater upon pipes made of pure lead, and 

 of alloys of tin and lead, and also of those made 

 of lead coated with pure tin, after the plan of 

 Mr. Ewbank. These pipes, of some thirty or 

 forty feet in length, were filled with water 

 brought in a cask from the Croton River. The 

 water was displaced from the pipes by admitting 

 a fresh supply every day or two, for three 

 weeks ; and that which escaped was tested each 

 time. The result proved that the water which 

 passed through the lead pipe always contained 

 lead, while that from the pipe made of the alloy 

 of tin and lead, as also that from the pipe coated 

 with tin, both upon the outside and inside, did 

 not contain a particle of lead, but for the first 

 few days a trace of tin. 



It is possible, that the water, in passing rap- 

 idly through a lead pipe of moderate length, in 

 constant use, may not become so impregnated 

 with lead as to be injurious to health. But there 

 ar« hundreds of instacces where the pipes are 



[conveyed to the second and third stories of 

 houses, where the water is seldom used, but 

 from which the servant might find it convenient 

 to fill a pitcher. The internal use of the water 

 from such situations, I have no doubt, is highly 

 injurious, and manifests itself by tremulousness 

 and general debility of the nervous system. — 

 American Agriculturist. 



James R. Chilton. 

 New York, .June, 1848. 



Potash from the Mountains. 



We see it stated in the Report of the Com- 

 missioner of Patents, that an American now in 

 England, had obtained patents for separating the 

 potash that is contained in the felspar which oc- 

 curs so abundantly in the primitive rocks that 

 compose many of our mountains. There are 

 several vaj-ieties of felspar, most of which may 

 be called potash felspar, because it contains that 

 alkali. The proportion of potash varies in the 

 several varieties. The mode v/hich is adopted 

 for extracting the potash is this : the rock is 

 broken up and kept a red heat, lime and plaster 

 of Paris being added. The heat is kept up for 

 some time, after which the materials are put into 

 a leach tub, and leached with water, as you would 

 leach ashes. The liquor being evaporated, the 

 sulphate of potash is obtained. If muriate of 

 soda (common salt) be added before heating, in- 

 stead of the plaster of Paris, muriate of potash 

 will be the result.' Another patent has been 

 taken out for decomposing these or other alka- 

 line salts by steam. For instance — if you have 

 the muriate of potash, and you wish to deprive 

 it of the muriatic acid, and obtain the caustic, or 

 pure potash, you heat the muriate very hot, and 

 then pass over it and through it a current of 

 steam or vapor. The acid combines with the 

 steam, and is driven off with it, and the alkali 

 remains ^vee. If you wish to preserve tlie acid 

 it may be conveyed ofi' in a tube that will not be 

 corroded by it into a cooler, and condensed, as 

 you would in common distilling. 



In this way you can make or obtain the sul- 

 phuric acid, (oil of vitrei) from common plaster 

 of Paris. You will need a cylinder to heat the 

 plaster in. The plaster, you know, is made of 

 lime and sulphuric acid. After it is heated you 

 can let in the steam by a tube at the bottom, 

 which will pass through the iieated mass, com- 

 bine with the acid, and can be conveyed away 

 by another tube into a cooler. The acid is thus 

 saved, and the lime remains behind in a caustic 

 state. In the same away other salts may be de- 

 composed ', and it affords a very cheap mode of 

 doing it, when it may become an object to do it 

 on an extended scale. — Me. Farmer. 



Good Things. — Good fences, good barns, 

 good farm-houses, good stock, and good orchards. 



