228 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



[July, 



Mr. Robert Hunt read a paper on the Jctinograph, an apparatus for as- 

 certaining the chemical effect of the luminous and calorific ravs of the sun. 

 He entered into an explanation of the merits of the machine, which was, he 

 said, more applicable as a register of chemical than calorific rays. He 

 Loped to present the machine in a more perfect state at the next meeting. 



Mr. Solly, F.R.S., read a paper which had been communicated by Dr. 

 Contrr, civil-surgeon, Prince of Wales Island, on the subject of Malayan 

 Guano, (or, in the native language, Ty. Burong ; Jnglice, oft'al of birds.) The 

 Doctor entered into several instances of the benefits arising from the appli- 

 cation of guano (already too well known in this country), and to state the 

 freightage to difl'erent parts and the original cost. From this it appeared 

 that it would cost to land a catgo in this countrv from Prince Edward's Is- 

 land £?, lis. Grf. to £8 I3s. 6d. per ton. 



Properties of Ozone. 

 Professor Schonbein read a report of his experiments and researches on 

 Ozone, which he had undertaken at the request of the Association. The 

 subject bad occupied his attention for about G years, and his attention had 

 first been directed to it by the odours developed by electricity and lightning, 

 the cause of which had hitherto defied investigation. His attention had also 

 been drawn to the same odour in electrising water which pointed out the 

 method of investigation to he pursued as it was only obtained at tne positive 

 electric end- The same power of producing odour was possessed by the 

 electrical brush, and this odoriferous substance was destroyed by heat. By a 

 ■I'ariety of experiments and observations, he had succeeded in obtaining an 

 an Ozonized atmosphere, with which he performed many interesting experi- 

 ments, and in which though it could not be identified /)ecse, the action of this 

 peculiar substance was clearly developed. It possessed all the bleaching pro- 

 perties of chlorine when coloured liodies were introduced into it, and metals 

 in a minute state of division wlien introduced into it were immediately oxi- 

 nized. Iodine and phosphorus were quickly converted into Iodic and phos- 

 phoric acids, and sulphurous and lutrious acids, by taking their higher forms 

 of combination with oxygen became converted into sulphuric and nitric acids. 

 He retained his original views, considering it isomeric with the per-oxide of 

 hydrogen, being similar in constitution though different in pioperties. 



ON THE SPHEROIDAL CONDITION OF V.'ATER. 



Prof. ScHO^'BEI^J shewed by experiments the presence in the atmos- 

 phere of Ozone, a principle obtained from phosphorous, or, as he demon- 

 strated, from Ether. The learned Professor then proceeded to read a paper 

 on the subject of Ozone and the nature of the hydrate of nitric acid ; Ozone 

 he said was produced in the air by atmospheric electricity. Electric dis- 

 charges did not exist merely during a thunder storm, but were continuous, 

 and generated Ozone in such quantities as would endanger life if it were not 

 removed as soon as it was formed by the agency of organic matter. The Pro- 

 fessor attributed the phosphorous appearance of the sea to the presence of 

 Ozone, and the luminous appearance of the glow-worm, &c. At the conclu- 

 sion of a most interesting lecture the President expressed an opinion that the 

 theory of Professor Schonbein was not quite solved by experiment. A conver- 

 sation ensued, in the course of which Prof. Faraday confessed he had been in 

 error with regard to the agency of the hydrate of nitric of acid, hut he was by no 

 means sure that Ozone was the universal agent. Prof. Schonbein supposed it. 

 The learned professor had been rather influenced by his poetical imagina- 

 tion. Some further remarks ensued, after which Tiiomas Armstrong, Esq., 

 read a description of a new Colossal Steam Electrical machine, and on some 

 phenomena attending the production of electricity by steam. This was ob- 

 served by the President and others to be the reost powerful engine yet 

 hrought into action. 



Freezing of Water in Red-hot Boilers. 



2. Professor Boutigny related the results of experiments on the spheroidal 

 state of bodies, aud the application of this knowledge to steam-boilers, and 

 on the freezing of water in red hot vessels. The chief points of the commu- 

 nication which was given in French were, that when water was projected upon 

 a hot substauce it assumes a spheroidal shape, and that although the vessel 

 was above the boiling point the water was below it. When it is allowed to 

 cool down, contact takes place and the water suddenly boils, thus showing the 

 apparent phenomena of cooling and boiling. When a liquid substance which 

 toils below the ordinary freezing point of water as liquid sulphurous acid is 

 projected into an incandescent crucible, the sudden expansion produces such 

 an intense cold that the water is frozen although contained in a white or red 

 hot crucible. 



In connection with the paper, Mr. Grove called attention to the following 

 practical points : — I As regards the tempering of metals. 2. The importance 

 of the experiments in connection with the bursting of steam-boilers, as pro- 

 vided on a large scale any thing approaching the prevention of contact takes 

 place, the engineer is lulled into security by the effects on the safety valve, 

 whilst a sudden burst of vapour is developed ; aud 3 To their connection with 

 Ihe phenomena of radiant heat. 



M. Boutigny lectured in his own language and his discourse was listened 

 to with great attention, and elicited great applause. The skill and success 



which attended his e.xperiment caused the greatest interest to a most crowd- 

 ed audience, there being above 300 members of the Associateon present. 

 Water placed over a furnace of intense heat was found not to evaporate in 

 the least degree until the vessel had grown to a certain degree of coolness 

 when it disappeared in a volumn of steam. The most amusing experiment 

 was the oianufacture of ice, real genuine ice, from a chemical preparation 

 and water boiled over a furnace of extreme heat ! The mode in which pure 

 water was made to change color by the application of heat excited much 

 surprise, and the lecturer was most warmly applauded when he concluded, 

 and a vote of thanks to him was carried by acclamation. The President ob- 

 served that the almost incredible wonders thoy bad witnessed were facts 

 which came under their daily observations if they would but use their eyes. 

 The whole of the experiments were but exhibitions of the same principle 

 cognizant to every washernoman who when she tested the heat of her iron 

 moistened it to ascertain the proper degree of heat. 



SECTION C. 



Geology and Physical Geography. 



Place of Meeting — Senate House. 



President.— Hev. Professor Sedgwicli, M.A., F.K.S. 



Secretaries;— Ref. J. Cumming, F.G.S.; A.C. Ramsay, F.G.S.; Rev. W. Thorp. 



Committee. — Baton Leopold Von Bueh ; Baron Von Waltershausen, of Gottingen j R. 

 C.Ansten, F.G.S. ; Professor Ansted, F.R.S.; C. BiinOurv, F.G.S. ; Sir H. De la Beche, 

 F.K.S. ; Captain Sir E. Back, FB.S.: S. Clarke; Dr. bieffenbach ; Sir Ph. de Grey 

 Egerton, Bart. M.P. ; Dr. Falconer, F.G.S.; Sir C. Fellowes, ; Professor E. Forbes, 

 F.G.S.; Professor Forbes, F.R.S.S ; G. B. GrceDough, F.a.S.; R. Griffith, M.R.I.A. j 

 R. Hutton, F.G.S.; W. Hopkins, F.K.S.; H. L. Lindsay; R. 1. Murchison, F.K.S.; 

 Lord Nortliampton. Pres. K.S.; Prof. Oldham, M.R.LA.; Professor Owen, F.R.S.; 

 Professor Phillips, F.R.S.; H. E. Strickland, F.G.S.; the Dean of Westminster, F.G.S. 



The Geological Section is usually the most attractive at meetings of the 

 British Association, and the committee consequently appointed the largest 

 and most important room at their disposal as its place of meeting— the 

 Senate-house. A large platform was erected at the west end for the oflicers 

 and committee of the Section, and there were present Professors Sedgwick, 

 Buckiand, Murchison, Ansted, &., &c. 



Professor Sedgwick read the first paper on The Geology in the vicitiity of 

 Cambridge. 



Mr. Murchison read the substance of a letter he had received from Mr. 

 Ferdinand Oswald, of Breslau, in Germany, stating that in the neighbourhood 

 of where he lived had been discovered an oasis of Silurian rocks, rarely dis- 

 covered in Germany, and what was of the greatest interest, in this spot which 

 covered only about 1500 acres were to be found Russian, English, Scandina- 

 vian fossils mixed in a manner never seen before. 



Organization of Shells. 



The President said that the attention of the meeting would be first called 

 to the continuajion of the report of Dr. Carpenter, on the Structure of Shells, 

 deduced from microscopic observation. 



Dr. Carpenter said be appeared before the meeting under great difficulties. 

 His year had been curtailed three months, and as there was but one artist in 

 London who could properly make the drawings, and he had been engaged in 

 completing what was required by the Association for the publication of the 

 first part of his report, he could not produce the large drawings he had ex- 

 pected for the illu-tration of his subjects. Me was glad to hear the ieained 

 President introduce him as with the avowal of his belief that shells do pos- 

 sess an organic structure, because a most distinguished foreigner had very re- 

 cently doubted this, because they break in crystalline fractures. The foun- 

 dation of his theory was his belief in the analogy that he could now prove to 

 subsist between shells and the skins of animals, and there was no a priori 

 reasons against the theory, for he expected to find in shells a cellular con- 

 struction, and when he examined into them he found it. He then called the 

 attention of the meeting to sections highly magnified of the 1 erebratidcs 

 which, among other extraordinary appearances, had perforations which 

 showed that the animal matter must have passed through them. He had at 

 first thought they were to let in the water, but he was now convinced that 

 they were part of a glandular process. He had come to this conclusion from 

 microscopic observations of fossil Terelratuhe. He had found perfect uni- 

 formity in all kinds of shells he had cut up; the Pandora at first from its 

 irregularities had occasioned him some doubt, but he now found it corrobo- 

 rating his theory. The Echinus, with its network of calcareous structure also 

 corroborates it, and on examining the soft skinned creatures of its kind, he 

 had even been enabled to recognise in them very easily the charactesistics oi 

 Echinodermata. He showed drawings of the magnified spine of the Cidaris, 

 and he had no doubt the animal every year added a layer to the spine. He 

 found in the stems of the Pentacrinus perfectly symmetrical reticulations, 

 and the Nummxdites supported the theory, which showed the advantage of i» 

 to Geology. 



Dr. Buckiand said he considered the discovery of this theory of the highest 

 importance both to Geology and Physiology, which gave the power of fixing 

 genus and even species to fragments no larger than a pin's head. A new 

 aim had been afl'orded to the geologist by it, and he as well as the physiolo- 



