Vol. XXII. No. 2.] 



POPULAR SCIENCE NEWS. 



23 



already established with Ekaterinburg, and a Hue 

 to Tiumen is in progress. That covers only about 

 one-third of the distance, so that an enormous ter- 

 ritory has still to be crossed. The projected trunk 

 line will proceed from Tiumen to Tomsk, and 

 thence to Irkutsk, the capital of Eastern Siberia, 

 and next to Strelinsk on the Amoor. The route 

 will then be for a distance by water, and finally 

 Vladivostock will be reached by another length of 

 line. The work of construction will be carried on 

 from both ends, and contracts have been entered 

 into to convey material to the Pacific port as soon 

 as a survey which is at present in progress is com- 

 pleted. The line will be of immense advantage in 

 developing the resources of Siberia, and it will 

 enable travellers to cross from the Pacific to Peters- 

 burg in something like fifteen days. 



Soldering VVikes. — M. Prisiajirikov, chief of 

 the posts and telegraphs in the government of 

 Samara, Russia, contributes to a Russian periodical 

 with an unpronounceable name (consisting of fifty- 

 eight letters) a practical note on soldering telegraph 

 wires. In order to lessen the time requin|»d for the 

 work, and also to avoid the weakening of the wire 

 fi'om scraping the surface, the author has intro- 

 duced a method which consists of the use of a 

 heating tool capable of holding a considerable 

 quantity of melted solder, and upon the top of this 

 is thrown sufficient powdered sal-ammoniac to leave 

 a layer of liquid salt of some little depth. This 

 liquid is nearly black in color. The iron wire 

 already covered with binding wire is then pressed 

 underneath the surface of the melted solder passing 

 through the liquid salt. This effects a perfect sol- 

 der, no matter how dirty the wire may be. 



LABORATORY NOTES. 



Useful Cement. — A useful cement for exi>eri- 

 mental purposes, it is said, is to be made from 

 equal parts of gutta-percha and white-pine pitch 

 melted together. The comjwund should be with- 

 out lumps. It improves by re-melting, and softens 

 at about the temperature of boiling water. 



Labels and Acid. — To preserve chemical la- 

 bels from acids, etc., it is recommended that after 

 they have been attached with ordinary glue, to 

 which a little bichromate of potash has been added, 

 and allowed to dry thoroughly, they should be 

 coated with hot melted paraffine, the superfluity 

 being rubbed off with a warm flannel. 



To PREVENT " Bumping" of Fluids during 

 Distillation. — A. Reissmann uses a spiral coil of 

 platinum wire, in which are enclosed some slender 

 fragments of pumice-stone. The specific weight of 

 the combination must be such as to cause it to sink 

 in the fluid. The most unmanageable fluids, it is 

 said, are made to boil quietly in this manner. Two 

 or more of the spirals may be required where the 

 apparatus is a large one. lie recommends also for 

 the same pur{X)se asbestos of long fibre, which he 

 has found to answer the purpose perfectly. A 

 ball of the fibres of the size of a hazel-nut placed 

 in the retort or flask makes it possible to carry on 

 the distillation rapidly and with perfect safety. 



Cleaning Burettes. — C. Mohr states that 

 when burettes do not completely deliver the liquid, 

 and drops remain hanging on the sides, thus caus- 

 ing errors in analysis, they can be best cleaned (of 

 the thin film of fat which occasions this annoy- 

 ance) by filling with a strong solution of perman- 

 ganate of pota.ssium, and allowing it to remain a 

 day or two; it is then run off, and the burette 

 wa.shed with dilute hydrochloric acid, and finally 

 with distilled water. A burette treated in this 

 manner delivers all the liquid. Cleaning with 

 benzol or caustic potash will not always remove 

 this fat. 



l^onte, iFarm, anD fiarDm. 



[Origili.ll ill Popular Science Neics,\ 



THE ORANGE. 



BY K. B. CLAYPOLE. 



We are told by the early poets of Greece that 

 among the wedding gifts offered to the Queen of 

 Heaven were some golden apples brought by the 

 goddess Earth. 



These apples, for safe keeping, were placed in a 

 garden on the shore of Oceanus, at the western 

 edge of the world; and the Ilesperides, the beauti- 

 ful daughters of Night, were appointed their guar- 

 dians. As the way to this garden was unknown 

 and full of mysterious dangers, a visit to the Iles- 

 perides was included in many of the legends that 

 formed round the exploits of those godlike beings, 

 the national heroes. The Argonauts, driven by 

 a storm from their native coast, were not allowed 

 to turn for home again until they had reached 

 these Western nymphs; and Perseus, returning to 

 Argos with the Gorgon's head, lingered a while 

 on their enchanted ground; while Hercules, the 

 greatest of all the representatives of endurance and 

 effort in the cause of early civilization, not only 

 found the garden, but stole from it the golden 

 apples, and carried them off to his exacting master 

 in Greece. 



The story of this achievement, greatly elaborated 

 by the later classic poets, Latin as well as Greek, 

 became, at the revival of learning in the sixteenth 

 century, one of the most cherished myths, and 

 scholars did not hesitate to recognize in the precious 

 apples an allusion to the golden fruit with which 

 they wOTe themselves familiar. It is true, there 

 were not wanting, even then, some critics to point 

 out that the Greek word for apples might equally 

 mean flocks or sheep. The metaphor of golden 

 fruit, natural and pleasing wherever the orange 

 was known, spread rapidly into all European lan- 

 guages; and the free growth of the tree in any of 

 the favored spots assigned by classic writers to the 

 Ilesperides seemed to the student of the Renais- 

 sance suflicient proof of its close connection with 

 the exploit of Hercules. 



If, however, in those brilliant days there had 

 been time for a closer study of the classic writings, 

 their complete silence regarding the orange could 

 not have passed unnoticed. The magic tree.of tlit- 

 Ilesperides, whose leaves and branches were ol 

 the same precious metal as the fruit, was in llie 

 Augustan age plainly relegated by naturalists to 

 the realms of poetic fancy, and no one at home or 

 abroad tried to find for it an earthly leprtsenta- 

 tive. And yet the times were propitious for tlie 

 search. There was at this period among the uppei- 

 classes of society a revival of interest in all that 

 pertained to horticulture. Naturalists and poets 

 of sylvan tastes studied and described the native 

 plants of Italy and those exotics recently made 

 known by foreign conquest. The rich man loved 

 to surround his villa with trees new and rare, and 

 to load his table with fruits of fabulous price 

 brought from far distant lands. To gratify this 

 love of luxury, one of the most potent forces of the 

 age, the merchant penetrated even farther than the 

 warrior had done before him. A few adventurers, 

 passing the Pillars of Hercules, sailed cautiously 

 down the western coast of Africa, and, finding 

 here and there among the barren rocks a green and 

 fertile spot, thought it no other than the very en- 

 chanted garden of the poets. But no oranges came 

 thence to Rome. Eastward the merchant saw more 

 chance of gain, and whole fleets of ships were occu- 

 pied in the navigation of the Red Sea alone. From 

 its shores there went to Rome gold, jewels, ivory, 

 costly fabrics, slaves, horses, spices, perfumes, and 



fruits; and for these and other luxuries Rome paid 

 two million dollars yearly. After the discovery 

 of the monsoons the Roman merchant-ships ven- 

 tured into the Indian Ocean, and reached the coast 

 of India, and perhaps Ceylon itself, — a voyage 

 costing five years of dangers and fatigues; and 

 the quest was always something new and rare for 

 the table of the epicure, something to satisfy the 

 greed of gold and luxury at Rome. But neither 

 from the west nor from the east of Africa, nei- 

 ther from Asia Minor nor Persia, from Arabia 

 nor from the shores of India, did any one bring to 

 Rome the orange, a tree which would at once have 

 become a favorite, not only for its fruit, but for 

 the fragrance of its leaves and flowers, and for the 

 ease with which it could be propagated from seed 

 or shoot. 



But though the orange was not forthcoming to 

 delight the classic world, its many Sanscrit names 

 show that at least the bitter variety was well known 

 iu some partsof India many centuries before Koine's 

 intercourse with the East began. Shortly after the 

 Empire of the AVest had been forever destroyed 

 by the barbarians of Cential Europe, the .\iabs, 

 fanatic under their new religion, in one century of 

 glorious conquest overran Persia, Syria, Egypt, 

 .■ifrica, and Spain, and brought all these vast re- 

 gions under the power of Islam. Thus, when the 

 fury of conquest gave place to the indulgence of 

 luxurious tastes, the Arabs were able to push their 

 commerce farther to the East than any people had 

 done before them, and to carry Eastern products 

 farther westward than had ever hitherto been pos- 

 sible. The orange could now no longer remain 

 hidden among the mysteries of the East. The 

 Arab merchant found it, and the Arab physician 

 quickly discovered in it a medicine of extraordinary 

 virtue. 



A valuable and attractive exotic plant having 

 been found by a people with a passion for agri- 

 culture, the next step is an attempt to naturalize 

 it. Exactly when the orange was first brought 

 under the notice of the Arab physicians and agri- 

 culturists, we do not know. We are told by an 

 Arab writer of the twelfth century, that in the 

 fourth period of the hegira (tenth century of our 

 era) his people began to enrich their gardens at 

 Oman with the orange-tree. Fiom Oman in the 

 extreme east of Arabia, the cultivation of the 

 tree, according to the same authority, was carried 

 by way of Bassorah and Irak into Palestine, and 

 thence into Egypt. There is no record of the nat- 

 uralization of the orange in Barbary and Spain ; 

 and yet an Arab agriculturist of the twelfth cen- 

 tury writes as if its culture was in his time widely 

 spread throughout the latter country, and large 

 groves of trees are found growing wild round the 

 ancient Moorish settlements in the north of Africa. 

 These trees bear bitter fruit, as their ancestors did 

 before them; for the orange of the Arab was small, 

 highly colored and very fragrant, beautiful but 

 nauseous. 



The first oi'ange known in Christian Europe was 

 also more distinguished for its beauty than pleasing 

 for the flavor of its fruit. It was, in fact, no other 

 than the bitter orange, or bigarade, naturalized 

 by the Arabs in the Holy Land. Growing luxu- 

 riantly in the neighborhood of Jerusalem, it at- 

 tracted the admiration of the Crusaders, and the 

 aromatic fruit was carried back to Europe as an 

 object of curiosity. Before the holy wars weie 

 ended, the Saracens had taught the champions of 

 the Cross to find in the bigarade a precious remedy 

 for fever and distempers, and to use its acid juice 

 to season fish and meat. 



As early as the twelfth century successful at- 

 tempts were made to naturalize the bitter oiange 

 iu the islands of the Archipelago aud in some 



