POPULAR SCIENCE NEWS. 



[Januakt, 1888. 



Tyndall had not made his celebrated experiments 

 on dust. The general opinion seemed to be, that 

 the only point necessary to be observed was to ex- 

 clude the air from the article to be preserved; and 

 the readiest way of doing this was to fill the can 

 with steam. At this time there was some contro- 

 versy as to whether it was best to punch a hole in 

 the head of the can before heating, or after; in 

 either case it was closed as soon as the steam issued 

 freely, and the can was allowed to cool. If the ends 

 of the can became concave, it was evidence that it 

 had been properly exhausted of air, and the goods 

 would keep. If, on the contrary, the heads swelled 

 out, it was evidence that the article was not keep- 

 ing, or, as the manufacturer thought, the can had 

 not been properly vented, and too much air was 

 left in it. At the time of this trial one of the 

 counsel made a number of experiments that seemed 

 to show conclusively that the air had nothing to 

 do with the matter; but these were not published, 

 and therefore the credit of the investigation belongs 

 to Professor Tyndall. 



During the progress of the trial frequent refer- 

 ence was made to one Appert, a Frenchman who 

 lived in the early part of this century. But if I 

 recollect aright, the only definite thing we found 

 in regard to him was his English patent. We had 

 an idea that he published a book upon the subject, 

 but this book was not to be found in any of the 

 libraries to which we had access. 



Within a year or two I have been able to procure 

 a copy of this work. It is an octavo volume of 

 xxxxviij -I- 176 pages. The copy that I have is 

 the third edition, and the forty-eight pages of pref- 

 ace are devoted to defending the process of the 

 author against the attacks that were made upon it, 

 and the false statements made in regard to the 

 process. The title of the work is as follows: "Le 

 Livre de tous les Menages, ou I'Art de Conserver, 

 pendant Plusieurs Annees, toutes les Substances, 

 Animales et Vegetales, par M. Appert, proprie- 

 taire a Massy (Seine et Ouise), ancien confiseur et 

 distillateur, eleve de la bouche de la Maison Ducal 

 de Christian IV. Paris, 1813." 



This may be translated as follows: "The Book of 

 all Housekeeping, or the Art of Preserving, during 

 Many Years, all Substances, Animal and Vegetable, 

 by M. Appert, proprietor at Glassy, formerly con- 

 fectioner and distiller, assistant to the cook in the 

 Ducal Mansion of Christian IV." 



Briefly, his method consisted in placing the arti- 

 cles to be preserved in wide-mouthed glass bottles, 

 which he says he prefers to those of metal, since 

 they do not acquire a bad taste. They were then 

 carefully corked — and on this point he lays special 

 stress — and plunged into boiling water, in which 

 he keeps them from a half-hour to two hours ac- 

 cording to the articles; articles that are liquid re- 

 quiring less time than those which are solid. He 

 tried his hand at preserving every thing iu the 

 kitchen. Among the various articles experimented 

 upon were milk, which he condensed to one-fourth, 

 and then placed in bottles, and found it good six 

 months afterwards ; thus anticipating Gail Borden 

 nearly fifty years. He also preserved tea and 

 coffee. The latter has within a year past been 

 made a commercial success by a process not vary- 

 ing essentially from Appert's, and coffee can now 

 be procured in the market which, in the words of 

 Appert, requires only one coffeespoonful of the ex- 

 tract to make a cup of excellent coffee, having all 

 the flavor of the original. Travellers are no longer 

 at the mercy of the railroad restaurants in this 

 matter: a six-ounce bottle will contain enough of 

 the extract to make twenty-five good cups of coffee. 

 It would have probably surprised even Appert, 

 with his sanguine expectations in regard to his 

 process, had he been told that in 1882 millions of 



cans of meat would have been preserved in Chicago 

 for the use of the British troops in the Soudan by 

 substantially his process. In his day Chicago was 

 a wilderness, and the Soudan had been inaccessible 

 to Europeans for centuries. 



This invention of Appert's now gives employ- 

 ment to thousands of people, and enables us to 

 have fresh salmon from the Columbia River on our 

 tables. It has caused scurvy to become an almost 

 unknown disease,' enabling those on .shipboard to 

 be supplied with fresh vegetables at all times of 

 the year. Of three articles alone, over a hundred 

 million cans are preserved every year; these are 

 tomatoes, corn, and peaches. 



Civilization in the West may be traced by the 

 empty cans left in its tracks. I have found them 

 on the tops of the highest of the Rocky Mountains, 

 serving there as a card-receiver. IMiners cover 

 their cabins with them, and use them as cooking 

 utensils and water vessels. The tourist goes to the 

 mountains and enjoys his fresh vegetables raised 

 on the "proprietor's own farm;" but such vege- 

 tables were raised the year before in New Jersey 

 or Maine. 



One of the most severe tests to which these goods 

 were ever subjected was the following: The ship 

 " Fury " was wrecked in 1825 in Prince Regent's 

 Inlet, and her stores were left on the beach. Eight 

 years afterwards they were found by Sir John Ross, 

 who wrote to Mr. Gamble, who preserved them, in 

 a state of perfect preservation, although they had 

 been exposed to temperatures of 92° below and 80° 

 above zero. After a further interval of sixteen 

 years they were found still in a state of good preser- 

 vation. Cans opened forty-four years after they 

 were prepared were found to be sound and in good 

 order. 



13 Broad Stkeet, Boston, Dec. 1, 18ST. 



THE BRUSH TURKEY. 



" All birds hatch their eggs." Zoology knows 

 very few exceptions to this rule; and although old 

 works on natural history state that the sun re- 

 lieves the ostrich of this duty, it is now known 

 that she attends to the work most conscientiously. 

 Only the cuckoo succeeds in shirking this business 

 entirely, leaving her little ones to the mercy of 

 kind-hearted little singers. Besides this bird, 

 we may mention the brush turkey as one which 

 does not hatch its eggs; but it is more conscien- 

 tious about the matter than the cuckoo. The 

 brush turkey (Talegallus lalhami) is a powerful 

 bird, attaining a size of about thirty-one inches, 

 and can be recognized by its powerful build, rather 

 long neck, large head, sharp, bent beak, strong 

 feet, and short, rounded wings. The scarlet of 

 the featherless neck, and the yellow pouch depend- 

 ent therefrom, stand out in decided contrast to the 

 brown plumage. The home of the brush turkey is 

 in the thick forests of Australia. At mating time 

 (in the spring) the male develops a surprising 

 amount of activity and industry. He picks out a 

 sheltered spot for a nest, and then goes to work to 

 build a mound. With his strong feet he throws a 

 quantity of leaves, fibres of wood, small twigs, 

 dry grass, etc., into a heap behind him, and this 

 forms the centre of a large circle, the periphery of 

 which soon appears perfectly clean, and a mound 

 about a yard and a half high is built. While 

 other birds go at once to their newly prepared 

 homes, arid begin to lay their eggs, the brush tur- 

 key pursues an entirely different course. The wise 

 creature waits several weeks, until the fermentation 

 and decomposition of the vegetable matter in the 

 heap has generated a heat of about 104" F., the 

 temperature required for either natural or artificial 

 hatching of eggs. It is wonderful to see with 



what certainty the birds determine upon the proper 

 time. The male often mounts the nest to examine 

 it, scrapes off a little here and a little there, and 

 then covers the places over again carefully. When 

 he finds that the temperature of the mass is what 

 it should be, he digs numerous holes about the 

 axis of the mound, and in each one of these holes 

 the female drops an egg with the blunt end up. 

 After the male has closed these holes, both birds 

 go away; the male only returning from time to 

 time to regulate the heat, covering the eggs more 

 or less, according to the moisture and temperature 

 of the atmosphere. After about three weeks the 

 young are hatched. They are entirely covered 

 with feathers, their wings are well developed, and 

 they seem as strong as our domestic chickens. 

 The whole process reminds one of the development 

 of the butterfly, which is able to fly soon after 

 leaving the chrysalis. After about twelve hours 

 the young brush turkeys appear merry and active, 

 wandering about with their parents; but in the 

 afternoon they are buried in the nest again by 

 their careful father. On the third day they are 

 able to fly, and after that are perfectly independ- 

 ent. Their process of hatching has been carried 

 out by brush turkeys in captivity, as, for instance, 

 in the Berlin Zoological Garden, when they formed 

 the centre of attraction for friends and students of 

 zoology. — Deutsche Illustrirte Zeilung. 



SCIENTIFIC BREVITIES. 



The Water of the Thames River makes 

 very good ink; and letters concerning that fact, 

 and the nuisance which is caused by the condition 

 which makes it possible, have been written to the 

 London daily papers, in which it was used as a 

 medium to impress indignation upon paper. 



A New Gas. — The discovery of a new gas is 

 reported in Germany by Dr. Theodore Curtius, who 

 has succeeded in preparing the long-sought hydride 

 of nitrogen, amidogen, diamide, or hydrazine, as it 

 is variously called. This remarkable body, which 

 has hitherto baffled all attempts at isolation, is now 

 shown to be a gas perfectly stable up to a very high 

 temperature, of a peculiar odor, — differing from 

 that of ammonia, — exceedingly soluble in water, 

 and of basic properties. In composition it is nearly 

 identical with ammonia, both being compounds of 

 nitrogen and hydrogen. 



Luminous Micbo-Organisms. — Dr. C. B. 

 Tilanus gives, in a Dutch scientific journal, the 

 results of some recent researches on luminous 

 micro-organisms. He prepared a flat culture from 

 luminous mucus obtained from the exterior of 

 fish, with fish-broth peptone jelly, to which two 

 per cent of common salt had been added as a 

 medium. This became speckled with numerous 

 cultures, some of the jelly, but not the greater 

 part, becoming liquefied. In the dark this flat 

 culture emitted a distinct light, and appeared as if 

 strewn with stars ; from this a stripe culture was 

 prepared : and, after successive preparations had 

 been made. Dr. Tilanus believed he had obtained 

 a pure culture of the phosphorescent organisms. 



Fluoride of Nitrogen. — The supposed com- 

 pound was formed by passing an electric current 

 from seven ferric chloride batteries through a con- 

 centrated solution of ammonium fluoride. After 

 the lapse of a short time, several drops, of oily 

 consistence, were observed attached to the negative 

 plate. On becoming connected with the po.sitive, 

 a thin gold wire, these drops exploded with violence. 

 The compound is highly unstable, being at once 

 decomposed in contact with glass, silica, or organic 

 matter, thus rendering the analysis of the same one 

 of considerable risk. Its explosive violence is even 

 greater than the chloride of nitrogen. 



