654 Transactions of the American Institute. 



^dcltli, and pours therein a solution of the nitrate of copper, yet 

 no liquid passes through the fissure; but when the tube is placed 

 in a vessel containing liquid protosulphuret of sodium, electrical 

 action immediately ensues; decomposition and recomposition arc 

 manifested by the crystals which appear on both sides of the 

 fissure. The experiments of Becquerel prove that the fissure has a 

 real influence on the nature of the products of decomposition, for . 

 the salts formed are not always those indicated by theory. f* 



NEW RAILWAY SYSTEM. 



The Rhenish Railway Company are the first to test, on a large 

 scale, a plan for dispensing with railway ties of wood. They use 

 a nine-inch rail instead of the common rail, which is about three 

 inches deep, thus returning nearly to the form first used by the 

 inventor of the T rail, the late Robert L. Stevens, of Hoboken, 

 N. J. The height of the original rails, made under his direction in 

 England, and after his models for the New Jersey railroads, was 

 about six inches. The nine-inch rails used by the Rhenish Railway 

 Company rest upon a bed of plates, and are then covered with five 

 inches of gravel, on the top of which is a two-inch la3^er of earth, 

 w^ell stamped down, so that the head of the rail projects only an 

 inch above the surface. Two lines of rails are cotinected every 

 three feet by round bars of iron, firmly bolted below the surface 

 of the ground, so that the whole appears like a half-buried ladder 

 of iron. A similar method of fastening the rails together and sup- 

 porting them, was tried some years ago on the Erie railroad, near 

 Paterson, N. J. 



NEW PROCESS FOR BLEACHING. 



M. M. Tessie de Morthay and Marechal, of Mcntz, France, are 

 showing at the Paris Exposition specimens of fibers, thread and 

 woven stufis of cotton, linen, wool and silk, bleached by a new 

 process, which is said to be more expeditious than the old. In 

 bleaching cotton, linen or hemp, all grease or fatty matter is first 

 extracted by an alkaline bath; it is then steeped in a solution of 

 manganic acid or permanganate of soda, with the addition of sul- 

 phate of magnesia. After remaining say fifteen minutes, it is placed 

 in alkaline solutions, or into baths containing sulphurous acid, nitro- 

 sulphuric acid, or peroxide of hydrogen, where it remains until the 

 layer of oxide of manganese, which coats it, is entirely removed. 

 It is then washed, and again placed in manganic acid, or in the per- 

 man2:anate of soda, afterward in the alkaline solution, or in the 



