332 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



high temperature. There are many unstable compounds of carbon not 

 known, which may possibly be reduced one day by electrolytic action, and 

 then we may be able to generate the precious mineral — the diamond. 



Labels for Poison Bottles. 



To prevent accidents arising from careless or sleepy nurses giving medi- 

 cines out of wrong bottles, Mr. Tiioiiger proposes using a label having a 

 sand paper border, thus appealing strongly to the sense of touch, which it 

 is presumed will warn the holder that danger is near. 



Fine Earthenware in France. 



The French Government are about establishing a school at Nevers for 

 instruction in modeling, drawing, and painting cereous and terreous mate- 

 rials. 



Fatty Acids for Soap and Candles. 



M. Mouries, in a memoir to the French Academy of Sciences, suggests a 

 cheap and easy method of separating stearic and oleic acids and glycerine. 

 In the ordinary state tallow is saponified with difhculty. By melting the 

 tallow in water, containing a little soap in solution, the tallow assumes a 

 globular state, and is then readily attacked by a small quantity of alkali. 

 When the mixture is raised to GO" C, the alkali and glycerine quickly sepa- 

 rate. The fatty acids are separated by placing the soap in water acidu- 

 lated with sulphuric acid. The stearic acid will then crystalize, and the 

 oleic acid can be obtained, almost colorless, with the sulphate of soda, and 

 can then be made into soap. M. Chevreul commended this process, before 

 the Academy, as ingenious and simple. 



Dangerous Lightning Rods. 



A defective lightning rod is dangerous, because it draws toward the 

 house a force which it cannot conduct away from it. A death occurred on 

 the 17th of last month at Rensselaer, Indiana, by lightning, in a house two 

 and a half stories high, situated in a grove of tall timber. The lightning 

 rod designed to protect the building was made of two kinds of metal — the 

 first three upper sections were of octagonal copper, the remainder was an 

 iron rod. Copper is a much better conductor of electricity than iron. The 

 copper rod received more than the iron rod could instantly carry away, and 

 the consequence was tliat a portion sought its path to the ground tiirough 

 the house. A human body was the bridge by which it crossed a bed, and 

 a life was swept off in its passage. Touching this item, 



Mr. Page said he formerly had considerable practical experience in the 

 arrangement of lightning rods, and thought most of the accidents from 

 lightning were the result of imperfect insulation. Tiie rods are not prop- 

 erly fastened with ncm-conductors, and do not always enter into the ground 

 far enough to reach the moisture. 



Dr. Rowell spoke of an instance where a hou'^e was struck, and the whole 

 was instantly one mass of Ilame. 



Mr. Bartlett thought it singular that cases occur every season when a 

 person is struck while in the street, the lightning not seeking the roofs of the 

 surrounding high buildings, but going directly to the ground. 



