134 
NATURE 
[Fune 16, 1870 
Canada of monuments built of stone to the peculiar character of 
the climate, which would be unfavourable to their preservation. 
He anticipated the discovery some day of traces of the ancient 
inhabitants in the great caverns north of Flamborough, and in 
the island of Anticosti. 
Institution of Civil Engineers, May 17.—Charles B. 
Vignoles, F.R.S., president, in the chair. The paper read was 
“On recent improvements in regenerative hot-blast stoves for 
blast furnaces,” by Mr. E. A. Cowper, M. Inst. C.E.. The 
author stated that when, in 1828, the late Mr. J. B. Neilson, M. 
Inst. C.E., introduced the plan of heating the air employed as 
blast, by means of iron pipes placed in or near a fire, the 
increase of temperature was at first only from 60° to 109° Fahr. 
Subsequently, Mr. Neilson obtained a temperature of 600° or 
650° and the pipe stoves had since been urged up to goo’, and 
in a few cases to 1°00". The wear and tear, however, with such 
temperatures of blast were considerable ; there was great loss of 
heat by conduction, and the pipe stoves were, as a rule, worked 
in a leaky condition, necessitating the expenditure of engine 
power for blowing air uselessly. The improvements described in 
the paper were based upon Mr. Siemens’ regenerative furnace. 
Each stove of a pair consisted of a wrought-iron cylindrical 
casing, lined with fire-brick, and provided with a central shaft or 
flue, which extended to within a few fect of the brick dome 
forming the top. Around this shaft there were a number of com- 
partments, or boxes, formed of bricks so placed taat those in one 
course were not exactly coincident in position with those in the 
courses either above or below, though a passage was lefi open 
from the bottom to the top of the mass of brickwork. This 
wrought-iron casing was provided with several valves, three being 
for the cold blast, of gas, and of air for combustion, and two 
being for the exit of the hot blast and of the products of combus- 
tion. Whena stove had been at work heating blast, and it was 
wanted to reheat it, the first thing to be done was to put another 
stovein operation, then to shut the hot and the cold blast valves, 
allowing the air in the stove to be blown out at a small valve to 
reduce it to atmospheric pressure. The gas, air, and chimney 
valves were next opened, and the gas, igniting as it entered, gavea 
large volume of flame right up the central shaft and overana into 
the regenerator, thus heating the top course of brickwork con- 
siderably, the next course rather less, and so on, the products of 
combustion passing away to the chimney at a temperature of 
about 300°. In the course of a few hours a large amount of 
caloric was stored up in the bricks forming the regenerator, a 
good red heat penetrating nearly to the bottom, when the stove 
was again ready to heat the blast toa temperature of 1,400° or 
1,500. In these stoves the cost of.dust catchers was avoided, 
and the expense of producing gas was also saved, as the gas was 
used direct from the top of the blast furnace, and the stoves could 
be cleaned out with the greatest facility. The construction of the 
regenerator in compartments or boxes, connected together verti- 
cally but not horizontally, gave the power of applying the blast 
with efficiency (inasmuch as the whole force of the blast was con- 
fined to the one passage that was being blown at the time), and 
admitted of a brush being passed up or down the boxes to 
remove the dust. The form and proportion of the passages 
had been found, after numerous experiments, to produce an ex- 
cellent effect in mixing the air, thereby ensuring a rapid and 
perfect conduction of heat from the bricks to the air, or zce 
versa, from the products of combustion to the bricks. The 
results obtained by Messrs. Cochrane from the adoption of 
these stoves at Ormesby, as regarded the quality of iron, the 
increased make, and the saving of coke in the blast furnace, had 
been most satisfactory. Thus there was a saving of 4 cwt. of 
coke per ton of iron produced, by the use of the regenerative 
stoves for heating the blast, when compared with good cast-iron 
pipe stoves, and the saving was still more over ordinary pipe 
stoves. With a large furnace, producing 475 tons a week, the 
first cost of these stoves was somewhat less than the cost of pipe 
stoves, while the expense of working was less, so that the profit, 
taking everything into account, was estimated to amount to 
about 4,162/. a year. 
CAMBRIDGE 
Philosophical Society, May 16. —Professor W. Cayley, 
president, in the chair. The following communications were 
made to the Society :— , 
(1.) By Mr. Sedley Taylor (Trinity). Mr. Taylor described 
the nature and classification of musical sounds, their laws and 
connection, and illustrated experimentally the subject of ‘‘ beats,” 
and explained at some length, with illustrations, Helmholtz’s 
theory of harmony. The rest of the paper was devoted to a 
criticism of a theory of consonance given by Professor Tyndall in 
his published lectures on sound. ‘This theory, he maintained, 
was, while professing to be that of Helmholtz, a totally different 
one, in flat contradiction to the facts of experience, and in reality 
wholly erroneous. 
(2.) Ona case of asymmetry in the human body, by Professor 
Humphry. The subject of this paper was a female patient in 
Addenhook’s Hospital, &t Cambridge. The asymmetry was 
very marked, carried out through the whole body ; the right arm, 
for example, being more fully developed, and 2} inches longer 
than the left, and extending even to the mammary glands, teeth, 
tonsils, &c. The subject had always enjoyed good health, was 
strong, and fully developed. No paralysis had ever been pro- 
duced by this asymmetry, as had been the case in the instance 
mentioned by Van der Kolb, a cast of the brain of which was 
exhibited. Professor Humphry expressed himself wholly unable 
to account for this instance. As the person was alive and well, 
of course examination of the internal organs was impossible. 
Paris 
Academy of Sciences, June 6.—A considerable number 
of works and memoirs were received in candidature for various 
prizes in the gift of the Academy.—M. Chasles presented a note 
by M. Mannheim, ‘‘On the determination of the osculatory 
plane and radius of curvature of the trajectory of some point in a 
straight line, which is displaced under certain conditions ;” and 
also a note by MM. F. Klein and S. Lie, ‘*On a certain family of 
curves and surfaces.”—A note was read by M. Des Cloiseaux, 
“*On the optical properties of benzile, and of some bodies of the 
camphor family, in the crystallised state and in solution.” The 
author has found that crystals of benzile rotated the plane of 
polarisation in different ways, and the right and left crystals, 
when dissolved and crystallised two or three times, likewise 
gave a mixture of crystals with opposite rotations. Solution of 
benzile in ether has no action on polarised light. Benzile thus 
possesses optical properties similar to those of periodate of soda. 
Common camphor in solution deviates the plane of polarisation, 
whilst its crystals have no action upon polarised light. Camphor. 
of patchouli and mint camphor (menthole), both belonging 
to the hexagonal system, have a negative, uniaxial, double 
refraction, and their solutions in alcohol deviate the plane of 
polarisation to the left. Three camphors belonging to the cubic 
system, namely, Borneancamphor, terecamphene,and monohydro- 
chlorate of turpentine, have no action on polarised light when 
crystallised, but in solution strongly deviate the plane of polarisa- 
tion, the first to the right, the other two to the left.—M. 
Duchemin described a marine galvanic battery, set in action by 
contact with sea water. It consists of a thick cylinder of zinc, 
pierced with holes, and containing a porous vessel, enclosing a 
carbon element surrounded by powdered coke and perchloride 
of iron.—An extract of a letter from Father Secchi to M. 
Fizeau, ‘‘On the displacement of the lines observed in the 
solar spectrum,” was read. M. Le Verrier communicated an ex- 
tract from a letter of M. Winnecke announcing his discovery 
of a new telescopic comet on the night of the 29-30th May, 
at Carlsruhe.—Mr. H. Sainte-Claire Deville communicated a 
second memoir on the action of water on iron and of hydrogen 
on oxide of iron. In this paper he described his experiments 
with iron at temperatures of 155°, 265°, 440°, 860°, and 1040° 
C. (= 302°, 509°, 824°, 1580°, and 1904° F.) and with aqueous 
vapour at constant and varying tensions.—A paper was read 
by M. E. Frémy on the reduction of nitrous acid by metals, 
containing the continuation of his researches on this subject 
brought under the notice of the Academy on the roth January 
(see Nature, No. 12). We identified the body obtained by 
the reduction of nitrous acid and the nitrites with the oxy-am- 
monia of M. Lossen, N H* O? (or N H 20, HO) and stated that it 
possessed marked basic properties, and is strongly reductive. —M. 
de Quatrefages presented a note by M. E. Perrier on the circu- 
lation of the Oligochzeta of the group Naide, which he described 
from researches made upon Dero obtusa. The circulatory appa- 
ratus in this worm consists, according to the author, of a dorsal 
and a ventral vessel, united by a most complex vascular appa- 
ratus which varies considerably in its structure in different regions 
of the body.—A note by M. Feltz, on the phenomena of which 
the white globules of the blood, and the walls of the capiliary 
vessels, are the seat during inflammation, was communicated by» 
M. C. Robin.—M. R. Wolf suggested that instead of apply- 
