476 



NA TURh 



[Makch 1 6, 1S99 



character as the Board of Trade or ihe Hoard of Agriculture. 

 Like the Board of Trade, and unlike the Board of Agriculture, 

 the new department will have a Parliamentary secretary as 

 well as a presidtnt ; but the office of vice-president will cease 

 to exist, although the present vice-president will continue to 

 be a member of the Board. The Bill will give more elastic 

 powers for the transfer of the educational functions of the 

 Charity Commissioners to the new department. At first there 

 will only be such an inspection and examination of local schools 

 as will bring the endowed, municipal, private, and proprietary 

 schools within their areas to some common local scheme. It 

 is intended that the inspection shall be optional, except in the 

 case of schools which are being conducted under schemes 

 framed by the Endowed Schools Commissioners. In the first 

 instance, no attempt will be made to impose upon the .schools 

 anything like uniformity in their course of instruction, but the 

 inspection will be made in accordance with the advice given 

 by the consultative committee. It is considered that the regis- 

 ters of teachers, both in elementary and secondary schools, 

 may be most properly kept by the Department itself ; but it is 

 provided that the regulations relating to the registers shall be 

 Iramed in accordance with the advice given by the consult- 

 ative committee. The composition of that committee will not 

 be stereotyped by the terms of the Bill, which provides, how- 

 ever, that two-thirds of the members shall be representatives 

 of the Universities or of other teaching bodies. The organ- 

 isation of the Science and .-Krt Department will be revised, 

 and the task will be undertaken by a departmental committee, 

 which will be appointed as soon as the principle of the amal- 

 gamation of this Department with the Education Department 

 has been approved by Parliament. The inquiry will occupy 

 a considerable amount of time, and it is, therefore, proposed 

 that the present Bill shall not come into force until .April i 

 next year. — The Bill was read for a first time. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 



Royal Society, February 23. — " Deposition of Barium 

 Sulphate as a Cementing Material of Sandstone." By Frank 

 Clowes, D.Sc, Emeritus Professor, University College, Notting- 

 ham. Communicated by Prof. II. E. .\rmstrong, F. R S. 



Some years ago the author described the occurrence of a 

 peculiar sandstone over a large area in Bramcote and Staple- 

 ford, near Nottingham (Koy. Sot. Prci., vol. xlvi. p. 363). The 

 sandstone was remarkable for its high specific gravity ; and 

 chemical analysis, supported by microscopical examination, 

 proved that the high specific gravity was due to the existence in 

 the sandstone of a large proportion of highly crystalline barium 

 sulphate. In the rock itself the percentage of the sulphate 

 varied from 33'3 to 50'i ; and it evidently served as the binding 

 or cementing material which held the sand grains together. 

 The occurrence of this sandstone was stated by geologists to be 

 unique in the United Kingdom. 



Mr. J.J. H. Teall made an examination of the sandstone, and, 

 after breaking up a portion of the rock, found that the small 

 <leavage flakes gave the optical characters of crystallised barium 

 sulphate. Mr. Teall further stated that the barium sulphate 

 occurred in large irregular crystalline patches, which included 

 the sand grains. 



The author noted that in some parts of the rock the .sulphate 

 occurred in reticulated veins enclosing small patches of more or 

 less loose sand grains ; while in other parts of the rock the 

 sulphate occurred in spherical or oval masses, between which 

 looser sand was interspersed ; occasionally, however, the barium 

 sulphate was uniformly distributed. 



The appearance presented by Ihe weathered surface of the 

 rock vaiied according to the mode in which the resistant 

 sulphate was distributed. When it was uniformly distributed, 

 it formed an almost complete protection against weathering : 

 the reticulated distribution of the sulphate caused the surface of 

 the weathered rock to present a fretted surface, with the thin 

 veins of sulphate projecting from the surface ; while when the 

 sulphate had bound together spherical or oval masses in the 

 substance of the sand, these were left in pebble-like forms as 

 soon as the loose sand had been washea out from between 

 them. 



Dr. Bedson had shotiniJ.S.C.I., vol. vi. p. 712) that barium 

 chloride was present to the extent of I37'2 parts per 100,000 in 



NO. 1533, VOL. 59] 



some of the colliery waters of the Durham coal-field, and the 

 ferrous sulphate and sulphuric acid derived from Ihe iron 

 pyrites in the beds of coal and shale caused the frequent 

 deposition of barium sulphate from such water. The author of 

 the present paper described some of these deposits [/^oy. Soc. 

 /'roi., June 18S9), and suggested that the calcium sulphate 

 present in the waters of the Nottingham district would in a 

 similar way cause barium sulphate deposits from barium chloride 

 spring water. But in the Nottingham district all evidence of 

 barium chloride in solution was wanting. 



Such a barium chloride water, derived from an artesian boring 

 at Ilkeston, has recently been found by Mr. John White (The 

 Analysl, February 1S99). The Ilkeston boring has been made 

 in the immediate neighbourhood of the Bramcote and Staple- 

 ford .sandstone which contains the large proportion of barium 

 sulphate. Since the barium chloride is found to the extent of 

 407 parts per 100,000 in the water from this boring, and seems 

 to be a normal constituent of the water, it would appear that 

 soluble barium salts are present in the district, and may there- 

 fore have given rise to the deposition of the barium sulphate 

 in the original sand beds. The crystallisation of the sulphate 

 around the sand grains would then cause it to act as a compact, 

 insoluble cementing material. 



Since the publication of his original paper on the occurrence 

 of barium sulphate in the Bramcote sandstone, the author has con- 

 tinued his examination of samples of sandstone from the basement 

 of the pebble beds of the Bunter, with the object of ascertaining 

 whether the occurrence of barium, either as sulphate or in other 

 forms of combination, was characteristic of the sandstones of 

 that geological period. He had thus far failed to find any 

 similar rock to that at Bramcote, and it therefore seems prob- 

 able that the occurrence of barium sulphate, although it extends 

 over a very extensive area at Bramcote and Stapleford, must be 

 looked upon as being due to purely local causes. Such local 

 causes, however, appear to have occurred in certain other dis- 

 tricts, since Messrs. J. Lomas and C. C. Moore slated to the 

 Liverpool (leological Society, on February 8, 1898, that large 

 proportions of crystallised barium sulphate occurred in triassic 

 sandstones at Prenton and Bidston. In different specimens of 

 the sandstone the percentage of the sulphate varied from 124 

 to 33 8 per cent. It was described as being colourless and 

 highly crystalline, and adherent to the sand grains in such a 

 way as to show that it has been deposited in iitii subsequently 

 to the sand grains. Mr. Lomas stated that the occurrence of 

 barytes in the trias was fairly common, and meniiuned the fol- 

 lowing localities, in which its presence is well known : Beeston, 

 Alderley Edge, Oxton, Storeton, and Peakstones Rock, Alton. 



" Some Experiments bearing on the Theory of X'ollaic .Action." 

 By J. Brown. Communicated by Prof. Everett, F. R.S. 



The experiments were intended to test the theory which 

 attributes the diflercnce of potential observed near metals 

 in contact to the chemical action of films condensed on 

 their surfaces, from the atmosphere or gas in which they 

 are immersed, by investigating the effect of removing 

 the chemically active matters from this atmosphere. On 

 the hypotheses the difterence of potential shoulil be reduced 

 thereby to zero, and regain a value near its original, when air 

 was re-admitted. Previous experimenters had not found this to 

 be the case, but it was hoped that elaborate precautions in 

 details might give more definite results than had been hitherto 

 obtained. 



A copper-zinc volta condenser with plates loi mm. by 47 mm. 

 was sealed up in a glass tube in an atmosphere of nitrogen 

 exhausted to a few millimetres pressure, together with metallic 

 potassium and sodium, to absorb any oxygen or other chem- 

 ically active matters that might have remained in the nitrogen. 

 The zinc plate of the condenser was carried on a glass support 

 hinged to a prolongation of the copper plate, so that on tilling 

 the tube the plates could be separated, in order to measure the 

 difference of potenti.il by a well known zero method. Platinum 

 wires sealed into the tube made connections for this purpose. 

 Three experiments were made. 



In No. I, lasting six months, the difference of potential fell 

 gradually from 074 voli at starting to 0-33 volt. On admitting 

 air it rose to 048 vult. 



In No. 2, lasting eij^hleen months, the fall was from 07 volt 

 to 0*52 volt, and on opening the tube this value did not sensibly 

 change. The fall was therefore probably due to the well-known 

 eftect of tarnishing of the zinc surface. 



