TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION B. 533 



turing centres institutions resembling the Physical College of this city. These 

 should consist of appropriate and even handsome buildings, properly furnished 

 with all the instruments and appliances required for teaching tlie sciences in their 

 practical bearings on industrial pursuits. In Newcastle, as well as in other places, 

 this has been done on a fairly ample scale, and the advantages tlie College of 

 Science in this city is capable of afibrding are oll'ered on such terms that no one 

 can plead expense as a barrier to mental improvement. 



IJearing in mind the importance of the subject, and remembering, as my col- 

 leagues and myself do, the difficulties we have had to encounter and those we have 

 still before us, I am strongly of opinion that the erection and maintenance of 

 colleges of science should not bo left to the accidental liberality of the few, but 

 should be taken in hand by the nation at large. 



PosTscEiPT. — Since writing what has been here said on the Basic Process, 

 Mr. Gilchrist has stated that Mr. Thomas and liimself, at the period of their dis- 

 covery, were ignorant of the work of Professor Griiner. Were the facts otherwise, 

 to these two gentlemen and to others, including Messrs. Bolckow, Vaughan, & Co., 

 great credit is due for having reduced scientific principles to an established branch 

 of industry. 



1. 



The following Reports and Papers were read : — 



Third Heport of the Committee fur investigating the Influence of Silicon 

 on the 'properties of Steel. — See Reports, p. 267. 



2. Report of the Committee for considering the best method of establishing 

 International Standards for the Analysis of Iron and Steel. — See Re- 

 ports, p. 60. 



3. On Eikonogen, a new Photographic Developer. 

 By Professor G. D. Liveing, F.B.S. 



This substance is the sodium salt of amido-/3-naphthol-/3-sulphonic acid. 



This acid, CioH^.NH.^.OH.SOall, was first described by Professor Meldola in 

 1881. It has since been obtained in much larger quantity by Witt, and it is now 

 produced on the manufacturing scale by the Actiengesellschaft fiir Anilinfabrika- 

 tioH at Berlin. 



Of all substances tried as developers, perhaps pyrogallol has held its own the 

 longest, though some prefer ferrous oxalate, and of late hydroquinone has been a 

 good deal used. The chemical action of hydroquinone is very similar to that of 

 pyrogallol, and the fact that the former is para-di-hydroxy-benzene, and pyrogallol 

 is a tri-hydroxybenzene, led Dr. Andresen of Berlin" to try the effect of other para- 

 derivatives of benzene which, by oxidation, would easily give quinones or similar 

 substances. Para-di-amido-benzene and para-amido-plieuol were found to be well 

 adapted for developing photographs. Subsequently Dr. Andresen turned his atten- 

 tion to the sulphonic acids, and the outcome has' been that eikonogen appears to 

 fulfil the requirements of a good developer the best. 



Dr. Andresen claims for it : — 



1. That while eikonogen reduces the bromide of silver so far as it has been 

 subject to tlie action of light, the bromide in dry gelatine plates which has not been 

 exposed to light remains unaflected by it. 



2. That concentrated .solutions of eikonogen (1 : 20 to 1 : 50) produce even 

 with instjintaneously exposed plates minutely detailed negatives. 



3. The tone of the negatives given by eikonogen is well adapted for printing, 

 and in this respect it excels pyrogallol. 



