1852.J 



SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE. 



17 



Mayiictk Hoience yel'iu its hifanci). — An important discovery, it is 

 said, has-been made by Mr. George Little, tlie electrical engineer, in 

 whioU continuous streams of electricity can be produced from single 

 magnets, and be made to decompose water, precipitate metals from 

 solution, produce constant power in electro-magnets, and work the 

 chemical printing and double-needle telegiaph. Magnetic science is 

 but in its infancy, and we should not be surprised, as before said, to 

 find it evolve almost magical results. Dr. Faraday lately showed the 

 possibility of literally collecting the terrestrial magnetism, and 

 accumulating its force in apparatus used for the purpose. This he 

 showed could bo done by revolving a wheel in a certain direction, 

 cutting tlie lines of magnetic force, or winding them up as it were on 

 the disc or wheel while placed in the proper direction, and not in any 

 other. Here is something that almost looks like that reality of which 

 the circling manujuvres of the magician's wand were but a super- 

 stitious and vain foreshadowing ! 



Lightning Oonduclion. — A discovery akin to that of Mr. G. Little — 

 lately noticed in our columns — is said to have been made by Mr- 

 Roger Brown, of Sheffield ; namely, that magnetised steel has pre- 

 eminent power to attract the lightning when used in conductors 

 instead of the ordinary article. By this means, and by multiplying 

 tlie number of points in the head of tlie cojiductor, its attractive 

 power is said to he tripled in intensity, its influence extending to some 

 distance round the spot where it is fixed. — Builder. 



New Application of the Water Gas. — Mr. Samuel CnnlifTe Lister, of 

 Bradford, has most successfully applied Mr. White's patent water gas 

 — obtained by decomposing water on incandescent charcoal or coke — 

 to the heating of his machines for preparing and combing wool, in 

 place of using fire from charcoal, as is the general practice in York- 

 shire. This must bo a very great improvement indeed, avoiding all 

 dust and filth at present so troublesome from the use of charcoal, and 

 avoiding the very deleterious influence of generating such a mass of 

 carbonic acid, so perilous to the workpeople, aud from which so many 

 of them suffer severely. A gentleman who went last week to Addiug- 

 ham Mill to seo this gas in operation, as applied to tlie heating of the 

 combs, speaks most decidedly in its favor ; and Mr. Lister so highly 

 approves it, after a full trial, that ho is about erecting it at several of 

 his other establisliraenls for the same purpose. It is stated to be very 

 easily aud very rapidly made, one retort of six feet long making 200 

 to 300 feet an hour, and at a trifling expense, while tho intensity of 

 tlie heat given out is certainly double that of ordinary gas. A piece 

 of iron or copper wire held to the jet is almost instantly ignited, while 

 the gas is so pure as in no way to injure tho finest machinery with 

 which it comes in contact. We cannot doubt but an improvement so 

 decided must make rapid way in Yorkshire. The same gas for all 

 purposes of singeing is stated as far superior to coal or canncl gas, and 

 Dover fills lip the small apertures of the singeing machines, Messrs. 

 Gardiner and Bazley, of Dean Mills, Bolton, are using it extensively 

 for singeing their yarns. — Leeds Mercury. 



Oxonc. — lu a Lecture lately delivered by the Ecv. Mr. Sidney at tho 

 Royal Institution, the Itev. gentleman announced his belief in the exist- 

 ence, difl'nscd through plants, of that wonderful condition of o.xygen gas 

 called ozone, and which rocently has attracted so much attention, not 

 only in the scientific but in the manufacturing world, inasmuch as 

 there now appears some probability of its becoming applied as a 

 bleaching agent, instead of chlorine. 



New Voltaic Battel y. — A party of scientific gentlemen were recently 

 invited by Mr. Martyn Roberts to witness a voltaic battery of new 

 construction, professedly of great economy, which he has at present in 

 action in the neighborhood of Great Portland Street. The battery 

 consisted of fifty plates of tin, about 6 inches by 4,— each plate being 

 adjusted between two plates of platinum of the same size. These 

 were placed in stoneware cells about two feet deep, which were filled 

 with diluted nitric acid. The object of these deep cells was, to obtain 

 a marketable product which .'hould be sufticicnllv valuable to cover 



the cost of the agojnts oniployed to cfl'ect the develninieut of elect rictiy- 

 The upper stratum of nitric acid acts on tlie tin, and forms witli that 

 metal an oxide, which falls off from the plate tlie moment it is formed, 

 and is precipitated as an hydrated oxido of tin to tiio bottom of the 

 cell. The oxide is combined with soda ; and as stannato of soda is 

 extensively employed in dying and calico-printing, it is stated that 

 this product will yield a profit of 20 per cent, on the cost of the battery 

 by which it is produced ; — but this is a point which we are not at 

 present in a position to determine. The electrical action of the fifty 

 pairs of plates was considerable. The current was employed to exhibit 

 the electrical fight, — and the effects produced were certainly very 

 brilliant. It was not possible to compare it with the result obtained 

 from a Grove's battery, but we judge tlieir powers to bo nearly equal. 

 An e-xperimcnt made on the decomposition of water gave aliont 7 

 cubic inches of the mixed gases, oxygen aud liydrogeii, per minule. 

 We cannot but regard this very ingenious arrangonient as an improve- 

 ment on the ordinary batteries, as far as economy is concerned, where 

 an electric current is required, since the stannate foinicd must always 

 be of considerable commercial value. It is curiou.s, too, that the 

 stratum of fluid iu the immediate neighborhood of the voltaic plates 

 is kept uniformly of the same specific gravity, notwithstanding that 

 the acid is rapidly removed. The oxide of tin foinied takes down 

 water with it, and at the same time establishes a current by which 

 fresli acid is supplied to the plates. — Wo are informed that tlio battery 

 coutiuned in most uniform action for sixteen hours. — Atliencum. 



Artificial Preparation of tlie Flavorivy Matters of Fruits. — One of 

 the most remarkable and interesting achievements of chemistry in tlie 

 most recent times has been the preparation of certain liquids possess- 

 ing the flavors of various fruits. So close indeed is the resemblance 

 that we are almost warranted iu supposing the flavor of the fruits to 

 be actually caused by the presence of a trace of the above liquids. 

 Several of these articles are employed in confectionary, and aro 

 manufactured on a tolerably large scale. The acetate of amy lie oxide, 

 when dissolved in six times its bulk of alcoliol, emits a most powerful 

 and agreeable odour of Jargonelle ]iears, aud is used iu flavoring pear- 

 drops. The valerianate of amyle, dissolved iu alcohol, gives the scent 

 end flavor of apples. Butyric ether communicates tho flavor of the 

 pine-apple, and is used in tlio preparation of various beverages. 

 Various other compounds of the so-called fatty acids, with the oxides 

 of amyle aud etliyle, possess very pleasing odours, and as they can be 

 prepared at a reasonable price, may probably admit of extensive 

 application in perfumery. 



GEOLOGY. 



Distribution of Gold. — Since the astounding discoveries in California 

 aud Australia, it has been clearly shown to the public, in numerous 

 well-written articles in tho daily journals, in periodicals and reviews, 

 that though gold is tho most universal'y distributed of the metals, 

 with the exception of iron, yet that it only occurs, in quantities sufti- 

 cieut to be remunerative, in rocks of a certain antiquity, which have 

 been crystalised by the action of intense subterranean heat. Tlie 

 rocks of ISTorth Devon are of this antiquity and character. Much 

 popular error still prevails with regard to oilier laws which govern 

 gold. It is generally believed that the same rule which regulates 

 silver, iron, and other metals, applies to gold — namely, that the vein 

 or lode increases iu richness tlio deeper tho mine descends. Tlie 

 converse of this is, iu reality, the true geological principle, and gold 

 decreases in value aud yield as the vein or lode descends ; the upper 

 portion alone being prolific, and generally terminating in some baser 

 metal. Tho only exception to the rule that we arc aware of is that of 

 the Morro Vclho lode in Brazil, belonging to the St. John del Key 

 Company ; but as it hast/een fairly remarked, if there be oue admitted 

 exception, another may exist ; aud, therefore, it may stiU be questioned 

 whether tho Britannia lode is within or without the accepted principle 

 in geology, for the strong similarily of the Britannia and the Morro 

 A'elho lodes, in all their bearings, is undoubted. 



There arc two sources from which gold is derived : it is found in 



