June 17, 1898.] 



SCIENCE. 



827 



arises from well-recognized and inflexible 

 causes (environment, heredity, etc.). It 

 is, therefore, a reality, not a closet creation. 

 Herr Buchner has by no means destroyed 

 it in his amusing attack on the great Berlin 

 professor and his many books. 



D. G. Beinton. 

 Univeesity of Pennsylvania. 



NOTES ON INORGANIC CEEMI8TBY. 



The use of coke ovens which permit the 

 recovery of by-products has become estab- 

 lished on the continent of Europe, and 

 several plants have been established in this 

 countrJ^ In the Proceedings of the Alahama 

 Industrial and Scientific Society, Wm. H. 

 Blauvelt gives a description of the Semet- 

 Solvay oven at Ensley, Ala. The coal is 

 coked in retort ovens, the usual change 

 being 4|^ tons. The time of coking is 

 twenty-four hours. The amount of gas 

 given ofli" is eight to ten thousand cubic feet 

 per ton, a part of which is used to heat the 

 retort and for steam to operate the plant, 

 leaving considerable gas available for heat- 

 ing and lighting purposes. The ammonia 

 recovered is 16 to 22 pounds per ton, calcu- 

 lated as sulfate, and the yield of tar from 

 70 to SO pounds. The yield of coke (75 

 per cent. ) is ten per cent, higher than that 

 obtained bj"^ the old beehive ovens. The 

 cause of this is that the evolved gases, 

 which are more or less completely burned 

 in the beehive, are to some extent decom- 

 posed in the retort oven, graphitic carbon 

 being deposited on the coke. In the bee- 

 hive oven too some of the coke is consumed 

 by the air present. The quality of the coke 

 is pronounced equal to that produced in the . 

 old ovens, and some coals are available for 

 coking which cannot be successfuly used 

 with the beehive oven. 



In the American Manufacturer, W. B. 

 Phillips gives the results of the Otto-Hoff- 

 man coke ovens at Jefferson Co., Ala. 

 Here, using washed coal, the yield is : 



gas, 9,600 feet per ton, of which about 3,000 

 feet are available after all required on the 

 plant ; ammonium sulfate, 2.3.6 pounds ; 

 tar, 90 pounds ; coke, 70 per cent. It is an 

 encouraging sign to see the adoption in this 

 country of industrial methods which have 

 for their aim the saving of by-products. 



In an article on Aluminum as a reducing 

 agent, in tlie Chemiker Zeitung, Leon Franck 

 gives the following summary : Aluminum 

 decomposes phosphates at high tempera- 

 ture, with evolution of phosphorus ; in the 

 presence of silica the liberation of phos- 

 phorus is almost quantitative. Aluminum 

 forms several different compounds with 

 phosphorus, A1,P3, AlsPs, AlsP and AlP, all 

 of which are decomposed by water with 

 evolution of phosphin, PHj. Carbon dioxid, 

 carbon monoxid and carbonates are decom- 

 posed by aluminum with liberation of free 

 carbon. Metallic oxids are decomposed 

 giving the metal ; sulfates, giving sulfur 

 and sulfide ; chlorids, giving the metal. A 

 mixture of aluminum powder and sodium 

 peroxid moistened with water burns spon- 

 taneously with a brilliant light. There 

 are many possibilities of the development 

 of the use of aluminum powder along techni- 

 cal lines. 



^ J. L. H. 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 

 VASCO L)A GAMA CELEBRATION. 



The festivities at Lisbon in commemoration- 

 of the discovery of India by Vasco da Gama 

 began on May 15tb. There were illuminations 

 and fetes both in the city and on the warships 

 of various nations assembled in the harbor. 

 The commemoration was also celebrated in 

 Great Britain at a meeting of the Geographical 

 Society on May 15th, at which addresses were 

 made by the Prince of Wales, Lord George 

 Hamilton, the Portuguese ambassador and by 

 the President of the Society, Sir Clements 

 Markham, who read a paper on ' Vasco da 

 Gama,' in the course of which he said, accord- 

 ing to the report in the London Times, that they 

 were assembled to commemorate one of the 



