Maech 13, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



379 



superficial one, and the denser material be- 

 low the crust may consist of carbides of the 

 alkaline earths and carbides of the heavy 

 metals like iron, and finally the metals 

 themselves. 



It is only within the last two years that 

 experiments with the electric furnace have 

 enabled us to study these new transforma- 

 tions at a high temperature, and have given 

 us the means of estimating what must have 

 been the primitive condition of the earth 

 during long geological periods. 



Berthelot, Moissan and others have 

 pointed out that the evolution of marsh gas 

 from volcanoes may be an indication of the 

 existence of Plutonic remnants of carbides, 

 dating from a period of higher temperature, 

 and which we now know may give off gas 

 when brought in contact with moisture. 



The most important and orginal experi- 

 ments made with the electric furnace have 

 been published in the Comptes Eendus of the 

 French Academy of Sciences by a young 

 chemist, Henri Moissan, who had already 

 distinguished himself by the discovery of 

 fluorine. One of the first results which 

 this new instrument gave in his hands was 

 the artificial production of diamonds made 

 by dissolving carbon in iron, and he then 

 undertook a complete study of the forma- 

 tion of the carbides of the metals. Mois- 

 san's paper which interests us most directly 

 was published on the 5th of March, 1894. 

 It contains a full account of the formation 

 of pure crystallized carbide of calcium and 

 of its reactions with oxygen, sulphur, 

 chlorine, etc., and a complete account of the 

 formation of acetylene by the action of 

 water upon the carbide, and nothing of 

 scientific interest has since been added to 

 the chemistry of acetylene, except some 

 fev/ experiments in European laboratories, 

 notably upon its silver compounds. 



French physicists have, however, made 

 some very important measures of the ther- 

 mic conditions which preside over the for- 



mation and decomposition of acetylene. 

 They are a continuation of the admirable 

 study of this singular gas, which was begun 

 by Berthelot in 1859, and we shall find 

 them of great value for explaining the 

 properties which make acetylene useful or 

 dangerous as an illuminant. The lecture 

 will be confined strictly to the statement 

 of facts which bear upon the proposed new 

 gas industry, and no place can be given to 

 the long-known laboratory processes for 

 making acetylene, and to many experiments 

 which display its general properties. 



The idea of using this laboratory product 

 upon a commercial scale originated in the 

 United States, and the merit of it is due to 

 Mr. T. L. Willson and Messrs. Dickersou 

 and Suckert, who have secured patents; 

 but it is important to insist upon the fact 

 that they are not the discoverers of the crys- 

 talline carbide of calcium, nor of its trans- 

 formation to acetylene and to hydrate of 

 calcium. Moissan's publication of March 

 5, 1894, antedates their patents by many 

 months, and describes completely the whole 

 chemistry of the manufacture of acetylene. 



No mention is made of Moissan's work in 

 the reports published by the acetylene com- 

 pany in a lecture by "Willson and Suckert 

 before the Franklin Institute, and in a lec- 

 ture before the London Society of Arts by 

 Prof. Lewes. In these reports Mr. "Willson 

 is represented as having discovered the 

 mode of formation of calcium carbide in the 

 electric furnace by the reducing action of 

 carbon upon refractory oxides. It is stated 

 that the experiments were begun by Mr. 

 Willson in 1888. 



In such matters dates of discovery can 

 only be established by publications, which 

 in this case are to be found in the Patent 

 OfiBce reports. Mr. "Willson took out four 

 patents in 1889-1892 for electric smelting 

 processes, and in several of them the use of 

 carbon with refractory oxides is specified. 

 The design seems to have been to make 



