242 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXIV. No. 608, 



ducing agent. (5) A ferro-nickel pig can 

 be produced practically free from sulphur 

 from roasted nickeliferous pyrrhotite, (6) 

 Titaniferous iron ores containing up to 5 

 per cent, of titanic acid can be successfully 

 treated. (7) Under normal conditions an 

 expenditure of 1,000 E.H.P. days is re- 

 quired for an output of twelve tons of pig 

 iron. 



Classification of Coals: S. W. Parr. 



The classification proposes to proceed on 

 the basis of the old nomenclature offered 

 by Frazier, but it bases the distinctions 

 upon data of a different sort. The main 

 divisions in the classification are made to 

 depend upon the ratio of the volatile carbon 

 to the total carbon, and by volatile carbon 

 is meant not the volatile matter as that 

 term is sometimes erroneously applied, but 

 the carbon part of the hydrocarbon con- 

 stituents as indicated by the difference be- 

 tween total carbon and fixed carbon. This 

 leads directly to a further factor, namely, 

 that part of volatile matter which is inert 

 and non-combustible, and this constituent is 

 made to indicate the further subdivision in 

 the bituminous coals proper, and between 

 the bituminous coals and the lignites, as 

 well as between the different forms of lig- 

 nites themselves. The method of classifi- 

 cation was illustrated by making use of the 

 complete analytical results from over one 

 hundred samples of coal selected from rep- 

 resentative fields throughout the United 

 States. 



Salt in the State of New York, its History, 

 Resources and Manufacture: F. E. 

 Engelhardt, 



The presence of salt in the state of New 

 York is first recorded in the so-called 'Re- 

 lations of the Jesuit Fathers,' by Father 

 Jerome Lallemant and Father Charlevoix, 

 1645-6. First salt made by Father Simon 

 LeMoyne in August, 1653. Practical man- 

 ufacture of salt begun at Syracuse in 1788. 



The Indians ceded to the state of New 

 York their land in the treaty at Fort 

 Schuyler, 1788, except the lake and the 

 lands for one mile round it, and in the 

 treaty at Cayuga Ferry, 1795, they ceded 

 this and a strip one half mile wide on the 

 west side of Onondaga Creek from their 

 village to the lake, about six miles long. 

 The legislature of the state passed its first 

 law regulating the manufacture of salt in 

 1797. 



The manufacture of solar salt was begun 

 in 1821, and in the same year Major B. 

 Boyington sunk a well 300 feet deep for 

 rock salt, without results. Wells were first 

 square holes, about 30 feet deep by 20 feet 

 wide, followed by cast-iron tubing of 8- 

 inch bore; next came wooden tubing, and 

 for the last fifty years wells have been 

 tubed with 6- and 8-inch wrought-iron 

 pipes. Wood was first employed as fuel, 

 then semi-bituminous coal, and lately an- 

 thracite coal-dust with artificial draft. 

 About 50 bushels of salt (of 56 pounds 

 each) is the average result with good 

 dust and brine of 68 salometer at 60° F. 

 Largest amount of salt was produced in 

 1862, namely, 9,053,874 bushels. Total 

 production up to date at Syracuse, about 

 433 million bushels, or over 12 million tons. 



Salt is made in the state by artificial 

 means, as in the kettle or Onondaga meth- 

 od, at Syracuse. In the western part of 

 the state salt is made in the open pan, in 

 grainers (the Michigan system) and in the 

 vacuum pan. By solar heat in shallow 

 wooden vats with movable wooden covers 

 to protect them against rain. Their ca- 

 pacity is greatly increased by the so-called 

 'salt aprons.' This method is only prac- 

 tised at Syracuse. The total salt produc- 

 tion of the state amounted, in 1905, to 

 about 5,435,005 barrels of 280 pounds, or 

 5 bushels, each. 



Rock salt was first discovered on June 

 20, 1878, in Wyoming County, on the farm 



