402 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. I., No. 14. 



3(Cr,H4N2). The latter substance is not attacked by 

 hydrochloric or nitric acid, nor by aqueous potassic 

 hydrate. Sulphuric acid produces a brown color, 

 "which changes to black when the substance dissolves. 

 Boiling alcoholic potassic hydrate gives pyrrol and an 

 acid, probably cyanuric. Tetrolcyanuramide is analo- 

 gous in structure to diphenylcyanamide, — 



CN - N = CjHj CN - jSr = (CoHn). 



Tetrolcyanaraide. l>iphenylcyaiiamide. 



— (Gaz. c/iim. ifai., xxii. 102.) c. r. M. [817 



METALLURGY. 



Delta metal. — An alloy has been perfected by 

 Mr. Alexander Dick of London, which is composed 

 of copper, zinc, and iron. If ordinary wrought-iron 

 is introduced into molten zinc, it will be taken up by 

 the zinc to about five per cent of the quantity of zinc. 

 This product is then added to copper, or to copper 

 and zinc, in the desired proportions. The resulting 

 alloy is said to be as mucli superior to brass as phos- 

 phor-bronze is to gun-metal. It has great strength 

 and toughness. When cast in sand, its tensile strength 

 is 21 to "22 tons per square inch. When drawn into 

 wire of 22 W. G., its tensile strength is 62 tons to the 

 square inch. — (Iron, Feb. 23.) R. H. R. [818 



Metallurgy of the Incas. — At the meeting of 

 the French academy on Feb. 6, M. Boussingault ex- 

 hibited a bronze chisel harder than copper, but not 

 so hard as iron, which was composed of 9.5 per cent 

 copper, 4..5 per cent of tin, with traces of lead and 

 silver. This tool is of a period previous to the con- 

 quest of the Incas by Spain. — (Iron, March 16.) 

 B. H. R. [819 



Soaking-pits. — At the meeting of the Society of 

 engineers, Feb. .5, Mr. Church, in his inaitgural ad- 

 dress, referred to the device of Mr. John Gjers, which 

 consists in placing ingots of steel directly in so-called 

 soaking-pits. The ingot being thus surrounded by 

 hot walls, the surface-heat is increased, and it is 

 rolled by its own initial heat. This not only saves 

 fuel, but avoids all danger of burning in reheating. — 

 (7TOII, Feb. 9.) B. H. R. [820 



Equalizers. — The Pittsburg steel-casting com- 

 pany places the ingots in square-shaped pits of fire- 

 brick, six feet deep, three feet six inches square at 

 the top, three feet at the bottom. On each side of 

 the row of holes is a pair of Siemens regenerators 

 for gas and air. The holes are heated to 2,000° F., 

 and are filled with gas as a non-oxidizing atmosphere ; 

 and four ingots, weighing about a tou, are placed in 

 each pit. The ingots being dark red or medium red 

 outside and fluid inside, it is but a few minutes before 

 they are eciualized to a soft yellow, and are then in 

 the best condition to roll to small billets, or to flanged 

 rails. — (Iron, March 2.) R. h. r. [821 



AGBICTJLTUKE. 



Materials for manuring moors. — A paper by 

 Fleischer describes the utilization of tlie sewage and 

 garbage of the cities of Groningen and part of 

 Bremen, for the reclamation and manuring of the 

 surrounding moors. The materials are made into a 

 compost, said to be comparatively inoffensive, and 

 shown by analysis to have considerable value as 

 manure, and sold, to be transported by water to the 

 place of use. The paper is specially interesting in its 

 bearings on the question of the utilization of city 

 sewage. — (Xanrfio. ja/i)-6., xii. 203.) H. p. A. [822 



Sewage irrigation. — Gerseu discusses at con- 

 siderable length the various systems of sewage irriga- 

 tion, and the reasons of their failures, and proposes 

 a new method, in which the sewage is distributed 



over tlie surface to be irrigated in underground iron 

 pipes under pressure, from which it is distributed by 

 means of portable pipes. The ground may be flowed, 

 or the sewage may be sprinkled upon it in regulated 

 quantities. No levelling, and but little preparation 

 of the surface, is required, and all open ditches or 

 settling-basins are avoided. — (Landw. jahrb., xii. 

 227. ) H. p. A. [823 



Determination of available phosphoric acid. 



— Ollech and Tollens have continued the experiments 

 by Grupe and Tollens on the use of citric acid as a 

 reagent for the determination of available phosphoric 

 acid. They recommend the use of a Ij-per-cent 

 solution of citric acid, -5 grams of phosphate, and 

 500 cc. water, and show that the phosphoric acid in 

 the resulting solution can be precipitated directly 

 with molybdic solution. — (Journ. landw., xxx. .519.) 

 H. p. A. [824 



' Reversion ' of superphosphates. — According 

 to Post, the process of reversion takes place as fol- 

 lows: the free phosphoric acid acts first on un- 

 dissolved tricalcic phosphate, forming monocalcic 

 phosphate, and on iron and alumina, forming phos- 

 phates soluble in ammonium citrate. Later a double 

 phosphate of iron and calcium or aluminum and 

 calcium is formed, which is insoluble in ammo- 

 nium-citrate solution. — (Journ. landw., xxx. 673.) 

 H. P. A. [825 



GEOLOGY. 



Cape Hatteras. — Professor W. C. Kerr's studies 

 in North Carolina have led to some interesting conclu- 

 sions in regard to the geologic history of Cape Hat- 

 teras. The modern cape is a tract of low land which 

 is, on one hand, los^ing altitude by subsidence, and, on 

 the other, gaining it by accretion. The accretion is 

 three-fold : first, sediment from local rivers ; second, 

 vegetable accumulation in a system of peat-forming 

 swamps which occtipy the divides between the 

 streams; third, shore-drift, brought by the waves and 

 currents of the Atlantic from the north and south. 

 The shore-drift is derived from the sediment of the 

 Susquehanna and other rivers, and is deposited in a 

 continuous bank of sand, constituting the sea-front 

 of the cape. The wind throws it up in dunes, which 

 slowly travel landward, and eventually help to fill the 

 lagoon, or sound, caused by the subsidence. 



The history of the coast has not always been char- 

 acterized by subsidence; for at various levels there 

 are lines of shore-dunes and other coast features, 

 which could have attained their present position only 

 by an elevatory movement. One of the best preserved 

 coast-lines has an altitude of less than 20 feet, and 

 another, referred to the glacial epcich, lies at 500 feet. 



When the ocean stood at the 20-foot level, the 

 angle of the continental coast was at Cape Lookout, 

 and before that it was at Cape Fear; but, though 

 these great changes in the outline of the coast have 

 occurred in very recent geologic times, the cape itself, 

 considered as a salient of the continental margin, is 

 not a modern phenomenon. It is at least as old as 

 the cretaceous ; and since it is an accretionary growth, 

 dependent now on a certain combination of prevail- 

 ing winds and currents, it affords presumptive evi- 

 dence that a similar combination has characterized 

 this part of the Atlantic for several geologic periods. 



— (Phil. soc. Wash., meelinrj April 7.) [826 



Lithology. 



The Lizard schists and serpentines. — Consid- 

 erable study has been given to the Lizard district of 

 Cornwall, during recent years, by Prof. T. G. Bon- 

 ney, who seems now to be the best English petrogra- 



