62 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XIV. No. 338 



In this way threads can be produced of great length, of almost 

 any degree of fineness, of extraordinary uniformity, and of enor- 

 mous strength. A quartz fibre one five-thousandth of an inch in 

 diameter Mr. Boys had in constant use in an instrument loaded 

 with about 30 grains. It has a section only one-sixth, of that of a 

 single line of silk, and it is just as strong. Not being organic, it is 

 in no way affected by changes of moisture and temperature, and so 

 it is free from the vagaries of silk which give so much trouble. 

 The piece used in the instrument was about 16 inches long. Had 

 it been necessary to employ spun glass, which hitherto was the 

 finest torsion material, then, instead of 16 inches, he would have 

 required a piece 1,000 feet long, and an instrument as high as the 

 Eiffel Tower to put it in. 



There is no difficulty in obtaining pieces as fine as this, yards 

 long if required, or in spinning it very much finer. Dr. Royston 

 Piggott has estimated some of them at less than one-millionth of 

 an inch ; but, whatever they are, they supply for the first time ob- 

 jects of extreme smallness the form of which is certainly known, 

 and therefore one cannot help looking upon them as more satisfac- 

 tory tests for the microscope than diatoms and other things of the 

 real shape of which we know nothing whatever. 



Since figures as large as a million cannot be realized properly, 

 it may be worth while to give an illustration of what is meant by a 

 fibre one-millionth of an inch in diameter. A piece of quartz an 

 inch long and an inch in diameter would, if drawn out to this de- 

 gree of fineness, be sufficient to go all the way round the world 

 658 times ; or a grain of sand just visible — that is, one-hundredth 

 of an inch long and one-hundredth of an inch in diameter — would 

 make 1,000 miles of such thread. Mr. Boys has made use of 

 fibres one ten-thousandth of an inch in diameter, and in these the 

 torsion is 10,000 times less than that of spun glass. 



As these fibres are made finer, their strength increases in pro- 

 portion to their size, and surpasses that of ordinary bar steel, reach- 

 ing, to use the language of engineers, as high a figure as 80 tons 

 to the inch. While these fibres give us the means of producing an 

 exceedingly small torsion, and one that is not affected by weather, 

 it is also true that they do not show the same fatigue that makes 

 spun glass useless. A peculiar property of melted quartz makes 

 threads such as these a possibility. A liquid cylinder, as Plateau 

 has so beautifully shown, is an unstable form. It can no more ex- 

 ist than can a pencil stand on its point. It immediately breaks up 

 into a series of spheres. This is well illustrated in that very an- 

 cient experiment of shooting threads of resin electrically. When 

 the resin is hot, the liquid cylinders which are projected in all 

 directions break up into spheres. As the resin cools, they begin 

 to develop tails ; and when it is cool enough, i.e., sufficiently vis- 

 cous, the tails thicken and the beads become less, and at last uni- 

 form threads are the result. 



Now, in the case of the melted quartz, it is evident, that, if it 

 ever became perfectly liquid, it could not exist as a fibre for an in- 

 stant. It is the extreme viscosity of quartz, at the heat even of an 

 electric arc, that makes these fibres possible. The only difference 

 between quartz in the oxyhydrogen jet, and quartz in the arc, is 

 that in the first you make threads, and in the second are blown 

 bubbles. 



CULTIVATION OF SUGAR IN PERSIA. 



The sugar-cane was introduced into Persia from its original 

 home in Bengal at a very remote period. The first indisputable 

 mention, says the United States consul at Teheran, of sugar by a 

 Western writer, is that by Moses Chorencrisis, in the fifth century, 

 who describes the sugar-cane as he saw it growing on the banks 

 of the Karun River, which joins the Shott-et-Arab at the head of 

 the Persian Gulf. In the olden times, and as late as the four- 

 teenth century, the sugar-cane was much cultivated in Susiana, 

 the country intersected by the Karun River, and principally near 

 Ahwaz and Jundi Shapur. Susiana was then one of the principal 

 intermediate commercial stations between the present towns of 

 Dizful and Shushter, and had its water from the Karun River by 

 means of canals cut from the right bank some distance above 

 Shushter, and from the Diz River by canals cut from the left bank, 

 near the town of Dizful. With the decline of Jundi Shapur, in the 



thirteenth century, the canals were neglected, and the cultivation 

 of sugar-cane necessarily ceased. The present Ahwaz is a small- 

 village of about fifty houses, on a mound which covers the ruins of 

 a part of the former town. Hundreds of millstones or wheels, 

 formerly used for squeezing the juice out of the cane, are lying 

 about in all directions. Persian historians do not ascribe the ruin 

 of Ahwaz to the failure of the water-supply, but to scorpions. 

 They say that an Indian merchant, with the view of raising the 

 price, bought up all the sugar he could, and stored it for a year or 

 two. When he opened his stores, all the sugar had turned into 

 scorpions. Millions of scorpions came out of the sugar-store, all 

 the inhabitants of Ahwaz fled, and the city has remained a desert 

 from that day. Therg is still current in Persia a proverb which 

 says, " At Ahwaz sugar-cane produces scorpions ; " and one of 

 the Persian poets, referring to the ringlets of his mistress, says, 

 " They are as deadly as the scorpions of Ahwaz." The only dis- 

 trict in Persia where sugar-cane is now cultivated is Mazanderan, 

 which is the principal rice- producing district, and it was probably 

 introduced during the last century. The sugar-cane in Mazan- 

 deran requires twelve months to ripen ; but the canes are small and 

 poor, few being ever found thicker than a man's finger, and the 

 produce is of very inferior quality, being dark and moist. Both of 

 these defects in all probability arose from want of skill in the culti- 

 vation and preparation of this valuable plant. The sugar is mostly 

 consumed in the province ; a considerable portion, however, is ex- 

 ported to Gilan, and some to Russia. The canes are planted in 

 slips with two or three joints, in February or March, and ripen 

 about eight or nine months after, having then a height of about five 

 feet. One mill turns out per day about 200,000 pounds of juice, 

 and about 60 to 70 pounds of sugar. The juice, therefore, yields 

 30 to 35 per cent of sugar. Only raw sugar is manufactured in 

 Mazanderan. There are no sugar-refineries. The raw sugar is 

 sold at the place of manufacture in the villages at from three 

 farthings to a penny a pound, and in the markets of Sari and Bar- 

 funish at from a penny to twopence a pound, according to quality. 

 In some towns of Persia, principally Yezd and Ispahan, Jaru raw 

 sugar was, up to a few years ago, refined, and made into loaf-sugar. 

 The loaf-sugar made in Persia was seldom perfectly crystallized, 

 and was on that account very soft ; it was also more or less im- 

 pure and dirty, the loaves not having been properly washed, and 

 the green sirup not having been completely removed. The im- 

 ported loaf-sugar becoming very cheap, sugar-refining in Persia 

 ceased to be profitable. The general Persian word for " sugar " is 

 shakar, " the sugar-cane " is udi-i-sliakar, while " refined sugar" is 

 kand, " a loaf of sugar" is kelleJi-i-kand. " sugar-candy " is ttabat. 

 Persia is famous for its sugar-candy. This is made in the ordi- 

 nary way, but is left to crystallize on strings in a bowl of earthen- 

 ware or china. The strings are kept at the bottom of the bowl by 

 a piece of lead, and at the top by strips of wood. When taken out 

 of the bowl, it retains its shape, and is called kasch-i-nabat ; i.e., 

 a bowl of candy. Consul Schindler is of opinion that sugar-cane 

 would thrive well in some districts of Persia and southern Persia, 

 at altitudes of from 1,000 to 3.000 feet above the level of the sea. 

 The plain of Bugh-i-Mailik, east of Shushter, at an elevation of 

 2,600 feet ; that of Shapur, west of Shiraz, elevation 2,500 feet ; 

 those of Fihift and Rudbar, south of Kerman, elevation 2,500 feet, 

 — appear to him to be eminently suited to the cultivation of the 

 sugar-cane. 



FRUIT-CANDYING INDUSTRY OF LEGHORN. 



The English consul at Leghorn says that that city occupies the 

 first place in Italy, and perhaps throughout the Mediterranean, for 

 the preparation of the candied citron and orange peel so largely 

 used in all branches of confectionery — citron being brought for 

 this purpose from Corsica, from Sicily, from Calabria and other 

 southern provinces of Italy, from Tunis and Tripoli, and even from 

 Morocco ; while the candied peel of the fruit is exported to North 

 America, to the United Kingdom, and to Hamburg for distribution 

 throughout Germany. Sugar also is imported for the purpose of 

 the manufacture from Egypt. The wood of the boxes in which the 

 candied peel is packed comes from Trieste, and the immense 

 earthenware vessels necessary for the saturation of the fruit in 



