December 20, 1889.] 



SCIENCE. 



419 



have suffered the consequence of a lack of any general system of 

 public policy covering the location, construction, and maintenance 

 of roads. American roads are far below the average : they cer- 

 tainly are among the worst in the civilized world, and always have 

 been, — largely as a result of permitting local circumstances to de- 

 termine the location, with little or no regard for any general sys- 

 tem, and haste and waste and ignorance in building. 



Among the benefits attendant upon the proper construction and 

 maintenance of roadways, the speaker mentioned the following. 

 ■Good roads attract population, as well as good schools and churches, 

 and they improve the value of property ; so that it is said a farm 

 lying five miles from market, connected by a bad road, is of less 

 value than an equally good farm lying ten miles away from mar- 

 ket, connected by a good road. A larger load can be drawn by 

 one horse over a good road than by two over a bad one. Good 

 roads, consequently, encourage the greater exchange of products 

 and commodities between one section and another, besides being 

 of great value to railroads as feeders. 



As one solution of the road problem. Col. Pope outlined the fol- 

 lowing plan. A commissioner of highways might be provided for, 

 in the Agricultural Department, with a corps of consulting engi- 

 neers, and suitable appropriations made for the prosecution of a 

 general supervising work. Under the charge of this commission, 

 full systems of maps should be prepared ; based largely, perhaps, 

 upon the working of the state and county boards, showing more or 

 less completely, as circumstances would permit, the highways of 

 the country. 



For co-operation with this central bureau, and the prosecution 

 ■of the work in the most thorough and practical way, each State 

 should have its highway commissioner, charged with the highest 

 interests of the State in the way of maintaining its system of roads 

 under the most approved methods and for the general public wel- 

 fare. Then the best practical results could probably be attained 

 by the division of the State into highway districts, consisting of 

 counties, or perhaps townships, each of which should have its 

 overseer, in full charge of the opening and construction of new 

 roads in his district and the proper maintenance of all, responsible 

 for the expenditure of the regular appropriations for these pur- 

 poses. These districts could then be divided into smaller ones 

 under sub-overseers. 



The importance and the value to any country, any section, and 

 every citizen from the highest to the lowest, whether tax-payers or 

 tramps, of well-constructed and properly maintained roads, are not 

 easily estimated, but clearly are greater than of many affairs which 

 are continually receiving the time and attention of the people in 

 their homes, counting-rooms, public meetings, and legislative halls. 

 It is a matter to be considered side by side with our splendid and 

 always improving system of public education, the assessment of 

 our tariff duties, or the appropriations regularly made for river and 

 harbor improvements. 



R. A. PROCTOR MEMORIAL FUND. 



The English magazine Knowledge calls attention to the an- 

 nouncement in many of the London papers stating that the mone- 

 tary affairs of the late Mr. Proctor have now been wound up by 

 his administrator, and that the total sum available as provision for 

 his widow and the seven children (four of whom are daughters, 

 and one a little boy, a permanent invalid from hip-disease) is un- 

 der £1,000. To the small income which this will produce there is 

 to be added £,\oo per annum from the Civil List ; which is, how- 

 ever, granted only during Mrs. Proctor's life. 



The ^2,000 above referred to as the value of the residue after 

 the settlement of all debts, some of which were waived, has been 

 produced by the sale of Mr. Proctor's copyrights. Mrs. Proctor 

 and the eldest daughter have, under a satisfactory arrangement 

 with Messrs. Longmans, retained a small interest in the works now 

 in Messrs. Longmans' hands, including the " Old and New As- 

 tronomy," which will shortly be completed. But the value of the 

 interest retained (calculated on the basis of the sum given for the 

 remainder of these copyrights by Messrs. Longmans) is included in 

 the _£2,ooo, as is also the money received for all the other copy- 

 rights, which were purchased on liberal terms either by Messrs. 

 Chatto & Windus or by Messrs. W. H. Allen & Co. 



The money given immediately after the death of the late Mr. 

 Proctor by the Royal Literary Fund, and the proceeds of five lec- 

 tures given by Mr. W. Lant Carpenter, as well as gifts from other 

 friends, have enabled the family, who, owing to the suddenness of 

 Mr. Proctor's death, were absolutely without resources, to weather 

 through the first year. But these funds have now been exhausted, 

 and a committee is in course of formation which the many friends 

 of Mr. Proctor are invited to join. Subscriptions to the R. A. 

 Proctor Memorial Fund, and communications, will be received by 

 Mr. E. G. Mullins, manager of the City Bank, Bond Street Branch, 

 London, England. 



Since the date of the announcement in the daily papers, the fol- 

 lowing subscriptions have been received : WiUiam James Adams, 

 Esq., IDS. 6d. ; " E. A.," £i ; Mrs. Barrett, £7. ; " J. A. B.," ^i ; 

 Andrew Chatto, Esq., £'i ; H. P. Curtiss, Esq., ^5 ; W. Henry 

 Domville, Esq., ;/;io ; " W. D.," £1 2s. ; " A Friend," £1 ; Profes- 

 sor Grant, £2 2s. ; Lord Grimthorpe, £io\ D. Hodgson, Esq., £\ ; 

 Edmund Johnson, Esq., £1 is.; Messrs. Longmans, Green, & Co., 

 £10 ; J. Mott Maidlow, Esq., ,£3 3s. ; Miss Martin, £i ; G. H. 

 Mellor, Esq., los. ; R. Hay Murray, Esq., ^5 ; "Planetoids," los. 

 6d ; T. Shaw Petty, Esq., £\o los. ; Oscar Rohde, Esq., ;£3 3s. ; 

 T. C. Sandars, Esq., ^5 ; William Schooling, Esq., £2 2s. ; F. Ste- 

 vens, Esq., £\ IS. ; Col. N. G. Sturt, ^5 ; Mrs. Stowe, 53. ; Walter 

 Weblyn, Esq., £\ is. ; Philip Williams, Esq., £\ : total, ;£ii3 is. 

 Others have promised. 



A NEW METHOD OF PREPARING FLUORINE. 



A NEW method of preparing fluorine has been discovered by M. 

 Moissan. This discovery is the outcome of the success which has 

 attended M. Moissan's efforts to prepare anhydrous fluoride of 

 platinum. During the process of his memorable work upon the 

 isolation of fluorine by the electrolysis of hydrofluoric acid contain- 

 ing hydrogen potassium fluoride, one of the most remarkable phe- 

 nomena noticed was the rapidity with which the platinum rod form- 

 ing the positive electrode was corroded by the action of the liber- 

 ated gaseous fluorine. It was surmised that a fluoride of platinum 

 was the product of this action, but hitherto all efforts to isolate such 

 a body have proved unsuccessful. In fact, for a reason which will 

 be discussed subsequently, it is impossible to prepare platinum 

 fluoride in the wet way. M. Moissan has, however, as stated in 

 Natti7-e, been enabled to prepare anhydrous platinum fluoride by 

 the action of pure dry fluorine itself upon the metal. It was found 

 at the outset, that, when fluorine is free from admixed vapor of 

 hydrofluoric acid, it exerts no action whatever upon platinum, even 

 when the latter is in a finely divided state, and heated to 100" C. 

 But when the temperature of the metal is raised to between 500° 

 and 600° C, combination readily occurs, with formation of tetra- 

 fluoride of platinum and a small quantity of protofluoride. The 

 moment the gas is mixed with a little vapor of hydrofluoric acid, 

 the action is immensely accelerated, and then occurs readily at 

 ordinary temperatures. The same rapid action occurs when plati- 

 num is placed in hydrofluoric acid saturated with free fluorine, 

 which accounts for the disappearance of the positive terminal dur- 

 ing the electrolysis. 



In order to prepare the fluoride of platinum, a bundle of wires 

 of the metal is introduced into a thick platinum or fluor-spar tube, 

 through which a current of fluorine gas from the electrolysis appa- 

 ratus is passed. On heating the tube to low redness, the wires be- 

 come rapidly converted to fluoride, when they are quickly trans- 

 ferred to a dry stoppered bottle. If the operation is performed in 

 a platinum tube, a large quantity of fused fluoride remains in the 

 tube. The tetrafluoride of platinum (PtFi) formed upon the wires 

 consists either of fused masses of a deep red color, or of small buff- 

 colored crystals resembling anhydrous platinum chloride. It is 

 exceedingly hygroscopic. With water it behaves in a most curious 

 manner. With a small quantity of water it produces a fawn- 

 colored solution, which almost immediately becomes warm, and 

 decomposes with precipitation of hydrated platinic oxide and free 

 hydrofluoric acid. If the quantity of water is greater and the 

 temperature low, the fawn-colored solution may be preserved for a 

 few minutes, at the expiration of which, or immediately on boiling 

 the solution, the fluoride decomposes in the manner above indi- 



