618 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIX. No. 485. 



Mr. Wotherspoon's paper was illustrated by 

 a series of briquettes manufactured from 

 European and American lignites and peats. 

 lie also exhibited a machine by means of 

 which he manufactured in the presence of 

 the section briquettes from peat which origi- 

 nated in Danbury, Conn. Tie paper was 

 actively discussed, and many questions ^bearing 

 upon the economic features brought forward 

 by the author were asked. 



The second paper of the evening was by 

 Dr. Charles P. Berkey, of Columbia Univer- 

 sity, and was entitled ' A Geological Eecon- 

 noissance of the Uintah Reservation, south- 

 eastern Utah.' The author said in abstract : 



Observations made in connection with other 

 lines of work last summer have shown an 

 erosion unconformity in the Carboniferous 

 strata of the western Uintahs. It is marked 

 on the south side of the range by an uneven- 

 ness in the floor and a development of a con- 

 glomerate the pebbles of which are of the 

 preceding formation. The break comes just 

 above the chief limestone member of the series. 



The junction between the great basal quartz- 

 ite of the United States and the overlying 

 strata is marked by a fault in this region with 

 sufficient throw to bring two quartzite beds 

 together on the higher plateaus and be easily 

 overlooked. This makes it impossible to con- 

 firm Powell's unconformity at the top of the 

 quartzite as described by him in the eastern 

 Uintahs. 



The discovery, however, of the Carbonifer- 

 ous erosion interval a little higher in the 

 series throws additional doubt upon the as- 

 sumed Carboniferous age of the great quartz- 

 ite member. Allowing the breaking to cut 

 out a part of the ' Wasatch ' limestone and 

 the ' Weber ' quartzite, as developed in the 

 Wasatch uplift, the lithologic succession is 

 satisfied better by assuming Cambrian age for 

 the lowest member in the Uintahs. 



There is no other break to the close of the 

 Cretaceous. A progressive unconformity, 

 which increases in value against the flanks of 

 the range, marks the development of Tertiary 

 sediments in the Duchesne Valley. A con- 

 glomerate formed in progressive overlap from 

 the stream valleys to the higher mountain 



tops of the flanks, has peculiar characters near 

 the limestone belt, on account of which King 

 called it ' Wyoming ' conglomerate. These 

 characters are too local to give it the assumed 

 stratigraphic importance, while the flanking 

 conglomerates are really of great range. 

 Edmund Otis Hovey, 



Secretary. 



THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY. 

 NEW YORK SECTION. 



At the meeting held March 11 at the Chem- 

 ists' Club, 108 West 55th Street, the program 

 was as follows: 



Derivatives of Ortho-Methoxy-Benzylidene 



Acetophenone : P. J. Pond and J. V. E. 



Evans. 



The authors describe the preparation of 

 o-methoxy-benzylidene acetophenone and of its 

 di- and tri-bromides. The action of methyl 

 and ethyl alcohols and of sodium alcoholate 

 upon the two bromides is compared with the 

 action of the same reagents upon the bromine 

 derivatives of p-methoxy-benzylidene aceto- 

 phenone. In the latter case, the alcoholate re- 

 moves one atom of bromine with substitution 

 of the methoxy- or ethoxy- gToup, while with 

 the bromides of the ortho- derivatives no such 

 change is noted; this marked difference in the 

 reaction of the two classes of compounds is 

 ascribed to the influence of the position of 

 the phenolic ether group in the para- and 

 ortho-compounds. 



The action of sodiiun alcoholate converts 

 the dibromide into alpha-oxy-o-methoxy-benzyl- 

 idene acetophenone, while the same treatment 

 of the tribromide gives rise to two isomeric 

 substances, alpha-oxy-o-methoxy-brom-benzyl- 

 idene acetophenone and o-methoxy-brom- 

 benzoyl benzoyl methane (a 1, 3-diketone), 

 Various derivatives of each compound are de- 

 scribed. 



Nitrosulphuric Acid and Its Action on Or- 

 ganic Compounds; Part II.: C. W. Volney. 

 Dr. Volney presented the results of experi- 

 mental work on hydrolysis of nitric acid by 

 sulphuric acid and formation of nitric an- 

 hydride, the existence of combinations between 

 the anhydrides of sulphuric and nitric acids 



