Maboh 2, 190o.] 



SCIENCE. 



329 



ing analyses of these samples by different 

 well-known chemists were exhibited. 



A Study of the Lignites of the Northwest: 

 G. B. Prankforter and E. P. Harding. 

 (By title.) 



A Description of Improved Apparatus and 

 of a Modification of Drehschmidt's Meth- 

 od for the Determination of Sulphur in 

 Illuminating Gas: E. P. Harding. (By 

 title.) 



Notes on Typewriter Ribbons: A. M. 

 D0TI.E. (By title.) 



The American Chemist aiid the Gas In- 

 dustry: H. B. Harrop. (By title.) 

 On Saturday afternoon there was an 

 excursion across the Mississippi to see the 

 New Orleans Acid and Fertilizer Works 

 at Gretna. In the evening there was a 

 general reception of the association in the 

 Palm Garden of the St. Charles Hotel. 

 On Sunday morning some of the chemists 

 visited a sugar plantation some miles from 

 the city. 



On Monday morning there was another 

 session of Section C. In the absence of 

 C. F. Mabery his address was read by 

 Charles E. Coates. It was entitled 'The 

 Composition of Petroleum from American 

 Fields— Pennsylvania, Ohio, Texas, Kan- 

 sas, Wyoming, Colorado, Kentucky and 

 California.' It will appear in full in the 

 March number of the Journal of the society. 

 S. W. Parr delivered an address on 

 ' The Service Waters of a Railway System. ' 

 Numerous tests to determine the loss of 

 efficiency due to scale having an average 

 thickness of one eighth inch agree in show- 

 ing approximately ten per cent, increase 

 in fuel consumption. On the basis of a 

 total annual cost for fuel of .$1,500,000, 

 and assuming the average condition of the 

 locomotives as fifty per cent, better than 

 the above the loss due to this cause aggre- 

 gates $75,000. This expense is duplicated 



by another which would represent approxi- 

 mately the cost of overhauling and repairs 

 chargeable directly to the presence of scale. 

 We thus have a sum representing the an- 

 nual interest on an investment at five per 

 cent, of $3,000,000. This takes no account 

 of accidents or disasters, due more or less 

 directly to the use of poor water. At least 

 five principal railway systems of the middle 

 west have in operation, or are in process of 

 installing, purification plants for the treat- 

 ment of their service waters. This marks 

 a decided advance over the condition of ten 

 years ago, when in the same region no such 

 plant was in existence. 



Concerning treatment within the boiler 

 itself, while this method is often applicable 

 to stationary boilers, in the case of loco- 

 motives the construction and exigencies of 

 service make such methods inadvisable. 



The usual method of rating a water with 

 reference to its scaling ingredients is no 

 longer applicable. New types of water 

 are now common, which involve entirely 

 different properties, such as foaming and 

 corrosion. For example, some twenty-five 

 samples of water have been examined from 

 Cairo to New Orleans on the lines of the 

 Illinois Central Railway having less than 

 fifty parts per million of scaling matter 

 (three grains per gallon). 



Two marked characteristics are present 

 in these waters aside from their very low 

 amount of scaling matter. One is the high 

 content of organic matter and the other is 

 the presence of free sodium carbonate. In 

 general the first type includes the waters 

 from streams or bayous and shallow wells, 

 while the second characteristic is present 

 in those samples from wells from 100 to 

 800 feet in depth, one well, indeed (at 

 Hammond, La.), having a depth of 2,100 

 feet. 



With these waters two problems, other 

 than that of scaling, present themselves — 

 first, corrosion, and second, foaming. A 



