112 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIV. No. 865 



tance. Per a great many years fuller's earth 

 ■was imported from England, the only known 

 source of supply, but in 1893 it was by acci- 

 dent discovered in this country. At Quincy, 

 Fla., an effort was made, without success, to 

 burn brick on the property of the Owl Cigar 

 Company. An Alsatian cigar maker em- 

 ployed by the company called attention to the 

 close resemblance of this clay to the German 

 fuller's earth. As a result of this suggestion, 

 the clay was tested and found to be fuller's 

 earth, and the industry was developed. The 

 principal use of fuller's earth in this country 

 is in bleaching, clarifying, or filtering of fats, 

 greases and oils. The common practise with 

 mineral oils is to dry the earth carefully after 

 it has been finely ground, and run it into long 

 cylinders, through which the crude black min- 

 eral oils are allowed to percolate very slowly. 

 As a result, the oil that first comes out is per- 

 fectly water white and much thinner than 

 that which follows. The oil is allowed to 

 continue percolating through the earth until 

 the color reaches a certain maximum shade. 

 Then the fuller's earth itself is clarified by a 

 steaming process and used over again. With 

 vegetable oils, however, the process is radically 

 different. The oil is heated beyond the boil- 

 ing point of water in large tanks, from 5 to 

 10 per cent, of its weight of fuller's earth is 

 added, and the mixture is vigorously stirred 

 and then filtered off through bag filters. The 

 coloring matter remains with the earth, the 

 filtered oil being of a very pale straw color. 

 American fuller's earths are better adapted 

 than the English earths for use on. mineral 

 oils, but the English earths are superior for 

 the treatment of fats and vegetable oils. In 

 clarifying vegetable and animal fats with 

 American earths a more or less disagreeable 

 taste is left — just why has never been deter- 

 mined. To show the growth of the American 

 industry it is only necessary to state that 

 from 6,900 tons in 1895 the production in- 

 creased to 33,486 tons in 1909. This was the 

 maximum, the output for 1910 being 664 tons 

 less. Florida was the leading producing state 

 in 1910, furnishing 57.38 per cent, of the total 

 output. The other producing states, named 



in the order of their rank in output and value 

 in 1910, were Georgia, Arkansas, Texas, Cali- 

 fornia, Massachusetts, South Carolina and 

 Colorado. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS 



Sir William Macdonald has completed a 

 large purchase of land on the slope of the 

 mountain adjoining Mountroyal Park and 

 will give the property to McGill University. 

 A new campus and residential buildings will 

 be established upon it. The purchase price was 

 over $1,000,000. Including the cost of Mac- 

 donald College and its endowment, this brings 

 Sir William Macdonald's total gifts to McGill 

 University to $10,000,000. 



The New York legislature has passed a bill 

 to appropriate $10,000 for the establishment of 

 a school of sanitary science and public health 

 at Cornell University. 



Me. R. C. Forster has made a further gift 

 of £30,000 to the fund for providing new 

 chemical laboratories at University College, 

 London. 



At Cornell University Dr. D. C. Gillespie 

 has been appointed assistant professor of 

 mathematics. Mr. G. W. Nasmyth has been 

 appointed instructor in physics and Mr. J. 

 Mackenzie instructor in economic geology. 



Dr. Elliot E. Downing, in charge of the de- 

 partment of biology of the Northern State 

 Normal School, Marquette, Mich., has been 

 appointed assistant professor of natural his- 

 tory in the school of education of the Univer- 

 sity of Chicago. 



Dr. Thomas L. Porter, who has been as- 

 sistant in physics in Northwestern University 

 and Clark University, has been appointed 

 professor of physics in Colorado College. 



Dr. Benjamin E. Lovelace, professor of 

 chemistry in the University of Alabama, has 

 been elected associate professor of chemistry 

 in the Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Stew- 

 art J. Lloyd, adjunct professor of chemistry 

 and metallurgy, has been promoted to the pro- 

 fessorship of chemistry in the University of 

 Alabama. 



