DECEMBER 10, 1897.] 
The metal was 99 per cent. pure, containing 
varying quantities of iron and silicon. A 
boiler of 732 sq. em. surface lost in three 
years’ daily use 0.1046 gram, a daily loss of 
0.09 milligrams. Another boiler of the same 
size in which milk was boiled twice a day 
for fifteen minutes lost in three years 0.5138 
gram. An impervious coating seemed to be 
formed on the metal which protected it from 
further action. This was shown by experi- 
ments with sheet aluminum, which was 
boiled daily three hours with water, and 
which suffered greater loss near the begin- 
ning of the experiment than at its close. 
Forks and spoons lost very little by con- 
stant use at meals, and the same was true 
when used for salads, and also when used 
in cooking. After three years’ constant use 
coffee spoons showed a loss of from 0.032 to 
0.036 grams and tea spoons from 0.0206 to 
0.0244 grams. These experiments would 
tend to show that for ordinary table pur- 
poses aluminum is a safe metal to use, and 
that it is also safe for vessels for boiling 
water. A similar series of experiments 
where salted foods and vegetables were 
cooked in aluminum vessels would be in- 
teresting and valuable. 
In the Zeitung fiir Beleuchtungswesen Paul 
Wolff discusses the question of acetylene 
generators. Most generators depend upon 
the removal of the water from the calcium 
earbid by the pressure of the gas to stop 
the action of the generator. The author 
shows that this is not sufficient. There are 
three causes for the action of the water on 
the carbid not ceasing. 1. The gas in the 
earbid chamber is saturated with water 
vapor, and the water is continually evapo- 
rating into this chamber. 2. A part of the 
water is taken up by the warmed lime and 
given off on cooling. 38. The carbid above 
the water is continually absorbing water. 
These difficulties may be obviated to some ex- 
tent by providing that the water chamber be 
separated as completely as possible from 
SCIENCE. 
875 
the carbid chamber, asin a Kipp apparatus, 
but even then the action will goon until 
all the water present, as vapor in chamber 
and absorbed by the lime, has been ex- 
hausted. It is thus imperative to provide a 
gas reservoir large enough to contain all 
the gas which may, under these circum- 
stances, be evolved after the gas has been 
turned off. The author in the article dis- 
cusses the necessary size of this reservoir 
for different generators. 
dp 15 Jel 
SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 
THE will of the late Dr. George H. Horn gives 
his valuable entomological collections, together 
with his entomological books and instruments 
and ‘an endowment of $200 per annum, to the 
American Entomological Society. From the 
residuary estate, after the death of his sister, 
the Entomological Society is to receive $5,000, 
the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences 
$1,000 and the American Philosophical Society 
$500. : 
LATE adyices from the Pribilof Islands state 
that many yearling fur seals branded as pups in 
1896 made their appearance on the hauling 
grounds in September and October; also that 
over 5,000 pups and 180 adult females were 
branded this year. Apart from the practical 
bearing of this work it will furnish definite evi- 
dence of the movements of the seals and show 
to what extent the females resort to the rooker- 
ies on which they were born or on which they 
first appeared as two-year-olds. 
Mr. CHARLES WALLACE Hunt, New York, 
has been elected President of the American So- 
ciety of Mechanical Engineers. 
PROFESSOR JACOB REIGHARD, of the zoolog- 
ical department of the University of Michigan, 
has been appointed by Governor Pingree a State 
delegate to the National Fishery Congress to be 
held at Tampa, Fla., January 19, 1898. 
FURTHER jubilee medals have been conferred 
upon Dr. Ginther, President of the Linnean 
Society ; on Professor Dewar, President of the 
Chemical Society, and on Professor R. Meldola, 
late President of the Entomological Society. 
