January 25, 1889.] 



SCIENCE 



59 



United States. 



The bill now before Congress contemplates : i. The use of 

 large, bonded warehouses for the storing exclusively of spirits " of 

 not less than i8o per cent proof." 2. The removal of such spirits 

 free of tax from the bonded alcohol warehouses to bonded store- 

 rooms, to be " used in manufacturing establishments, in the in- 

 dustrial arts, and in the manufacture of articles, preparations, com- 

 pounds, acetic and other acids, and medicinal drugs or chemicals." 

 " The manufacture of tinctures, proprietary articles, wines, liquors, 

 cordials, bitters, or other alcoholic compounds which are used or 

 sold as beverages," is excluded from the provisions of the act. 

 " The commissioner of internal revenue, with the approval of the 

 secretary of the treasury," is to make and enforce all needful regu- 

 lations. The bonds for the alcohol warehouses are not to be in a 

 less sum "than $100,000;" and those for storerooms to be not 

 " less than $5,000 ; " all operations conducted in such bonded es- 

 tablishments to be under the supervision of revenue officers, as is 

 now customary in all distillery warehouses. 3. The proprietor of 

 any bonded alcohol warehouse may methylate such spirits free of 

 tax, so as to cause them " to be unfit for use as a beverage," un- 

 der prescribed proportions and regulations; and such methylated 

 spirits may be withdrawn from the warehouse upon a permit issued 

 in due form by any person who has complied with the provisions 

 of the law, and filed the necessary application and bond with the 

 collector of internal revenue in whose district the methylated spirits 

 are to be used ; the sale, removal, transportation, and use of such 

 methylated spirits to be under prescribed regulations and bonds. 

 Heavy penalties are prescribed for the purification, by any means, 

 or the use, of such purified methylated spirits. 



It will be seen from this review of the legislation on the subject, 

 that the purification of methylated spirits is made unlawful, from 

 which one might conclude that this process does not render the 

 spirits altogether unfit for drinking- purposes when properly puri- 

 fied. 



Having been requested by the commissioner of internal revenue 

 to make experiments for the purpose of ascertaining whether such 

 spirits could be demethylated, the experiments were made, and my 

 report on the subject was published in the " Annual Report of the 

 Commissioner of Internal Revenue," lately issued. 



I now beg leave to submit to the members of the society some of 

 the samples of distillates and artificial liquors produced, and let 

 them judge for themselves how far I have succeeded in making a 

 drinkable compound. 



Ten per cent of the methyl alcohol was used for adulteration as 

 being the largest amount known to me, when the experiments were 

 carried out, as being legally permitted. The provisions of the 

 Canadian law I did not learn of till after my report was written. 

 As soon as I have some leisure, I intend trying to purify 25 and 50 

 per cent of adulteration. 



The loss was, for the reasons stated in my report, much greater 

 than would happen on a commercial scale ; and, as long as there 

 is a high tax on distilled spirits, a large loss might take place in 

 purifying methylated alcohol, and yet render the illegal process 

 profitable enough for unscrupulous persons to take the risk of 

 detection. 



Since the bill has been introduced a strong opposition to its pro- 

 visions has been developed in the large wholesale and retail drug 

 trade, and the Oil, Paint, and Drug Reporter has lately been de- 

 voting a great deal of space to the views of the most prominent 

 dealers. They are of the general opinion that alcohol should be 

 free to all, or not at all ; that the small druggist who now prepares 

 a great many, if not most, of his medicines, etc., would be driven 

 out of the business, as he could not afford the bonded storeroom, 

 etc., and be compelled to purchase from a few large firms who 

 could readily afford to comply with all the necessary regulations ; 

 and, lastly, tfcat the supervision at all times of revenue officers over 

 their business is distasteful to them. A great many of them state, 

 that, even if the alcohol was methylated, it virould most certainly 

 have to be purified before they could make use of it. 



The great supporters of the measure are of course the alcohol- 

 producers, who see in its provisions an increased market for their 

 product. 



ELECTRICAL NEWS. 



Dissipation of Fog by Electricity. 



Some remarks in the editorial columns of the London Electrician 

 have called forth a letter from Professor Lodge on the subject of 

 the dissipation of the London fogs by means of electric discharges. 

 At the Montreal meeting of the British Association, in 1884, Pro- 

 fessor Lodge described some experiments in which he condensed 

 smoke by means of a brush discharge from points connected with 

 a static electric machine. The subject was an interesting one, and 

 attracted considerable attention at the time ; but it seems that no 

 experiments on a large scale have since been attempted. A num- 

 ber of possible applications have been suggested, — for example, it 

 has been proposed to use an electric discharge to dissipate the 

 dust-particles in flour and other mills, which have been the cause 

 of several disastrous explosions, — but the efficacy of the plan has 

 not been tried. In the letter referred to, Professor Lodge states 

 that he has been deterred from experimenting chiefly on account of 

 the great initial expense necessary for a trial on a large scale, — an 

 expense which he estimates to be in the neighborhood of five 

 thousand dollars. As to the form of experiment, he is not sure 

 that a battery of an enormous number of cells would not be the 

 most likely plan. So far, the largest experiment that Professor 

 Lodge has made has been the clearing of a smoke-filled room ; but 

 the results were so encouraging, that he does not despair of con- 

 densing the fog in a stagnant atmosphere. He has applied to the 

 trustees of the Elizabeth Thompson fund in this country for a grant 

 of five hundred dollars with which to continue his work, but has 

 not yet heard the result of his application. The matter is a most 

 interesting one. We have an entirely new field for electrical appli- 

 cation, with a very substantial promise of reward for success. 

 There are a number of possible applications of the process, — the 

 clearing of smoke from tunnels, the dissipation of dust-particles in 

 mills, and the general abatement of the smoke nuisance that is so 

 unpleasant in manufacturing towns. 



Trials of the Submarine Boats "Gymnote" and 

 "Peral." — At a recent meeting of the French Academy of Sci- 

 ences, Admiral Paris read a short paper on " The Submarine Boat 

 ' Gymnote,' " which we lately described. He was most enthusi- 

 astic as to its success, and in the course of his remarks said, " In 

 short, we are able to say that the ' Gymnote ' moves and steers 

 equally well above or below the surface, that it can be kept accu- 

 rately at the desired depth, that its speed is all one could expect, 

 that respiration is unimpeded, and that down to a certain depth it 

 is easy to see. M. Tede says that Captain Krebs's electric motors 

 are marvels of lightness and precision, and that this important part 

 of the boat has been carried out in a most masterly manner. The 

 energy available amounts to 240 horse-power hours. So complete 

 a success would have been impossible without the scientific inge- 

 nuity and minute care which M. Romazoff, naval engineer of Tou- 

 lon, brought to bear upon every detail. Here, then, we have a 

 solution of the submarine-boat problem. The first step has been 

 taken. Better work will be done in the future. But, even as it is, 

 the ' Gymnote ' is capable of rendering good service." From En- 

 gineeritig we take the following : " The new Spanish submarine 

 torpedo-boat ' Peral,' which has lately been tested with much suc- 

 cess, is 72 feet long by 9.5 feet in diameter. It is fitted with a 

 secondary battery of 600 cells, which supply the current to five 

 electro-motors, two of which are of 30 horse-power each, and 

 drive the propellers : the other three are only of 5 horse-power 

 each. The boat has a speed of 11 knots on the surface, and 10.5 

 knots below. It can remain submerged for two days before the 

 air requires to be renewed. It will be armed with Whitehead tor- 

 pedoes." With the recent partially successful experiments with 

 directable balloons, and these latest experiments with submarine 

 boats, we may expect novel developments in warfare. 



New Reckenzaun Tram-Car. — The principal novelties in 

 this car consist in the method of gearing the motors to the car- 

 axles, and in the employment of a form of secondary battery on 

 which Mr. Reckenzaun has been working for some years past. 

 The ordinary practice of connecting the m.otor-shafts and car-axles 

 is through two pairs of spur-gears, the ratios of the diameters giv- 



