June 28, 1889.] 



SCIENCE. 



499 



in and chemically united, it forms a solid tint all the way through 

 the mass ; so that slight abrasions, like cutting it off with a knife, 

 stilLshow the same color. Half of this combing has been varnished, 

 which you see produces a somewhat darker and a satin or 

 leather like effect. This varnished work is washable, and is as 

 easily cleaned as any varnish. The centre is simply bronze in the 

 varnish. The upper portion, or decorated frieze, has less body on, 

 and was made by dipping each corner of a wide brush in the two 

 different tints, which easily produced the blended or soft shaded 

 effect. The ribbon was put on with a thin coat of the material 

 through a paper stencil, and the vine in the same way. The 

 flowers were put on with oil-color. The other side has at the bot- 

 tom what is called heavy stippling, and a slight representation of 

 bas-relief, that is sunk below the surface. The frieze above is or- 

 namented in what is called flat relief, to imitate solid or high relief. 

 The blended grounds of the frieze have been stippled ; that is, 

 pounced with the ends of a brush or with a covered block, to give 

 it a slightly roughened effect. These effects are admitted, even by 

 paper-dealers, to be finer than it is possible to produce with the 

 finest papers, and will make a blended tint or whitened wall, on 

 which borders, leaves, etc., can be applied with stencils, and keep 

 within bounds of the expense of papering. 



Here we have a plain tinting on large sheets of paper with what 

 is called a combination stencil border. The background of the 

 border was put on with one paper stencil, and the other or main 

 stencil was used over it. This plain tint has the same stencil 

 border on with one tint, which can be done as easily and as cheaply 

 as the cheapest wall-papering. Here we represent a wall blended 

 from top to bottom in two shades. The manufacturers will show 

 any painter so that he can do this blending easily, and usually with 

 one coat. This and the relief-work is done with a late make of 

 this material, made for this kind of work. When it is necessary to 

 renew alabastine, you have no old paper or kalsomine to take off, 

 but simply to repeat the process. I should add, it will be seen, as 

 this forms a stone cement that hardens with age, it precludes any 

 possibility of the colors being liberated to float around the room, 

 as they do from paper and kalsomine, even if they were poisonous. 

 Some claim that a wall should be impervious instead of porous. 

 This might do very well with perfect ventilation, if it were possible 

 to have such a wall ; but one partially so is only strangled, and 

 gives a better chance for matter behind to ferment and the germs 

 to propagate. Now, we show here sections of this work varnished, 

 which is nearer impervious than any wall I have ever seen, as the 

 varnish combines with the outer part of the porous stone surface 

 by penetrating into it ; also there is nothing behind but the pure stone 

 cement of a cold nature, the air has access to the back of the var- 

 nish, and there is absolutely no chance behind for fermentation or 

 decay. However, for plain work, it is as well, and as cheap in the 

 end, without varnish (as it will stand some cleaning, with care, to 

 remove spots) ; and the surface can be recoated almost as cheaply 

 as the wall can be washed. Then you have a choice of new tints ; 

 and any broken places in the plaster, which always occur, are 

 filled and cemented by brushing on this cement again with a 

 brush. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



The senior class this year at Harvard numbers 210, and is the 

 smallest class in the university. 



— It looks as though California would have the largest crop of 

 grapes in the history of the State. Manager Clarence Wetmore of 

 the Viticultural Commission says, " There are some localities where, 

 from present appearances, the Zinfandel will not yield as heavy as 

 last year. White grapes in most localities are settling for a full 

 crop, and, if nothing unfavorable happens from now till vintage 

 time, we ought to produce from 20,000,000 to 35,000,000 gallons of 

 wine. The raisin-crop will be a heavy one, even with the loss of 

 several thousand acres of vines in Los Angeles County by disease. 

 The State will probably produce 1,000,000 boxes. The outlook 

 for the wine-market is not very good. At least half of the iSSS 

 vintage is in the hands of producers, who will not sell at the 

 ruling low prices. On this account there will not be sufficient 

 cooperage to handle all the wine grapes that will be thrown on 



the market. As a consequence, most varieties of wine grapes will 

 bring low figures. There is great need of distilleries in this State 

 to convert low-priced grapes into brandy, for which there is a 

 steady demand." 



— Below is the speech in which Professor Taylor of the Univer- 

 sity of Edinburgh proposed the name of Professor Whitney of Yale 

 for the honorary degree of LL.D., which was conferred : " I have 

 now to ask your lordship to confer the degree in absence on Wil- 

 liam Dwight Whitney, professor of Sanscrit and comparative phi- 

 lology in Yale College. After studying Sanscrit at Berlin and Tii- 

 bingen for three years, Professor Whitney was appointed to the 

 chair of Sanscrit and comparative philology in Yale College in 1854. 

 In 1S56, in conjunction with Professor Von Roth, he edited the 

 Sanscrit text of the Atharva-Veda. During the last thirty years 

 he has been one of the master spirits of the American Oriental So- 

 ciety, having been for several years its corresponding secretary, and 

 latterly its president ; and in the journal of that society he has pub- 

 lished a translation of an astronomical work termed the " Surya 

 Siddharta," the text and a translation of two Vedic grammatical 

 works, an Index Verborum to the Atharva-Veda, and other im- 

 portant works. He is also the author of an excellent Sanscrit 

 grammar, treating of the language in its historical development, 

 and supplemented by an important catalogue of all genuine San- 

 scrit roots. Among his other works must be mentioned the " Lan- 

 guage and the Study of Languages," the " Life and Growth of 

 Language," the " Essentials of English Grammar," and his col- 

 lected " Oriental and Linguistic Studies." Nor has he disdained 

 less recondite subjects ; for he has also published a German gram- 

 mar and German reader, two admirable works of their kind. It is 

 mainly to Professor Whitney's unwearying labors as a teacher and 

 an author that America is indebted for the flourishing school of 

 Oriental philology, in which he is facile priitceps, and on those 

 grounds he was invited to become one of our tercentenary honor- 

 ary graduates. I have now the honor of requesting that the de- 

 gree be conferred upon him in absence." 



— At the Eiffel Tower, on May 29, Thomas E. Brown, jun., the 

 engineer of Otis Brothers & Co., subjected the Otis lift to a final 

 test before handing it over for public use. The lift, the car of 

 which consists of two compartments, one above the other, weighs 

 1 1,000 kilos (24,000 pounds), and, loaded with 3,000 kilos (7,000 

 pounds) of lead, — that is to say, weighing 14,000 kflos (31,000 

 pounds), — was raised to a considerable height. There, according 

 to The Engineer, it was fastened with ordinary ropes, and, this 

 done, it was detached from the cables of steel wire with which it is 

 worked. What was to be done was to cut the ropes, and allow the 

 lift to fall, so as to ascertain whether, if the steel cables were to 

 give way, the brakes would work properly and support the lift. 

 Two carpenters, armed with great hatchets, had ascended to the 

 lift, and were ready to cut the cables. At a given signal a blow 

 cut the rope. The enormous machine began to fall. Every one 

 was startled ; but in its downward course the lift began to move 

 more slowly, it swayed for a moment from left to right, stuck on 

 the brake, and stopped. There was a general cheering. Not a 

 pane of glass in the lift had been broken or cracked, and the car 

 stopped without shock at a height of ten metres (33 feet) above the 

 ground. 



— In the Pearson process of manufacturing aluminium, as stated 

 in ihe. Journal of i/ie Society of Chemical Industry, one hundred 

 parts by weight of cryolite are mixed with fifty parts of bauxite, 

 kaolin, or aluminium hydrate, fifty parts of calcium chloride, oxide, 

 or carbonate, and fifty parts of coke or anthracite, all being in 

 powder. The resulting mass is heated to incipient fusion in a 

 furnace or in a crucible made of, containing, or lined with, carbon, 

 in which case, the carbon may be omitted from the mixture. The 

 heating is continued for two hours, at the end of which time it is 

 alleged that the aluminium is reduced, and exists disseminated in 

 minute globules tliroughout the mass. A mixture of twenty-five 

 parts each of potassium and sodium chlorides is then added, and 

 the temperature raised to bright redness : the aluminium collects 

 at the bottom of the crucible. A better separation is, however, 

 effected by powdering, washing, and drying the melt, and adding it 

 to fused zinc, which alloys with the aluminium, and can afterwards 



