994 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XL No. 286. 



in the past have met with little success, but now 

 a method has been devised and is in use in 

 Germany and Belgium whereby the cement 

 manufactured commands a higher price in the 

 market than ordinary Portland cement. 



An apparatus for equalizing the temperature 

 of the hot blasts was described by Mr. L. F. 

 Gjers and Mr. J. H. Harrison. Instead of the 

 blast going directly from the stoves to the 

 tuyers, whereby the temperature falls continu- 

 ously from the turning on of one stove until a 

 fresh stove is used, the blast passes from the 

 stove through another small stove filled with 

 checker work, and while entering on one side 

 with varying temperature, it leaves the small 

 stove at an even mean temperature. 



The affairs of the Institute were shown to 

 be in a very flourishing condition, 110 members 

 being added during the year. The Besse- 

 mer gold medal for 1900 was presented to M. 

 Henri de Wendel, the eminent French metal- 

 lurgist, in recognition of his services to metal- 

 lurgy in developing the iron ore resources of 

 French and German Lorraine. 



Mr. Andrew Carnegie announced his inten- 

 tion of founding a scholarship in connection 

 with the Institute, for the advancement of re- 

 search in connection with iron and steel. 



The same number of Nature gives an account 

 of the Eoyal Society Converzazione of May 9th, 

 but there appear to have been few exhibits in the 

 line of chemistry. Professor W. A. Shenstone 

 showed a quantity of crude non-splintering silica 

 for use in apparatus of silica, recently described 

 in these notes, and also several rods, tubes, a 

 Giessler tube and a mercury thermometer of sil- 

 ica. Dr. Thorpe exhibited some examples of 

 leadless glazed ware, and Mr. H. B. Hartley and 

 Mr. H. L. Bowman gave a demonstration of the 

 properties of crystals yielding double-refracting 

 liquids on fusion. These substances, among 

 which are para-azosyanisol, para-azoxyphene- 

 tol, and cholesteryl benzoate, when fused give 

 liquids which possess the properties of double 

 refraction anddichroism, although the evidence 

 of their elasticity, viscosity, and dielectric ca- 

 pacity shows them to be undoubtedly liquids. 



Apropos of Professor Shenstone's work on 

 fused quartz a paper has appeared in the Pro- 



ceedings of the Royal Dublin Society, by Pro- 

 fessor J. Joly, on the ' Theory of the Formation 

 of Silicates in Igneous Rocks,' in which he dis- 

 cusses the temperature range of the viscosity of 

 quartz. He finds that when heated to 800° 

 quartz becomes plastic and that as high as 1500° 

 it is a thick liquid. This softening point is 

 much lower than is commonly supposed, and 

 makes it easier to understand the facility with 

 which it is worked by Professor Shenstone. 

 At the same time it lends more encouragement 

 to the hope of a wide use of quartz for ap- 

 paratus. 



No little comment has been occasioned, espe- 

 cially in England, by the publication in the 

 Zeitschrift fur angeivandte Chemie of a lecture de- 

 livered before the German Emperor by Professor 

 Bredt. The title of the lecture was ' Techni- 

 cal Education and the Importance of Scientific 

 Training,' and statistics were given of the three 

 great dye-stufl' factories of Germany. From 

 these it appears that the Badische Anilin- und 

 Sodafabrik, of Ludwigshafen, employs 6207 

 workmen, including 146 chemists and 75 engi- 

 neers. The Farbewerke vorm. Meister Lucius 

 und Briining of Hochst am Main and the Far- 

 benfabriken vorm. Fr. Bayer & Co., of Elber- 

 feld, each employ 130 chemists. With these 

 facts before one, it is not difficult to understand 

 that Germany leads the world in dye stuffs. 



J. L. H. 



NOTES ON PHYSICS. 



THE FREEZING POINT OF WATER AND PRESSURE. 



In the Annalen der Physik for May, 1900, 

 G. Tammann describes some remarkable experi- 

 mental studies of the variation of the freezing- 

 point of water with pressure. It appears that 

 that there are three kinds of ice differing from 

 each other in crystalline structure. Counting 

 these three kinds of ice, five forms of water are 

 now known, namely, vapor, liquid, ice I. (com- 

 mon ice), ice II., and ice III. A given pair of 

 these forms (phases) of water can exist together 

 in equilibrium only at definite temperatures and 

 pressures. That is, for a given temperature 

 the pressure at which two phases may coexist 

 is definite. Thus ice I. and water coexist at 

 0°C. under atmospheric pressure, at — 3°.7C. 

 under 500 atmospheres, at — 8°.4C. under 1000 



