April 1st, 1887.] 



SCIENTIFIC NE\VS. 



2,7 



A NEW INDUSTRY IN SKYE. 



A T the present time when people are at their wits' end 

 -^ *■ to know what to do with the crofters in Skye, it is 

 very fortunate that a means has been discovered of giving 

 them some useful employment. In the small Loch Quire, a 

 diatom deposit of exceptionally rich quality has been lately 

 found. Diatoms are plants of minute size and beautiful 

 form, consisting of one cell. They propagate very rapidlj', 

 as many as a thousand millions being formed from one 

 parent cell in a single month. Their skeleton is an inde- 

 structible pair of transparent plates of a kind of flint. For 

 centuries these shells have accumulated, forming vast beds 

 in different parts of the world. The city of Richmond, in 

 Virginia, is built upon an extensive deposit of this nature, 

 which extends over many square miles of area. The 

 purest and best descriptions have hitherto been found in 

 Germany, and are used in the manufacture of ultramarine. 

 This brilliant colour, which was formerly very scarce and 

 expensive, used to be obtained from the mineral lapis-lazuli, 

 a volcanic product, indestructible by fire. 



For the manufacture of ultramarine, purity is most essen- 

 tial in the diatomite, and nowhere has the deposit been 

 found of greater purity than this in Skye. It contains 

 no less than eighty-nine per cent, of flint, and, after calcina- 

 tion, is almost pure flint. Operations have already been 

 commenced by the Laird of Kilmuir with the view to 

 working this lucky find. Some idea may be formed of 

 the value of this deposit, when we mention that in Ger- 

 many alone the manufacture of ultramarine exceeds 8000 

 tons a year, realising more than a quarter of a million 

 sterling. There will doubtless be no difficulty in selling 

 the produce of a rich deposit suitable for this fine pur- 

 pose, and even the coarser parts will be of use in the 

 manufacture of dynamite, polishing powder, glaze for 

 pottery, filtering apparatus, and emery substances. Being 

 an excellent non-conductor, it is found exceedingly useful 

 in the coating of steam-pipes and chimneys, safes, and 

 retorts, in the lining of ice-cellars and chambers for pre- 

 serving meat. Such a discovery has just come at the right 

 time. It may become even more remunerative to proprie- 

 tors and workmen than was the manufacture of kelp in the 

 beginning of the century, when Lord Macdonald realised 

 _j^20,ooo of annual gross income from that source alone. It 

 is to be earnestly hoped, then, that this industry will succeed, 

 especially when the crofters have no remunerative labour, 

 and the landlords are nearly rentless. 



Wood Pulp. — A writer in a Canadian paper, speaking of 

 the possibilities of pulp as a substitute for wood in the 

 manufacture of furniture and other articles, calls attention to 

 the resources afforded by northern Canada for the best pulp- 

 making woods. By mixing the pulp with clay, steatite, 

 asbestos, plumbago, mica, etc., substances of every possible 

 colour and compactness may be produced. The value of 

 wood-pulp for paper-making has long been recognised in 

 Canada, and it is hoped that a considerable revenue may, 

 through this source, be derived from forest trees otherwise 

 valueless. 



SoAP-BuBBLE Balloons. — M. Delon, of Paris, produces 

 miniature balloons by means of ordinary gas conducted 

 through a caoutchouc tube and clay-pipe to glycerine soap 

 solution. A small disc of thin paper, with fine wire Irom 

 its centre to a little paper car with aeronaut figures, is con- 

 nected to the bubble when it begins to swell, the disc 

 being attached by capillarity to the part where the drop 

 forms. The detached bubble rises with the car. 



TECHNICAL JOURNALISM FIFTY 

 YEARS AGO. 



'T'HE present is the Jubilee year of the reign of Her Mcst 

 Gracious Majesty the Queen — a statement for which 

 we claim no originality — and all loyal Britons would do well 

 to make a retrospect of the progress that has been achieved, 

 since Her Majesty came to the throne, in that particular sub- 

 ject with which they are most intimately connected. In our 

 own special province, that of applied science, the advance has 

 been really stupendous : another remark which our readers 

 may justly consider not altogether original. 



It would be ridiculous for us to attempt to give, within 

 the space at our command, even the briefest sketch of the 

 work of these fifty Victorian years in the whole field oi 

 science; but the chance perusal of an old volume has suggested 

 the idea that we may be able to say something, we hope of 

 interest, on the narrower question of scientific, or technical, 

 journalism. The book referred to consists of a twelvemonth's 

 numbers of the Mechanics' Magazine, beginning with No. 713, 

 which was issued on the 8th of April, 1837 ; iov ihe Aiagazine 

 year did not correspond with that of the almanac. 



Those who remember this publication at the date referred 

 to — and how much smaller their numbers are becoming year 

 by year — will call to mind a small octavo pamphlet of six- 



teen pages. The title-page was alwaj's graced by a wood 

 engraving, generally a rude representation of some mechani- 

 cal device, although occasionally pretence was made to 

 artistic effect. We reproduce, for the benefit of a j'ounger 

 generation, a drawing of the horse of the period from the 

 Yl/a^(7;tHf draughtsman's point of view. In the original it 

 was attached to " Croft's hearse and mourning coach com- 

 bined " — an invention for which a great future appears to 

 have been expected. We spare our readers the vehicle (with 

 the coffin duly shown in position) as inappropriate to this 

 year of rejoicing. 



The Mechanics' Alagasine was retailed for the sum of three 

 pence, and for many years was in sole possession of the 

 field in its own particular line. The quality of the paper 

 itself would now be considered of the poorest kind, for it was 

 rough and ill-coloured ; but it possessed that virtue of tough- 

 ness which many of our more sightly modern productions so 

 sadly lack. From the literary point of view there is one 

 feature that now strikes the reader immediately,and that is the 

 very large proportion that correspondence bears to the whole 

 matter. Those were golden days for proprietors and editors 

 alike, upon which we, in these degenerate times of brisk com- 

 petition, can only look back to with unavailing regret. There 

 is no department of a paper more easy to edit than the 

 correspondence columns. The simple statement that " We 

 are not responsible for the opinions advanced by our corres- 



