SCIENTIFIC NE\VS. 



[Nov. 1st, I J 



water, hot water, steam, and hydrogen. There will also be 

 here, as elsewhere throughout the entire laboratory, wires 

 for conveying electric currents. 



" The top floor of the main building is devoted mostly to 

 fine apparatus. There will be thirty-four cases for such 

 apparatus, each 2 ft. 4 in. wide and 2 1 ft. long. There will 

 be about 18,000 dols. worth of apparatus of this sort in this 

 department. The apparatus has been ordered from such 

 makers as Edlemann, Hartman and Brauhn, Lattimer, 

 Clark and Muirhead, Siemens Bros., Carpentier, Societe 

 Genevoise, and, in fact, from all the principal makers. 

 Among the apparatus there will be a large Ruhmkorff coil, 

 a Dubosc phosphoroscope, a Foucault photometer and helio- 

 stat, and photometric apparatus of every variety ; spectro- 

 scopes, and Sir William Thomson's absolute electrometer 

 and quadrant electrometer; a telescope having an Alvan 

 Clark objective, and provided with a Young spectroscope, 

 the telescope being mounted equatorially by Fauth ; a 

 spectrometer costing 1,200 dols., a micrometer costing 

 200 dols., and a Fauth chronograph. Upon the upper floor 

 there will also be a room for projection, 50 ft. by 40 ft. and 

 16 ft. high. A lantern is being made which will utilise the 

 light of a 5,000 candle arc lamp. Upon this floor there will 

 also be a pump-room for lamp experiments, a glass-blower's 

 room, and a room for jeweller's work. In the way of 

 mechanics, the laboratory will be able to produce any kind 

 of machine varying in size from that of a locomotive to that 

 of a watch. The main building will contain a large scien- 

 tific library. 



" In addition to the main building and its annex, there are 

 four buildings each 25 ft. wide, 100 ft. long, and 16 ft. high. 

 In one of these buildings, which is devoted to galvano- 

 meters, the use of iron has been carefully avoided, the nafls 

 being copper and brass, the tubes lead and copper, and the 

 hinges, locks, window-fasteners, etc., all being of non-mag- 

 netic material. In the galvanometer building there will be 

 seven piers of solid stone, entirely detached from the walls 

 of the building, each being provided with a slate top, 

 having a covering of vulcanized hard rubber one inch thick. 

 There will also be two large piers on a level with the 

 floor, 15 ft. long and 8 ft. wide. The apparatus used in 

 this room will be devoted to all kinds of electrical and 

 magnetic testing. 



" The second of the smaller buildings will contain a com- 

 plete chemical laboratory, a balance and spectroscopic-room, 

 an analytical-room, and a room for general experimental 

 work. One-half of the third building will be used as a 

 carpenter's shop, cabinet-making and pattern-shop. The 

 balance of this building will be used for the storage of 

 chemicals. 



" The fourth building will be devoted to metallurgy. It 

 will contain a five-stamp mill, a Blake crusher, a 6,000 

 ampere dynamo, and furnaces of various kinds. It will be 

 supplied with fuel gas from a forty-barrel gasoline gas-pro- 

 ducing machine." 



NEW METHOD OF PRESERVING 

 BUTTER. 



JYI PIERRE GROSFILS has communicated to the So- 

 -LVl, ci^te d'Encouragement de Vervier a note on his 

 process for preserving butter. After having enumerated the 

 causes which last year led to the lowering of the prices of 

 dairy produce, and especially of butter, he dwells upon the 

 unfortunate results of the over-production of this article, and 

 on its adulteration by means of oleomargarine. He has dis- 

 covered a way of preserving butter, without alteration, for a 



long period, so that it can be imported into countries, the 

 climate of which does not permit of it to be made there. 

 The process has been subjected to practical experiments for 

 more than six months. M. Grosfils describes the various 

 phases of his research as follows :^He first mingled a 

 gramme of salicylic acid with a kilogramme of butter, but 

 after some weeks the product had altered. He fancied that 

 the cessation of the antiseptic action of the acid was due to 

 its crystallisation in the non-liquid substances which were 

 mingled with it. After numerous experiments he discovered 

 that lactic has the property of impeding this crystallisation. 

 This acid is, in fact, a tolerably powerful solvent of the 

 salicylic acid ; and to prevent the crystallisation of the sali- 

 cylic acid is to maintain indefinitely the antiseptic power 

 of the product. The first result of the discovery of M. 

 Grosfils was to be able to sensibly diminish the amount 

 of salicylic acid used to preserve the butter. Instead of 

 mixing one gramme of acid per kilogramme, he put the 

 butter i^i a liquid containing o'5 per cent, of salicylic acid 

 and 3 per cent, of lactic acid. He afterwards divided the 

 salicylic acid into still smaller doses, until at last he had the 

 proportion of one gramme of acid to 5,000 parts of water. 

 This composition allows of the indefinite preservation of 

 butter of good quality, even in hot countries. If the butter 

 has already undergone some alteration, a stronger dose must 

 be used. The author, however, points out the following 

 important matter : — The lactic acid contained in the anti- 

 septic liquid in doses stronger than 2 per cent, gives the 

 product a taste which, without being offensive, is a little too 

 sour to enable the article to be sold. In such cases 

 the butter should be washed with water, or, better still, 

 with scalded milk, to which a little carbonate of soda has 

 been added to prevent coagulation of the caseine. This 

 washing will not only remove the lactic acid and its taste, 

 but also the salicylic acid in solution, to such a degree that 

 what remains will be imperceptible. The process is stated 

 to be most economical, as the antiseptic liquid will serve 

 indefinitely, being unalterable. Care must be taken each 

 time to use the same quantity of butter. The preparation 

 of a kilogramme of butter by means of this process will not 

 cost more than one or two centimes. — Moniteur Industriel. 



Curious Effects of Lightning. — The steamship An- 

 clioria, of the Anchor line, which lately arrived in New York, 

 met a tornado 180 miles from Sandy Hook. The wind 

 came from the north-east, and in a very short time there 

 was a tremendous sea running. The rain came down in 

 such torrents that the crew were scarcely able to stand upon 

 deck. The lightning poured in streams of a minute's 

 duration from the clouds to the water, while globes of blue 

 flame played up and down the rigging and danced along 

 the yards, and leaped from the masts incessantly, terrifying 

 passengers and seamen alike. The steamship Glcnartney, 

 from Shanghai, was in the same storm, and had well-defined 

 tufts of electric fire on each mast-head. The other day 

 Charles M. Lee, a cowboy, and his horse were struck by 

 lightning, which killed them both, near Cheyenne Wells, 

 Col. The stroke broke the iron horn of the saddle, exploded 

 all the cartridges in his belt, and set fire to the leather of the 

 saddle, picket rope, blanket; tearing his hat, boots, and shirt 

 to pieces, and the fire consumed the flesh of the left leg from 

 the knee to the ankle. In Cape Colony, South Africa, a shep- 

 herd drove a flock of 1,430 ewes up to a small building, in 

 which he took refuge from a thunderstorm. As the sheep 

 crowded around the building it was struck by lightning, and 

 790 of them were killed outright. The shepherd escaped 

 with a severe shock. — Scientific American. 



