﻿November ist, ipoj.] Proceedings. xi 



General Meeting, November ist, 1904. 



Professor W. }3oyd Dawkins, D.Sc, F.R.S., President, 

 in the Chair. 



Mr. Herbert Stansfield, B.Sc., A.I.E.E., Eaglesfield, 

 Victoria Park, Manchester; and Mr. Walter Makower, B.A., 

 B.Sc., 45, Ackers Street, Manchester, were elected ordinary 

 members of the Society. 



Ordinary Meeting, November ist, 1904. 



Professor W. Boyd Dawkins, D.Sc, F.R.S., President, 

 in the Chair. 



The thanks of the members were voted to the donors of the 

 books upon the table. 



Messrs. C. H. Burgess, M.Sc, and A. Holt, Jun., B.A., 

 read a paper entitled, " On Alkaline Borates," in which the 

 authors stated that they found that nearly all the glasses obtained 

 by fusing boric anhydride with varying quantities of sodium 

 carbonate can be transformed, wholly or in part, into stable, 

 crystalline forms, which invariably melt at a higher temperature 

 than the glasses from which they were derived. 



The study of the melting points of these mixtures, and the 

 analyses of the crystals and glasses point to the probable 

 existence of both sodium metaborate and a further compound 

 containing only a quarter equivalent of sodium. 



Anhydrous borax itself does not appear to be a definite 

 compound ; it is almost a eutectic mixture of the solid solution 

 of the two above-mentioned compounds. 



The glasses appear to be a superfused state of the crystals. 

 The familiar colours of borax beads seem to be due to the for- 

 mation of a complex sodium ion, and can be changed in tint by 

 increasing or decreasing the amount of alkali present. 



Mr. W. H. Evans, B.Sc, read a paper entitled " Note on 

 the Electrolytic preparation of Titanous Sulphate." 



