238 Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles, 



to dissolve the iodide and separate the foreign salts insoluble in it. 

 The alcoholic solution was evaporated to dryness, and the residue 

 treated with water yielded a solution which gave a deep blue colour 

 with starch. This colour was very permanent, disappeared on being 

 heated and reappeared on cooling. 



The same treatment was followed with sugar unrefined and refined, 

 but they gave not the least trace of iodine ; the cossettes, on the 

 contrary, contained this substance ; the experiment was several 

 times repeated and always with the same result. 



The author examined the beet-root from a manufactory in the 

 neighbourhood of Versailles, but he discovered no trace of iodine in 

 it. As the manufactory of Waghausel is of great extent, M. Lamy 

 thinks it probable that all the beet-root used in it may not contain 

 iodine, and as salts of iodine are not uncommon in the salt-springs 

 of Germany, he inquires, without attempting to decide, whether 

 the presence of iodine may not be derived from the assimilation of 

 the salts of iodine. — Journ. de Pharm. et de Chim., Juillet, 1850. 



ELECTRO-MAGNETISM AS A MOTIVE POWER. 



Professor Page, in the lectures which he is now delivering before 

 the Smithsonian Institution, states that there is no longer any 

 doubt of the application of this power as a substitute for steam. He 

 exhibited the most imposing experiments ever witnessed in this 

 branch of science. An immense bar of iron, weighing 160 lbs., was 

 made to spring up by magnetic action, and to move rapidly up and 

 down, dancing like a feather in the air, without any visible support. 

 The force operating upon the bar he stated to average 300 lbs. 

 through ten inches of its motion. He said he could raise this bar 

 100 feet as readily as ten inches, and he expected no difficulty in 

 doing the same with a bar weighing one ton, or a hundred tons. 

 He could make a pile-driver, or a forge hammer, with great simplicity, 

 and could make an engine with a stroke of six, twelve, twenty, or any 

 number of feet. The most beautiful experiment we ever witnessed 

 was the loud sound and brilliant flash from the galvanic spark, when 

 produced near a certain point in his great magnet. Each snap was 

 as loud as a pistol ; and when he produced the same spark at a little 

 distance from this point, it made no noise at all. This recent dis- 

 covery is said to have a practical bearing upon the construction of 

 an electro-magnetic engine. He then exhibited his engine of between 

 four and five horse-power, operated by a battery contained within a 

 space of three cubic feet. It looked very unlike a magnetic machine. 

 It was a reciprocating engine of two feet stroke, and the whole en- 

 gine and battery weighed about one ton. When the power was 

 thrown on by the motion of a lever, the engine started ofT magnifi- 

 cently, making 114 strokes per minute; though when it drove a 

 circular saw, ten inches in diameter, sawing up boards an inch and 

 a quarter thick into laths, the engine made but about 80 strokes per 

 minute. The force operating upon this great cylinder throughout 

 the whole motion of two feet was stated to be 600 lbs. when the 

 engine was moving very slowly ; but he had not been able to ascer- 



