9 2 



SCIENCE. 



hydro-electric, is superior, as a working electro-motor, to 

 the Daniell pile, of sulphate of copper and sulphate of zinc ; 

 of equal size, and is about twice as powerful as the ordinary 

 Bunsen pile of the laboratories, and is only surpassed by 

 the special form of the Bunsen pile, devised by Ruhmkorff. 

 "The zinc is not amalgamated," says M. Reynier in his 

 note to the Academy of Sciences, " nevertheless, it is not 

 attacked when the circuit is open by the alkaline solution 

 "which bathes it; consequently, the quantity of zinc consumed 

 must give precisely the measure of the amount of elec- 



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Fig. 5. 

 Fig. 5. — Parchment sheet traced for the rectangular form. 



tricity disengaged. The new pile " he adds, " does not send 

 off volatile products ; hence the materials employed are not 

 subject to waste. It is therefore possible to regulate the 

 products of the chemical changes, and they may even be 

 restored to their original state. It is necessary, to do this, 

 to cause a quantity of electricity a little greater than that 

 which has been disengaged by the pile, to traverse the 

 exhausted liquids, dissolving the copper displaced, and 

 removing the zinc dissolved. This renewal of the materials 

 of the pile restores its electro-motor qualities. When elec- 



Fig. 6. 

 Fie. (i. — Pari hmi-.nt mif.et TKACBD for hie HEXAGONAL form. 



tricity is thus produced by the aid of a powerful machine, it 

 will be found to be stored up in the solutions and metals, 

 in a state of energy, and can thus be readily set free or 

 transported. The indirect transportation of electricity by 

 this apparatus would be in most cases, of more practical 

 use and more convenient than the direct transmission by 

 cables. 



"In fact, when fresh solutions only are used, the new 

 couple has the advantage of a noticeable economy of mater- 

 ial and manipulation over the ordinary nitric acid couple. 

 Regarding the practical realization of the process of regene- 

 ration which must make my pile economically applicable to 

 small electric motors and to private illumination, there are 

 still certain obstacles of a practical nature which appear to me 

 to be bv no means insurmountable." 



Fig. 7. 

 Fig. 7.— Reynier's Pile complete. 



M. Reynier's pile has been submitted to repeated trials, 

 notably by the Societe Francaise de Physique, with fifty 

 couples or elements ; the inventor operated successively 

 a voltameter, the electric motors of Gramme and of 

 Deprez, a large Ruhmkorff coil, and an electric lamp with 

 Serrin's regulator. A platinum wire 65 centimetres in 

 length and half a millimetre in diameter, was maintained 

 at a white heat for more than an hour, while the galvano- 

 meter failed to show the slightest decrease of power in the 

 pile. — La Science pour Tous. 



M. Poincare presented to the Academy of Sciences, 

 Paris, the results of an investigation of butcher's meat, in 

 which he found cylindrical pointed elements with cuticles 

 crossed by lines which seem outlines of cells, and which 

 appear granulated. He thinks they may be phases or me- 

 tamorphoses ot taenioides, causing taenia in some eaters of 

 raw meat. 



Dr. J. Lawrence Smith has determined and named the 

 new mineral Peckhamite found on the outer surfaces of the 

 remarkable meteorite whose fragments were sown across 

 the borders of Dickenson and Emmet Counties in north- 

 western Iowa. By an average of two of Dr. Smith's analy- 

 ses it contains 49.55 per cent, silica, 16.44 P er cent, ferrous 

 oxide and 32.76 per cent, magnesia. By calculation of the 

 oxygen ratio the formula SiO^RO + ^(Si0 2 RjO) would 

 represent its composition, suggesting two atoms of Ensta- 

 tite or Bronzite plus one atom of Olivine. This is one of 

 the most interesting meteorites known. Over 5,000 frag- 

 ments of it weighing about 30 kilograms, have been col- 

 lected from over a distance of eight miles long by one-half 

 mile wide. Although the lumps have been lying on the 

 wet prairie for nearly a year, they are not in the least 

 rusted, and bear a great resemblance to nuggets of plati- 

 num. Dr. Smith surmises the rapid passage of the meteor- 

 ite through our atmosphere caused its disintegration, pul- 

 verizing the stony part completely and leaving the nodules 

 of neckiliferous iron untouched. This hypothesis is novel 

 and plausible. 



