696 Chronicles of Science. [Oct., 



ingredients in some of the more easily fusible alloys with their 

 melting points : — 



Equivalent proportions. 



Melting point. 



Cd Sn Pb Bi 



G8-5°C 



Cd Sn 2 . Pb„ Bi 2 



68-5°G 



Cd 3 Sn, Pb t Bi 4 



67-5-0 



CcL Sn 5 Pb 5 Bi 5 



65-5°C 



Lipowitz states that an alloy composed of three parts by weight 

 of Cd, 4Sn, 8Pb, and 15Bi melts at 60°C ; but the author of this 

 paper observes that such a compound only becomes perfectly fluid at 

 70° 0. 



The melting point of an alloy of two parts Cd, 3Sn, UPb, and 

 16Bi is still higher — namely, 76 'O^C. 



The following mixtures had the same melting point : — 



One part by weight of Od, 2Sn, 3Bi ] 



Two parts „ Cd, 3Sn, 5Bi } perfectly fluid at 95°C 



One part „ Cd, ISn, 2Bi J 



The author adds the following determinations of melting points : — 



Proportions. Melting point. 

 1 part Cd, 6Pb, 7Bi 88°C 



Cd, 2Bi,3Pb 89-5°0 



2Cd, 4Bi, 7Pb 95°C 



MM. Ste Claire Deville, Caron, and Troost have communicated 

 a paper to the Academy of Sciences, in which they give their method 

 of making rubies artificially. Fluoride of aluminium, with a small 

 quantity of fluoride of chromium, is placed in an earthern crucible, 

 which has been carefully lined with calcined alumina, just in the same 

 way as a crucible is lined with charcoal. In the centre of this crucible 

 is one of platinum, containing the boracic acid, around which the 

 fluorides are disposed. The outer crucible is well covered. When 

 this apparatus is exposed to a temperature sufficiently high, the 

 fluorides volatilize, and come in contact with the vapours of boracic 

 acid from the inner crucible, above and around which the rubies are 

 deposited. The violet red tint of these is said to be exactly like that 

 of the most beautiful natural stones. 



In a memoir on the extraction of sugar, by M. Alvaro Eeynoso, of 

 Havanna, read before the French Academy, he gives a most ingenious 

 utilization of the effects of cold in getting rid of the bulk of the water 

 in the juice. By a process described in his memoir, he submits the 

 juice to a very low temperature, and so gets a magma, composed of 

 thick syrup and little lumps of ice. He separates the syrup from 

 these by means of a centrifugal machine, and then evaporates quickly 



A very ingenious addition has been made to the Lenoir engine by 

 M. Arbos. The engine would often be extremely useful where gas 

 could not be procured, and to make coal-gas would be impracticable. 

 In a very simple apparatus M. Arbos vaporizes water, and passes the 



