428 Chronicles of Science. [July. 



other the alloy of steel and platinum, be plunged into dilute sul- 

 phuric acid, the alloy is attacked with violence, while the steel 

 remains untarnished. This alloy is thus attacked by acids in all 

 proportions, until ninety parts of platinum with twenty of steel are 

 united* 



Alloys of Silver and Steel were made long since by Stodart and 

 Faraday, and then folly examined ; our French friends have recently 

 announced an examination of these argentiferous alloys as something 

 new. 



The Iron Sand of New Zealand is again attracting attention, and 

 a company has been formed for working it. Let us hope that the 

 experiment of making pig iron from this ore may be practically 

 more successful than the former attempts to do the same thing 

 has been. 



M. Julien has presented to the Society of Encouragement of 

 Paris a pamphlet on Iron and Steel, in which he puts forth some 

 peculiar views on the combination, or rather mixture, of carbon and 

 iron. The cleverness of this essay and its novel views will com- 

 mend it to the attention of the man of science and to the steel 

 manufacturer. 



The manufacture of Steel Iron from Cinder Pigs, which has been 

 for some time the subject of experiment, appears to be now nearly 

 approaching a successful development. Mr. Heaton, of Langley 

 Mills, places nitrate of soda at the bottom of the crucible and covers 

 it with a perforated iron plate. The iron to be purified is placed 

 above this, and the melted nitrate of soda diffuses itself through the 

 melted metal, producing, according to the statement of the inventor, 

 complete desulphurization and dephosphorization. 



A number of experiments were made recently at Langley Mills 

 with cinder iron, which would have been utterly useless in the 

 Bessemer converters. The result is stated to have been the pro- 

 duction of steel iron of the finest quality. 



We understand that a large Staffordshire firm is preparing to 

 make the experiment upon a large scale ; we shall anxiously watch 

 and report the result obtained. 



10. PHYSICS. 



Light.— Mr. Sorby, in this Journal, two years ago, described his 

 application of Spectrum Analysis to microscopical investigations, 

 and especially to the detection of blood stains. Mr. Browning has 

 recently made for Mr. Sorby a modification of the spectroscope, 



* ' Les Mondes/ tome xiii.. 15 livraison. 



