Chemistry. 457 



pre-Cambrian rocks in Rhode Island south of the Washington 

 Co. -Kent Co. boundary. 



3. The Sterling granite batholith is intrusive into all the 

 sediments with which it is in contact, including the Kingstown 

 sediments of the Narragansett Basin, and its intrusion accom- 

 panied metamorphism and folding. 



4. Since the Kingstown sediments are said to be of Car- 

 boniferous age, the time of the granite intrusion, metamorph- 

 ism and folding may be correlated with that of the Appala- 

 chian Revolution. 



5. The Kingstown series were derived principally from 

 metamorphic rocks of possible Cambrian age, from felsite- 

 porphyry, fine-grained micrographic granite, and possibly more 

 basic igneous rocks. 



6. In the absence of fossil evidence, structural and petro- 

 graphic data favor provisional correlation of the Kingstown 

 sediments with the quartz-biotite schists found in southeastern 

 Connecticut and at Westerly and Niantic, R. I. 



Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 



SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE. 



I. Chemistry 



1. Metallic Zirconium. — Weiss and Neumann have succeeded 

 in preparing fused zirconium in a pure condition. The metal 

 has been previously known only as an impure powder, or con- 

 taining much carbon when fused. This difficult operation was 

 performed, after many failures, by compressing the powder into 

 pencils and passing an electric arc from the end of one pencil to 

 another, either in a vacuum furnace containing hydrogen under 

 very low pressure, or in the same apparatus containing an atmos- 

 phere of nitrogen or ammonia. The upper pencil, forming the 

 positive pole, was fused and the metal dropped upon the lower 

 electrode, forming a stalagmite-like mass which was sometimes 3 

 or 4 mm in diameter and 2 or 3 CC high. The light produced at the 

 melting point was so intense that the eyes had to be protected by 

 very dark glasses when the operation was watched through the 

 window of the apparatus. The fused zirconium was somewhat 

 tarnished, but the fracture was white and metallic like cast iron. 

 It was slightly harder than quartz, and decidedly less hard than 

 Moissan's product containing carbon. It was very brittle, with 

 a specific gravity of 6*400. The specific heat was found to be 

 0*0804, a value considerably higher than any previous determi- 



