472 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE, 
seed, In cutting be careful not to touch with the fingers or allow any damp to ap- 
proach it. Mix the mercury and sodium well together, then add mercury 5, and rub 
the whole thoroughly together in a mortar, and add of kerosene 240, making a total 
of 255 for Stock No, 3 
13. Stocks 2 and 3 mixed.—Pour Stock No. 3 as soon as mixed into Stock No, 
2, and thoroughly amalgamate them together. Stock No, 2 will not keep without 
deteriorating unless hermetically sealed, but stock No, 2 and stock No. 3 combined 
will keep safely ina glass or porcelaine stoppered vessel. Care must be taken not to 
handle the mercury compound, An iron ladle may be used for mixing the several 
ingredients. 
Here we add stock No. 3 to stock No. 2; in other words, add 
sodium—a course paragraph II says may only be done in a dry 
climate. 
14, COMMON STOCK (I, 2, and 3 mixed).—When No, 2 and No. 3 are mixed 
together, they are then mixed with No, 1, and kept ready for use in a suitably-closed 
air-tight vessel, 
And in this form they are not used; in fact these stocks are only 
referred to again when they are measured out in separate quan- 
tities, but not in the form of a common stock. 
15. RETORTS AND CHARGES, —In carrying out my intentions I use retorts which 
may be similar to or only slightly differing from, those used in ordinary gasworks. 
Preferably I use an earthenware retort with an iron lining, or iron retorts may be 
used. These retorts are charged at requisite intervals with certain mixtures herein- 
after mentioned—|{Here we take a fresh departure. |—consisting ot metals metallic 
earths, silicious earths, carbons, hydrocarbons, alkalis, alkaline earths, and other 
chemical substances, such mixtures being defined in the following formule or 
receipts. 
And paragraph 16 is very interesting :— 
16, Retort charge No. I is composed of the tollowing component parts com- 
pounded or mixed together as described. It is important that the scales and 
weights used be chemically clean. Take of muriatic acid, 10; add nitric acid, 10; 
These are mixed together and then are added—Of water, 5 ; bismuth, 1; iron filings 
I; zinc, 15. The mixture of metals and acids is put into an iron vessel, and heat 
is applied until the liquids evaporate, and when the mixture is perfectly dry there 
are added—Of mercury, I; and of sodium, 1, The mixture so formed is ground in 
a moitar with a pestle, and then there is added—Black oxide of maganese, 5,760. 
Chemically clean scales and weights are used to weigh out one 
part of iron to be dissolved in nitro-muriatic acid in an iron 
vessel. 
17. Retort Charge, No. 2.—Charge No. 2, which may in some cases be substi- 
tuted for charge No, (, is made thus :—Take of copper wire (very clean) 2; nitric 
acid, 15 ; water, 15; charcoal (crushed very fine) 480; lime, unslacked (crushed 
very fine) or silicium, 1920; total, 2432.. Mix these ingredients well together and 
add 894°9 parts of stock No, 1, and 45 parts of stocks Nos, 2 and 3. 
We are not told when this charge may be substituted for charge 
No. 1, but probably when the acid destroys the bottom of the 
iron vessel in which No. 1 was to have been evaporated ; and 
one would like to ask how charcoal, lime, and silicium are to act 
as substitutes for oxide of manganese, and where the silicium is 
to be procured. 
18, Retort Charges,—The retort charge No. 1 or No. 2 is put into a retort of 
the construction hereinafter set forth, and there are supplied to it intermittently 
mixtures, which I term flux mixtures, which are fed in from a vessel which I term a 
retort supplier. 
So we must presume that the chemical results expected from 
either of these mixtures—one or two—will be identical. Per- 
haps it is, so far as making illuminating gas is concerned. 
