278 



SCIENCE, 



[Vol. V., No. 113.. 



CHINESE IRON-FOUNDRIES AND RICE- 

 PAN CASTING. 



As a notable example of the patient plodding in- 

 dustry shown by the Chinese, may be instanced the 

 manufacture of the very thin cast-iron ricepans which 

 may be seen in any cook-house in Hong-Kong. The 

 principal seats of this industry are at the towns 

 of Sam-tiu-chuk and Fatshan. The iron used is 

 obtained by smelting magnetic oxide. The ore is 

 broken up and smelted with charcoal in a very prim- 

 itive smelting-furnace some eight feet high. The 

 cupola is cone-shaped, having its apex at the bot- 

 tom. The single tuyere pipe is of earthenware, the 

 opening for the emission of the blast being inclined 

 downwards. The furnace itself is of earthenware, 

 strengthened by hoops and longitudinal straps of 

 iron. The whole is lined with clay several inches 

 thick. The internal diameter at the bottom is about 

 two feet, and at the top three feet and a half ; the in- 

 side depth being about six feet. The blast is pro- 

 duced by a rude bellows, formed of a wooden box five 

 feet long, by three in horizontal, and a foot and a half 

 in vertical section. This box is divided longitudinally 

 into two compartments, each eighteen inches square 

 in vertical section. In each of these "compartments 

 a piston works, the valves being so arranged that one 

 piston is effective in the up, and the other in the 

 down or return stroke. As there is no air-chamber, 

 the blast is not perfectly continuous. The fuel used 

 is charcoal; and the furnace, being first heated by 

 starting a fire with fuel alone, is then filled up with 

 alternate layers of charcoal and ore in small frag- 

 ments. The blast is urged, and, after a sufficient 

 time has elapsed, the molten metal is drawn off from 

 a tap-hole at tbe bottom, and cast into ingots. These, 

 when intended for export, are afterwards reheated in 

 an open forge. 



For making the very thin ricepans, which are cast 

 without handles, pure iron of native manufacture 

 alone is used. The moulds in which the pans are 

 cast require weeks of tedious and patient labor to 

 bring them to perfection. They are composed of two 

 parts, an upper and a lower, and are made of care- 

 fully puddled clay. The great secret of the process 

 which enables the Chinese founders to cast their iron 

 pans of such large diameter, yet so thin and light as 

 to be scarcely thicker than a sheet of paper, appears 

 to be the use of highly heated moulds and pure char- 

 coal pig-iron. When the ovens and their contents 

 have cooled down, which takes about two days, the 

 luting attaching the upper portion of the mould to 

 the lower is carefully removed, and, the moulds being 

 separated, the pan can be extracted. When the 

 operation is successful, the same mould can be used 

 several times. The pans now have each attached to 

 its bottom a lump of iron, which, from the extreme 

 brittleness of the pans, requires the greatest care in 

 its removal. These runners are carefully sawn off, 

 and the edges smoothed down ; the pan is then ready 

 for the export market. Handles are attached to these 

 pans by the retail dealers. 



From the Journal of the iron and steel institute. 



The pans made at Fatshan differ from the preced- 

 ing in being cast with handles attached near the rim 

 to the inner surface of the pan, which necessitates 

 the breaking of the mould at each casting. They are 

 usually cast much thicker and heavier than those of 

 Sam-tiu-chuk, and occasionally one-third of foreign 

 pig-iron is mixed with the native iron for casting. 

 In other respects the process followed at both places 

 is the same. 



GREAT ANTIQUITY OF THE AMERICAN 

 RA CES. 



In an article in the Zeitschrift fur ethnologie, on the 

 great antiquity of the human races, Dr. Kollmann 

 takes American material to test his theory that the 

 craniological varieties of mankind existed in qua- 

 ternary times as they are found to-day. For this 

 purpose, accepting the geological evidence of their 

 antiquity as conclusive, he brings together observa- 

 tions and measurements upon crania from California, 

 Illinois, Patagonia, central Brazil, and Buenos 

 Aires. The first will be recognized immediately as 

 the celebrated Calaveras skull. To the original 

 measurements of Dr. Wyman, the author adds his 

 own measurements taken upon Whitney's plate (' Au- 

 riferous gravels of California'), using for a term of 

 comparison the heads of six Indians who visited 

 Basle in 1882. He finds the Calaveras skull does not 

 resemble European, but Indian crania in specific race- 

 characters, which have persisted since the glacial 

 epoch. The less familiar cranium from Illinois, 

 known as the McConnel skull, was found enveloped 

 in drift material in a cleft in a rock-bluff. It is now 

 owned by Dr. Schmidt of Berlin, whose measure- 

 ments are incorporated in the text with his conclu- 

 sion, from a comparison of this skull with those in 

 the collections at Washington and Philadelphia, that 

 it is not unlike more recent long skulls from Illinois. 



The rest of the study is based on material from 

 South America. On the banks of the Kio Negro, 

 Patagonia, in a stratum similar to that of the qua- 

 ternary loess of the pampas, Moreno found two skulls 

 which seem to him identical with existing forms. 

 At the last Congres des Americanistes, 1883, Liitken 

 invited the attention of craniologists to the as yet 

 unmeasured material representing the remains of 

 thirty individuals, which Lund obtained in the cave 

 of Sumidouro, near Lagoa Santa, Brazil. In a re- 

 cent visit to Copenhagen, Dr. Kollmann measured 

 four of the best preserved male crania, which, like 

 one given by Lund to a Brazilian collection, and 

 measured by Lacerda and Peixoto, are long, with 

 broad faces. According to the latter authorities, 

 they resemble the heads of Botocudos. The last of 

 the group is one taken by Both from the upper 

 pampas formation of northern Buenos Aires. To 

 Virchow, who took its measurements upon photo- 

 graphs, it recalled involuntarily the brachycephalic, 

 prognathic skulls of Sambaquis. Nehring also stated 

 to the Anthropological society of Berlin, that he has 

 in his possession a Sambaqui skull from Santos, 

 which presents a real resemblance to this. 



