SCIENCE. 



323 



ator from which the gases therein manufactured are led 

 away in pipes to the heating-place. The generator, i. e. 

 the Holland retort is at the heating-place, in the fire- 

 box of the locomotive, and the full effect of the carbon 

 combustion is therefore obtained in both cases, whether 

 the dissociation of the steam takes place to furnish oxy- 

 gen for the first stage of this combustion only or 

 whether the dissociation is accomplished so as to burn 

 up the carbon completely with oxygen derived from the 

 dissociated water-vapor. But there is this great differ- 

 ence : If the carbon derives all the oxygen necessary for 

 its complete conversion into carbonic acid from the dis- 

 sociation of the steam, there will be twice as much hy- 

 drogen liberated as against its conversion into carbonic 

 oxide only, as will be seen from the following statement 

 of the two cases by Dahlerus : 



" When watery vapor burns carbon to carbonic oxide, 

 there are formed from two volumes of watery vapor and 

 one volume of carbon two volumes of carbonic oxide and 

 two volumes of hydrogen ; further, when carbon is 

 burned by watery vapor to carbonic acid, there are 

 formed from one volume of carbon and four volumes of 

 watery vapor, two volumes of carbonic acid and four vol 

 umes of hydrogen. Consequently the volume of hy- 

 drogen in the gases is equal to the volume of carbonic 

 oxide and double that of the volume of carbonic acid." 



In connection with these important relations I must, 

 in conclusion, refer to the results of numerous experi- 

 ments, made with the Holland process, which can 

 only be fully and satisfactorily explained in the light of 

 the previous discussion. They are certainly a most 

 remarkable series of experiments, never before equalled 

 or excelled ; the results accomplished by the Naphtha and 

 water process have startled all experts and scientists who 

 have witnessed them, while those who have not seen their 

 actual performance reluctantly admit their genuine- 

 ness. Yet they are absolute facts, and the possibilities 

 which they have in store are greater than anything 

 that has as yet been reported. 



In starting the fire under the boiler of this locomotive, 

 it must be stated, there is first lighted a small tank filled 

 with naphtha, which is placed under one of the retorts 

 in the fire-box. As soon as this retort is thereby suf- 

 ficiently heated to gasify the naphtha, naphiha-gas is 

 burned under all the retorts, and water admitted into 

 them to be converted into steam. When both naphtha 

 and water are thus gasified, their gases are jointly ad- 

 mitted to all the burners under the whole length of the 

 boiler, and the generation of steam now begins in earnest. 

 As soon as feasible, steam from the boiler is introduced 

 into the retorts instead of water, so that after th : s period 

 the naphtha only has to be gasified in the retorts. 



I nowgivu one of Mr. Con ANT'S tables in full, containing 

 the results of an experiment he witnessed on April 29th : 



Lighted at 10:05 a. m. Gas Started at 10:35. 



Steam, 

 Pounds. 



Time, 

 M. 



Naptha, 

 Gall. 



Naptha, 

 Per Lb. 

 Gall. 



Naptha, 

 Per Min 

 Gall. 



Tor, 

 Gall. 



\LS. 



H. M.- 



10 





5.62 



.56 



.08 



5.62 



1 09 54 



20 



15 



3-83 



.40 



.27 



9-45 



1 2454 



3° 



18K 



2.7 



•29 



■ IS 



12.35 



' 43 



40 



9 



2.41 



• 2 4 



.27 



14.76 



1 52 



5° 



8 



2.14 



.21 



■27 



16.9 



2 00 



60 



7 



2.14 



.21 



•3° 



19.04 



2 07 



7° 



5 



1.61 



.16 



.32 



20.65 



2 12 



80 



3« 



1.07 



.IO 



.30 



21.72 



2 is54 



90 



4& 



1.07 



.IO 



.24 



22.79 



2 20 





4 



1.07 



.to 



•27 



23.86 



2 24 



110 



4 



1.07 



.10 



.27 



24-93 



2 28 



120 



4 



1.07 



.10 



• 3 7^ 



26.00 



2 32 



Engine started out — safety valve blowing — oil disturbed and n<> record. 



»33 S 



The puzzling fact that the higher the temperature 

 and the steam-pressure rise, the less naphtha is burned, 

 would be absolutely inexplicable if it was not for the 

 relations alluded to in the foregoing observations. Up 

 to 60 or 70 pounds of steam-pressure in the boiler the 

 consumption of naphtha averages 2.14 gals, for every 

 ten pounds of pressure added, while above these figures, 

 it averages only 1.07 gals. — just one-half of the former 

 quantity — for every additional 10 pounds. We know 

 what that means. It means that there is an evident 

 supplanting of the naphtha by some other much more 

 powerful heating agent ; the naphtha in this process un- 

 mistakably plays a subordinate role, as far as the 

 heating is concerned. We know its task. It dissociates 

 the water and thereby liberates its hydrcgen ; it is the 

 latter that furnishes the bulk of the caloric energy de- 

 veloped. During the earlier stages, when the steam- 

 pressure is yet comparatively low, the quantity of steam 

 inttoduced into the retorts is limited and the carbon 

 therefore is burned up to carbonic oxide only by disso- 

 ciated oxygen ; as soon, however, as the steam-pressure 

 rises above a certain point the quantity of steam intro- 

 duced is very soon sufficient to furnish all the oxygen 

 necessary for the complete combustion of the carbon of 

 the naphtha to carbonic acid. Thus, we are enabled by 

 a correct interpretation of Nature's laws to explain fully 

 and satisfactorily the paradoxical fact that the greater 

 the heat, the less the consumption cf oil. We know 

 that instead of two volumes of hydrogen in the first, we 

 must have four in the second case. 



There is one other point which I may probably feel 

 called upon to treat of, viz.: the utter invisibility of this 

 tremendous fire. For the present the above will suffice. 



DR. GUNTHERS ICHTHYOLOGY.* 



Less than a century ago the last edition of the Sys- 

 tema Natura; of Linrjeus, published in 1766, was taken 

 as the basis and text of essentially a new compilation by 

 Johann Fnedrich Gmelin, and among the species ad- 

 mitted by Linrasus were intercalated these subsequently 

 added by others to the system. There were very many 

 duplications arising from the imperfect acquaintance 

 of the compiler with his subject, but nevertheless, all 

 told, only 826 species of fishes were named. There are 

 now known, in round numbers, nearly ten thousand spe- 

 cies. In the interval between the compilations of Gmelin 

 and the present were published works of a like nature, 

 by Walbaum, Lacepede, Bloch, Schneider, and Shaw! 

 These were all finished before 1804, and were all of very 

 little value. For considerably more than half a century 

 no other descriptive general enumeration of fishes was 

 completed. Meanwhile, from 1828 to 1849, Cuvier and 

 Valenciennes gave to Ichthyology 22 volumes of a work 

 designed to be a general natural history of fishes, but 

 this was never finished. At last, in 1859, was commenced 

 and in 1870 brought to an end, a work purporting to enu- 

 merate all the species of fishes known to the dates of 

 publication, by Dr. Albert Giinther, under the auspices 

 of the British Museum. For this contribution the scien- 

 tific world was laid under great obligations to the author 

 as well as publisher. It was a compilation requiring 

 considerable skill and acquaintance with the literature, 

 and the work may be said to have been moderately well' 

 performed. Its author followed the outlines of classifi- 

 cation proposed many years before by the illustrious 

 Johannes Miiller. On the whole this was the best 

 course, perhaps, to be taken at the time. In 1861, how- 

 ever, he gave a systematic re-arrangement of the Acan- 

 thopterygian families, which was above all characterized 

 by an excessive valuation placed on very trivial charac- 



Pop valve blowing av. 33 sec, with 32 sec. intervals. No right of way 

 and no run. 



* An introduction to the study of fishes. By Albert C. L. G. Gtinther. 

 Edinburgh : Adam and Charles Black. 1880. 



