1 877.] 
Scientific Notes. 
43i 
most satisfactorily demonstrated, as well as the portability of the light itself. 
The amount of heat given off by M. Jablochkoff’s candle is comparatively 
small, the glass globe of one of the lanterns used for lighting up the 
ship having been found to be only just comfortably warm after having been 
lighted for twenty minutes. The last experiment tried was, scientifically 
speaking, the most interesting of the whole, demonstrating as it did that 
M. Jablochkoff has succeeded in entirely doing away with the necessity for 
using carbons for the eleCtric light. His newest form of candle consists of a 
thin plate of his kaolin composition, about inches long by 1 inch broad, and 
about ^th inch thick. The sides of the plate are inserted in grooves cut in 
the wires forming the electrodes of the battery, which project very slightly 
above the top of the plate. In order to light this new form of candle a bridge 
of ordinary graphite is carried along the top edge of the porcelain plate. The 
graphite become incandescent, causing the porcelain to melt, which then be- 
comes a conductor. The graphite gradually disappears, and the melted por- 
tion of the porcelain becomes incandescent, gradually vapourising at the rate 
of a millimetre an hour. The light given out by the porcelain seems softer, 
mellower, and much more constant and steady, than that given off by the 
combination of carbon and porcelain : indeed, after five minutes’ examination 
with black spectacles, we failed to discern anything more than a barely per- 
ceptible start at distant intervals. 
A singular case of the production of heat has been communicated to the 
French Academy of Sciences by M. J. Olivier. A square rod of steel, 
80 centimetres in length and 15 millimetres square, is grasped firmly by both 
the hands of the operator, one of the hands being placed in the middle of the 
rod, and the other at one end. The free extremity is strongly pressed against 
an emery wheel revolving very rapidly. After a few minutes the extremity 
thus rubbed becomes strongly heated : the hand placed in the middle of the 
bar does not experience any feeling of heat, but the one at the ether extremity 
is heated to such an extent that the operator is compelled to let go. 
The official appreciation of scientific knowledge in our Colonies is admi- 
rably shown by the official reports recently issued by Colonel A. Brunei, the 
Commissioner of Inland Revenue for Canada. These are reports on weights 
and measures, and on the analysis of gas and food. A sure evidence of the 
continued material progress of a country is shown by its appreciation of 
scientific knowledge as applied to accurate measurement. For the mainte- 
nance in Canada of the British standards of length and weight, and for the 
issue to the local authorities, as well as to chemists and physicists there, of 
precise copies of these standards, there has been established at Ottawa a 
department under proper scientific direction, and provided with apparatus of 
the highest class. This department has also the appointment and control of 
the Inspectors whose duty it is to inspect the trade weights and measures. 
These numerous Inspectors are provided with weighing and measuring appa- 
ratus of the best design. From Colonel Brunei’s report it appears that — 
“ The analysis of gas and food is being carried out in the Dominion in ac- 
cordance with the latest scientific experience. In Canada, as elsewhere, 
condiments, coffee, and milk appear to be largely and unwholesomely adulte- 
rated. Quinine wine, which is an article of great demand in Canada, is found 
as sold to be a highly alcoholised wine containing gentian and mix vomica , 
with 20 per cent of alcohol, and is therefore a powerful stimulant instead of 
being a simple tonic. The testing of gas supplied for lighting and heating 
purposes is also the duty of the Department at Ottawa, and for this purpose 
chemists have been appointed, and a large quantity of photometric apparatus 
obtained from Mr. Sugg, of Westminster. The law appears, however, 
scarcely to have come yet into aCtive operation, and we regret to see that it is 
at present deficient in relation to the inspection of the illuminating power of 
gas. We are glad to find that Colonel Brunei has been so well supported in 
the difficult task he has initiated, and we trust that his Department may be 
imitated in other of our Colonies and Dependencies. 
