550 
ON LIQUID FUEL. 
The chloroform was allowed to settle, and then the contents of the test tube poured 
slowly into a small separating funnel. When the chloroform had become clear, it was 
run off into a small capsule and spontaneously evaporated, leaving a small amount of 
yellowish-green residue. 
This was treated with one drachm of distilled water, to which had been added two 
drops of dilute sulphuric acid, then filtered, to filtrate added one drop of Mayer’s test,— 
the -jL normal solution of iodohydrargyrate of potassium,—but obtained not the 
slightest reaction or trace of a precipitate, showing the wine to contain little or none of 
the colchicia. To prove that this method would determine the presence of the active 
principle, one fluid ounce of some wine of colchicum that we made from a fair lot of 
seeds according to the U. S. P. was treated in precisely the same manner as above de¬ 
scribed, and, on the addition of one drop of the test liquor, a copious canary-coloured 
precipitate was obtained. 
Four drops of the test solution were required to precipitate all of the alkaloid. 
Physicians report this wine as efficient and active, corroborating the chemical test.— 
A inerican Journal of Pharmacy. 
ON LIQUID FUEL. 
BY BENJAMIN H. PAUL, ESQ. 
(Continued from page 106.) 
The following tabular statement will show the manner in which the heat that is con¬ 
sumed in producing a chimney draught, is distributed among the combustion products 
constituting the furnace gas:— 
Combustion of Carbon . 
Furnace gas 
from 1 lb. 
carbon. 
Quantities of heat in 
furnace gas. 
Equivalent 
evaporation 
of water at 
212° F. 
lbs. 
Heat units. 
lbs. 
Carbonic acid gas. 
367 
600° x *8 = 480 
•5 
Nitrogen gas. 
8-94 
600° x 2-2 - 1,320 
1-4 
Surplus air. 
11-61 
600° x 2-8 = 1,680 
1-7 
24-22 
3,480 
3-6 
It will be seen from this table that while the total waste of heat in the furnace gas 
from the combustion of 1 pound of carbon, is equivalent to 3‘6 pounds of steam, more 
than one-half of that heat is consumed in raising the temperature of the surplus air sup¬ 
plied for diluting the combustion product in the furnace. Consequently, any arrange¬ 
ment by which this surplus supply of air could be dispensed with, and combustion 
maintained at the same rate, would have the effect of reducing the waste of heat to the 
extent of 50 per cent., and economizing the heat generated by the carbon of the fuel to 
the extent of nearly 12 per cent. Herein consists the advantage gained by blowing the 
air into a furnace, instead of drawing it in by means of a chimney; for in that case the 
supply of air may be reduced to just enough to support combustion, and, at the same 
time, the temperature of the furnace gas may be so far reduced, either within the flues 
or tubes of the boiler, or in a feed-water heater, as to render the greater part of the heat 
contained in it effective for production of steam. 
The possibility of economizing, in this way, the heat generated by combustion of 
carbon is by no means unimportant; but it is of far greater importance as regards the 
heat generated by combustion of hydrogen; for in that case the total waste of heat 
arising from the discharge of the furnace gas at 600° F. above the temperature of the 
