f 514 ] [Jan. 1, 
REPORT OF CHEMISTRY AND EXPERIMENTAL PHILOSOPHY. 
M BERARD has been eng*aged in a 
• course of experiments to determine 
■what chemical changes take place during 
the maturation,ripening and decay ot fruits 
of various kinds, in the Annales de Chimie : 
his general results are as lollows: “ Fruits 
act upon atmospherical air in a different 
manner to leaves. The former at ail times, 
both in light and darkness, part with car¬ 
bon to the oxygen of the atmosphere, to 
produce carbonic acid, and this loss of 
carbon is essential to ripening-, since the 
px*ocess stops if the fruit is immersed in 
an atmosphere deprived of oxygen, and 
the fruit itself shrivels and dies. This oc¬ 
curs equally to those fruits which when 
gathered green are able to ripen of them¬ 
selves, though separated from their parent 
tree ; but in these the ripening process 
may be by this means delayed for a certain 
time, and be completed on restoring them 
to an oxygenized atmosphere. In this 
manner peaches, plums, apples, pears, &c. 
may be preserved unspoilt for from three 
to ten or twelve weeks, inclosed in an air¬ 
tight jar, with a quantity of lime and sul¬ 
phate of iron worked up into a paste with 
water, which has the property of abstract¬ 
ing oxygen from the air that is in contact 
with it. The passing from ripeness to de¬ 
cay in fruits is also characterized by the 
production and evolution of much carbonic 
acid, and equally requiresthe presence of an 
oxygenized medium. The internal changes 
produced in fruits by the ripening process 
are particularly distinguished by the pro¬ 
duction of sugar, which hardly exists in 
any notable quantity in immature fruits; 
and it appears to be produced at the ex¬ 
pense of part of the gum, and especially 
of the ligneous fibre. Lastly, the change 
which the woody fibre experiences during 
maturation continues during the decay of 
the fruit. It becomes brown ; much car¬ 
bonic acid is given out, and part of the 
sugar again disappears.’* 
M. Berthier has lately been engaged on 
the alloys of chromium, iron and steel, and 
has given much interesting information re¬ 
specting them, in a paper published in the 
Annales de Chimie , xvii. p. 55. Chromium 
has so strong an affinity for iron, that the 
presence of the latter metal very much 
facilitates the reduction of the former, and 
the combinations which result are, accor¬ 
ding to M. Berthier, more analogous to 
sulphurets and phosphurets than to alloys. 
The oxide of chrome also has so strong an 
affinity for the oxide of iron, as frequently 
to prevent its reduction, an effect that is 
not observed with any other substance. 
Oxide of chromium heated very intense¬ 
ly, in a crucible lined with charcoal, was 
completely reduced, and gave a button 
that bad suffered hasty fusiou, was brittle, 
hard, grey in some places, grey-black in 
others, perhaps containing carbon in com¬ 
bination. 
Mixtures of oxide of iron and oxide of 
chromium, in various proportions, were 
heated in crucibles lined with charcoal, 
and reduced, giving perfect combinations 
of the two metals. These alloys are ge¬ 
nerally hard, brittle, crystalline, of a 
whiter grey than iron, and very bright, 
less fusible, much less magnetic, and much 
less acted ou by acids than iron, and these 
characters are more marked in proportion 
as more chromium is present. An alloy, 
resulting from an equal mixture of per¬ 
oxides of iron and oxide of chromium, gave 
a rounded button, full of cavities, lined 
with prismatic crystals, its fracture crys¬ 
talline. Its colour w hiter than platinum, 
and hard enough to scratch glass like a 
diamond. It was easily reducible to powder 
in a mortar, and its powder was metallic. 
Strong acids, and even nitro-muriatic acid, 
scarcely acted on it. 
Cromate of iron, being heated in a cru¬ 
cible lined with charcoal, the iron was 
only reduced into a minor state of oxida¬ 
tion, and acted on the magnet. Without 
the presence of the oxide of chrome, the 
iron would have been reduced. 
On heating chromate of iron with an 
equal quantity cf glass, containing 16 per 
cent, soda, there was reduction of part of 
the metals, and a loss of 10 per cent, 
which M. Bex’thier thinks is iron and 
chrome volatilized, because a metallic 
scoria appeared on the surface of the cru¬ 
cible : and this loss w T as greater on adding 
boi*ax, and increased with its quantity. 
The best method of obtaining the alloy 
from chromate of ii*on, is to fuse it in a 
crucible lined with charcoal, with -30 of 
lime and -70 of silica, or with 1* of alka¬ 
line glass, or better still with *40 of borax ; 
and to obtain as much chromium as pos¬ 
sible, a portion of oxide of iron should be 
added. 
M. Berthier was induced to try the effect 
obtained by adding a portion of this alloy 
to steel. Two alloys of cast-steel and 
chromium were made, one with 0*01, the 
other with 0-015 of chromium. These 
both forged well, the first better than cast- 
steel. A knife and a i*azor were made 
from them, and both proved very good ; 
their edges were hard and solid, but their 
most remarkable character was the fine 
damask they took, when washed over with 
sulphuric acid. This damask was com¬ 
posed of white silvery veins, and nearly 
resembled that given by the alloy of steel 
and silver. The white parts are probably 
pure chromium, on which acids have no 
action. 
