362 
ON  A  SUPPOSED  NEW  ELEMENT. 
bleached,  it  is  sent  to  the  lint-maker,  who  completes  the  bleach- 
ing, and  extracts  impurities  consisting  chiefly  of  lime  and  the 
bleaching  agents  left  in  the  texture.  The  cloth  is  then  stoved 
and  wound  on  rollers  ready  for  the  linting  process.  In  the  best 
machines,  the  pile  or  nap  is  raised  upon  the  cloth  by  knives 
making  upwards  of  500  strokes  a  minute.  The  motion  of  these 
knives  or  scrapers  is  rotary  in  some  machines  and  vertical  in 
others.  The  latter  motion  is  stated  to  be  practically  the  best, 
as  the  knives  moving  vertically  beat  and  soften  the  cloth  upon 
which  they  raise  the  pile,  A  good  machine  will  produce  about 
eighteen  yards  or  two  pounds  of  lint  per  hour.  The  fabric  after 
leaving  the  machine  is  passed  through  the  calender  and  mechani- 
cally divided  into  pounds.  It  is  then  rolled  and  labelled  ready 
for  use. 
After  having  compared  several  specimens  of  the  new  lint  with 
the  almost  obsolete  rag-lints,  I  am  at  a  loss  to  account  for  the 
prejudice  which  still  exists  against  the  former.  The  machine- 
made  lints  possess  all  the  valuable  quantities  of  the  older  pro- 
ducts, are  much  cheaper,  and  are  sold  in  regular  pieces,  which 
can  be  cut  up  without  waste.  There  are  certain  people  who  in- 
variably cavil  at  all  improvements,  which  they  scornfully  term 
new-fangled  notions  ;"  and  I  cannot  help  thinking  that  the 
objections  which  have  been  raised  against  the  machine-made 
lints  proceed  from  some  of  these  lovers  of  the  past  Chemist 
and  Druggist.,  May  16,  1861. 
A   SUPPOSED  NEW  ELEMENT,  PROBABLY  OF  THE  SULPHUR 
GROUP. 
Whilst  examining  the  residues  left  in  the  purification  of  crude 
selenium  from  a  seleniferous  deposit,  from  a  sulphuric  acid  man- 
ufactory, for  teUuriwm,  by  the  method  of  spectrum  analysis,  Mr. 
Crookes  observed  a  bright  green  line  suddenly  to  appear  and 
disappear  under  circumstances  which  led  him  to  the  conclusion 
that  a  hitherto  unrecognized  element  was  present,  the  isolation 
of  which  is  now  engaging  his  attention.  As  far  as  he  has  gone, 
the  following  appear  to  be  the  properties  of  this  new  substance, 
both  in  solution  and  in  the  dry  state:    1.  It  is  completely  vola- 
