SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 
RESEARCH ON TIN AND TUNGSTEN. 
An important report has been published by the British Department 
of Scientific and Industrial Research on the work of the Tin and 
Tungsten Research Committee. A research on slime treatment on 
Cornish frames by Professor S. J. Truscott and others has, it is con- 
sidered, settled a number of the conditions governing frame working, 
and the result of the tests is to suggest the advantage of modification 
of two fundamental factors in policy, in the shape of rapid enrichment 
of slime, instead of the present practice of gradual enrichment, and 
extended fine grinding. In this way, Professor Truscott believes that 
an increase of 11 per cent. of the present recovery of tin would be gained. 
The treatment of complex low-grade refractory materials, such as 
“tinny iron” or “ black iron,” by fusion with nitre cake has been inves- 
tigated by Mr. H. R. Beringer, Captain A. M. Drummond, and Mr. F. 
H. Michell. They found in the laboratory that by fusion at a red heat 
and treatment of the melt with water, the iron and tungsten passed in 
great part into solution, while the cassiterite remained in the residue in 
a suitable condition for recovery on the dressing floors. Promising 
results were obtained in an experimental furnace with a flat cast-iron 
bed at the King Edward Mines, and the management of the South Crofty 
Mine decided to utilize the process in a larger furnace of different 
design. There seems reason to expect that the remaining difficulties will 
be overcome, and that the nitre cake process will become available for 
treating refractory complex low-grade concentrates which at present 
realize little or nothing, involving a loss of many thousand pounds 
annually in the country. 
The same investigators have been endeavouring to find a chemical 
method of removing and recovering the tungsten from concentrates as 
they leave the calciner, and from certain ores containing wolfram, They 
have had most suecess with a modification of the Oxland process, but it 
does not at present appear that the method can be used industrially. 
Dr. O. J. Stannard has succeeded by a new process in separating tungstic 
acid in a remarkably pure form from concentrates and wolfram ores. 
In experiments by Mr. H. W. Hutchin, assisted by Mr. L. J. Meade; 
on the recovery of tungsten from concentrates by digestion with caustic 
soda, dilute solutions were found to be ineffective. Strong solutions 
acting on uncalcined material effected what was apparently complete 
extraction of tungstic oxide, but the extraction from calcined material 
was incomplete, and economic success appears unlikely. 
AUSTRALIAN SANDALWOOD OIL. 
It has heen found that there is a marked chemical difference between 
the oil derived from Western Australian sandalwood and that obtained 
from Indian sandalwood. The most important result of recent re- 
search was to show that the oil from the West Australian tree did not 
contain santalol, but a nearly related chemical compound. Medical 
practitioners who have used the Australian oil consider that it is quite 
equal to the true sandalwood oil for medicinal purposes without possess- 
ing the deleterious effects of the latter. The subject has been referred 
to the Institute by the Western Australian Committee with a view to 
having complete tests made in respect to the chemical and therapeutical 
properties of the oil, so that action might be taken to have the Austra- 
lian product inserted in the British Pharmacopeia. 
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