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three, and each portion enclosed and sealed by the in- | with reference to the numbered samples, and such num. spector, in the presence of the purchaser; and the pur-bered samples should be kept in the custody of the inchaser should also be allowed to affix his seal or other spector until the analysis is complete, and the certificate mark to each packet; but no naine or other distinguishing of the analyst given; and they should be then handed mark should be placed on the sample, except the name of over to the custody of the vestry clerk, to be kept by him the article, and labels descriptive of any admixture. The in the vestry's strong room; and no other officer or other inspector should at the time he receives the samples, person should have access to such forms, or to the sealed enter in a form, provided for the purpose, the date, the samples, except as ordered by a Court of Law upon any name, and address of the person bringing the sample, the proceedings against the vendor of adulterated articles, or name and address of the vendor, a distinguishing number by the vestry. of the sample, and other particulars. One portion sealed, Printed by order of the but not bearing the distinguishing number, should be General Purposes returned to the purchaser, the second sealed and numCommittee. bered should be retained by the inspector, and the third should be divided into two, each portion sealed, marked, and numbered (with a number corresponding to that on the second sample), in the presence of the analyst-one portion left with the analyst, and the other retained by the inspector, in order to prove the identity of the article. The inspector should not, except as provided for in section 3 of the Act of 1860, give to the analyst the name of the person bringing an article for analysis, or the name

of the vendor of such article.

The analyst should, in his certificate of the result of his analysis, refer to the particular sample analysed by number and description only, and the certificate should be so worded as that it cannot be applied to any other sample, or used in any other way for the purposes of advertise

ment.

The inspector should not be allowed to alter or interfere in any way with the certificate, so as to identify such certificate with the vendor of the article, or with any other person, and should not be allowed, to give any form of certificate himself.

AS TO ARTICLES PURCHASED BY THE INSPECTOR. There should be a systematic scheme of sampling. The inspector should be only partially under the control of the analyst, i.e., he should at the request of the analyst obtain samples of any given article from the dealers in such article, in any one ward or district of the parish; but in every other respect he should act only under the regulations of the vestry.

When required by the analyst to obtain samples of any article, he must obtain such samples, as far as possible, from all vendors of the article in the ward or district. He must, in the presence of the vendor, divide his purchase into three, and enclose each sample, and the inspector and the vendor should seal the same; but no name or other distinguishing mark should, in the presence of the vendor, be placed upon a sample, except the name of the article, and labels descriptive of any admixture. The inspector should leave one portion with the vendor, and should, immediately after leaving the vendor, attach a distinguishing number to the two samples in his possession, retain one himself, under seal, and sub-divide the other into two, in the presence of the analyst, retaining one sub-divided portion, and leaving the other with the analyst, and upon such portion the certificate of the analyst should be given. The certificate to be given under the same conditions as above-mentioned in regard to a private purchaser.

When the analyst shall be of opinion that the result of an analysis of any article is such as to warrant the vestry instituting proceedings against the vendor, he should make a special report at once to that effect to the vestry, using only the number of the sample; and the vestry should thereupon, and without the name of the vendor being made known, resolve whether proceedings should be taken against such vendor.

The analyst should be required to provide a laboratory at his own expense, and all assistance and things necessary for the purposes of analysis. He should be paid by fixed salary, and not be allowed to receive any fees whatever, except fees for attendance in a court of justice on proceedings being taken by the vestry.

The forms, containing the names and other particulars i

THOS. ECCLESTON GIBB,

Vestry Clerk.

UTILISATION OF COAL WASTE.

By E. F. LOISEAU.

AN article on the "Utilisation of Waste Coal," very ably written, appeared in the October number of the American Exchange and Review, and was reproduced by almost all the American scientific papers. The anonymous author of this article has evidently studied the subject carefully, and his objections to the different processes which have been tried to solidify coal dust are serious ones; but his knowledge of the facts seems to be limited entirely to what has been tried in America, and he seems to possess only some general information about what has been done abroad.

Alluding to the manufacture of artificial fuel in Europe, the author of the article referred to says that, "for a number of years, the bituminous or semi-bituminous waste from the mines of Germany, France, and Belgium has been to a considerable extent successfully utilised, by mixing with it from 15 to 30 per cent of ordinary moist clay, and pressing this plastic mass into forms of any desired shape and size. The product, thus obtained, though of inferior heating quality, still secures a ready market, owing to the high price of the coal in the countries named, where it finds employment, not only for household purposes, but also for steam generation."

Not only is the dust of bituminous and semi-bituminous coal consolidated with clay in Europe; but in Belgium, at the mines of Baulet, Auvelais, Ham-surSambre and Tamines-sur-Sambre, the dust of a very dry coal, called stone coal, similar to anthracite, is also manufactured into solid lumps by a clay mixture. In France, in the department of Izère, at La Sable, Vizille, Arroux, where pure vitreous and specular anthracites, resembling those of Pennsylvania, are mined, the same process is applied. It is also applied in South Wales. It is not the high price of the coal, which secures to the artificial fuel, thus made, a ready market—it is its lasting qualities, its regular size, its being free from slate, sulphur, and other impurities, and giving no smoke. The slack coal in Belgium is not worthless as it is here; it is used for baking bricks, tiles, &c., and its price is only 30 per cent below that of coal. The artificial fuel costs as much as the ordinary coal and sometimes more; still it is preferred to the ordinary coal.

The manufacture of bituminous and semi-bituminous waste into solid lumps by the use of coal-tar as a cement, has long ago been abandoned in Europe. Fluid pitch is still used at La Chazotte, France, but all the other factories of France, England, Germany, and Belgium are using either clay or the residuum of coal-tar, submitted to boiling until it is freed of from 50 to 60 per cent of its volatile matters; it then constitutes dry pitch. This pitch is ground, mixed with the coal dust, in the proportion of about 8 per cent, conveyed by a propeller screw through a heated cylinder which softens the pitch, into a mixer, and from this mixer to a press, to be moulded into lumps of suitable sizes.

Although the lumps are submitted to almost complete

carbonisation, this coal is unfit for domestic purposes. | termed "artificial fuel" appears to have been made about It answers well for steamers, locomotives, &c., and it does not disintegrate, while burning, as the coal cokes before the pitch is consumed; but when pitch is mixed with anthracite coal dust, and pressed into lumps, these lumps disintegrate in the fire and the particles of coal fall through the grate without being consumed.

the year 1594, when Sir Hugh Platt attempted to intoduce into England, for use in common fire-places, a mixture of coal and clay, which he states to have been according to the manner of "Lukeland in Germany." He also used other mixtures, such as small coal with sawdust, tanner's bark, held together with loam or with cowdung. These are set forth in a work published in 1603, and entitled "A New, Cheap, and Delicate Fire of CoalBalls," by H. Platt.

Some manufacturers, and among them, John Christie and Thomas Harper, in England, and Euryale Dehaynin, in France, thought that by more mechanical combination of materials, they could obtain results equivalent to a chemical change in the ingredients themselves; thus, that by the mixtures of anthracite and bituminous slack, a fuel could be obtained corresponding in its properties to steam, or semi-bituminous, coal; or that by mixing a good with a very poor coal, a fuel of a fair average quality could be obtained. Nothing could be further from the truth, for mere mechanical combination can in no way alter the nature of the several ingredients used. In the fuel thus made with a mixture of coals, each particle burned in the precise manner, and gave the results due to peculiar seam from which it was taken, whilst the pitch used for combining the small particles of coal gave out, in like manner, the flame, heat, or smoke due to its combustion under similar circumstances when not forming part of a block of artificial fuel.

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The process of manufacturing artificial fuel from bituminous or semi-bituminous coal dust, by cementing the particles with pitch, would be as successful in this country as it is in Europe, if the price of the coal were higher than it is to-day; at the actual low price, it would not be a remunerative business. The same difficulty would exist in the application of the process to anthracite waste, even if a perfect product could be made. Having described the process of Bessemer, in England, for consolidating bituminous coal dust without any cement, by heating the dust to a semi-caked plastic condition and pressing it afterwards in suitable moulds, the author of the article says that "this plan has received considerable praise from scientific critics, of which it is indeed well worthy. It is now stated to be in successful operation in several large manufactories in England.”

Scientific critics have praised the process, it is true, but the practical application of it has been a failure. Although Bessemer's process has been considerably improved by Evrard and Baroulier in France, the expensive machinery required for its application and the defects of the fuel produced, which had a great heating power, but could not bear transportation, were sufficient causes for the abandonment of the enterprise. There does not exist, to-day, on the Continent, a single establishment where the manufacture of artificial fuel from coal waste, without cement, is carried on.

Although the writer of the article objects strongly to the use of mineral cements, he seems to think that several American processes for utilising coal waste by the use of grahamite as a cement, may ultimately prove successful.

Grahamite is an asphaltic mineral found in West Virginia; it may be classed with the albertite of New Brunswick and the bitumen of Trinidad. Like these, it expands when submitted to elevated temperatures, and it emits while burning the same unpleasant odour and smoke which made the use of coal-tar pitch as a cement so objectionable in a fuel prepared for domestic use. Any kind of asphalt would answer as well as pitch to manufacture from bituminous coal dust an artificial fuel for manufacturing purposes, if the low price of the coal were not, as it is now, an insuperable difficulty. Applied to anthracite slack, to manufacture an artificial fuel for the same purpose, asphalt will not answer, on account of its tendency to expansion, and for household purposes it will not answer better than the pitch, on account of the smell and smoke. There remains the long-tested and cheaper process of cementing the coal dust with clay. The first experiment in the manufacture of what is

No further experiments appear to have been made in this direction for nearly two centuries, when on Dec. 16, 1799. John Frederic Chabannes obtained an English patent for separating the large coal from the small coal, by passing the latter through sieves or gratings, made of wood or metal, and then consolidating the small coal by mixing it with clay, cow-dung, tar, pitch, &c., to be mixed together and ground with a wheel in water, in a wooden vessel. This mixture he afterwards placed in pits, provided with drains for the water to run off, and then, when almost dry, moulded the mass into cakes of a considerable size.

Since 1799, clay, conjointly with various resinous cements, has been used and patented in European countries by a number of so-called inventors. Among the most prominent were Levy, Stafford, Oram, Goodwin, Drouet, De la Chabeaussiere, Geary, Mohum, Stirling, Dominick, Holcombe, Smith, Hollands, Whitaker, and others. The clay was added to the mixture in order to counterbalance, by its tendency to contract when heated, the tendency of the resinous materials to expand. The resinous materials were added to the clay to make the fuel manufactured burn better and to render it impervious to moisture. The admixture of resinous materials with the small coal and the clay spoiled the fuel by the bad odour and smoke which it made while burning, and at the same time increased considerably the cost of manufacturing solid coal from slack.

While the inventors were trying to find some kind of cement which would hold the particles of coal firmly together until entirely consumed, without emitting smoke or odour, the people in the mining regions of England, France, Germany, and Belgium, feeling the need of a cheap and lasting fuel, were buying the small coal at the collieries, and adding to it from 30 to 40 per cent of clay, with sufficient water to moisten the mixture, worked it into a pasty mass with shovels, and by trampling upon it with wooden shoes. (In some parts of Germany it is trampled upon by men on horseback.) This pasty mass was simply pressed by hand in the shape of balls or eggs, dried in the sun, and stored under shelter until used.

It will easily be perceived that such an addition of clay increases considerably the quantity of ashes and reduces the combustible character of the coal. For the last few years it has been manufactured mechanically, and the propor. tion of clay has been reduced in Belgium to 20 per cent.

The only objection made to the clay process in the article referred to is, that "it must prove unsuccessful, from the fact that the combustible character of the coal waste is so considerably reduced by the mixture with it of from 10 to 20 per cent of non-combustible materials, that the product can only be burned with difficulty, necessitating either constant attention or an artificial draught." This objection is well founded when applied to even the most improved European methods, but it loses its force when applied to my process, by which the proportion of clay is reduced to 5 per cent, and the fuel manufactured rendered impervious to moisture by an outside coating, thus preventing its gradual deterioration in heating qualities when exposed to the combined action of air and moisture. It will be conceded that 5 per cent. of clay in the fuel is less objectionable than the presence of from 5 to 10 per cent of slate, and sometimes more. If the intensity of heat given by artificial fuel made with clay is not equal to that of the ordinary coal, it lasts longer

and it may safely be asked, if for domestic purposes, this, will not be an advantage rather than a defect.

As before stated, clay, as a cement, can be applied to anthracite as well as to bituminous slack; the European factories demonstrate this to evidence. It only requires appropriate machinery to demonstrate the fact in this country.

Before concluding this article, I wish to say that, in my opinion, the manufacture of artificial fuel from bituminous slack and clay is destined to revolutionise the manufacture of iron in the bituminous coal regions. No bituminous coal, except the block coal used in the Brazil furnaces, in Indiana, can be used for smelting, without being previously coked. It is coked for two reasons: 1st. For the purpose of converting it into a fuel deprived of its volatile constituents, which does not become pasty when ignited, and does not run and cake together. 2nd. For the purpose of eliminating from the coal a portion of the sulphur contained as pyrites. Now, it is a well known fact that the slack or coal dust contains a very small proportion of sulphur, hardly any. Scientists and practical metallurgists almost unanimously agree that the sulphur contained in the coal combines with the iron in the furnace only at a low red heat, and it may safely be asserted that the small proportion of sulphur contained in the artificial fuel would be eliminated and the coal coked in the furnace before this combination could take place.

Basing my statements on experiments, I will add that bituminous slack, mixed with clay and moulded into lumps, will not run and cake together; that its tendency to expand will be counterbalanced by the tendency of the clay to contract, and that in any kind of heating apparatus, stove, grate, or furnace, it will coke gradually from the outside surface to the centre, each lump becoming, so to say, a small retort, the gases escaping through a heated surface and being consumed, instead of escaping into the flue; the coal throwing no sparks from the grates and emitting a light, greyish smoke, instead of the black, dense smoke peculiar to the bituminous coal.-Engineering and Mining Journal.

must be rapidly executed and extreme accuracy is not necessary. The instruments usually made use of are the pocket sextant and the prismatic compass; the first is accurate, though inconvenient, and the latter convenient, though inaccurate. The instrument proposed by me as a substitute for both sextant and compass is a reflecting instrument, so contrived as to exhibit the angle subtended at the eye by two objects.

Reflecting angle-measuring instruments are based upon the fact that the angle through which a mirror is turned is a measure of the angle through which a ray of light reflected by it is displaced the former being half the latter. In the sextant, an index arm is attached to the reflector, and made to traverse a graduated arc. This arc is divided so as to contain twice the number of degrees that it really holds, and, consequently, any angle read off represents twice the angle through which the mirror has been turned, or the angle between the two positions of the reflected ray. The graduations of the arc are necessarily crowded together, each 30' representing 1°, 1° representing 2°, &c. The difficulty of reading the angle is increased, while the accuracy of the reading is diminished. In field sketching, such as that referred to above, where angles are plotted upon paper and are not used as the basis of calculation, the value of the angles in degrees and minutes is not required, inasmuch as no use would be made of such values beyond the arriving at the position

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Land surveys of large extent are based upon angular measurement; a short distance only is measured, and the longer distances are inferred by calculation. In surveys of small extent, all measurement is linear, and the areas enclosed by any assigned figure, bounded by straight lines, can be easily estimated, but such procedure ceases to be possible where the boundary lines are long, or the tract to be covered by the survey is large. With surveys pretending to much accuracy, the angular measurement must be made the basis of trigonometrical calculation, the calculated distances containing the error of the original line in an increased proportion.

When it is unnecessary to obtain great accuracy, the angles ascertained may be plotted upon paper, and the loci of points determined, the intersections of such loci defining the position of remote points.

This latter procedure is that of necessity adopted in military reconnoissances and other cases, where the work

* A paper read before the Royal Dublin Society.

Points A and c equidistant from o, the centre of pivot; the mirror, B, is parallel with c when the instrument is closed.

of a line on the paper. The reading of the angle by a microscope and vernier becomes an inconvenient step, and one gladly to be dispensed with if possible. The protactor, also, with which the angle would be plotted, does not read within 30', while the vernier reads to a second.

Under these circumstances it appeared desirable to produce an instrument which would exhibit in itself the angle subtended at the eye by two points, and allow it to be plotted at once, and thus remove the necessity for intermediate operations. Such an instrument is that represented by the figure. It becomes necessary to contrive two angular motions depending upon each other, one half the other. If a reflector moved with the first, the second would represent the movement of the reflected ray. Cog-wheels were the first expedient that suggested itself to procure such a motion, but these were abandoned for what appeared more desirable, viz., the geometrical necessity of some figure. That of which I have availed myself is this-that the base of an isosceles triangle moves with half the angular motion of one of its sides, the other remaining fixed, and the angle of the vertex being supposed to expand. After much adaptation and alteration, the instrument took the form shown in the figure. The centre of the sector is made the centre of the isosceles triangle, at the extremity of one leg of which is the centre of the index mirror, at the extremity of the other the centre of

the movable spud, a, which slides between two guides | able time; ether kept with water in well-stoppered upon the base.

bottles exhibited the iodoform reaction after some three or four months, but in some instances the reaction was obtained in a shorter time. Both the ether and water were pure.

The operation of the instrument is obvious on looking at the figure. When the legs are closed the two mirrors are parallel, and the object seen direct over the smaller mirror is seen also reflected in it. On opening the instru ment, other objects are seen reflected in the small mirror, and the angle exhibited by the legs is that subtended at the centre of the movable mirror by the two objects, seen one direct, and the other by reflection immediately below. The pivot is pierced with a small hole, to allow the paper to be seen through, and to allow a pencil-mark to be made. The right-hand object is looked at, and reflected image of the left-hand object made to appear below it in the small glass.

This instrument has been tested both with a theodolite and quadrant, and the angles in each case plotted upon paper; the results were identical.

BEHAVIOUR OF ETHER WHEN IN CONTACT
WITH OTHER SUBSTANCES.
By A. LIEBEN.

In my treatise on "The Origin and Production of Iodoform and on the Application of these. Reactions" (Ann. d. Chem. u. Pharm., Supplm. 7, p. 221), I have said that when ether is shaken up with water and the water then treated with iodine and potassa no iodoform is formed, if the ether is perfectly pure; but I also observed that it was difficult to obtain pure ether, since the simple contact of ether with water, even at the ordinary temperature, and far more rapidly at 100°, causes the ether to become contaminated with alcohol. I have further investigated this subject by first trying whether perfectly pure ether, when kept alone, remains unaltered, and also, whether contact with water always produces alteration; while I lastly tried the effect of substances usually employed for drying ether. This research appeared to me to be the more interesting, since the high sensitiveness of the iodoform reaction affords a means of detecting slight alterations. When a compound so fixed and stable as ether is subject to changes hitherto scarcely thought of, it seems reasonable to conclude that other substances also undergo alterations, which are not detected for want of reagents.

Ether by Itself. I have in another paper described the methods of making perfectly pure ether; I only mention here that it is best to re-distil the ether so obtained once or twice over sodium, chloride of calcium tubes being fitted to the distilling apparatus to avoid the contact of moist air. Ether so purified, and kept in well-stoppered bottles, continues good for several months; even after fifteen months no iodoform reaction was exhibited, and I therefore conclude that pure ether kept as stated does not become altered, at all events not sufficient to be detected by the iodoform reaction.

Ether with Water.-I repeated my former experiments by pouring ether and water or ether and dilute sulphuric acid in glass tubes, and after sealing I heated these tubes for twenty-four hours to 100°; on testing the water afterwards I detected a strong reaction of iodoform, due to formation of alcohol, while, on the other hand, a sealed tube, also containing water and ether, kept during the same period of time at the ordinary temperature, did not exhibit this reaction. I also found by separate experiments that when the sealing of the glass tubes is carefully proceeded with there is no chance that any iodoform-producing substance (aldehyde, for instance, due to the action of the red-hot glass on the vapour of ether) can be generated; it is therefore quite certain that when ether and water are heated to 100° alcohol is in a short time formed. The same action between ether and water obtains at the ordinary temperature, but only after the lapse of a consider

Ether and Sodium.-Pure ether kept in contact with small lumps of sodium in a well-stoppered bottle was found after six months to exhibit no iodoform reaction.

Ether and Chloride of Calcium.-Pure ether kept with lumps of freshly-ignited chloride of calcium in a wellstoppered bottle for a period of six months was found on being tested to distinctly exhibit the iodoform reaction, and consequently the ether had undergone alteration.

Ether and Caustic Potassa.-Pure ether and freshly-prepared fused caustic potassa kept for six months was found to be unaltered; and the same result was obtained when the ether was kept for the same lapse of time with recently burnt caustic lime. When the pure ether was kept for six months along with freshly-ignited chloride of sodium it exhibited a distinct iodoform reaction, but with freshlyignited carbonate of potassa no such reaction was obtained after the same lapse of time.

Ether and Anhydrous Sulphate of Copper.- When sharply dried (dehydrated) sulphate of copper and pure ether are kept for six months in a well-stoppered bottle the ether exhibits no physical appearance of change, but on testing the ether it exhibits distinctly the iodoform reaction. A portion of the same ether employed in these experiments was kept alone, and having been tested after six months did not then exhibit any trace even of formation of iodoform. I cannot explain the reason why certain neutral and anhydrous substances (CaCl2, NaCl, CuSO4) should have any peculiar effect on ether without entering into hypotheses which are not proved; it appears that basic substances do not act upon ether, while acids and salts affect it. We might suppose that ethylates are formed, for instance :

CuSO4+C2H5OC2H5-Cu-OC2H5

-O-SO2-OC2H5,

and that by the operation of testing for iodoform alcohol is formed by the action of water; but it is also possible that a small portion of the ether is converted into alcohol and ethylen. The main point of interest in these researches is that perfectly pure ether can be kept by itself in wellstoppered bottles without alteration, and also when in contact with perfectly dry and previously thoroughly ignited KHO, CaOK2CO3, and also with pure sodium, but the ether cannot be kept with water, CaCl2, NaCl, or CuSO4, because when in contact with these substances it is gradually altered.—Annalen der Chemie und Pharmacie.

SUINT.

IN nothing is the spirit of the age more clearly shown than in the efforts made to utilise waste substances. This is being done with such effect that what was formerly got rid of with great difficulty and at considerable expense may become one of the most important objects of manufacture. We need only point to such matters as sewage, the slag of furnaces, the fine coal of commerce, the waste of pyrites used in the manufacture of sulphuric acid, &c., as illustrations. Quite a recent instance of this improved economy is found in the treatment of the wool of sheep. It has been ascertained that sheep derive from the soil upon which they pasture a considerable amount of potash, which, after it has circulated in the blood, is excreted from the skin with the sweat, and remains, generally in Chevreul connection with this, attached to the wool. discovered, some time ago, that this peculiar mixture, known by the French as suint, constitutes not less than one-third the weight of the raw merino fleece, from which it is easily removed by immersion in cold water. In ordinary wools the suint is less, the amount being about 15 per cent of the raw fleece. Formerly it was

considered as a kind of soap, mainly for the reason that the wool, besides this, sometimes contained about 8 per cent, or a not inconsiderable quantity of fat. This fat, however, is usually combined with earthy matters, mostly with lime, and consequently forms a soap which is very insoluble. The soluble suint is a neutral salt arising from the combination of potash with a peculiar animal acid, of which little more is known than that it contains saltpetre. Special effort has lately been directed to suint, in order to obtain as much as possible of the potash eliminated from the animal, and a special industry has been established in various portions of the great French wool district, such as Rheims, El Boeuf, &c.

A company purchases from the wool raiser the solution of the suint obtained by rinsing the wool in cold water, the price paid for it being higher in proportion as it is more concentrated. As a general thing it is maintained that a fleece weighing nine pounds contains about 20 ounces of suint, which should contain about one-third part, or six to seven ounces, of potash, although not more than five and one-half ounces are perhaps directly available.

In the wool manufactories of the towns just referred to, there are nearly 60.000.000 pounds of wool washed annually, the yield of about 6,750,000 sheep. This quantity should contain over 3,000,000 pounds of pure potash. Thus, the water in which the wool is washed, and which has been heretofore thrown away, is made to yield a product, adding appreciably to the value of the wool itself, and more than covering the cost of its treatment. It is, of course, not an easy matter to utilise this solution of suint on a small scale; but wherever the work is carried on by the wholesale, as it is in connection with all great manufacturing establishments, it will undoubtedly become a regular part of the process of manufacture.

PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES.

CHEMICAL SOCIETY. Thursday, January 16th, 1872.

It was

The third note was on Barium Bisulphide. found possible to obtain this substance as a fine yellowcoloured product by shaking a solution of barium chloride with a mixture of ammonium sulphide and carbon disulphide. It is insoluble in alcohol, soluble in water, and rapidly dissolved by slightly acidulated water.

The Secretary then read the second paper, entitled “On Ethyl-Amyl," by HARRY GRIMSHAW. The ethylamyl employed in this research was obtained by submitting a mixture of ethyl-bromide and amyl-bromide to the action of sodium, it being found that the alcoholic bromides were well adapted for this purpose, the yield of hydrocarbon being highly satisfactory. By fractionating the product, ethyl-amyl, boiling at 90°, was obtained. It was converted by chlorine into a chloride, CH15Cl, boiling between 140° and 150°, and this, when treated with potassium acetate and glacial acetic acid, yielded the corresponding acetate, accompanied by a certain quantity of heptylene boiling at 91°. The acetate, on treatment with alcoholic potash, gave a mixture of alcohols which, on oxidation, yielded an acid whose silver salt had the composition C-H13AgO2, and a ketone, C-H140, boiling at 144, which yielded, on oxidation, a mixture of valerianic acid and acetic acid. The author considers that the mixture of alcohols consists of primary isoheptyl alcohol and methyl-amyl-carbinol, the former yielding, on oxidation, iso-cenanthylic acid, C-H13HO2, and the latter yielding Popoff's ketone, C-H140, which, by further oxida. tion, yields valerianic and acetic acids. These researches point to the conclusion that ethyl-amyl is dimethylbutylene-methane.

The PRESIDENT, after expressing the thanks of the Society for this communication, remarked that the present investigation was characterised by a singular thoroughness, and it might well be taken as a model by other investigators. He was struck by the success with which the author had employed bromides in the place of iodides; also by the large yield of hydrocarbons which had been obtained, notwithstanding the fact that the use of sodium has generally a tendency to increase the amount of secondary products in reductions of this kind.

Professor FRANKLAND, D.C.L., F.R.S., President, in the carbon, having the composition CH16, and boiling at

Chair.

AFTER the minutes of the previous meeting had been read and confirmed, Messrs. Philip Braham, A. Percy Smith, and J. Wills were formally admitted Fellows of the Society.

The names of Messrs. Edward Dillon, J. Perry, G. Brownen, T. W. Sheppard, T. C. Sellars, H. Y. Loram, and W. Sharpleigh were read for the first time; and those of Messrs. George Washington Arnott, James Scott McGregor, and Cornelius A. Mahoney were read for the third time, after which these gentlemen were balloted for, and duly elected Fellows of the Society.

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The first paper, entitled 'Notes on Various Chemical Reactions," by Mr. DAVIES, was then read by the Secretary.

The first note was on the Formation of Crystallised Copper Sulphide. The author found that, when copper is covered with a layer of carbon disulphide, and a layer of ammonia is superposed, that the metal becomes covered with beautiful green crystals of copper sulphide in the course of a few days.

In the second note, on Bromised Hypochlorite of Lime, the author remarks that a solution of hypochlorite of lime, to which bromine has been added, may be advantageously employed, in the place of hypochlorite of lime, for the precipitation of cobalt from a solution containing this metal together with nickel. The precipitation does not take place instantaneously, heat being necessary to produce the reaction.

A paper on "The Heptanes from Petroleum," by Dr. C. SCHORLEMMER, F.R.S., was then read by the Secretary. In a previous paper the author alluded to a hydroabout 90°, which was obtained from Pennsylvanian petroleum. Thinking it probable that this might be identical with ethylamyl, he submitted it to a new examination. The boiling-points of several of its derivatives were found to correspond with those of ethylamyl, and the oxidation of its alcohol gave rise to an acid very similar to the corresponding acid from ethylamyl; also to a ketone boiling at 144°, but which, unlike that derived from ethylamyl, yielded nothing but acetic acid on oxidation. Hence it is certain that this hydrocarbon is not identical with ethylamyl. Its constitution and that of the ketone obtained from it will form the subject of future investigations. The author is, however, inclined to regard it as dimethyl-diethyl-methane. During the conversion of the chlorides from normal heptane into acetates a portion of heptene (heptylene), boiling at 98° to 99°, was formed. About half of this combined with cold hydrochloric acid, while the remaining portion did not unite with this acid until heat was applied. The two isomeric chlorides thus separated were re-converted into olefines, both of which boiled at 98°. When heptene, boiling at 90° to 91°, is treated with cold hydrochloric acid the greater portion dissolves, while not much more than half of the heptene prepared from ethylamyl combines in the cold with this acid, a heptyl chloride, boiling at 134° to 137°, being formed.

The PRESIDENT, in returning thanks, remarked that this interesting paper was a new proof of Dr. Schorlemmer's success in the investigation of very complex hydro-carbons. The new method of separating the isomeric ole

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