C15H1606, is a compound belonging to the higher phenols. The green hydrochinon, C30H30O12, or chinon, C15H1406, is the cœrulignon; but these formulæ are as yet only empirical, and derived from the percentically-obtained figures by analysis. When coerulignon is left standing with concentrated sulphuric acid, heat is set free, and it yields a compound which, when treated with alcohol, is a brownish red crystalline isatine, a body which has the same composition as cœrulignon, but is not readily converted into hydrocœrulignon. I have every reason to believe that the precise formulæ of these interesting compounds will soon be found; and I also think there can be no doubt that, in the bodies under consideration, we have to do with a less far-fetched product of decomposition of woody fibre, or of the incrustrating matter of wood, than in the products of dry distillation of wood now known. -Ber. d. Deutsch. Chem. Gesells.

REMARKS UPON C. UNGER'S TREATISE ON
THE CONSTITUTION OF ULTRAMARINE.
By W. MORGAN.

IN Berichte der Deutschen Chemischen Gesellschaft, vol. v., p. 893, C. Unger has communicated his views respecting the constitution of ultramarine, and states as follows:"The chemical nature of ultramarine, notwithstanding the numerous investigations which have been made thereon, is by no means enlightened, and the general acceptation that it contains aluminium sulphide, or sodium sulphide, or sodium polythionate, is still very doubtful when one sees that ultramarine is not decomposed by fused potassium chlorate, and that it withstands decomposition for some time when heated with alkalies and nitrates. It is true that ultramarine, when heated with soda-lime, yields at most but a trace of ammonia; but if one heats it with fused microcosmic salt, or with an alkali acid sulphate, a considerable quantity of nitrogen will be liberated."

He then proceeds further, and concludes his treatise with a series of formula which would explain the whole series of reactions which take place in the manufacture of ultramarine :

AlO3+SiO2+4Na2S2O3+2Na2CO3=

Contents of mixture in furnace.
AISO2+SiSO+2Na2S+4Na2SO4+2CO2.

In blue ultramarine Unger found 5.5 per cent of nitrogen. Although ultramarine has been the subject of numerous investigations and analyses during the last forty years, I have not been able to find any mention made as to the presence of nitrogen therein, and none of the analyses show a deficit of 5.5 per cent, which should be the case according to the quantity of nitrogen found by C. Unger. I became induced, under the guidance of Professor Will, to test the truth of his statements by the following experiments, the blue ultramarine used being previously washed out thoroughly and dried at 100° C.

(1). 3 to 4 grms. thereof were mixed with 12 grms. of pure acid sulphate of potassium, and the mixture brought into a combustion-tube, the ends of which were bent upwards-the one end being connected with a carbonic acid apparatus, the other end attached to a tube passing into a mercurial trough. After expelling the air as completely as possible by dry carbonic acid gas, the connection therewith was cut off, the tube gently heated, and finally raised to redness, the evolved gases were passed into a cylinder filled partly with mercury, partly with caustic potash, after the manner of nitrogen determinations; the total quantity of unabsorbable gas being 2 to 3 c.c., the which re-ignited a glowing chip when plunged into it, and showed the presence of oxygen mixed with air.

(2). In precisely the same manner the experiments were conducted with pure fused microcosmic salt, and again about 2 to 3 c.c. of unabsorbable gas were received, which proved to be air.

(3). 2 to 3 grms. of ultramarine, mixed with soda-lime, and heated in a combustion-tube connected with a Will and Varrentrapp's apparatus containing hydrochloric acid, into which the evolved gases were passed. At the close of the experiment the contents of the bulbs were tested for ammonia by adding chloride of platinum and alcohol, and not the least trace of a precipitate produced; and by Nessler's test but a trace of precipitate was yielded. and the results showed that it evolved a trace of ammonia This last experiment was repeated with soda-lime alone, when heated.

These results speak for themselves, and conclusively prove that nitrogen is not a constituent of ultramarine, and that the formula AlSiS2O3N2, put forward by C. Unger, is a false one.

Giessen, January, 1873.

ADULTERATION ACT, 1872.

THE following suggestions on the Adulteration Act, 1872, have been circulated by the Vestry of St. Pancras :

So soon as the necessary officers have been appointed by the vestry to execute the provisions of the Act, it will be necessary that the action of such officers be governed by regulations to be fixed by the vestry.

These regulations should be divided into two parts:1. Those relating to private purchasers who may wish articles analysed.

2.

Those for the inspector under the Act, who should submit articles for analysis in his capacity as a public officer only.

REGULATIONS FOR PURCHASERS GENERALLY.

The Act of 1872, clause 9, provides for the payment of a fee for analysis of not less than 2s. 6d., nor more than Ios. 6d. As the object of the vestry should be to have the Act carried out efficiently, rather than to receive large fees; and as it would be difficult for the ratepayers generally to understand a scale of fees, whether governed by the value of the analysis or otherwise, there should be an uniform fee of 2s. 6d. charged to all purchasers of articles not intended for re-sale, and a fee of ros. 6d. to all purchasers of articles intended to be re-sold.

The fee should be paid to the inspector, who should give a printed receipt for the amount, and all fees should be accounted for by him to the vestry clerk; and the inspector should not, under penalty of dismissal, be allowed to receive any fee or reward other than that fixed by the vestry.

When a sample is brought to the inspector by a private purchaser, such purchaser should make a declaration be fore the inspector, that the article brought for analysis has been purchased at a place within the parish; and the name of the vendor and place of purchase should be stated in the declaration. The sample should be divided into

bered samples should be kept in the custody of the inspector until the analysis is complete, and the certificate of the analyst given; and they should be then handed over to the custody of the vestry clerk, to be kept by him in the vestry's strong room; and no other officer or other person should have access to such forms, or to the sealed samples, except as ordered by a Court of Law upon any proceedings against the vendor of adulterated articles, or by the vestry. Printed by order of the General Purposes Committee.

THOS. ECCLESton Gibb,

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 advertisement.

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

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 Charotte, 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

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.

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

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 CoalBalis," by H. Platt.

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 proportion 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