The rumour mentioned in our last _Month_ has been verified, and we
now know that hydrogen and nitrogen have yielded to the power of the
physicist, and that there is no longer, in our part of the universe,
any such thing as a permanent gas. After Pictet in Geneva had led
the way by liquefying oxygen, Cailletet followed in Paris with the
other two; but Pictet has since gone farther, and has obtained liquid
hydrogen in considerable quantity, and has produced solid particles of
oxygen. In communicating these facts to a scientific body in Paris,
Mr Dumas, the eminent chemist, stated to his hearers they might take
it for granted that in swallowing a glass of water they were really
drinking a metallic oxide.
Dr Angus Smith says in a paper ‘On the Examination of Air,’ read before
the Royal Society, that there ought to be observatories for Chemical
Climatology and Meteorology, in which the air should be systematically
examined, ‘so as to obtain decidedly those bodies which have from the
earliest times been supposed to exist in it, bringing with them, on
certain occasions, the worst results.’ But the process of examination,
as at present carried on, is slow and troublesome; when a sure and easy
way is found, then its adoption may become general. Dr Angus Smith is
perhaps the first who has taken the subject in hand from this point of
view. ‘It is the more interesting,’ he remarks, ‘as he has sufficiently
shewn that in the places examined, the organic ammonia has been in
intimate relation with the gross death-rate.... It may be true that
oxygen is the prime mover—producing in man animal life—a favourite
idea for a chemist; but it may also be true that minute organisms
cause a peculiar class of decomposition connected with mental or other
activity, diseased or otherwise.’
Before the telephone has ceased to be a scientific novelty, America
sends us news of another novelty called a phonograph. This instrument,
the invention of Mr T. A. Edison, makes sound visible, and records it
in a permanent form. You speak into a tube, and while doing so you
work a handle which causes a cylinder to revolve; the sound of the
voice causes a thin disk or diaphragm of metal to vibrate, as in the
telephone; the vibrations actuate a steel point which, as it advances
and recedes, makes impressions more or less deep in a band of tinfoil
wound round the cylinder, and this band of tinfoil becomes the record
of what has been spoken. Now comes the wonderful part of the process;
for we are told that if the tinfoil so indented be applied to another
instrument, called the ‘transmitter,’ consisting of a hollow tube with
a paper diaphragm, then the original sounds will be reproduced, though
with somewhat of a metallic tone. Turn the handle of the cylinder and
you may have repetitions of the discourse until, in fact, the tinfoil
is quite worn out. Casts of the indented tinfoil may, it is said, be
taken in plaster of Paris, so that copies of spoken words could be sent
to as many persons as may be desired.
This invention seems too questionable to allow of any one, even the
inventor, forming an opinion as to its practical value. Fanciful
conjectures may of course be made. A fugitive swindler, for example,
may be arrested in a foreign city, and held fast until a foil of
evidence spoken by one of his confederates might be sent out to convict
him. Or a hardy young sheep-farmer in Australia might sing into his
tube, puncturing his song on the sheet of foil, fold it neatly up, and
send the graven song home to the girl he left behind him; and she, by
applying the sheet to her own phonograph might, by proper manipulation,
hear the tender ditty as often as she pleased.
While waiting for further developments, we venture to suggest that what
is wanted by numbers of intellectual people who find the mechanical
action of writing slow and irksome, is, some kind of ‘graphy’ which
will enable them at once to print their thoughts on paper without aid
from pen or fingers.
Some months ago we mentioned the little torpedo boat _Lightning_, and
her swift steaming, nineteen knots an hour. Her length is eighty-four
feet, her width ten feet ten inches: and now we hear that fifteen
similar vessels are to be built, and that the builders promise a speed
of twenty-five knots. Experiments have been made which prove that
swiftness is an element of safety, for on firing a rifle-bullet through
the bottom it was found that the water did not enter. In future it is
thought that torpedoes will play an important part in naval warfare;
and as has already been mentioned in recent papers in this _Journal_, a
School has been established at Portsmouth in which their use is taught
theoretically and practically. A further improvement is whispered in
certain quarters—a torpedo boat which shall carry on her evolutions
under water, and hook on torpedoes to the bottom of an enemy’s ship
without being discovered. Are we about to see in this a realisation
of what has long been a dream among speculative inventors? Is naval
warfare, from its hopelessly fatal nature to those engaged, to become
an impossibility?
Communications addressed to the Société d’Encouragement pour
l’Industrie Nationale, Paris, describe a method for preventing the
deposit of soot in chimneys; but as yet no details are published: also
an apparatus for stopping runaway horses (in harness), by completely
closing the winkers; and a way to deaden the blows of a hammer moved
by machinery. In this case, the anvil is supported on a float in
a reservoir of water. Another subject is a tramway car in which
compressed air is the motive-power, as proved during some months on
the line between Courbevoie and Puteaux, and the Round Point in the
Champs-Elysées. This car has room for thirty passengers, is served by
a conductor, and a mechanician who has entire charge of the machinery,
which with a number of iron tubes is all placed between the wheels,
under the floor, where it occasions no inconvenience to any one. A
powerful air-pump at the starting station, forces air enough into the
iron tubes for the journey to and fro, and the car travels smoothly and
without noise or smoke, and can be stopped and started more readily
than a horse-car. Mr Mékarski, the inventor of this car, has been
thanked by the Société for having solved the problem of a locomotive
which can be used with safety in crowded streets. Of course there are
appliances for regulating the pressure of the air, and for preventing
the deposit of hoar-frost in the tubes, consequent on rapid expansion
of air; but for a description of these and other particulars we must
refer to the _Bulletin_ published by the Society.
Mr Coret has invented what he calls a self-acting thermo-signal which
by ringing a bell makes known to all within hearing when an axle or any
other part of an engine is over-heated. It is a small brass cylinder,
containing a system of flexible metal disks, and a dilatable liquid,
which is to be fixed to the part liable to over-heating. While all
goes well the instrument makes no sign; but as the temperature rises
the liquid dilates, forces out a small metal pin at the end of the
cylinder, which, as the wheel revolves, strikes a bell, and thereby
warns the attendants. Thus the necessity for constantly watching an
indicator is avoided.
Other subjects brought before the same Society are—A description of
a chimney which does not occasion loss of heat, by Mr Toulet, 38
Avenue de l’Observatoire, Paris—Specimens of harmless colours which
may be used with varnish, oil, or water, and are described as durable
and remarkably brilliant. They are available for many purposes of
decoration, but are specially intended, as they contain no poisonous
element, for the colouring of children’s toys. These new colours
are derived from the substances known to chemists as eosin and
fluorescin—And certain manufacturers who have carefully studied the
material give an account of the capabilities of jute, from which we
gather that by proper preparation of the yarns, remarkable effects of
colour, of mottling, of light and shade, and also a velvety appearance
can be produced. The process is described as very simple and moderate
in cost; so that applications of jute to decorative purposes hitherto
not thought of may ere long become available.
It has been found by experiment that aniline black can be made to yield
different colours: treated in one way it is a light violet, in another
way it is a bluish pink, and in a third way it becomes blue.
Pure butter, as is stated in the _Journal_ of the Chemical Society,
contains from ninety to ninety-eight per cent. of pure butter fat and
a small quantity of water. Its colour should be from yellowish white
to reddish yellow, but this depends on the kind of fodder given to
the cows, and may be produced by means of beetroot or other plants
possessed of colouring properties. The colouring matter may be detected
by treating the butter with strong alcohol. The melting-point of pure
butter is from thirty to thirty-seven degrees, while artificial butter
melts at from twenty-seven to thirty-one degrees. Substances used to
increase the bulk and weight of butter are chalk, gypsum, oxide of
zinc, starch, and so forth. These neither improve its flavour nor
its wholesomeness. The agreeable smell of pure butter, with a slight
suggestion of milk, is not easy to imitate by artificial means.
Now that chemists can avail themselves of the spectroscope in their
researches, falsifications have but little chance of escaping
detection. We learn from the same _Journal_ that the colouring
matters generally used in the adulteration of wine are—fuchsine, the
preparations termed caramels, ammoniacal cochineal, sulphindigotic
acid, logwood, the lichen reds, rosaniline, bilberries, cherries,
mallows, and the berries of the privet. Most if not all of these
matters can be precipitated by chemical treatment, or they may be
detected by dialysis. If a cube of gelatine less than an inch square
be placed in the wine under experiment, it will be found, after
twenty-four or forty-eight hours, stained all through, if artificial
colouring matters are present; but if the wine is quite pure, then
the natural colouring matter will not have penetrated deeper into
the gelatine than one-eighth of an inch. It is worth notice that the
natural colour soaks in slowly; the artificial colour quickly.
The _Comptes Rendus_ of the Académie des Sciences, Paris, give an
account of a patient who, through entire closure of the esophagus or
gullet, could get neither food nor liquid into his stomach, and had
to undergo the operation of gastrotomy. Through the opening thus made
the operator passed different substances and took note of the time
they remained in the stomach. Starch, fat, and flesh disappear in
from three to four hours; milk is digested in an hour and a half or
two hours, and alcohol and water are absorbed in from thirty-five to
forty-five minutes. One day a small quantity of pure gastric juice was
taken from the stomach for experiment: it is described as colourless,
viscid, yet easily filterable, having little odour, and not putrefying
spontaneously. The acidity of the gastric juice varies but slightly
whether mixed with food or not, the mean being 1.7 gram of hydrochloric
acid to one thousand grams of liquid. ‘The quantity of liquid,’ we
are informed, ‘found in the stomach has no influence on its acidity;
the latter is almost invariable whether the stomach be nearly empty
or very full. Wine and alcohol increase the acidity, while cane-sugar
diminishes it. If acid or alkaline liquids are injected into the
stomach, the gastric juice reassumes its normal acidity in about one
hour. It is more acid during digestion than when digestion is not going
on, and the acidity increases towards the end of the process. Since the
stomach is generally empty at the end of four hours, and hunger does
not supervene till about six hours after a meal, it would seem that
hunger does not result solely from emptiness of the stomach.’ This last
remark is not in accordance with the opinions of other physiologists;
but we venture to suggest that in common with the limbs, the stomach
needs rest, and finds it in the two hours of quiet above mentioned. We
would further remark, that the theory that sugar does not create acid
in the stomach is contrary to all ordinary medical teaching, and even
of daily experience.
A surgeon in a provincial town in Scotland has achieved a remarkable
operation. He cut out from the neck of a patient a diseased portion of
the larynx, and inserted an artificial larynx through which the man can
speak articulately. This is one of the triumphs of surgery.
We mentioned some time ago that certain practitioners in the United
States had succeeded in removing tumours by the application of a
current of electricity. Recently the same method has been employed,
and with the same success, for the removal of those blemishes from the
skin popularly described as ‘port-wine stains,’ and other excrescences.
Care is required in regulating the strength and duration of the current
according to the nature of the case; if this be insured, the operation
can hardly fail of a successful result. Particulars of cases and their
treatment are published in the _New York Medical Journal_.
Pursuing his contributions to meteorology, Professor Loomis of Yale
College, Newhaven, U.S., finds that the areas of rainfall in the
United States generally assume an oval form, and the oval is not
unfrequently a thousand miles long and five hundred broad. He finds
too that falls of rain often have great influence in checking the
progress of a storm; and that they appear to be subject to some law
of duration. For example, some rains last eight hours, some sixteen,
some twenty-four; but beyond twenty-four hours the instances are very
rare. ‘This fact,’ he remarks, ‘seems to indicate that the causes which
produce rain, instead of deriving increased force from the rainfall,
rapidly expend themselves and become exhausted. It cannot be explained
by supposing that the vapour of the air has all been precipitated,
because these cases chiefly occur near the Atlantic coast, where the
supply of vapour is inexhaustible. Is there not here an indication that
the forces which impart that movement to the air which is requisite
to a precipitation of its vapour, become exhausted after a few hours’
exercise?’ By further research it is found that during the six months
from November to April, violent winds are more than five times as
frequent as during the other six months of the year; and that they come
from a northern quarter two-and-a-half times more frequently than from
a southern quarter. Though Professor Loomis’ observations apply to the
climate of America, they may be considered with advantage by our own
meteorologists.
The President of the Institution of Civil Engineers in his inaugural
address took occasion to say, as evidence of the advantages which
accrue to a country through the labours of the civil engineer, that the
sum authorised to be expended on British railways up to the end of 1876
amounted to seven hundred and forty-two millions; a sum pretty nearly
as large as our huge national debt. And from this Mr J. F. Bateman
argued, that as in engineering special qualifications, and some of a
high order, were required, it would be well if advantage were taken of
the numerous public schools in which instruction bearing on engineering
is given, whereby young men would have at least some qualification on
entering the profession. At the same time it would be a mistake to
regard that training as other than preparatory and incomplete. It is
by actual outdoor work only, that a man can become an engineer; and
engineering work is not to be found at school or college.
Mr Bateman—who by the way will long be remembered for his water-supply
of Glasgow—instead of travelling over many topics, confined himself
to the great and important question of rainfall and water-supply for
the whole kingdom, with a view to proper economy. It is a question
which becomes more and more important with the increase of population
and consequent multiplication of machinery. When the Metropolitan
Board of Works are about to ask parliament for leave to undertake the
water-supply of London, the proportions of the question may be assumed
to be at their largest; and storage of rainfall and of flood-waters,
prevention of pollution, and the best way of obtaining absolutely pure
water, together with other topics, will have to be treated with serious
consideration.