RECENT DISCOVERIES IN SCIENCE.

Southland Times, Issue 1105, 6 August 1869, Page 3

RECENT DISCOVERIES IN SCIENCE.

«. (From the ' Illustrated London News.') For many years the idea has existed that all the chemical elements would ultimately be found to be metals, and that even hydrogen, the l'ghtest aad most subtle of the gases, would be found to be a metal in the vaporous state. That some metals do exist in the state of vapor we know, and that all of them may be vaporised we have every reason to believe. But whereas the vapor of mercury begins to be condensed at a temperature below 600 deg. Fahr., and the vapors of other metals at other temperatures, hydrogen, if a metallic vapor, may be accounted much more volatile, as all efforts to solidify or liquefy it by cold and pressure have failed — no doubt, merely because the cold and the pressure were not great enough. It now appears, however, that, although hydrogen cannot be obtained as a distinct metal, it may be obtained as an alloy. It is quite conceivable that, although we are unable to force the particlls of the vapor sufficiently close together to make them cohere into a liquid or solid, yet, that by presenting other particles to them for which they have an affinity the two may be drawn sufficiently closely together to form a solid compound ; and, by a paper which Mr Graham has presented to the Royal Society during the past month, it appears that he succeeded in bringing about this result. Mr Graham by bis previous researches had shown that most of the metals were capable of absorbing most of the gases ; and, by placing a piece of Lenarto meteorite in a vacuum and exposing it to heat, be succeeded in withdrawing from it several times its own bulk of hydrogen, which hydrogen the affinity of the particles of iron were capable of retaining at common temperatures v ider the atmospheric pressure. He now finds that palladium is capable of absorbing eight or nine hundred times its bulk of hydrogen, and that the palladium is thereby diminished in its specific gravity, and is in other respects physically altered, so that Mr Graham regards the compound as an alloy of metallic hydrogen with palladium. Mr Graham computes the specific gravity of the metal hydrogen as 1-951, or about twice the weight of an equal bulk of water. An article in the ' British Medical Journal' recalls public attention to the subject of poisonous dyes — a topic on which we touched several months ago. The magenta dyes are produced by the action of arsenic upon aniline ; and, although the arsenic combines with the organic base forming an insoluble compound, yet much of the magenta of commerce contains uncombined arsenic, and, moreover, as the color fades from the decay of the organic base, the arsenic is set free, and, in the case of the articles worn next the skin, such as flannel shirts, it may be absorbed into the system. Moreover, the organic part of some of the aniline dyes is poisonous, so that, upon the whole, the precaution is not superfluous to reject aU abides dyed with the aniline colors it those articles are to be worn next the skin. Remedies of an antiseptic character have at various times been propounded for curing certain kinds of disease, but have again faUen into d'suse from misapprehension of their sphere and mode of actioo. Tar-water, at one time a popular remedy, suffered the consequences of being overpraised ; and yeast, which was brought into fashion by Dr. Cartwright, as a remedy for putrid fevers, was superseded by effervescing draughts on the hypothesis that, as the main effect of the yeast was to generate carbonic acid, any other source of supply for this gas would be equa"y effective — a rash and fallacious generalisation, of which the philsophy of medicine affords many examples. Yeast, like the fermentation which sets in when water and b~an are subjected to heat, as in a dyer's bran bath, established a sL'ong demand for oxygen ; and Cartwr'ghtfouodthe decomposition ofmeat to be arrested by yeast, or its quality to be restored, merely because the yeast took the oxygen from the meat, just as in a dyer's vat the fermenting liquid takes the the oxygen from the indigo. The modern form of tar-water is a d'lute solution of carbolic acid. The saturated solution of carbolic acid consists ot one part acid and twenty five parts water ; and the d ; luted solution consists of one part of saturated solution in ten parts of water. At the Paris Exhibition of 1867 one of tbe most interesting machines shown in i operation was a dri'l pointed with a numi ber of small diamonds, which was capable ot 'drilling annular holes in the hardest , stones. This device has now beea applied to bore holes in the rocks which • obstructs the East Eiver entrance of New York harbor, and into these holes cannis- '. ters of nitro-glycerine will be introduced, , which will be exploded by electricity, i after which the fragments will be re- , moved. The drills are easily worked I from appropriate stages erected above the

surface of the water, and the cannisters will be introduced into the holes by divers. Iv America a method of producing wrought iron by pouring a Stream of pulverised ore into a rotating cauldron of molten casb iron has been adopted. In India wrought iroa and steel have long been produced by aa analogous process ; but a more usual method is by cementa tion, in which the ore is heated with powdered charcoal, in a furnace, when the carbon combines with the oxogen of the ore. By this method the necessity of cast iron is dispensed with. M. Deville, in a lecture delivered before the French Academy, explains the fact ascertained by Professor Frankland of the higher temperature obtained when hydrogen is burned under pressure. The expansion produced by the heat so separates the combiniug particles from one another that only about half of them are able to combine unless pressure be | employed which brings them within the sphere of combining attraction. The temperature of a hydrogen flame ought to be 6000 deg., whereas, as usually pro. duced, it is only 2800 deg. A knowledge of this law ought to be of wide utility in the arts. M. M. Christot and Kiener have found bacteria in the blood of glandered borees. It would be desirable to ascertain whether | in cancer and other intractable sores a similar cause or concomitant may not be discovered. M. Oscar Meyer has communicated to PoggendorfFs Annallen, a paper explaining the cause of the heat found to arise in a metallic disc revolving in a vacuum, to which we some time since called attention. The heat M. Meyer concludes from his investigations to be the equivalent of the vis viva lost by the irregularities of the wheel-work and the want of absolute truth in the axis on which the disc rotated. Poosphorus may be removed from iron by fusion with fluoride of lime, which decomposes the phosphates, and at the temperature of melted steel the pure phosphorus is completely volatilised. Aluminium brouze, composed of nine parts copper and one aluminium, is found to be much more effectual in resisting abrasion than common bronze, and it will probably be found useful in the bearings of steam engines and in the stern tubes of screw-steamers. An artificial honey is now largely produced in Germany, which consists of starch turned into sugar by the action of sulphuric acid. The French Government has instituted experiments with a view to the introduction of the electric light 01 board ship. In the case of steam-vessels the problem is one of easy solution, as the power requisite to generate the electricity from the magnets ib easily obtained. But there would be some danger of mistaking ships thus lighted for lighthouses unless the light were suitably colored or made intermittent to obviate such mistakes. I An improvement has lately been intro» duced into the manufacture of gun-cotton to secure it against damp. It is saturated with a thin solution of indiarubber in naphtha, which when evaporated leaves upon each fibre a thin varnish of indiarubber that is waterproof. The Melbourne correspondent of the ' Alexandra Courier' describes a method ,of shearing sheep by steam which he lately saw in operation, and which appears to act upon the principle ot a reaping machine. The instrument is said to be made of brass, of about the size and shape of a small trowel with a comb in front, which acts as guide, and also prevents the skin from being cut by the reciprocating blade. It is added that the apparatus will cut more rapidly tb.au common shears will do, and that it obviates the risk of injuring either the animal or the fleece.