Part 11

_North Germany_.--The wrought metal contains 8 to 16 per cent. of tin, with frequently 1 per cent. of nickel. A sword contained only 5 per cent. of nickel, an ax 24 per cent. These are exceptions. The ornament bronzes contain also a few per cent. of lead; exceptionally, a considerable quantity of zinc. The ornamental metal in the Rhine region, Nassau, and Hesse contains 5 to 15 per cent. of zinc with the same of tin. At one time a rich bronze is used, at another quite pure brass, and then a bronze-like brass.

_Denmark_.--The Danes employed the same metal for weapons that they did for ornaments. It contained 5 to 12 per cent. of tin, and most of it 1 per cent. of zinc, but never lead; in one case only 2 per cent. of tin. Nickel and cobalt often occur, ½ per cent. of each; iron in traces.

_Russia_.--The Russian weapon bronze contains from 9 to 16 per cent. of tin, and traces of nickel. Arrows contain a little lead, up to 5 per cent. Ornament bronze frequently contains in addition a few per cent. of zinc.

The ornamental bronze of the Baltic provinces is a brass containing 15 to 20 per cent. of zinc, 3 to 4 per cent. of lead, and 1 to 2 per cent. of tin.

In Russia, as in other countries, the brass alloys belong to a later epoch; in older times real bronze was chiefly used for ornaments as well as other purposes.--_Translated from advanced sheets furnished by the author_.

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THE BIG TREES OF CALIFORNIA.

We have previously spoken of the large _Sequoiæ_ of California, which have justly a universal celebrity, and shall now render our remarks upon the subject completer.

If there is any sight that can throw us into mute contemplation and show us the littleness of our own nature, it is assuredly that of high mountains like Mont Blanc, or waterfalls like Niagara. But yet we do not at the first instant take in all the grandeur of these, but must make the tour of Mont Blanc, or pass under the falls of Niagara and study it at different points in order to obtain a just idea of such marvels. And so it is with regard to the vegetable curiosities of the Sierra Nevada, in California.

When points for comparison fail us, our eye, one of the most imperfect of instruments, never gives us an accurate idea of objects, and it is for this reason that we have placed upon the annexed figure a five-story Paris house, drawn to the same scale as the "Grizzly Giant," one of the most ancient _Sequoiæ_ of the Mariposa Grove, in California. This true vegetable giant is 105 feet in diameter at the base, and 69 feet at 13 feet from the ground. It has, like many of the _Sequoiæ_ that surround it, been struck by lightning, but, in spite of that, its total height is still more than 300 feet. Some of its branches are more than six feet in diameter. Those who have seen our old oaks in the forest of Fontainebleau will be able to compare the effect of time and lightning upon such venerable relics, these in California being possibly contemporaries of the Roman Empire. A few of the trees have been razed to the base, and serve as floors for dancing halls, while others, that have fallen, have been cut lengthwise and serve as bowling alleys. What especially distinguishes the wonderful region in which these _Sequoiæ_ grow is the cleanness and beauty of the plains upon which they are found. In the virgin forests of South America, under the influence of a warm and damp atmosphere, the vegetation is so rank that, in order to open a passage, one is obliged to use an ax on the vines and thickets of interlaced plants. In California, on the contrary, the _Sequoiæ_, which are situated at an altitude of from 5,000 to 7,000 feet above the Pacific Ocean, are easily accessible. The routes are almost traced by nature, dangerous animals are rare, the summer temperature is delicious there, and hotels are everywhere being erected, as in Switzerland, to serve as a retreat and promenading place for tourists.--_La Nature._

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TABLE OF CONTENTS.

PAGE

I. CHEMISTRY AND METALLURGY.--Preparation of Chlorhydrines 6452

Chemical Compounds Made by Compression. By M. W. SPRING. 6452

Copper Alloys among the Ancients. By Prof. E. REYER.--A valuable and important paper, full of useful information, showing the geology of the metals.--Characteristics of copper alloys, with tables showing constituents used in different countries.--Casting the alloys.--Hard bronze of the ancients.--Summary of alloys used by the ancients 6452

II. ENGINEERING AND MECHANICS.--Bietrix's Vertical and Compound Engine.--With description and numerous figures 6439

Improved Gas Engine.--With engraving 6440

Meters for Power and Electricity. By M. C. VERNON BOYS.--A valuable and instructive paper.--Showing the object of meters, the way in which some of them are made, and their manner of operating.--Several figures 6440

Raising and Moving Masonry Buildings.--With full page of engravings, illustrating various examples of large buildings composed of masonry that have been moved and raised 6443

III. TECHNOLOGY.--Filter for Industrial Works.--Showing how to make and use the filter.--With engraving 6443

The Val St. Lambert Glass Works.--With full description and two illustrations 6444

Proper shoeing.--Horses' feet should be treated in accordance with the work expected of them 6444

Ideas.--Relating to Milling. By A Looker-on 6445

Photographs for Studying the Movements of Men and Animals. By M. MAREY.--How to avoid confusion in photographing rapid movements.--With diagram 6445

Detective Photography.--As applied to criminal cases 6445

Strength of Yellow Pine 6449

IV. ARCHITECTURE.--English Lodges.--With engraving 6447

The Decay of Building the Stones. By Dr. A. A. JULIEN.--The building stones, their varieties, localities, and edifices constructed of each.--Durability of building stones in New York and vicinity.--Methods of trial of building stone.-- Means of protection and preservation of stone 6447

V. ELECTRICITY.--The History of the Electric Telegraph.-- First use of the Volta pile in telegraphy.--Description of Soemmering's apparatus.--With two engravings 6446

A New Sulphate of Copper Pile.--With engraving 6446

VI. MEDICINE AND HYGIENE.--Filth Diseases in Rural Districts.--Showing why there is greater danger of poisoning from sewage in the country than in the city.--Several examples showing apparent causes and consequences.--How is the infection carried? 6450

The Physiology of Sleep.--Giving different theories 6451

A New Method for the Detection of Sugar in the Urine 6452

VII. MISCELLANEOUS.--Elephants Moving Timber at Moulmein, Burmah.--With engraving 6449

The Education of German Women 6449

Horse Medicine Bit.--With two engravings 6451

The Big Trees of California 6454

Science in Antiquity.--Heron's Pneumatic and compressing apparatus.--With two engravings 6450

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FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: Royal Institution of Great Britain.]

[Footnote 2: _Comptes Rendus_ of the French Academy of Sciences.]

[Footnote 3: It is often desirable to make one of the apertures twice the diameter of the rest; it causes a greater intensity to be given to one image, and that facilitates the calculation of time, while it furnishes points for the comparison of the movements of the lower limbs with those of the arms.]

[Footnote 4: Ang. Guerout, in _La Lumiere Electrique_.]

[Footnote 5: Abbe Moigno, in his treatise on telegraphy, assigns the date of 1838 to this publication; but Mr. Zetsche (_d.c._) gives it as 1811. We shall consider the latter as the true date; for, in 1838, there was no reason for publishing Soemmering's memoir, and especially for proposing improvements in his apparatus.]

[Footnote 6: Abstract of a paper read before the New York Academy of Sciences.]

[Footnote 7: Trans. Am. Med. Ass'n, 1880.]

[Footnote 8: In foetal syphilis it is assumed that the spermatozoa may be the carriers of the disease; but no microscropist has yet described a separate species of spermatozoon for such cases.]

[Footnote 9: "The Philosophy of Mystery," London, 1841; cited by Hammond in his work on "Insanity."]

[Footnote 10: See articles by Dr. Hammond in this journal for 1865 and in the "Journal of Psychological Medicine" for 1869, also his "Sleep and its Derangements," Philadelphia, 1872, and his "Treatise on Insanity," New York, 1883.]

[Footnote 11: Yung, "Le sommeil normal et pathologique," Paris, 1883.]

[Footnote 12: "Leçons sur l'appareil vaso-moteur," t. ii., p. 154.]

[Footnote 13: "Principles of Psychology," vol. i., pp. 88, 89.]

[Footnote 14: "Les causes du sommeil," "Revue scientifique," t. xix.]

[Footnote 15: Yung, _op. cit._]

[Footnote 16: Magnetic iron and pyrites in basic rocks; tin stone in granite and porphyry.]

[Footnote 17: Ancient authors report cases of this kind.]

[Footnote 18: The largest bronze statue of modern times is the "Bavaria" in Munich, which is 20 meters high and weighs 80 tons. It consists of 12 pieces and cost about a quarter of a million dollars.]

[Footnote 19: When a bronze is remelted six times the percentage of tin is reduced to half the original (Dumas). The evaporation of the metal can be shown by holding a cold plate on it while melted. Tin is immediately deposited on it.]

[Footnote 20: They usually made a copper and zinc alloy, but it is possible that they also understood the art of embedding the casting in zinc ore (calamine) and heating strongly, whereby the surface of the metal was "cemented" and colored.]

[Footnote 21: On examining a broken surface of an antique mirror, it will be seen that only the outside is white. It is probable that the finished mirror was embedded in some arsenical substance and heated, which cemented and colored the surface.]

[Footnote 22: Uchatius makes his famous hard bronze by cooling and hydraulic pressure. Bronzes with 8 to 12 per cent. of tin are most benefited by this process. Bronzes with very little tin in them are but little affected by chilling and hammering (Riche). Alloys that are hard already, such as bronzes rich in tin and phosphorus, become too brittle and useless by repeated hammering.]

[Footnote 23: When a cast sheet of inelastic bronze or brass is hammered or rolled, it "feathers."]

[Footnote 24: The Romans preferred to put in some bronze that had been repeatedly cast.]

[Footnote 25: One piece was scarcely scratched by feldspar, another by quartz. The Greek and Roman weapons in the Berlin Museum were tested as to hardness by Dr. Von Dechend at the suggestion of the Director-General, Von Schone. All of them were scratched by fluorspar; there were no hard bronzes among them. If the races of _classical_ antiquity were not acquainted with hard bronze, it is easy to see why they soon began to use iron, in contrast with the Semitic-Hamitic races.]

[Footnote 26: Excrements were also much used by the alchemists and pharmacists of the middle ages.]

[Transcriber's Note:

Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation are as in the original.]