Chapter 6

Dr. F. Hueppe, who has paid great attention to this subject, describes five distinct organisms which he finds to be invariable accompaniments of lactic fermentation. One of these he isolated on nutrient gelatine in the form of white, shining, flat, minute beads. This organism has the power of transforming milk sugar and other saccharoses into lactic acid, with evolution of carbonic acid gas. It is rarely found in the saliva or mucilage of the teeth. In these are two micrococci, both of which cause the production of lactic acid, but which manifest differences in their development under cultivation. There are also two pigment forming bacteria, _Micrococcus prodigiosus,_ which produces intensely red spots, and the yellow micrococcus of osteomyelitis. These five bacteria are so different and so constant in their properties that they must, in Dr. Hueppe's opinion, be regarded as distinct species. In addition to them there is in milk an organism resembling _Mycoderma aceti_, which transforms milk sugar into gluconic acid.

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THE NEW "BURGTHEATER" IN VIENNA.

At last the new "Burgtheater" in Vienna is completed. We say "at last," for work was begun on this new theater more than ten years ago. One after another, monumental architectural works have been erected, which are no less grand and beautiful than this. They were finished long ago, and given over to their respective uses--the Parliament buildings, the "Rathhaus," the University; but Baron Hasenauer, who had charge of the construction of this building, as well as of many others, could not bring himself to the quicker _tempo_ of Messrs Hansen, Schmid, and Ferstel. The citizens of Vienna were naturally impatient to see their beautiful "Ringstrasse" completed, and only the Hasenauer buildings were needed to make it perfect.

The building was built according to the plans of Semper and Hasenauer; for, as in the other great buildings erected by Hasenauer, the new palace and the museums, Semper's plans served as a foundation. All the modern improvements in the architecture of theaters have been embodied in the new theater, for the terrible catastrophe at the Ringtheater taught a lesson which has not been forgotten, and the greatest care has been taken to guard against fire.

The new "Burgtheater" stands directly opposite the imposing "Rathhaus" (senate-house), and is separated from the same by a charming park; to the right stands the University, and to the left the Houses of Parliament. In order to be worthy of such company, and not be overshadowed by these buildings, it was necessary that the theater should be very grand. The most important requirements have been perfectly fulfilled; beauty, elegance, appropriateness, and security against fire, nothing has been neglected.

The principal part of the building stands out strongly, and is flanked on either side by a pavilion-like wing. The audience room will accommodate about two thousand people.

The public and the actors alike rejoice in the new Burgtheater, for which they have waited so long.

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THE NEW GERMAN BOOKDEALERS' EXCHANGE IN LEIPZIG.

It seems strange that book-printing and the book trade in general should have developed so slowly in the busy city of Leipzig, where a university was established as early as the beginning of the fifteenth century. The first honorable mention of the printing of Leipzig was made during the first decade of the sixteenth century, but it was not until the end of the seventeenth century that the printing and publishing of books received a notable impulse, which was given it by Messrs. J.F. Gleditsch and Thomas Fritsche and Profs. Carpzov and Mericke, who published many works of great typographical beauty.

From 1682 to 1700 ninety-one papers and periodicals appeared in Leipzig, of which the _Acta eruditorum_ was the oldest, being the first German scientific paper. At this time there were seventeen printing establishments in Leipzig, and the seventy presses in use printed, on an average, 2,000 bales of paper yearly.

One of the leading bookdealers, Philipp Emanuel Reich, won the approbation of his fellow citizens by establishing the first Bookdealers' Association at the time of the Easter Fair in Leipzig, in 1764, and it was through his efforts that the Book Exchange or Fair was founded, which has placed Leipzig at the head of the book trade; but several years passed before this private undertaking become a public association. About 1834 a building was erected specially for a book exchange or bourse, but this building was soon outgrown, and it was decided to build a new one which should be adequate to the requirements of the institution.

A competition for designs for the new building was opened, and five designs were presented, from which the plan of Messrs. Kayser and Von. Grossheim, of Berlin, was selected. This design, which is shown in the accompanying cut, taken from the _Illustrirte Zeitung,_ presents a picturesque grouping of the different parts of the building, the main building being on one street and the adjoining building on another street. The roof, which forms a beautiful sky-line, is ornamented with dormer-windows and little towers, there being a large tower on the main building.

To the left of the principal hall in the main building, which has three large ornamental windows, there is a little hall, the central office, and committee rooms, while the restaurant and the assembly rooms are on the right. In the smaller building, through which there is a central corridor, are the order rooms, assorting rooms, editorial sanctum of the _Borsenblat_ (Bourse journal), and the post office, with telegraph offices.

A low building runs almost the entire length of the main building, to which it is joined at the right and left by side wings, thus inclosing an open court. In this low building the exhibition rooms are arranged, and in the middle is a vestibule through which these exhibition rooms, the wardrobes, and the great hall can be reached. Over the vestibule is a cupola.

The arrangements for lighting, heating, and ventilation are excellent. Steam heat is used, and the large hall is ventilated by the pulsation system.

The building, which is of red brick and sandstone, is worthy of holding a place among the numerous beautiful buildings which have been erected in Leipzig during the last few years. The cost of the building was limited to 700,000 M., or about $160,000.

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A correspondent has transmitted to the editor of _L'Union Pharmaceutique_ the prospectus of an oyster dealer who, besides dealing in the ordinary bivalves, advertises specialties in medicinal oysters, such as "huitres ferrugineuses" and "huitres au goudron." The "huitres ferrugineuses" are recommended to anæmic persons, and the "huitres au goudron" are said to replace with advantage all other means of administering tar, while of both it is alleged that analyses made by "distinguished _savants_" leave no doubt as to their valuable qualities.

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ALIZARINE DYES.

Notwithstanding the unprecedented progress of the coal-tar dyestuff industry during the past few decades, the time-honored indigo, logwood, fustic, etc., have been only partly displaced by the coal-tar products in wool dyeing. The cause is that, though the dyer handled many aniline dyestuffs which dyed as fast against light as logwood or fustic, the dye proved unsatisfactory for fulling goods, because it bled in the treatment with soap and soda, and often more or less changed its tone. We intend to render a service to our readers by calling their special attention to some products of the coal-tar industry which are free from these defects of aniline dyestuffs, and for which it is claimed that they far surpass logwood, fustic, cudbear, etc., as to fastness against light, and excellently stand fulling. We allude to the alizarine dyestuffs, which have long since been introduced and are largely employed in cotton dyeing and printing.

Alizarine, which has been extensively discussed in various articles in our journal, is the coloring matter contained in the madder root. In 1869, two German chemists, Graebe and Liebermann, succeeded in artificially producing this dyestuff from anthracene, a component of coal-tar. The artificial dyestuff being perfectly pure and free from those contaminations which render the use of madder difficult, it soon was preferred to the latter, which it has at present nearly completely displaced.

The discovery of alizarine red was soon followed by those of alizarine orange, galleine, coeruleine, and, in 1878, of alizarine blue.

The slow adoption of these dyestuffs in the wool-dyeing industry is principally attributable to the deep-rooted distrust of wool dyers against any innovation. This resistance, however, is speedily disappearing, as every manufacturer and dyer trying the new dyestuffs invariably finds that they are in no respect inferior to his fastest dyes produced with indigo and madder, but are simpler to apply and more advantageous for wool.

The alizarine colors are dyed after an old method which is known to every wool dyer. The wool is first boiled for 1½ hours with chromate of potash and tartar, then dyed upon a fresh bath by 2½ to 3 hours' boiling. All alizarine colors (such as those of the Badische Anilin und Soda Fabrik, of Ludwigshafen and Stuttgart; Wm. Pickhardt & Kuttroff, New York, Boston, and Philadelphia, viz.):

Alizarine orange W, for brown orange, Alizarine red WR, for yellow touch ponceau or scarlet, Alizarine red WB, for blue touch yellow or scarlet, Alizarine blue WX and SW, for bright blue, Alizarine blue WR SRW, for dark reddish blue, Coeruleine W and SW, for green, and Galleine W, for dahlia,

are dyed after the same method, which offers the great advantage that all these colors can be dyed upon one bath, and that by their mixture numerous fast colors can be produced. On the ground of numerous careful experiments, the writer recommends the following method, which gives well developed and well fixed colors, viz.:

For 100 kil.--The scoured and washed wool is mordanted by boiling for 1½ hours in a bath containing 3 kil. chromate of potash and 2½ kil. tartar, and lightly rinsed; when it can immediately be dyed. For 1,000 lit. water, 1 lit. acetic acid of about 7° Be. is added to the bath. If the water is very hard, double the quantity of acetic acid, which is indispensable, is added. Then the required quantity of dyestuff is added, well stirred, the wool entered, and the temperature raised to boiling, which is continued for 2½ to 3 hours, that is, until a sample taken does no longer surrender any color to a hot solution of soap. Loose wool and worsted slubbing can be entered at 60° C. (140° F.). In dyeing yarn and piece-goods, however, it is advisable to enter the bath cold, work for about 1/4 hour in the cold, and then slowly to raise the temperature in about one hour to the boiling point. With this precaution, level and thoroughly dyed goods are always obtained. If the wool is entered in a hot bath, or if it is rapidly brought to a boil, the dyestuff is too rapidly fixed by the mordant and is liable to run up unevenly, and, with piece-goods, more superficially. For the same reason the goods must always be well wetted out before entering the bath.

We add some special recipes for the various colors, the mordant for all of them being of 3 per cent. chromate of potash and 2½ per cent. tartar for 100 by weight of dry wool.

1. _Orange, Brown Touch_. 20 kil. wool, mordant with 600 grm. chromate of potash and 500 grm. tartar, dye with 3 kil. alizarine orange W.

2. _Ponceau, Yellow Touch_.

20 kil. wool, mordant as for No. 1, dye with 2 kil. alizarine red WR 20 per cent.

3. _Ponceau, Blue Touch_.

20 kil. wool, mordant like No. 1, dye with 2 kil. alizarine red WB 20 per cent.

4. _Dahlia_.

20 kil. wool, mordant like No. 1, dye with 5 kil. galleine W.

5. _Green_.

20 kil. wool, mordant like No. 1, dye with 6 kil. coeruleine W.

_For Piece-goods._

20 kil cloth, mordant the same, dye with 1 kil. 200 grm. coeruleine SW.

6. _Blue, Bright_.

20 kil. wool, mordant the same, dye with 6 kil. alizarine blue WX.

_For Piece-goods._

20 kil. cloth, mordant the same, dye with 1 kil. 200 grm. alizarine blue SW.

7. _Blue, Dark and Red Touch_.

20 kil. wool, mordant like No. 1, dye with 6 kil. alizarine blue WR.

_For Piece-goods._

20 kil. cloth, mordant the same, dye with 1 kil. 200 grm. alizarine blue SRW.

Particular stress is to be laid upon the great fastness of the alizarine dyes against light and fulling. Besides, these dyestuffs contain nothing whatever injurious to the wool fiber. Sanders, which very much tenders the wool, as every dyer knows, can in all cases be replaced by alizarine red and alizarine orange, making an end to the spinners' frequent complaints about too much waste.

Alizarine blue in particular seems to be destined to replace indigo in the majority of its applications, having at least the same power of resisting light and acids, and relieving the dyer of the troublesome, protracted rinsings required for indigo dyed goods. Every piece-dyer knows that the medium and dark indigo blue goods still rub off, even after eight hours' rinsing; but alizarine blue pieces are perfectly dyed through and clean after one hour of rinsing. Another advantage of alizarine blue and the other alizarine dyestuffs is that they unite with all wood colors, as well as with indigo carmine and all aniline dyestuffs. A fine and cheap dark blue, for instance, is obtained by mordanting the wool as above stated and dyeing (20 kil.) in the second bath with 6 kil. alizarine WX and 2 kil. logwood chips; the wood is added to the bath together with the alizarine blue WX, and the best method is to put it into a bag which is hung in the bath.--_D. Woll.-Gew.; Tex. Colorist._

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Papier maché has come of late to be largely used in the manufacture of theatrical properties, and nearly all the magnificent vases, the handsome plaques, the graceful statues, and the superb gold and silver plate seen to-day on the stage are made of that material.

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CEMENT PAVING.

The streets of "Old London" at the recent Inventions Exhibition at South Kensington were paved with a material in imitation of old, worn bowlder stones and red, herring-boned brickwork, all in one piece from one side of the street to the other. The composition is made by Wilkes' Metallic Flooring Company, out of a mixture consisting chiefly of iron slag and Portland cement, a compound possessing properties which won the only gold medal given for paving at that Exhibition. At the present time the colonnade in Pall Mall, near Her Majesty's Theater, is being laid with this paving, which is also being extensively used in London and the provinces for roads, tramways, and flooring; the composition is likewise sometimes cast into artistic forms for the ornamentation of buildings, or into slabs for roofing, facing, and other purposes. The subway from the Exhibition to the District Railway is laid with the same material.

The works of the Wilkes Metallic Flooring Company are in the goods yard of the Midland Railway Company at West Kensington. The Portland cement, before it is accepted at the works, is tested by means of an Aidie's machine. The general strain the set cement is required to bear is 750 lb. to the square inch. All samples which will not bear a strain of 500 lb. are rejected. The various iron slags are carefully selected, and rejected when too soft, and at the works a small percentage of black slag, rich in iron, is mixed in with them. The lumps of slag are first crushed in a Mason & Co.'s stone breaker, and then sifted through 1/8 in., 1/4 in., and 1/16 in. wire meshes into these three sizes for mixing. Next the granulated substance is thoroughly well washed with water to remove soluble matter and impalpable dust, and afterward placed where it is protected from the access of dust and dirt. The washing waters carry off some sulphides, as well as mechanical impurities. The Portland cement is not used just as it, comes from the works, but is exposed to the air in a drying room for about fourteen days, and turned over two or three times during that period. The slag is also turned over three times dry and three times wet, and mixed with the Portland cement by means of water containing 5 per cent. of "Reekie" cement to make the whole mass set quickly. The mixture is then turned over twice and put into moulds; each mould is first half filled, and the mixture then hammered down with iron beaters. The rest of the composition is then poured in, beaten down, and the whole mould violently jolted by machinery to shake down the mixture and to get rid of air holes. While it is still wet the casting is taken out of the mould, its edges are cleaned, and after the lapse of one day it is placed in a bath, of silicate of soda. Should the casting be allowed to get dry before it is placed in this bath, no good results would be obtained; it is left in the bath for seven days. When delicate stone carvings have to be copied, the moulds are of a compound of gelatine, from the flexible nature of which material designs much undercut can be reproduced. For the foregoing particulars we are indebted to Mr. William Millar, the working manager at West Kensington. Sometimes the composition is cast in large, heavy slabs, moulded on the top to resemble the surface of roads of granite blocks. A feature of the invention is the rapidity with which the composition sets. For instance, the manager states that a roadway was finished at the Inventions Exhibition at seven o'clock one night, and at six o'clock next morning four or five tons of paper in vans passed over it into the building, without doing any harm to the new road. In laying down roads, much of the preparation of the material is done on the spot, and the composition after being put down unsilicated in a large layer has the required design stamped upon its wet surface by means of wooden or gutta-percha moulds. As regards the durability of the composition, Mr. T. Grover, one of the directors, says that the company guarantees its paving work for ten years, and that the paving, the whole of the ornamental tracings, and some of the other work at Upton Church, Forest Gate, Essex, were executed by means of Wilkes' metallic cement three years ago, and will now bear examination as to its resistance to the action of weather. Some of this paving has been down in Oxford Street, London, for more than six years. Mr. A.R. Robinson, C.E., London agent of the company, states that the North Metropolitan Tramway Company has about 25,000 yards of it in use at the present time, and that the paving is largely used by the War Office for cavalry stables. The latter is a good test, for paving for stables must be non-slippery and have good power of resisting chemical action.

In the Wm. Millar and Christian Fair Nichols patent for "Improvements in the means of accelerating the setting and hardening of cements," they take advantage of the hydraulicity of certain of the salts of magnesia, by which the cements set hard and quickly while wet. For accelerating the setting of cements they use carbonate of soda, alum, and carbonate of ammonia; for indurating or increasing the hardening properties of cements they use chloride of calcium, oxide of magnesia, and chloride of magnesia or bittern water; for obtaining an intense hardness they use oxychloride of magnesia. The inventors do not bind themselves to any fixed proportions, but give the following as the best within their knowledge. For colored concretes for casts or other purposes they use Carbonate of soda, 8.41; carbonate of ammonia, 1.12; chloride of magnesia, 0.28; borax, 0.56; water, 89.63; total, 100.00. For gray concrete for any purpose they use: Alum, 8.46; caustic soda, 0.28; whitening or chalk, 0.56; borax, 0.56; water, 90.14; total, 100.00. For floors or slabs _in situ_ they add to cement, well mixed and incorporated with any required proportion of agglomerate for a base, liquid composition of the following proportions: Oxide of magnesia, 0.29; chloride of magnesia, 0.29; carbonate of soda or alum, 4.74; water, 94.68; total, 100.00. Articles manufactured by the invention are afterward wetted with chloride of calcium and placed in a bath containing a solution of silicate of soda or chloride of calcium. The strength of the chloride of calcium is equal to about 20 deg. specific gravity.

C.A. Wilkes and William Millar's improved "metallic compound for flooring, paving, and other purposes," has for its object to provide a paving compound which is not slippery or liable to soften in hot weather, which sets rapidly, and is durable. To three parts of blast furnace slag are added one part of hydraulic cement and enough water to give the proper consistency. To each gallon of water used is added one part of bittern water--the dregs from the manufacture of sea salt--or one part of brine, or about 5 per cent. of carbonate of soda, and 2½ per cent. of carbonate of ammonia. In the compound they sometimes use potash in the proportion of about 5 per cent. of the carbonate of ammonia and carbonate of soda, and when potash is used with bittern water or brine, the proportion of the latter is correspondingly reduced. The compound is of a blue gray color; but when a more striking color is desired, red or yellow oxide of iron may be added. When more speedy induration is necessary, they add about 1 oz. of copperas to every gallon of compound used. The claim is the admixture of bittern water, carbonate of soda, and carbonate of ammonia with the washed slag and cement.

Another improvement, by C.A. Wilkes, relates, in laying _in situ_ any metallic or other materials for street roadways, to completing the convenience thereof by roughening or grooving the surfaces. The concrete is laid in a plastic condition upon a bed of hard core, broken stone, or preferably rough concrete. For footpaths the material may be laid in convenient sections, say 4 ft. to 8 ft. square and 2 in. to 4 in. thick; and in order to allow for the expansion of the material during the setting of the sections or subsequent variations in temperature, he packs the joints between the sections with a layer of felting cloth or other compressible material, thus forming expansion joints. Sometimes he slightly roughens the surface of the material, to give better foothold to pedestrians. Sometimes the grooving is made in imitation of ordinary granite paving sets. In tramway pavement there are grooves to give a grip to the horses' feet, and a slight camber between the rails. He states that a great advantage in laying a pavement by the method is that, when any repairs are necessary, a piece of the exact size can be manufactured at the works, and stamped to the same pattern as the adjoining pavement, then placed at once in position on the removal of the worn portion, thus saving the time necessary for the setting of the concrete on the spot.--_The Engineer_.

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A NEW BLEACHING PROCESS.

In the spring of 1883 a Mr. J.B. Thompson, of New Cross, London, patented a new process of bleaching, the main feature of which consisted in the use of carbonic acid gas in a closed vessel to decompose the chloride of lime. The "chemicking" and "souring" operations he performed at one and the same time. The reactions which took place in his bleaching keir were stated by the inventor as follows:

Cl.\ 1. Ca ) + CO_{2} = CaCO_{3} + Cl_{2}. OCl./

2. OH_{2} + Cl_{2} = (ClH)_{2} + O.