some means of improving clays in accordance n ith these principles b u t Ashley’s work, in this connection, appears to be based upon the observations of Itohland,‘ for which neither of them apparently had a satisfactory explanation IYhile the nriter does not doubt t h a t time will prove his explanation of the plasticity of clay to be correct and t h a t these aluminum organic compounds are the only important ones concerned in this phenomenon-he would not be understood as claiming t h a t in some cases other compounds may not contribute to the plasticity of zery tinpure clays in a very minor degree. In this connection he would call attention to the fact t h a t the “lime muds” obtained in purifying sugar beet juices are
w r y plastic. These are composed of granular calcium carbonatc and coagulated albuminous substances and calcium organic compounds mainly. Limestone is gencrally impure and there may be also magnesium, iron and aluminum organic compounds in the “lime muds.” There can be no doubt t h a t plasticity results from the mixture of a granular substance and a gelatinous substance in due proportion. There are many granular substances and many gelatinous substances ; and so the plasticity of different substances is due to different components of thc mixtures, V T A H EXPERIMENT S T A T I O N I-OGAN.
t-T.4H
CURRENT INDUSTRIAL NEWS THE TINNING INDUSTRY The tinning industry from a chemical standpoint is discussed by Hodgson in The Chewzical Ll’orld, 2 , A-0, 3, 98. At first tinning was practiced as an auxiliary branch of various handicrafts, such as that of the copper-smith, spur-maker, etc., but its rapid development effected its separation as an individual industry. As early as 1 6 j 0 , an English company \vas organized to start a tin-plate works a t Pontypool, but patent difficulties occasioned their stoppage. In 1720, hon-ever, works \yere started once more a t Pontypool, and being followed by others in South Wales. the industry developcd so extensircly as to become probably the most important scat of this manufacture in the n-orld. The pickling process has exercised the minds of those engaged in the industry from its inception, and the problems it presents are essentially of a chemical character. The real development of tinning, therefore. runs parallel with that of the production of mineral acids and sheet. steel. Pickling was originally performed with organic acids, and Reaumur was the first to recommend dilute sulfuric acid for pickling sheet iron. At the present time, the sheets are very carefully dipped into a mixture of dilute sulfuric and hydrochloric acids, then well washed, dried, and gradually heated to a cherry-red heat in iron boxes placed in furnaces. After remaining several hours in the furnace, the sheets are slowly cooled and smoothed between hard rollers, again rapidly heated with exclusion of air, and dipped into a fermenting mixture of bran and v a t e r . X final immersion in dilute sulfuric acid, n-ith subsequent washing and sand scouring, causes the sheets to be ready for the plating process. (This is the IVelsh practice, and, while it has been found to be satisfactory, shortly before the development of the tinplate industry in the United States, there were introduced various improvements, principally- mechanical, to reduce the labor involved, to cheapen the cost of manufacture, and to lessen the consumption of raw materials. On these points, see W. C. Cronemeyer, German Engineers’ Society, Pittsburgh, 1899.-W. A. H.) I n the United Kingdom, until government action mas taken, lead vc-as added to the fused tin for easier and cheaper tinning, and Newton proposed the addition of bismuth. The usual tinning plant, or stow, consists of five vats: the first and fifth, the “grease-pots,” contain tallow or palm oil; the second, the “tinman’s pot,” is filled with molten tin at 400’ C., this being covered with a layer of palm oil to prevent oxidation. The sheets are placed in the grease pot while wet and after I O minutes are taken to the tinman’s pot. Small metallic objects are, however, usually tinned by the blanching process. The irell-scrubbed object is placed for several hours in a boiling solution containing tin or ‘alkali stannates, and is then mashed with water, rubbed and dried. Electro-tinning has recently made important progress, although as yet no marked commercial success has been attained. d beginning has been
U.S . G . S . , Bull. 388,
2 1 (1909).
made a t Swansea to coat black plates 111th aluminum by a cold wet electric process. Smong the ideas Thomas (Ckenz. Trade J . , 5 2 , 341) considers worthy of investigation are the following: ( I ) Over and under black pickling, the influence of strength and temperature of the acid solution, and of time. ( 2 ) Effect of varying temperatures and time of annealing (3) Light and heavy cold rolling. (4) Temperature effects in the tinning operations. ( j ) Differences from the tinplate trade point of view between acid Bessemer steel, basic Bessemer steel, acid open-hearth steel, and basic open-hearth steel, and the comparative tin consumption of each kind. LINSEED OIL Thc distribution of the world’s linseed shipments has been as follows (Chent. a i i d U r u g . , 1913, Jan. z j ) : I l i s t r i b u t i o n . i n tons
\’ex 1903 1904 1005 1906 1‘107 190q 19011
ioio 1911 1912
\I-orld’s s e e d shipments, in tons
U n i t e d Kingdom
The Continent m d the United States
1,17S,l50 1 , ,521 , 4 2 6 1,110,773 1,040,883 1.36Y.311 1,432.1’16 1, 2 9 3 , 3 3 6 1,153.92.3 1,101,690 1 , 1 2 7, 4 2 4
385 9 5 4 50.5. 5 19 345,412 256.140 3 7 2 , ,537 .3S2,16‘1 303,237 236,066 243,3384 2 i 7 , 294
5 9 2 , 100 I , 0 1 7 , 9117 7 95 , 3 6 I 794,74.i 995 , i 7 4 1,050,017 990,599 9 17 , R.5 7 858,352 8 7 0 , 110
~
The production of linseed for the last ten years is reported as follows in tons : Year
Argentina
India
1903 1904 1905 1905 190i 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912
937,601 740,000 591.912 825,764 110,710 1,048,852 il5,ili 595,000 572,000 1,130.000
4X I ,167 5 7 I , 8.72 ,147,400 Ri3 , 400 425,200 163,200 29i.io0 527,600 563,600 641,200 ~
I-.
s.
.*.
6 8 2 , s 13 i8 5 , 0I i 7 11,944 626,500 6 46 , 2 7 .5 64.5, 125 4847,Sli 317,950 184,250 7 0 1 , X2.5
Ckinadj. 21,
ion
13,388
1‘1,342 25,583 43,301 7 9 , 13.1 120,829 100,974 lLI6,6i5 528,505
Kussi;i 461, 114 471 . n z h
42i.000 ,540,500 5.50, 5 c ) O son, 3 3 9 .5.5~,.360 650,000 6 7 0 , on0 650,000
Practically the whole of the Argentine exportable surplus nil1 be diverted t o Europe, as well as the great bulk of the Indian supplies and a considerable tonnage from Russia THE “RHENANIA” STEAM METER
AiDresden firm has placed upon the market a meter which is reported to successfully measure the whole quantity of steam
