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Review of American Ckemical Research.
treatment, no silica is lost, as has been proved by numerous comparative analyses. The rest of the analysis is finished as J. W. RICHARDS. usual. A New Method of Determining Titanium. BY E. J. ERICIron Age, August 2 7 , 1go3.-The idea is to precipitste by ammonium phosphate instead of sodium phosphate. Dissolve 0.3 to 0 .j gram of ferro-titanium in I j cc. dilute nitro-sulphuric acid (equal parts), evaporate to fumes of sulphur trioxide, cool, add 1 5 cc. dilute hydrochloric acid, boil, filter, add enough sulphur dioxide or amnionium bisulphite to reduce the iron, heat to boiling, and add z j cc. of a I O per cent. solution of animonium phosphate, boil twenty to thirty minutes, settle a n hour, filter, and wash with hot water. Ignite strongly. The factor for reducing weight of precipitate to TiO, is 0.336, correspondiiig to Ti,P,O,, as proved by many comparative analyses. J . L‘. RICHARDS. SOX.
IN DUST Rl A L CH En I STRY. Liquid Fuel for Power Purposes. BY A. L. ~VILLISTON. Eug. Mug., July-August, rgo3.--?’he author concludes that one pound of oil is equivalent to I . j to 3 pounds of coal, according to the quality of the latter, and that a slightly higher efficiency, 4 to 6 per cent. may usually be expected from the oil, while the boiler capacity, or evaporation per square foot of heating surface, may be increased from 30 to 50 per cent., using oil, without lowering the efficiency. T h e saving in cost of firiug varies from little or nothing in small plants to perhaps 75 per cent. in the largest, in the latter case being equivalent to a reduction of 20 cents per ton of coal burned in producing a given horse-power. T h e present production of petroleum is a t the rate of 70,000,000 barrels yearly in the United States, of wliich about 80 per cent. is from Pennsylvania and Oh;o and is comparatively unavailable for fuel purposes ; the most promising fields for fuel oil are California and Texas. Oil firiug can only be used where oil is cheap and coal dear. In New Pork City, for instance, with buckwheat coal a t $2.85 per ton and oil at 3’j2 cents per gallon, delivered, oil-burning would be 69 per cent. the more costly ; in California, New Orleans or Texas,. with inferior coal costing $ 5 . 2 5 per ton and oil at 55 cents per barrel, delivered, oil-burning is 7 2 percent. the J. W. RICHARDS. cheaper .
The nanufacture of Ethyl Alcohol from Wood. I Y O A g~ e, Z September 1 7 , 1903. -The Lignum Inversion Company has established an experimental plant a t Highland Park, near Chicago, to operate the patents of A. Classen. T h e plant has been operating eight months, three months under the supervision of Dr. J. H. Long, president of the American Chemical Society, Professor Long states that the process is simple in theory and operation,
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the raw material is cheap and abundant, and the method is novel. T h e operation consists in : ( I ) Converting the cellulose into sugar in a lead-lined digester. T h e sawdust is moistened with onethird its weight of a 3 per cent. solution of SO,, the temperature is raised to 145’ C. by steam, and the digester revolved. After ninety minutes the sawdust has shrunken to a nearly dry, brown mass. Fully 85 per cent. of the SO, is recovered in the exhaust steam. ( 2 ) T h e contents are put into leaching tubs, in which the sugar is washed out. By ten washings, 450 to 500 pounds of sugar are obtained per ton of sawdust ; 7 0 to 80 per cent. of this sugar is fermentable. (3) The sugar solution has its acid neutralized by carbonate of lime, then pumped into fermenting vats, heated to 30’ C., yeast added, and in thirty minutes brisk fermentation begins, which is complete in eight to ten hours. (4) The fermented liquor is run to the distillery, equipped with ordinary stills and condensers. Experimental tests have given 24’/, to 27 gallons of absolute alcohol (49 to 54 proof gallons) from 2240 pounds of wood, at a cost of 13 cents per absolute gallon. On a larger scale it is expected to reduce this to 7 cents. After exhaustion, the residues may be pressed into briquettes by pressure alone, and charred in kilns, yielding wood alcohol, wood tar and acetic acid in normal quantity. T h e briquettes weigh 7 5 per cent. of the weight of sawdust used, and contain 8 0 per cent. carbon, 1.04 hydrogen, 0.32 nitrogen, 8.34 oxygen, 0.01sulphur, 9.05 moisture, 0.47ash. The charcoal is suitable for use in blastfurnaces. T h e commercial development of the process is now proceeding under the care of 0. Sjostrom. J. U’.RICHARDS. L’IETALLUROICAL CHEnlSTRY AND ASSAYING. The Making of Specifications. BY C. B. DUDLEY. Zron Age, July. 9, 1903. (Presidential Address before the Am. SOC.for Testing Materials.)-A very fair review of the rights and obligations of sellers, purchasers and consumers of the materials of engineering. J. W. RICHARDS. A n Introduction to the Study of Alloys. BY H. M. HOWE. Eng. M a g . , August, ig03.-An outlineof thescience of alloys, condensed from advance sheets of the author’s forthcoming volume “Iron, Steel and Other Alloys.” T h e constjtuents of alloys are classed as either ( I ) puremetals, (2) definite chemical compounds, such as AuAI,, SnSb, Fe, C, or (3) solid solutions of metals in each other. Any given piece of alloy may at the same time contain substances of each of the three classes. A knowledge of the constitution of a series of alloys gives us a superior method of analysis of the problem of where to find in that series the most valuable alloys, for the critical points for constitution may be expected to be also critical points for the useful properties. A comparison is made
