T H E JOUR-YAL OF I?\‘DUSTRIAL A N D E-YGIMEERIKG C H E 3 1 I S T R Y
350
VISCOSITS O F
Temperature Degrees 40 60 SO 90
Right limb 0 3200 0 1643
0 09682 0 07749
BUTTERFAT Left limb
Average
0 3203 0 1644 0 09651 0 07759
0 3202 0 1644
0 09682 0 07754
Vol. 5 , No.
4
The public buildings law, which carries the Survey item, authorizes a n immediate appropriation of $596,000, the balance to be appropriated as needed in construction. While this omnibus building law is only an “authorization” measure, leaving the actual appropriation of the money to a future act, $96,000 of the amount included in the measure can be expended immediately, having been appropriated by a former Congress in connection with the purchase of the site on which the Survey building is to be erected. Plans can thus go forward a t once for the construction of the new building. For the needs of the Survey and the other bureaus mentioned an up-to-date, conveniently arranged, and well-lighted building is of especial importance. Too many of Uncle Sam’s great army of civil employees a t Washington work in part or exclusively by artificial light, in quarters that may be compared to dungeons, a condition which is suggestive of medieval times, when the first requirement of castles was walls thick enough to resist the attacks of battering rams and catapults, or of the still more ancient period when huge, ornate pillars and columns were the fashion, regardless of the arrangements with respect to light and convenience on the inside of the building. The innovation of providing a structure of the modern office type for government “workshops” in which a maximum of high-grade output is the first consideration, such as will occupy the new building, will be welcomed.
this type t o warrant its being considered for adoption as a standard. What are its good features? I n the first place i t is easily made, the mediocre skill of the ordinary chemist in glass-blowing and a few hours practice being all that is required. It is convenient t o handle; nor is i t so fragile as to require great care in manipulating. As mentioned above, i t is readily calibrated without depending upon the difficult method of actual measurement of bore and length of the capillary. The temperature is easily regulated. The apparatus required can be set up in any laboratory with the materials a t hand. Only a few minutes are required for a run and as many runs as desired may be taken by simply changing the pressure from one limb t o the other, taking the time as the liquid flows each way. It is by no means of little importance t h a t only 7 to I O cc. of a fluid are required for any number of determinations necessary. The measurements made with different instruments exhibit none of the discrepancies which, as was pointed out in the article in the January issue, are obtained with instruments in common use. The inaccuracies of ’the Ostwald viscosimeter and the impracticability of its use with very viscous oils, both serious faults, are not met with. Finally the viscosities obtained are in abPOTASH LANDS WITHDRAWN solute units and, of course, are comparable with the results The President has recently approved the withdrawal of three obtained by other instruments depending on the same principles. travts of land of the desert-basin type in California and Nevada I n conclusion then, is not this instrument, possessing all these that are believed, as the result of investigations by the United good qualities and also adaptability t o practical industrial work, States Geological Survey, to contain valuable deposits of potasworthy of careful consideration before we adopt as a standard sium salts and brines. The survey adds: a German implement which may prove less advantageous? The constructive good faith of the Government in the withR. H. TWINING drawal of these lands in aid of legislation is indicated by the CLARK COLLEGE fact that concurrently with the withdrawal the Interior DeW O R C E S T E R , MASS., FEB. 24, 1913 partment has prepared the draft of a law intended to relieve the COURT DECISION ON THE MANUFACTURE OF CARBO- present chaotic situation and provide a safe and sure legal basis for the development of the deposits now known and any RUNDUM that may be discovered in the future. This draft has been subThe Circuit Court of Appeals a t Philadelphia has just decided mitted to Congress for its consideration, and its enactment will in the case of the Electric Smelting & Aluminium Company lis. be urged in order that American potash deposits may be dethe Carborundum Company of Niagara Falls, that the Alfred H. veloped under conditions that are favorable to the producer Cowles patent No. 319,790 is substantially a basic patent for and will a t the same time protect the consumer. the manufacture of carborundum. This decision is said t o involve the payment of more than $250,000 by the Carborundum THE RARE EARTH MINERALS Company t o the first-named company, which also recovered a large amount some years ago from the Pittsburgh Reduction A recent Geological Survey bulletin gives information conCompany for infringement of a series of electrochemical patents cerning a valuable Texas deposit of these minerals. Economic controlled by Mr. Cowles’ interests. interest in them centers in their incandescence on being heated, and owing to this property they have been much sought. Thoria, NEW GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BUILDING PROVIDED beryllia, yttria, and zirconia show it in the greatest degree, After a 26-year campaign the United States Geological Sur- but thoria and beryllia, which form the bulk of the incandesvey has received generous recognition a t the hands of Con- cent oxides used in gas mantles, are too easily volatilized to gress in the authorization of an expenditure of $2,596,000 for be used in a n electric glower, such as that of the Nernst lamp. the construction of a fireproof building of “modern office- Yttria and zirconia, however, will stand the necessary high building type of architecture.” With this sum it is proposed temperature. Before the discovery of this deposit it was practo erect a building on ground already owned by the Govern- tically impossible to get sufficient yttria-bearing minerals to ment which shall accommodate, besides the Geological Survey, manufacture the lamps. The needs of the Nernst Lamp Co., the Reclamation Service, the Indian Office, and the Bureau which owns the deposit, require only the occasional working of Mines, all bureaus of the Interior Department whose work of the mine, and after enough yttria is obtained to supply is closely related to that of the Survey and among all of which its wants for a few months ahead, the mine is closed. But a there is more or less constant cooperation. few hundred pounds a year are extracted.
BOOK REVIEWS city life is of such importance Chloride of Lime in Sanitation. By ALBERT H. HOOKER.the ever-increasing:congestion!of that the appearance of this book is fully warranted. Published by John Wiley & Sons. pp. 231. Price, $3.00. The author, Mr. Albert H. Hooker, of the Hooker ElectroThe relation of sanitation to public health especially under
