discern to be performable by other materials, than those that tradesmen confine themselves to, or probably guessed to be performable by other agents more in the tradesmens power; and by making trials of his conjectures, it is like he will within a few trials discover what he seeks.” He also sets many practical problems for the scientist to investigate and solve: ’‘ * * the cracking of glass of its own accord, and particularly that which is complained of by divers who deal in telescopes, that the object-glasses, which are wont to be made, as I was saying, of fine Venice glass, will sometimes, especially in water, flaw of themselves, and so grow useless, to prevent which, some, that are very curious, carry them in their pockets.” x: :g the fading of the bow-dye of water colors in liming, and the rust of shining arms, and other polished steels. Divers of these inconveniences also the naturalist may obviate or remedy; as some of the virtuosi above-mentioned, by teaching the glassgrinders to make the object-glasses of their telescopes of green glass, have taught them a way to make them durable in spite of the vicissitudes of weather.” These are only a few of the problems which he outlines. Many of them would appear foolish or impossible of solution to us. I n the first burst of this enthusiasm they did not to Boyle. His clear insight and his great appreciation of the necessity for closer cooperation between science and industry mark him as one who lived before his time. I n no other of his essays does his genius show more conspicuously.
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ORIGINAL PAPERS.
TDZCA ACID. ~
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BzOi + 3IIzO.. Water Am.rul& ................................... Mprul~h I’eandAI ................................... send and organic matter..
Per cent. 33.46 1.44
5.30 7.50 0.30 2 .oo 100.00
In the United States, i t was first found in the water of Clear Lake, in Northern California, which waters, when evaporated, gave borax. Then borax was found in the surface crust of desert marshes in California and Nevada, and later on borax was leached out of the clay formations of the marsh deposits. Lately great deposits of a fairly pure calcium borate have been found in rarious parts of California, embedded in old tertiary sediments. There are three varieties of calcium borate which correspond to the varieties of calcium carbonate: calc spar, marble and chalk, uiz., colemanite, pandermite and priceite, each found in different parts of the world in large quantities and of a well defined and constant composition. Further, there is the boronatrocalcite, ulexite, tiza or cotton balls, a sodium calcium borate and the stassfurtite or boracite, a magnesium horate. There are a good many more varieties of natural borates and borosilicates which are of more interest to the mineralogists than to the manufacturer or which belongs to the class of gems and precious stones. The ore most extensively used in the United States is the colemanite. There are two localities which are now the principal source of supply, the mines in Death Valley and the mines a t Lang, near Los Angeles. ‘
THE BORAX INDUSTRY. BY P. M.
DUPCNT.
Received Oclobrr 26. 1910.
It is now about half a century since borax has been commercially manufactured. Since that time the industry has undergone some radical changes. Beiore going into the details of the process of manuiactnre, I will mention the different sources of supply. The element boron is widely distributed through the earth crust, even sea water being known to contain minute amounts of borax., Boric acid is found free in nature in many volcanic districts, as in Tnscany, where the vapors issuing from the saffioni charged with the acid are passed through vats of water until the water becomes sufficiently concentrated, or, are deposited as a crystalline crust around the margins, as in the neighborhood of Sasso. When these little lagoons are sufficiently concentrated with boric acid they are run into crystallizing vats and the product put on the market as sassoline or Tuscany acid :
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