PRESERVATION OF ANIMAL SUBSTANCES BY CARBONIZATION. 159 the iron-masters always considered themselves fortunate, if they could get through the winter without a decline in prices. Now, in the month of December, the effort of the most judicious among them is to prevent too frequent and too great advances of price, which they deprecate, lest consumption should be checked; and also, what they fear more than any thing else, the workmen should combine, and strike' for higher wages. You may inquire what effect has been produced on railway iron. I can answer, by quoting my own experience. I have within a week received an order for a very large quantity (so large that I have not revealed it to any one lest it should affect the market,) of railway iron from America. I have issued my circulars to all the houses in this line, and I find a most wonderful alteration in the tone of their communications; formerly they were all eagerness to give an answer by return of mail, and they manifested the greatest anxiety to secure the whole order, or as much of it as possible. Now, some of them decline making tenders altogether, owing to the magnitude of engagements on hand; others, rather than break off connexions, mention such high prices for very small parts of the total quantity wanted, that they think they will not be accepted. A decided indisposition is manifested to come under any further engagements, unless at exorbitant prices, until it is ascertained what will be the result of the adjourned meeting at Romney on the 12th January. I very much fear that the same pattern of rail, which I put out in the middle of September last at 81. per ton, will not now be contracted for under 107. per ton, but I will do my best to screw them down to the lowest price. Not withstanding the present high price, I have every reason to believe that prices will be still higher in the spring; for since I wrote to you, I have traversed the whole iron region, visiting every establishment of any importance, and every where I found an activity and bustle which I never before witnessed during my long experience in this business. Every establishment is full, to excess, of orders, and the greatest exertions are making, day and night, to execute them. The Pacha of Egypt's order for about 5,000 tons for the railway across the Isthmus of Suez, is about one-half completed; but others pour in from France, (there are two recently from that country for about 6,000 tons,) from Germany, Belgium, America, and every part of this country, in a way to astonish even the most enthusiastic friends of the railway system. Besides this demand for railway iron, the consuption of other kinds of iron fully keeps pace with it. This country being in a more prosperous condition, and every branch of trade, cotton, silk, wool, flax, hemp, tin, lead, copper, &c., being more flou rishing, than at any period since the ter mination of the Napoleon wars; it is rea sonable to suppose, and such is the fact, that iron, which is the foundation upon which the arts of civilized life rests, should be in great demand, when all other branches of industry flourish. Hence the demand for domestic consumption for ordinary purposes is very great, which, when added to the demand for foreign countries, and railway purposes, you may easily imagine will readily account for the present prices, and the prospect of still higher in the spring, unless war or some other calamity should ensue to check the brilliant progress of civilization arising from the long continuance of peace. [A short notice of this new discovery appeared in our 667th Number. The following additional particulars are from the American Journal of Science and Arts.-ED. M.M.] The following are some of the objects that have been subjected to the petrifying process. One of Sig. Segato's first experiments was performed upon a Canary bird. It is still preserved unaltered, although it is now ten years since the experiment was performed; and it has been submitted to the action of water and of insects. A parrot retains its original brilliancy of plumage, unimpaired. Eggs of the land turtle, turtles, various tarantulæ, a water-snake, a toad, various kinds of fish, snails and insects, are in a perfect state of preservation. To these, are 160 REPORT OF EXPERIMENTS ON THE EXPLOSIONS OF STEAM-BOILers. added various parts of the human body. A hand of a lady, who died of consumption, preserves the emaciation of the disease and of death. Another of a man is flexible in the different phalangic articulations, and yet unalterable; a foot with the nails perfectly fast; a collection of all the intestines of a child, in their natural colours and forms, with the fecal matters unremoved; the liver of a man who died from intemperance, dark and lustrous like ebony; an entire human brain with its convolutions, of extreme hardness; the skin of a woman's breast, naturally configured; a pate of a girl perfectly flexible, from which the hair hangs in curls; the head of an infant partly destroyed, and discoloured by putrefaction. There is also in the cabinet of Sig. Segato, a table constructed as follows. A spheroidal surface of wood contains a parallelogram, composed of two hundred and fourteen pieces, regularly arranged. These to the eye appear like the most beautiful pietre dure that have been produced by nature. Their various colours, polish and splendour, and their suprising hardness, would leave no doubt of their stony character. The sharpest file, with difficulty, makes an impression on any of them; some it does not attack at all. These pieces are all portions of the human body, hardened by this new process; as the heart, liver, pancreas, spleen, tongue, brain, arteries, &c. &c., all resembling the most highlypolished precious marbles. An entire body has not yet been tried, principally on account of the limited resources of Sig. Segato, although the expense would be but about one-tenth of that of embalming by the ordinary process. Great advantages to science, especially to natural history and human anatomy, are expected to result from this discovery; and it is even confidently believed that the remains of friends, of men of science and of worth, may be preserved for ages in the exact form and appearance, in which the hand of death found them, with nothing offensive or revolting about them. As vouchers for the accuracy of the statements contained in the pamphlet, the certificates of many of the distinguished physicians, professors and men of science in Florence, where Sig. Segato resides, are appended. Among them, it is sufficient to mention the names of Sig. Betti, Professor of Physiology; Sig. Zannetti, Professor of Human Anatomy; and Dr. Gazzeri, Professor of Chemistry. REPORT OF EXPERIMENTS MADE BY THE COMMITTEE OF THE FRANKLIN INSTITUTE OF PENNSYLVANIA ON THE EXPLOSIONS OF STEAM-BOILERS, AT THE REQUEST OF THE TREASURY DEPARTMENT OF THE UNITED STATES. (From the Journal of the Franklin Institute.) The temperature of maximum vaporisasion was obviously about 2920 Fah. The effect of the polish was thus distinctly shown by a comparison with the preceding table, which gave 3270 to 32930 for the same point. Perfect repulsion took place as low as 3150 Fah. In repeating this series, with the surface tarnished by the effect of the heat and water used, the temperature of maximum vaporisation was raised to 325°, and of perfect repulsion to about 378°, confirming the conclusion from the preceding series. 3. The same copper bowl in a bath of oil, the surface being clean but not smooth; and again, the surface being very much oxidated, but free from grease, gave the results recorded in the next table. The nature of the bath would not, probably, materially affect the results with so small a quantity of water; the cooling effects of the vaporisation of the drop upon the surface of the metal being inconsiderable. In these rough surfaces the effect of giving a tendency to motion to the drop of water, by allowing it to fall on the sides of the bowl, becomes very appreciable. This tendency assists the force of repulsion, and frequently determines a considerable increase in the time of vaporisation. The first series in the annexed table consists of results obtained when the dish was clean but the surface not smooth; the second and third, when the dish was free from grease, but much oxidated : 162 REPORT OF EXPERIMENTS ON THE EXPLOSIONS OF STEAM-BOILERS. The results thus compared are probably as accordant as ought to be expected, and indieate the effect of smoothness of surface to be to lower the temperature of maximum vaporisation, but to increase the time required to vaporise at that temperature. Thus in the two extremes of high polish and considerable oxidation, the temperatures of maximum vaporisation are 2920 and 348°; and the times of vaporisation, 3 seconds and of a second. The nearness of the point of repulsion to the temperature of maximum vaporisation is shown in those cases where the point at which perfect repulsion took place, was noted, nearly; the temperature exceeds that of maximum vaporisation by about 210. Vaporisation of Drops of Water by Iron. 5. Experiments were also made to determine the temperature of maximum vaporisation of water by iron with different states of surface, and as they preceded those made with the copper, the number of series was more considerable, that care might in a measure supply the place of experience. It will be wholly unnecessary to give the details of each series, since the mode of experimenting has already been stated, and the results can alone be of interest. At the same time, the temperature at which perfect repulsion of the drops took place was observed. A portion of the experiments were made in an oil bath, others by communicating the heat through tin. In the following table are the results for a bowl of wrought-iron (No. III.), three-sixteenths of an inch thick; the surface was cleaned with acid and alkali after each series: it was not very different in smoothness in the different series, until the closing one, which is marked in the table. The oil bath was used in these experiments. The drops of water were let fall from a dropping-tube, and 128 were required to make one-eighth of a fluid ounce; each drop, therefore, weighed about 45 of a grain. The column of remarks in the following table, is intended to contain principally the temperatures at which the repulsion was observed not to be perfect, and gives an idea of the approximation to the true point of repul sion which each individual observation affords. These numbers obviously differ from those for the temperatures of perfect repulsion less than these latter among themselves, and much less than might have been expected, from the uncertain nature of the effect of slight inequalities of surface. REPORT OF EXPERIMENTS ON THE EXPLOSIONS OF STEAM-BOILERS. 163 Temperature of Maximum Vaporisation, and of perfect Repulsion, of drops of Water let fall upon the sides of an Iron Bowl, three-sixteenths of an inch thick. Sixth series, ascending 333.8 382.9 Surface oxidated from use in the foregoing. 343 a 350 346 385 6. The following table contains another series of results with a thicker iron; they show that the cooling effect in the series just given was imperceptible, no change in the position of the point of maximum vaporisation having been produced by the increase of thickness, that is, by substituting a metal as the source of the communicated heat for an equal thickness of oil. This bowl was very highly heated after the first experiment, so as to cover its surface with a scale of oxide, and the results accord entirely with the similar ones already given, the temperature of maximum vaporisation being raised. Vaporisation of water by an Iron bowl onefourth of an inch thick. Surface cleaned with acid and with alkali. Temperature of Maximum Temperature of ReVaporisation. Side drops. 337% Drop breaks on irregular parts 7. The repulsion as developed in solid tin, when heated, was made out from the experiments given below. The figure of the surface of tin was that of the under side of bowl No. VIII. viz. a portion of a spheroid nearly coinciding with a sphere of 3.35 inches radius; the surface itself was tolerably smooth, conforming to the exterior of the iron bowl; there were, however, small irregularities in it. Table showing the Temperature of Maximum Va porisation for Tin. Surface slightly corrugated. pulsion. Side drops not re pelled. 302 .45 Ten drops in six se conds. Side drops repelled. Maximum vaporisa. tion. Tin not melted at surface, though the thermometer is 149 above its melting point below. Ther mometer has been compared by the test of melting tin. |