The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1869-08-14 00:00:00

THE " GASOPHANER."

The Pioneer states that a discovery has been made by an
officer shish ii the resells on a large tic tie are at all C.,
I/ elisitrx,e with the experimells made on a smell one, itt-y
prove if great saline In giving a timely intitcation of tee ate
- preach or pre,nee of that Ominous tit de id the atmosphere
BEACH OF PROMISE.—X2OO DAMAGES winch is generally believed io enecede cholera awl oilier
epidemic diseases
At the Amiens at Gloucester, the cause of "Lamh a Marsh" "The `gaaniphailers,' or poisonous gas indicators, as
has been henna, and was an action of breach ot promise of the thee icerer a. 16 them, are racily and cheaply made.
ortrilage. A piece of fused boracic sail, the size of a walnut,
Tae plaintiff is the daughter of the head gardener of from which the water of crystallisation has been ex-
Mr. S-onor, a gentleman of the human Catholic faith, paled, is heated to redness in chlorine, or has iii-solveel
-sing at Andertondiall, and she won also a Catholic, in it while but a small quantity of common salt, care
.bleng saii h her parents. She had been schoolmistress being taken that there is not sufficient cola—i 6 per
of the Roman Catholic School at Anderton, at a cent. —to convert the beraeic acid into borax, ahich
salary of £3O a year. The defendant was the pro- would spoil the effect. The red hot Willi, of boracic
orietor if a mill tor making blacking used in mould- acid thus charged is blown with a common glaas-
mg ironwork and of some houses in the district. The blower's tube into a thin e lass hall or bulb about the
acqu airmance, and, accordieg to the plaintiff's case, size of a small hanci-launp shade, and the `gasophaner'
•he engagement, began in 1865, when she was twenty- is ready for use.
one yearns it age. The only difficulty was the differ- "When first made, the glass is clear, with beautiful
-nice of reilLion, the defendant being a Protestant and iridescent colours, due putty to the thinness of its
,fijectiog to imarry a Roman Catholic, but this was got sides ; but left for a time, shorter or longer, according
over by the p'eintiff ceasing to be a Roman Catholic to the amount of moisture in the atmosphere, in
GM becoming a Protestant in the summer of 1868; in normal breathing air, it becomes covered or clouded
e Detente-nee of which she list her place of sehoolmis- with a light blue film (due chiefly to the carbonic sad
tress anal her fa-tier the post of organist. Notwith- gas of the atmosphere), which, combined with the
,tandiog this, however, null that dresses and linen iridescent colours beneath, has an opaline or pearly
ii re pia:tired in the spring of 1868. the marriage WM lustre. On bringing the clouded 'g isophaner ' car -
broken, if by toe defendant in January of this year, fully to the flame of a apirit lamp, this film itmtantans
and he mai ri,4i a barmaid in March. eously vanish. a, leaving the glass of that part again
The defence urged was that the original advances clear and shining. The delicacy of this teat is
ins& on the I art of the defendant fell considerably so great that, although by breathing on the newlys
mort of an unqualified promise to marry, and it was made glass the film may be much more rapidly
left in more than doubt whether such a one was ever formed than by mere exposure to the atm.-
made or not, as differences seemed to have arisen sphere, an approach to the spirit lamp flame will
,eta ten the families on one or two other matters no longer d,ive off the call) 'mated comp .unit formed,
hefore the plaintiff's change of religion. But, on account of the impure gasses contained in the
if the jary were of opinion to the contrary, the breath. At the same time, carbonates thus formed
6arned counsel pointed out that there wait nothing from the breath of a child, or of an extremely healthy
to show SO enthusiastic lover or the promise of a person, vanish precisely an. the aerial ones do on appli-
happy match in this engagement, and also that the cation of gentle heat, field over a solution of am-
defendant's worldly position had been greatly over- . monis, the air carbonate will not form except on the
stated. NO that if the plaintiff were anything like ' upper part, where the ammettiattal gis has leas action ;
attractive (as he had no doubt she was) as her two sis. hut if held no that the breato may mix with the
tens who hail been called into the box, be had not the ammoniacal gas, a thick white cloud of carbonate of
least doubt that she would lose no time in making afar ammonia without opaline lustre covers the 'gas-
better settlement than that which she had lost with the , ophaner.' This cannot be driven off by heat, but
defendant. froths up on an approach being made to the lamp
In the result the jury returned a verdict for the plain- flame.
tiff with £2OO damages. "But the most remarkable indication given by the
;asophaner 'is when it is he.d over a solution of
sulphuretted hydrogen. The 'gasophaner' imme-
diately bscomes pitted, as it were, with small
pox, on the surface next the gas; and these spots, on
being examined with a microscope, are found to be
round radiated crystals, the centre or nucleus of which
soon bursts into a hole. They are white by trans-
mitted and dark brown by reflected light. Nitride of
boron gave exits:ay similar crystals as the chlornde, and
so did pure bonnets acid. These crystals therefore are
presumed to indicate a combination of boron with
hydrogen—a fact hitherto mikne am to chemists.
" The ' gasophaner ' can be reheated and reblown as
often as required."

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