The Sun.
London, England, 1868-03-07 00:00:00

AIII.IIONIA AN AGENT OF MOTION.

Visitors to the Great Exhibition may re-
collect having seen a locomotive engine, set
in motion by the application of ammonia, and
which was exhibited in Class LIII. by M.
Fort, a naval engineer. This engine attracted
the Emperor's attention as well as that of the pub-

lic, the saving resulting from the system being enor-
mous. It appeared from the experiments made that
a common 15-horse power steam engine working
four hours consumed 247 kilog. of fuel, while the
ammonia engine working four hours and 18 minutes,
did not consume more than 107 kil. The saving
was therefore about GO per cent. The new ap-
paratus has moreover the advantage of being
easily applicable to the old boiler. The chemical
theory on which Mr. Frot's system rests is this:—
" The latest heat of the dissolution lof ammonia in
water is the algebraical sum of the latent heat of
liquefaction of that gas, and of its heat of combina-
tion with water." The now engine, however, does
not employ liquefied ainnioniaeal gas, but a disso-
lution of that gas in water, and commonly known
as liquid ammonia. This solution only absorbs 126
units of heat in its vaporization, while that of water
absorbs 606 of these units. Moreover common
liquid ammonia boils atmso deg. centig, and affords
a pressure of 6 atmospheres at 111 deg., while
steam requires a heat of 160 deg. in order to produce
the same pressure. Nevertheless an objection to
this new system had to be removed. Ammonia will
attack copper and brass with great avidity ; and as
many parts of a steam engine consist of brass, their
speedy deterioration might be looked forward to.
Fortunately, however, ammonia, the enemy of
copper, is the friend of iron; that is, iron indefinitely
in contact with it will be preserved from rust in-
stead of suffering from it, and all the parts of the
steamengine now made of brass may henceforth be
made of iron. The escape of ammonia from the
engine is not to be dreaded, because the fatty sub-
stances with which engines are greased being
saponified by cont act with that gas will only make
them more air-tight than before.

EXTRAORDINARY ESCAPE.—EarIy on Wednesday
morning a girl named Clarinda Tippet, in the employ of r
Mr. Johns, miller, near Truro, threw her newly-born infant
out of her bedraom window into a garden, a height of at
least 12ft. The ground had not been tilled for some time
and was quite hard. Mr. Johns heard cries, and, proceed-
ing to the girl's room, soon became aware of what had been
done. The child was brought into the house and properly
attended to, and was found to have escaped injury.
ENORMOUS RHINE SALMON.—The French papers
speak of an enormous ninon which the Rhine fishermen
have sent to Paris. It is said to be about nine feet long'
about 3301 b. in weight, and to have been purchased by the
keeper of a restaurant for £l4. It is a pity that the
whereabouts of this fish is not mentioned, so that a core-
roner's jury might be called in to witness the body. In
1821 au 831 b. salmon was exhibited in London, and that
was thought a monster.—Land and Water.

SAD OCCURRENCE.—The P igaro Piograninie has
the subjoined :—" A frightful misfortune has just befallen
Madame Carlotta Patti in the course of her tour in the
South—her husband, M. Scola, has gone mad! The Ul-
mann Concerts at Marseilles have in consequence boon
temporarily suspended. It appears that the father of M.
Scola died iu a lunatic asylum at Milan ; the son had
fcrmorly been a tenor, and was a widower when he married
4adlle. Carlotta Patti."