Amador ledger., 1906-10-05

Kerosene Gaslight. -Improved Light
Tubes-Sugar Hidden.
The commercial production of vege-
table soap In powder and cakes, es-
pecially as family industry, is the
novel recommendation of a French
chemist, after an investigation for
the Algerian government. The
Sapindus utilis, an imported tree,
begins bearing at the age of six, and
at Its best may yield each year 200
pounds or more of a small fieshy
fruit. The now abundant product
has not been utilized, although SINH
lar to the soap substitutes of China,
Japan, India and the Antilles. The
powdered fruit in water gave q soapy
solution, which acted slowly on &C.
count of containing a gummy SUBJ
stance, but on roasting before grind
ing, the powder with warm water
quickly yielded frotby liquid,
which proved excellent for washing,
and was free from risk of injury to
colored fabrics. The powder is easily
made into cakes with water. Much
more saponine was found than in the
Oriental fruit, with indications of
another constituent having the same
soap like properties as saponlne.
The radium mines at Joachimetal,
in Austia, recently supplied the
Vienna Academy of Science with ten
tons Of uranium ore, and this has
yielded quarter of million dollars,
worth of radium, which is to be used
for research. The mines are being
converted into radium cure resort.
local laboratory for producing
radium salts has been established, and
the springs are serving as medicinal
baths.
Of the ice-kept flowers of Vercier,
French florist, China peonies have
been most enduring, some being
fairly preserved after five months in
the refrigerator. In his latest ex-
periments, he has cut peonies with
stems l6 inches long, putting them in
water, trimming the ends every three
weeks. and renewing water each
month.
The worlds greatest store of nitro
genous plant foud-the nitrate of
soda, or saltpeter, beds of Chili-is
expected to become exhausted within
athird of a century. To provide a
new supply is therefore a problem of
immediate concern, and for number
of years electricians have been striv-
ing to solve it by using the electric
spark for oxidizing or fixing" the
nitrogen of the air. Experiments at
Niagara Falls, in Italy and in Ger
many have proven commercially un-
successful. Last year a factory was
started at Notodden, in Norway, for
making calcium nitrate from air and
limestone by means OF the electric arc
| flames, and this has given results so
promising that new works, using 80,
600 horsepower, will soon be opened.
The calcium nitrate, which proves
equal to the soda saltpeter as a
fertilizer, is now produced at fact
DRY cost of $40 per ton. A rival pro-
cess is that of Drs. Caro- and Frank,
who begin with calcium carbide, a
cheap product of the electric furnace,
and by heating this already common
material redhot they cause it to take
up atmospheric nitrogen. The new
combination of calcium, carbon and
nitrogen, called calcium cyanimide,
is good and probably economical
fertilizer. A possible future addition
to our plant nitrogen may come from
saving the waste in sewage, which
now pollutes our streams instead of
feeding our crops, becoming finally
lost in the ocean.
The interesting result is reached
by Prof. Quincke, of Heidelberg, that
water and all other liquids pass
through an intermediate stage before
solidifying In this they split up
into what may Ibe called foam cells,
giving viscous structure resembling
Jelly, and in cobbled metals, as in
quickly solidified steel, some of these
cells remain even in the solid state.
This may explain the aIlotIopic
notifications noted in different
specimens of the same metal.
In an incandescent oil lamp now
being tested in Scotland, kerosene is
vaporized by jet of carbonic acid
before reaching the mantle. A gallon
of oil yields a light of 200 candle
power for IS hours.
Not least of the products evolved
by M. Moissan with the electric fur
mace is calcium hydr1de a simple
compound of hydrogen and calcium.
The commercial manufacture has
been worked out in two stages, tie
metal calciumsbeiug first produced by
the electrolysis of fused, calcium
chloride, and the metal so obtained
being then converted into hydride by
heating in horizontal resorts through
which is passed current of hydrogen.
The product is in the form of hard
grey or white Jumps, which have
been called hydroliths. The Jumps