manufactured from it at Pesth and Temesvar, and in many of the great industrial establishments of Hungary. In connection with these coal beds considerable deposits of argillaceous iron ores are found, and overlying them beds of bituminous shales which are very rich in mineral oil, which is used, under the direction of Dr. O. Gomelin, in the manufacture of paraffine and photogene. Professor Hochstetter remarks that the coal of this district competes, and not without success, with the British coal which finds its way to the Danubian Provinces. Sulphides of iron, lead, and zinc, are stated to be associated with the iron ores. The demand for coal in France is rapidly increasing, and consequently we find an increase in the quantities of coal sent into that country from England and from Belgium. The quantities sent from the two countries being as follows: The French Government, anxious to preserve the existing woods in France, are doing all they can to induce English coalowners to send coal into that country, and the great railway companies have agents in England, making special inquiries as to the probable quantities of coal which may be sent into the interior of France if the railway rates are reduced. It has been, not unfrequently, said, and very generally believed, that the Gold Mining of Australia was rapidly declining. The last number of Dicker's 'Mining Record,' an admirable weekly paper, published in Melbourne, and devoted to the consideration of the important mining interests of Victoria, gives in its share circular, the names of thirty-eight dividend alluvial mines and of thirty-six progressive alluvial mines; of sixty dividend quartz mines and of sixteen progressive quartz mines. This does not look like a failing of activity in gold washing or mining. Within sixteen years the two colonies of Victoria and New South Wales have produced a supply of gold amounting in value to 150,000,0007. sterling, four-sixths of which has been the produce of Victoria alone.* We have just seen some very interesting specimens of Gold sent home from Otago, New Zealand, by Mr. William Warren, and some gems, topazes, amethysts, sapphires, rubies, rock crystal, and a remarkable siliceous gem of extreme hardness, which we believe to be new. We note this to show the importance of carefully examining the residues of the gold washings of this colony. The gems now sent are small and not of much value, but they indicate the high probability of finding such as would be of real value. * See also article on "The Progress of Science Abroad," in the present number, Intercolonial Exhibition, 1866. Mineral and Mining Statistics.' VOL. IV. 2 F Welsh Gold Mining, which a few years since was of great promise, has almost entirely failed to be remunerative; but two mines produced any quantity of gold in 1866, Vigra and Clogan being one, and Castell Carn Dochan the other, and from the Quartz lodes of these mines about 1,200 ounces of gold were obtained. METALLURGY. There has been for some time an evident want of activity in our Metallurgical processes. The causes of this are sufficiently obvious. The unfortunate attitude assumed by the workmen-more unfortunate for their future than for the future of masters-and the general disturbance of trade being the principal ones. Resulting from this, we find but few of our great manufacturers exhibiting at Paris; but beyond the influence of trade depression, there is another influence yet more potent, which has prevented the display of the finer specimens of English manufacture. Exhibitions have not, as a rule, been found profitable. The regular system of the workshops has to be disturbed, and much inconvenience suffered, which the resulting advantages have not been found to balance. It is therefore most fallacious on the part of Dr. Lyon Playfair to assume that English manufacture is retrograding, because the display of our metallic industries at Paris is an imperfect one. A glance at the Catalogue will convince any one that our highest-class manufac turers have not exhibited. Yet Dr. Playfair, writing to Lord Taunton, thus expresses himself:-"I am sorry to say that with very few exceptions, a singular accordance of opinion prevailed that our country had shown little inventiveness, and made but little progress in the peaceful arts of industry since 1862. Deficient representation in some of the industries might have accounted for this judgment against us, but when we find that out of ninety classes, there are scarcely a dozen in which pre-eminence is unhesitatingly awarded to us, this plea must be abandoned. My own opinion is worthy only of the confidence which might be supposed to attach to my knowledge of the chemical arts; but when I found some of our chief mechanical and civil engineers lamenting the want of progress in their industries, and pointing to the wonderful advances which other nations are making, when I found our chemical and even textile manufacturers uttering similar complaints, I naturally devoted attention to elicit their views as to the causes." It is not necessary to quote any further from Dr. Lyon Playfair's letter, which proceeds to inform Lord Taunton that the one great want of England is technical schools. Dr. Playfair is exceedingly illogical. In the first place, his complaint is that "our country had shown little inventiveness since 1862;" and then he speaks of the "wonderful advances which other nations are making." We must ask him, In what do those wonderful advances consist? Certainly not in inventiveness. For notwithstanding the want of activity in English manufacture and trade, we are so bold as to state that there has been more inventiveness shown in England since 1862 than in all the nations of Europe put together. If the "wonderful advances" refer to manipulatory details, we believe, in many cases-certainly not in all-Dr. Lyon Playfair will be right enough. But the absolute weakness of this letter, put forward with an air of authority which is not pleasant, consists in taking what is confessedly an imperfect display of British industry, as a fair example of the present power of the British workshops. In concluding his letter, Dr. Playfair says, “It would be important that the Government either through your Commission or through the Committee of Council on Education, should hold an official inquiry on this subject, and should tell the people of England authoritatively what are the means by which the great States are attaining an intellectual pre-eminence among the industrial classes, and how they are making this to bear on the rapid progress of their national industries." In our Mineral and Metallurgical Industries to which especial reference is made, and to which we desire to confine ourselves, there is not, in the first place, that want of inventiveness which Dr. Lyon Playfair supposes; and in the second place, supposing it did exist, it would not be remedied by any authoritative telling of a Royal Commission or a Committee of Council. Our iron furnaces are improving in construction and increasing in size. The iron made from inferior ores is greatly improving in quality. Our mills are now the finest in the world, and capable of executing any work for which there may be a demand. We are the only people in the world who are striving-and striving too with every prospect of success-to carry out the process of puddling by machinery; and where else shall we find coal cutting by machinery in so advanced a state as in the British coal fields? In our processes of Lead Smelting great advances are being made -and from ores of lead containing copper, the best lead can now be manufactured. Indeed, in each of our metallurgical processes we can point to improvements which will show how exceedingly imperfect is the knowledge possessed by Dr. Lyon Playfair; and a little consideration would have prevented Earl Granville from basing his remarks,-made at the distribution of prizes at the London University, on so fallacious a letter as that addressed to Lord Taunton. An alloy of Platinum and Steel has been formed which possesses some peculiar properties. When these two metals are in a state of fusion, they alloy in all the proportions tried. This alloy takes a fine polish, does not tarnish, and its pure colour peculiarly fits it for a mirror. Its density is 9,862. If two pieces, one of steel and the other the alloy of steel and platinum, be plunged into dilute sulphuric acid, the alloy is attacked with violence, while the steel remains untarnished. This alloy is thus attacked by acids in all proportions, until ninety parts of platinum with twenty of steel are united.* Alloys of Silver and Steel were made long since by Stodart and Faraday, and then fully examined; our French friends have recently announced an examination of these argentiferous alloys as something new. The Iron Sand of New Zealand is again attracting attention, and a company has been formed for working it. Let us hope that the experiment of making pig iron from this ore may be practically more successful than the former attempts to do the same thing has been. M. Julien has presented to the Society of Encouragement of Paris a pamphlet on Iron and Steel, in which he puts forth some peculiar views on the combination, or rather mixture, of carbon and iron. The cleverness of this essay and its novel views will commend it to the attention of the man of science and to the steel manufacturer. The manufacture of Steel Iron from Cinder Pigs, which has been for some time the subject of experiment, appears to be now nearly approaching a successful development. Mr. Heaton, of Langley Mills, places nitrate of soda at the bottom of the crucible and covers it with a perforated iron plate. The iron to be purified is placed above this, and the melted nitrate of soda diffuses itself through the melted metal, producing, according to the statement of the inventor, complete desulphurization and dephosphorization. A number of experiments were made recently at Langley Mills with cinder iron, which would have been utterly useless in the Bessemer converters. The result is stated to have been the production of steel iron of the finest quality. We understand that a large Staffordshire firm is preparing to make the experiment upon a large scale; we shall anxiously watch and report the result obtained. 10. PHYSICS. LIGHT.-Mr. Sorby, in this Journal, two years ago, described his application of Spectrum Analysis to microscopical investigations, and especially to the detection of blood stains. Mr. Browning has recently made for Mr. Sorby a modification of the spectroscope, *Les Mondes,' tome xiii., 15 livraison. which is intended to slip into the eye-end of a microscope, instead of the eye-piece. The instrument contains a series of prisms arranged for viewing the spectrum by direct vision, and there is an arrangement for the purpose of obtaining a supplementary spectrum from any object whose spectrum it is desired to compare with that of the object placed on the stage of the microscope; which object may be either a solution of permanganate of potash in a small sealed tube, a cobalt-blue glass, or anything else which will furnish a standard spectrum for comparison. Milled heads with screw motions enable the observer to adjust the focus of the different parts of the spectrum and to open and shut the slit vertically and horizontally. Powers of from half-an-inch to 1-20th may be employed, and by using a binocular microscope the object may be brought into the field and examined in the ordinary way through one tube, whilst its spectrum may be observed and compared with that of a standard light by means of the other tube. The object may be illuminated either by transmitted or reflected light, and any of the ordinary accessories may be used for this purpose, such as achromatic condenser, side reflector, Lieberkuhn, &c. Mr. Sorby proposes the use of a standard interference spectrum, to be used as a scale in all descriptions of spectra, as seen by the spectrum microscope. The scale is produced by a plate of quartz 043-inch thick, cut parallel to the principal axis of the crystal, and placed between two Nicol's prisms. By this means the whole visible space is divided by dark bands into twelve regular divisions, having in all parts the same relation to the physical properties of light. These are counted from the red end towards the blue, their centres being reckoned as 1, 2, 3, &c., and the thickness of the plate is so adjusted that the sodium line exactly corresponds to 3. The intensity of the absorption is expressed by the following types: , Not at all shaded Very slightly shaded More shaded Strongly shaded, but so that a trace of colour is still seen Still darker Nearly black (blank space) (dots with wide spaces) (three hyphens close) (single dash) (double dash) Except when specially requisite, only the symbols. are employed for the sake of simplicity, and then as signs of the relative rather than of the absolute amount of absorption, and it is assumed that there is a gradual shading-off from one tint to the other, unless the contrary is expressed. This is done by means of a small vertical line over the figure, which shows that there is a well-marked division between them. Definite narrow absorption |