Various

“ The more high class type of man the master is the better he will treat his men, and the more exacting he will be in compelling discipline, both in his officers and crew.
Engineers and firemen are often sources of annoyance in these days. Firemen are a lower class generally than seamen, and more inclined to insubordination; in many cases the engineers are quite incapable of keeping them in proper order, and it sometimes happens that in an engine room row it falls to the lot of the deck officers to restore discipline. ”

“ Indeed, owing to the powerful affinity of mercury for fluorine, it is a most dangerous experiment to transfer a tube containing fluorine gas, filled according to either the first or second method, to the mercury trough; the tube is always shattered if the mercury comes in contact with the gas, and generally with a loud detonation. Fluorine may, however, be preserved for some time in tubes over mercury, provided a few drops of the non-reacting liquid are kept above the mercury meniscus. ”

“ No doubt every one will avail himself of the opportunity, and may we not reasonably hope that scores of amateur observers throughout the United States and Canada will experience the delight of seeing and studying the tiny moons of our ruddy neighbor? ”

“ To his own deck officers the master should behave with ordinary courtesy, and, if he finds them trustworthy, should not spoil them and render them unreliable by always keeping on or about the bridge; an officer who is never left by himself in charge will soon fancy himself incapable. It is to be feared that many young officers are spoiled in this way.
Familiarity with the men before the mast is always unwise. It is not a good practice in ordinary vessels, where a new crew is shipped each voyage, to begin by calling the men "Tom" and "Jack." ”

“ The master should remember that his engineers are officers of the ship, with their own responsibility, that his chief engineer is of some importance on board, and that it is necessary in the owner's interests that they should work together amicably. In ordinary cargo vessels, the engineer is often better educated than the master himself, and should never be treated as an inferior while he behaves with proper respect to the master. ”

“ In the shops may be found many telescopes gorgeous in polished tubes and brass mountings which, for effective work, are absolutely worthless. On this subject, I consulted the most eminent of all discoverers of double stars, an observer who, even as an amateur, made a glorious reputation by the work done with a six inch telescope. ”

“ Chloroform.—When chloroform is saturated with fluorine, and subsequently boiled, carbon tetrafluoride, hydrofluoric acid and chlorine are evolved. If a drop of chloroform is agitated in a glass tube with excess of fluorine, a violent explosion suddenly occurs, accompanied by a flash of flame, and the tube is shattered to pieces. The reaction is very lively when fluorine is evolved in the midst of a quantity of chloroform, a persistent flame burns beneath the surface of the liquid, carbon is deposited, and fluorides of hydrogen and carbon are evolved together with chlorine. ”

“ It is much wiser and better for all concerned that the master should, within certain limits, be on friendly terms at any rate with his first mate, if not with all his officers. Any man with common tact can always find means for checking undue familiarity, and it will generally be found that officers treated as equals instead, as is often the case, as though they were an inferior race of beings, will be much more inclined to do their work with zeal, and to back up the master in all his troubles. Many men when they get command seem to forget that they ever were officers themselves. ”

“ I trust it has been shown that expensive telescopes are not necessarily required for practical work. My advice to an intending purchaser would be to put into the objective for a refractor, or into the mirror for a reflector, all the money he feels warranted in spending, leaving the mounting to be done in the cheapest possible manner consistent with accuracy of adjustment, because it is in the objective or in the mirror that the value of the telescope alone resides. ”

“ The gas acting equally in all directions from the center is forced into the two opposite wedge-shaped spaces, and the impact being instantaneous the effect is precisely similar to that of two solid wedges driven from the center by a force equally prompt and energetic. All rocks possess the property of elasticity in a greater or less degree, and this principle being excited to the point of rupture at the points, A and B, the gas enters the crack and the rock is split in a straight line simply because under the circumstances it cannot split in any other way. ”

“ When the experiment is performed in the fluorspar tube, the gaseous fluoride may be collected over mercury. The gas fumes strongly in the air, and is instantly decomposed by water.
Silicon.—The reaction between fluorine and silicon is one of the most beautiful of all these extraordinary manifestations of chemical activity. The cold crystals become immediately white-hot, and the silicon burns with a very hot flame, scattering showers of star-like, white-hot particles in all directions. If the action is stopped before all the silicon is consumed, the residue is found to be fused. ”

“ It is a fact that in these times, and often from want of attention to health, nearly every shipmaster long in harness is more or less nervous.
There are people in the present day who have actually talked of making their chief engineer (who exercises his special trade at sea or on shore as suits himself and is in no sense a seaman) the master of the vessel, and turning the shipmaster into a mere pilot. Those who talk in this way forget that to do this the responsibility must be shifted on to the engineer. ”

“ The master, of course, should always be on the bridge when required, and in fog certainly all the time; but many men are over-cautious in this respect through sheer nervousness, and oftentimes expose and fatigue themselves to no purpose, harass their officers, and make them unreliable, so that when the time comes that their presence on deck is absolutely necessary, they are, through exhaustion of mind and body, in anything but a fit state to take charge of the ship, or be cool and collected in a moment of sudden emergency. ”

“ No prince of any country in any age has ever personally exerted himself more constantly and faithfully, in rendering services of this kind to the community, than the Prince of Wales. The multiplicity and variety of his engagements, on behalf of local and special objects of utility, would make a surprising list, and they must have involved a sacrifice of ease and leisure, and endurance of self-imposed restraint, a submission to tedious repetitions of similar acts and scenes, and to continual requests and importunities, which few men of high rank would like to undergo. ”

“ Where "pressure" exists in quarries, the new system has certain limitations. After determining the line of "pressure" it is only practicable to use the system directly on the line of thrust, or at right angles to it. It is much better, however, to release the "pressure" from the ledge by channeling, after which a single end may be detached by a Knox blast. It is well to bear in mind that the holes should invariably be of small diameter. In no case should the diameter of a hole be over 11⁄2 in. ”

“ This cloud soon diminishes in intensity, and is eventually replaced by a beautiful blue gas—ozone in a state of considerable density. If the product is chased out by a stream of nitrogen as soon as the dense cloud is formed, a very strong odor is perceived, different from that of either fluorine or ozone, but which soon gives place to the unmistakable odor of ozone. It appears as if there is at first produced an unstable oxide of fluorine, which rapidly decomposes into fluorine and ozone. ”

“ Some chemists advocate that coal be purchased only after having been analyzed. Efforts to have a unification in methods of analysis of all products of factory is a move in the right direction; the Association of Sugar Chemists have adopted a series of methods that are in the future to be considered as standard.
Copper solutions are destined to render great service in the destruction of micro-organisms that attack the beet field. The liquid used should be composed of 3 per cent. copper sulphate and 3 per cent. lime, dissolved in water; fifty gallons are sufficient for one acre ”

“ The opening years of the seventeenth century found the world without a telescope, or, at least, such an instrument as was adapted for astronomical work. It is true that long years before, Arabian and some other eastern astronomers, for the purpose, possibly, of enabling them to concentrate their gaze upon celestial objects and follow their motions, had been accustomed to use a kind of tube consisting of a long cylinder without glasses of any kind and open at both ends. ”

“ Iron, reduced by hydrogen, combines in the cold with immediate incandescence, and formation of an anhydrous, readily soluble, white fluoride. Aluminum, on heating to low redness, gives a very beautiful luminosity, as do also chromium and manganese. The combustion of slightly warmed zinc in fluorine is particularly pretty as an experiment, the flame being of a most dazzling whiteness. Antimony takes fire at the ordinary temperature, and forms a solid white fluoride. Lead and mercury are attacked in the cold, as previously described, the latter with great rapidity. ”

“ At the present time it was possible for English machinists to secure contracts for the whole of the machinery in an American mill, and inclusive of freight charges and high tariff, deliver and erect it in America at a lower cost than American engineers with all the advantages of their immeasurably superior tools were able to do. ”

“ They labor under the false impression that unless they have telescopes of large aperture and other costly apparatus, the pleasures attaching to practical work are denied them. The great observatories, to which every intelligent eye is directed, are, in a measure, though innocently enough, responsible for this. Anticipation is ever on tiptoe. People are naturally awaiting the latest news from the giant refracting and reflecting telescopes of the day. ”

“ All who contemplate building or improving homes, or erecting structures of any kind, have before them in this work an almost endless series of the latest and best examples from which to make selections, thus saving time and money. ”

“ Titan, Saturn's largest moon, is merely a point of light as compared with the planet, as it appears in a telescope, yet it has been seen, so it is said, with a one inch glass. The shadow of this satellite, while crossing the face of Saturn, has been observed by Banks with a two and seven-eighths objective. By hiding the glare of the planet behind an occulting bar, some of Saturn's smallest moons were seen by Kitchener with a two and seven-tenths aperture and by Capron with a two and three-fourths one. ”

“ The committee on exhibition at Prague has issued several interesting pamphlets, from which we learn that in Bohemia, in 1819, there existed one beet sugar factory. In 1890 the total number of factories was 140; last year 370,000 acres were planted in beets, and the yield was 3,700,000 tons; yield of sugar averaged 2,700 lb. per acre; 40,000 hands were employed. During the past 24 years 17,900,000 tons of coal have been consumed, and the working capacity per factory is now far greater than formerly. There are at present seven sugar refineries in Bohemia. ”

“ If a gaseous or liquid product results, and it is desirable to collect it for examination, small fragments of the solid are placed in a platinum tube connected to the delivery tube by flexible platinum tubing or by a screw joint, and the resulting gas may be collected over water or mercury, or the liquid condensed in a cooled cylinder of platinum. In this manner the action of fluorine upon sulphur and iodine has been studied. ”

“ When a blast is made in the new form of hole the stone is under high tension, and being elastic it will naturally pull apart on such lines of weakness as grooves, especially when they are made, as is usually the case in this system, in a direction at right angles with the lines of least resistance.
Horizontal holes are frequently put in and artificial beds made by "lofting." In such cases where the rock has a "rift" parallel with the bed, one hole about half way through is sufficient for a block about 15 ft. ”

“ The interesting celestial objects more conspicuous than stars of that magnitude are sufficiently numerous to exhaust much more time than any amateur can give to observing. Indeed, the lot of the amateur is a happy one. With a good, though small, telescope, he may have for subjects of investigation the sun with his spots, his faculæ, his prominences and spectra; the moon, a most superb object in nearly every optical instrument, with her mountains, valleys, seas, craters, cones, and ever-changing aspects renewed every month, her occupations of stars, her eclipses, and all that ”

“ It is a hard thing for many men to give up their grog, but there is not a man of any experience in the merchant service who has not seen its blasting effects on many a master and officer. It is almost impossible to find a substitute for it which shall recommend itself to anyone who has really a liking for it, about the only things being coffee, lime juice, or lemonade and ginger ale. So-called temperance drinks are all of them very nasty stuff, besides containing a large percentage of alcohol ”

“ Meldola suppose that a silver alloy can be formed by precipitating silver in the presence of another metal from an aqueous solution, or that one can argue from alloys, which are solutions, to molecular compounds or lakes? Moreover, he has overlooked the fact that allotropic silver can be obtained in the absence of any metal with which silver is capable of combining, as in the case of its formation by the action of soda and dextrine. Silver cannot be alloyed with sodium. ”

“ One most important precaution to take in collecting the gaseous products over mercury is not to permit the platinum delivery tube to dip more than two or at most three millimeters under the mercury, as otherwise the levels of the liquid in the two limbs of the electrolysis U-tube become so different, owing to the pressure, that the fluorine from one side mixes with the hydrogen evolved upon the other, and there is a violent explosion. ”

“ Hydrogen.—As just described, hydrogen combines with fluorine, even at -23° and in the dark, with explosive force. This is the only case in which two elementary gases unite directly without the intervention of extraneous energy. If the end of the tube delivering fluorine is placed in an atmosphere of hydrogen, a very hot blue flame, bordered with red, at once appears at the mouth of the tube, and vapor of hydrofluoric acid is produced. ”

“ If the quantity of water is greater, the solution may be preserved for some minutes without decomposition. If the liquid is boiled, it decomposes instantly. At a red heat platinic fluoride decomposes into metallic platinum and fluorine, which is evolved in the free state. This reaction can therefore be employed as a ready means of preparing fluorine, the fluoride only requiring to be heated rapidly to redness in a platinum tube closed at one end, when crystallized silicon held at the open end will be found to immediately take fire in the escaping fluorine. ”

“ In experimenting upon liquids, great care is necessary, as the reaction frequently occurs with explosive violence. A preliminary experiment is therefore always made, by allowing the fluorine delivery tube to dip just beneath the surface of the liquid contained in a small glass cylinder. ”

“ Sugar refineries located at Marseilles claim that it is cheaper for them to purchase sugar in Java than beet sugar of northern Europe. On the other hand, the argument of Paris refiners is just the reverse. The total refined sugar consumed is 375,000 tons, the colonial and indigenous production of raw sugar is nearly 1,000,000 tons more than sufficient to meet the demands of the entire refining industry of the country. ”

“ In his paper of 1887, the main outlines of which were given in Nature at the time (1887, vol. xxxvii., p. 179) , M. Moissan showed that pure hydrofluoric acid readily dissolves the double fluoride of potassium and hydrogen, and that the liquid thus obtained is a good conductor of electricity, rendering electrolysis possible. It will be remembered that, by passing a strong current of electricity through this liquid contained in a platinum apparatus, free gaseous fluorine was obtained at the positive pole and hydrogen at the negative pole. ”

“ The effect upon the root is a decrease in foliage, followed by late development of the beet, with corresponding reduction in sugar percentage. Chickens may render excellent service, as they eat these worms with considerable relish. A solution of Schweinfurt green has been used with some success; its cost is $2.50 per acre. None of the chemical remains on the leaves after a rain (?) White worms have done some damage; they should be collected from the fields during plowing. When they become beetles in the spring, they may be destroyed by a solution of sulphide of carbon ”

“ The most important advantage is gain in time; a factory working 20,000 during a 100-day campaign, by the foregoing process can accomplish the same work in 80 days, thus decreasing wear and tear of plant and diminishing percentage of sugar lost in badly constructed silos.
The exact influence of a low temperature upon beet cells has never been satisfactorily settled. Considerable light has recently been thrown upon the subject by a well known chemist. It is asserted that living cells containing a saccharine liquid do not permit infiltration from interior to exterior ”