On the Aluminous Iron-ores of Co. Antrim. By Dr. J. SINCLAIR HOLDEN, of Larne. These ores have only been discovered within the last few years, and exhibit a seam both extensive and rich. It lies continuously for about seventy miles along the coast and mountain-glens of Antrim, being nearly horizontally interspread throughout the basaltic rocks which form the floor of the county, and at an average height of 300 feet above the white limestone. The elevation above sea-level varies considerably, as among the highest mountains it is found at a height of over 1000 feet, from which it gradually falls north and south as low as 200 feet. The general dip of the beds is south-west. Dr. Holden gave analyses of the ore, and adds that it is not analogous to any known iron deposit in England, and that basaltic rocks, though containing some iron in their composition, are not generally associated with large deposits of ironThe ferruginous stratum consists of three qualities of ore, which, in descending order, are : ore. Pisolite Total thickness ft. Average Metallic Iron per cent. These graduate into each other. The upper bed, or pisolite, is the richest in iron, and working quantities can be mined containing from 30 to 50 per cent. of metallic iron. Large quantities of this ore have now been raised and shipped to England, where it has already made a reputation for itself, in facilitating the production of pure iron from the siliceous hæmatites. The entire absence of phosphorus and sulphur, and the presence of a large percentage of alumina, add much to its value, both as an iron-ore and a flux. When intermixed with the siliceous ores in the smelting-furnace, the effect is to soften the slag, producing a "loose load," which allows the metal to pass through easily, forming a pure " pig," and, from a given quantity of the mixed ores, determining a higher percentage of metallic iron than could be otherwise obtained. It is chiefly used in Lancashire, Cumberland, and South Wales, and is becoming a necessity where good steel-iron is demanded. To show that an extensive source of industry has already been developed, it may be stated that upwards of 50,000 tons were exported last year, and the quantity will be much greater this year. The discovery of this ore has had the effect of stimulating mineral research in the adjoining counties, and Dr. Holden states not in vain, as samples of a good siliceous hæmatite have been shown him, and only wait exploration where they were discovered. If found in quantity, no better outlay of capital could be invested than in the erection of smelting-furnaces on the Antrim coast. As suggested by the President of the Section, there could be utilized in the local smelting of the ores the large quantity of peat available in the north of Ireland. Localities of Dioptase. By Professor N. STORY MASKELYNE, F.R.S. Dioptase has hitherto only been known as a product of the copper-mine at Altyn Tubeh, in the Kirghese steppes of Tartary, if we except certain reputed localities in Germany; it has been recently met with among old specimens that have been traced to localities in Chili. One of these was among the specimens preserved in drawers at the British Museum, which have lately been under careful examination with a view to their identification, and another similar specimen was obtained some years since by W. G. Lettsom, Esq., the well-known mineralogist, from a dealer at Vienna. The crystals on both are minute but distinct, and are those of dioptase. The gangue is a compact micaceous hæmatite; the locality, traced to an old sale catalogue of Heuland's, is the Rosario Mine, Chili. It is singular that other specimens of the same mineral should have been found among the specimens preserved in the British Museum. One of these is associated with chrysocolla and ochre on a quartzose veinstone, another occurs as a thin crust on a schorlaceous rock, both being from a Chilian locality. A specimen recently obtained is associated with quartz and eisenkiesel, and is from the Mina del Limbo, Del Salado, Copiapo, Chili. On Andrewsite. By Professor N. STORY MASKELYNE, F.R.S. A somewhat well-marked group of minerals would seem to justify the designation of the Dufrenite group, by reason of their having, as a common constituent (or being capable of being so represented), a compound of which the formula is R2 P2O+R2H, O.; R being Fe in the case of Dufrenite. Dufrenite being Feе, P2O + Fе, H. O,, or, in Berzelian symbols, Fe P, Fe H ̧. 2 8 Peganite is Al P, Al II, + 3H. Fischerite is Äl P, Äl H, + 5İF. Cacoxene is Fe P, Fe H, +91. Wavellite is 241P, Al H, + 9H. A mineral recently found in Cornwall, and sent to the British Museum by Mr. Talling, may perhaps be referred to this group. It has been analyzed in the Museum Laboratory, and Professor Maskelyne named it Andrewsite, in honour of the distinguished President of the Chemical Section of the British Association, Dr. Andrews, of Belfast. Andrewsite occurs in occasional association with a bright green mineral in brilliant minute crystals, presenting a strongly marked resemblance to those of Dufrenite. This green mineral not having been as yet, from the small amount obtained of it, submitted to an analysis, is only provisionally termed Dufrenite. The Andrewsite which it sometimes thus accompanies presents itself in globular forms or in disks with a radiate structure, and in habit curiously resembles Wavellite. Its colour is a slightly bluish green; its surface is generally formed of a very thin layer of the mineral provisionally termed Dufrenite, crystals of which occasionally stand out of the globules. The interior of the globules is sometimes homogeneous, and consists of radiating crystalline fibres; oftener one perceives an almost sudden transition from an outer shell of some thickness, which consists of Andrewsite, into an inner core, formed of a brown mineral. Seen under the microscope, the two minerals appear to a certain degree to interpenetrate each other, so that the selection of material for analysis is a work of much caution. The spherules usually stand on the projections of a quartzose veinstone, protruding into a hollow, and covered with a mass of limonite, sometimes carrying a drusy crust of Göthite, and studded occasionally with a few brilliant little crystals of cuprite. The spherules are met with in one or two cases on cuprite formed round a nucleus of native copper. Andrewsite, in fact, contains copper, four analyses of separate specimens giving the percentages of 10-651, 10-702, 10-917, and 11.002. The analyses of Andrewsite have proved sufficiently concordant to justify the formula or 3{Fe P, Fe H2}+Ċu, P, in which, however, a portion of the ferric phosphate is replaced by ferrous phosphate, as in Vivianite is frequently the case with the two phosphates. The parallelism of Chenevixite (Cu, As, O.+Fe, H, O) with a portion of the above formula is worthy of attention, and may justify the formula being written as 2{Fe, P,O,+Fe, H, 0}+Cu, P, O+Fe, H, O+Fe, P2 O 2 A larger supply of the mineral will no doubt soon be forthcoming, when the formula may be fixed on the foundation of more certain analyses. The specific gravity of this mineral is 3.475, that of Dufrenite being (from Siegen) 3·2 to 3·4. The chalkosiderite of Ullmann, the name by which, nearly sixty years ago, he designated a thin crystalline coating overlying the radiated variety of the Grüneisenstein (Dufrenite) of the Hollerter Zug, Sayn, Westphalia, does not seem to have been analyzed by him. He states that it contains copper; but the subsequent analyses of Grüneisenstein do not appear to confirm this statement; indeed it appears more nearly to resemble the green crystallized mineral which has in this note been provisionally described as Dufrenite. On Ozonometry. By T. MOFFAT, M.D., F.G.S. The author stated that ozone test-papers did not become permanently coloured in the neighbourhood of cesspools, and that the brown colour, when formed, is removed by the products of putrefaction. He also stated that light, the humidity of the atmosphere, and direction of the wind influence the colouring of the testpaper. Moisture with heat accelerates the chemical action, while a strong wind causes a greater amount of ozone to impinge upon the test-paper in a given time. To counteract the effect of these, he recommends that the test-paper be placed as far as possible from cesspools, and that it be kept in a box. He next described a tube-ozonometer which he had in use, and gave results obtained by an aspirator ozonometer, and concluded by stating that the results obtained by the latter instrument were not satisfactory. On the Photographic Post. By the ABBÉ MOIGNO. On an Antimony-ore from New Zealand. By PATTISON Muir. Note on Regianic Acid. By Dr. T. L. PHIPSON, F.C.S. Regianic acid is one of several new substances which I have obtained at various times during the last few years from the fruit of Juglans regia and another species of walnut. The green husk of the walnut cedes to benzol a yellowish substance, which crystallizes, apparently in very elongated octahedra or feather-like groups of prisms. This substance, which I term regianine, is easily decomposed, and when treated with alkalies or ammonia, yields splendid red-purple solutions, whence acids precipitate a brown flocculent substance (impure regianíc acid). The latter, redissolved in a weak solution of soda, precipitated again with hydrochloric acid, and washed with boiling water, forms a jet-black amorphous powder of great density, which is pure regianic acid. It yields to analysis the composition C® H® 07, and forms a brown lead-salt, PbO, C H 07, also a jet-black silver-salt, very similar in appearance to the acid itself, and with lime a beautiful pink-coloured salt, which is precipitated by boiling its solutions with a little ammonia. Regianic acid is insoluble in water, but dissolves in alkalies with a beautiful redpurple tint, that has no particular action upon the spectrum. It appears to be derived from regianine by oxidation, for I extracted all the oxygen from a volume of air by placing in it a little regianine and soda. Note on the Action of Aldehyde on the two Primary Ureas. The action of the dicarbon aldehyde of the fatty series, C, H, O, on certain deri vatives of ammonia has of late been studied with considerable care, and most interesting results arrived at in the course of the investigation. We have been long familiar with the reactions of aldehyde with aniline, described by Schiff, who has shown that the dyad group, C, H", or ethyliden, as it is often called, can replace successively two distinct proportions of hydrogen in the double molecule of aniline, water being eliminated according to the equations : 6 JC, H, H," 2(C,H,,NH,)+2(C,H,"O)= | HNCH }+2H,O. We are also acquainted with analogous reactions which have been obtained with amides and aldehydes of the aromatic series; it therefore appeared to be a matter of some interest to examine the action of aldehyde on another class of ammonia derivatives, the group of so-called ureas. Of these, there are at least two primary bodies-one the well-known product of the animal organism, or Wöhler's beautiful artificial urea; and the other, the sulpho-urea, which was discovered a few years ago by the author. It is unnecessary now to discuss the question of the identity or otherwise of Wöhler's and the normal urea; it is sufficient here to mention that all these experiments have been made on Wöhler's urea and on the analogous sulphur compound. It will be convenient for the present to regard the two ureas just referred to as ammonia derivatives respectively of carbonic (according to Dr. Kolbe carbamic) and sulpho-carbonic acids; thus the author's object being to attempt the partial or complete replacement of hydrogen in each urea by the ethyliden group, according to the equation The chief results arrived at in the course of the inquiry are the following: Action of Aldehyde on the Sulpho-Urea. The first experiments were made with the sulpho-urea. A quantity of the pure compound was dissolved to saturation in nearly anhydrous aldehyde. The hot saturated solution was digested in a hermetically sealed flask, at a temperature of 100° C., for two hours. The solution was then allowed to cool. No urea-crystals were deposited. After two days' standing, however, a number of minute, spherical, subcrystalline masses were found to have attached themselves to the sides of the flask, and these gradually increased in quantity, until a considerable amount had been obtained. The clear liquid gave a copious white precipitate with water and with alcohol. The deposited body was carefully washed with cold alcohol, in which it is very slightly soluble, and then purified by solution in a large volume of boiling anhydrous alcohol, from which the new body separates out to a large extent on cooling, as a somewhat starch-like granular substance, seen under the microscope to be made up of extremely minute crystals. The analysis of the body gave numbers agreeing well with the formula and is therefore derived from the urea by the replacement of half the hydrogen by ethyliden. The new body is but slightly soluble in ether, rather more so in cold alcohol, but its solubility in boiling alcohol is much greater. In consequence of its relations to these solvents, the substance can be easily purified. It is but very slightly, if at all, truly soluble in cold water; but when digested at 100° C. with water, solution is obtained (but solution in consequence of decomposition), aldehyde being produced, and the urea separated with some ammonium sulphocyanate. The essential reaction is probably correctly represented by the equation CS" {N}+H,O=CS" {N}+C2H ̧"0, or the converse of that according to which the ethyliden sulpho-urea is formed; dilute acids and alkalies act in the same way. From the alcoholic solution the author obtained a platinum salt and a gold compound.. Action of Aldehyde on Wöhler's Urea. The urea was dissolved nearly to saturation in aldehyde, and the solution digested in a sealed flask for two hours at 100° C. When cool, the flask was opened, and the contents poured into a suitable vessel, and the aldehyde slowly evaporated. No crystals of the urea were deposited, but a transparent pasty mass remained when the solvent had been almost wholly driven off. After standing for twenty-four hours, the residue was found to be white and friable. The mass was powdered, and digested in the cold with nearly anhydrous alcohol, in which it is very slightly soluble at ordinary temperature, washed with the same liquid, and then boiled with alcohol. The filtered solution so obtained deposits, on rapid cooling, a considerable quantity of a flocculent body, seen under the microscope to be wholly made up of minute and considerably modified monoclinic crystals. Analysis gave the formula NH2 for this body. A platinum compound has been obtained, but no gold salt. The new substance is easily decomposed by digestion with water into aldehyde and the products of decomposition of the urea. The first stage of the reaction may, no doubt, be represented by the equation co{NO2H"} +H,O=co {NII;}+C,H," o. 2 NH2 Having succeeded in replacing half the hydrogen in each of these ureas, directly and by a very simple reaction, the author endeavoured to go a step further, and substitute a hydrocarbon group for the residual hydrogen within the molecule. All attempts in this direction have hitherto been fruitless. In view of the facts above stated and others well known, proving that half the hydrogen only is capable of replacement, and that each atom of nitrogen within the molecule of the urea is somewhat differently engaged, we are clearly warranted in slightly modifying the rational formula of each urea, in order to bring it into more complete harmony with the facts. The extent of the alteration is apparent when we write the formulæ of the ethyliden ureas referred to in this note, thus:NC, H, Ethyliden urea Coй NH. Ethyliden sulpho-urea CSHI NH. On the Analysis of a singular Deposit from Well-water. On the Chemical Constitution of Glycolic Alcohol and its Heterologues, as viewed in the new light of the Typo-nucleus Theory. By OTTO RICHTER, Ph.D. The chemical constitution of glycolic alcohol and its heterologues may be ade |