摘要:
280 THE ANALYST. NOTES O F THE MONTH. THE writers in the Daily News and Telegryh having waxed eloquent over a description of tho late slight accident at Messrs. Howard’s works, the former authority ascribing it to ‘( camphor pots” and the latter to ( I ether mills,” the C‘hernist and Drzcggist slyly re- marks that ‘‘ such discoveries should qualify the sub-editors of these ‘ engines’ for ladmisBion to the Institute of chemistry, so evidently original and limited are their notions of everF-day chemistry.” Surely our friend does not insinuate, for a moment, that the great organic manufacturing chemistry, so highly appreciated in that learned society, leads, in many cases, to equally silly misnomers !THE ANALYST.281 Our contemporary has also investigated the great arsenical violet powder scare, and finds that it is an oilshop-man, and not a chemist and druggist who is guilty; albeit the daily papers describe the manufacturer, who is now being prosecuted, as a wholesale druggist, But whoever may be to blame, will not our friend for once admit that analytical chemists have their use, and sometimes deserve a little less abuse than they get from the trade organs generally, seeing that, by the prompt intervention of the analyst, so dangerous an article has been detected and removed from the market 3 A newspaper report, which makes Mr.Jarmain, of Huddersfield, say that 2 3 of a grain of metallic copper, per gallon, represents about 1-300th of a grain per half pint, has given occasion for another attack on the part of the press.Perhaps Mr. Jarmain will s e d US a note stating what he really did say, and so take the sting out of the remarks made about him. The trade journals can, in one column, show the utter inability of ordinary reporters to deal with the most common chemical ideas, and yet they will, in another, eagerly accept as true, without enquiry, a report involving decimals, and on that seek to take away the character, for accuracy in calculation, of an analytical chemist.We should counsel Mr, Jarmain if he has been, as we presume, misreported, t o at once demand an apology for the paragraph. Oncemore an equality of results, so far as quantities are concerned, but a difference in their interpretation by a public analyst, and by the Somerset House Laboratory respectively.Mr. Alien, of Sheffield, a name well known for excellence in his profession, found a sample of flour which contained an amount of alumina calculating to 18 grains of ammonia-alum per 4 Zbs. of flour. The sample having been sent t o Somerset House, the chemists there (represented subsequently in the witness-box by Mr. Richard Bannister), found it to contain alumina which calculated to 21.1 grains ammonia-alum per 4 lbs.of flour. Of course, therefore, they confirmed Mr. Allen’s certificate, say our readers. But, oh no, they knew better than that, so they went and tried the logwood test, and because it did not work, they found there was no alum. Asked in the witness- box : “ Then what is it, Mr. Bannister ?” The reply was : ‘‘ I am sorry I cannot tell you.” Here, then, is another secret out (purchased, it is true, at the cost of much annoyance to a worthy man, but Mr. Allen’s shoulders are broad enough to bear that), and therefore no analyst must charge any sample with being adulterated by alum, even when he h d s a good per centage of alumina, unless the logwood test works.The only drawback is that one man may use the test on one portion of a sample, while another may try it on the duplicate, and where the first may get a result the second may not. This, however, is just the element of uncertainty which gives the test its value, and enables the second man t o say : ‘( I am the true great chemist, and I differ from the humbug who preceded me !” I f the Somerset House Chemists would choose only reliable processes, and make them all piiblic together, with the inferences to be drawn from them, their occupation, like Othello’s, would be gone, and they would never have the chance of differing from anybody ; but their processes and deduction would at once be snbjected to public criticism. This, however, they refuse to do, and so analysts must continue to buy their knowledge of the methods and inferences approved by the excise chemists, at the cost of282 THE ANALYST.defeat, without any appeal. We do not know whether there is a ‘‘ Baker” as well as a ‘‘ Grocer,” and a I‘ Chemist and Druggist” but we believe there is a “ Xiller,”so let Mr. Allen stand clear for a visitation of the phials of wrath and logwood. During the past month there have been four prosecutions in London, for selling oleo- I n three cases the fines were from $10 to €15, and It is, therefore, a much less offence t o sell “bosh” in Greenwich, margarine or butterine for butter.i n the fourth 40s. than in Wandsworth and Hammersmith. When a milkman defrauds the public for years, by adding 30 per cent. of water, and at last gets caught, he suffers the famous 40s, ; but let a farmer put in 14 per cent., and get prosecuted by the Dairymen’s Association, he gets $10 and costs of counsel, &c.We would heartily endorse the latter decision, but for what reason is the ordinary defrauding milkman to get off with 40s. ? Why, because it is only the silly British public, whom nobody cares for, that he swindles, and which has no trade organs to make an outcry when it suffers ! ADULTERATION I N CANADA.WE have received a copy of the Inland Revenue Commissioner’s Second Report on the adulteration of food. It appears t o be a very exhaustive and complete document, and we observe that of the whole number of samples analysed more than half were adulterated. We shall refer more fully t o the report in our next number. RECENT CHEHICAL PATENTS. The following specifications have been published during the past month, and can be 1876.Name of Patentee. Title of Patent. Price. NO. 3469 J. L. Pulvermacher . . . . . . Generating and Applying Electricity . . . . . . . . . 10d. 3617 J. Imray . . . . . . . . . . . . Bleaching and Cleansing Textile Vegetable Materials ... 2d. 3643 A. Fryer . . . . . . . . . . .. Treating the Refuse of Towns . . . . . . . . . . . . 6d. 3743 J. H. Johnson . . . . . . . . . Magneto Electric Machines . . . . . . . . . . . . 6d. 3749 J. Schwartz . . . . . . . . . Manufacture of Sugar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ad. 3762 G. H. Carbutt . . . . . . . . . Decorticating and Cleaning Rice . . . . . . . . . . . . 6d. 3766 H. E. Newton . . . . . . . . . Refining Sugar .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6d. obtained from the Great Seal Office, Cursitor Street, Chancery Lane, London. 3742 T. Holliday . . . . . . . . . Dyeing Textile Fabrics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4d. 3805 J. Holden . . . . . . . . . . . . Receptacles for Acids and Chemical Fluids . . . . . . 4d. 3817 J. Hammond . . . . . . . . . Purifying Coal Gas . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . 4d. 3865 J. 8. Johnson . . . . . . . . . Preparation and Treatment of Saccharate of Lime .. 6d. 3867 F. Wirth . . . . . . . . . . . . Manufacture of Hydrated PeroxS.de of Iron . . . . . . 6d. 4001 H, Meyer . . . . . . . . . . . . Process of Manufacturing Sugar . . . . . . . . . . . . 6d. BOOES, &c., RECEIVED. The Chemist and Druggist; The Brewers’ Guardian; The British Medical Journal; The Medical Examiner ; The Medical Times and Gazette; The Pharmaceutical Journal; The Sanitary Record; The Medical Record ; The Miller ; The Anti-Adulteration Review ; Journal of Applied Science ; The Country Brewers’ Gazette ; Second Report on Food Adulteration in Canada; Report of St. Asaph Rural Sanitary Authority on Water Supplies, by J. Lloyd Roberts, M.B. THE ACCIDENT TO h l ~ . W. BaKER.-we are happy to be able to state that Mr. Baker is making satisfactory progress towards recovery from the effects of his recent accident, and it is hoped that in a month or so he may be able to return t o his business, which, during his enforced absence, is being carried on by one of his late assistants.
ISSN:0003-2654
DOI:10.1039/AN8780300280
出版商:RSC
年代:1878
数据来源: RSC