Chapter VIII: TECHNOLOGY.--Starches for the Finishing of Cotton Fabrics (3)

For obtaining the approximate capacity of the lifting buckets, assuming the example as above computed, a 10 foot wheel with the velocity at periphery of 2½ feet per second is 150 feet per minute, or five revolutions per minute, nearly. Then 1,930 lb. per m. / 5 revolutions = 386 pounds water capacity for all of the buckets on the wheel.

If such a wheel is constructed with 16 blades and 16 buckets, one between each blade, then 386 / 16 = 24 pounds for each bucket, or 38 / 100 of a cubic foot.

The spill from this capacity of bucket being sufficient to compensate for the friction of the shaft journals.

The lifting buckets of the noria class, Figs. 26 and 27, can be made of positive dimensions to suit the computations as above; but those of the tympanum class, Fig. 25, should be made of dimensions to conform with the required capacity at the moment of leaving the water, as the water at this point flows into the arm.

(_To be continued_.)

* * * * *

To remove paint and varnishes, which resist the action of strong lye, Dr. Stockmeier recommends a mixture of water of ammonia, two parts, and turpentine, one part; this applied to the surface to be cleaned will, after a few minutes' action, enable the paint to be removed by use of cotton waste or similar material.--(_Bayr. Gen. Ztg_.), Rundschau.

* * * * *

ON GAS MOTORS.

M. Witz, says the _Gas World_, has been conducting a series of experiments on the Delamare-Deboutteville and Malindin gas engine, driven by Dowson gas, and in which the gas generator takes the place of the ordinary steam boiler. The engine was a one-cylinder motor in the establishment of Messrs. Matter & Co., Rouen. Its power was 100 horse indicated; the cylinder was 23 inches in diameter, the stroke 38 inches, and the normal speed 100 revolutions. The engine is of the Simplex type; the kindling is electric; the cycle of operations is fourfold, with powerful compression. The Dowson generator is 30 inches inside diameter and 76 inches in height from the bars to the top. Air is blown in by steam driven in under the hearth. There is a siphon, a coke scrubber 110 inches high, a sawdust purifier, and a gasholder of 750 cubic feet capacity, and a pipe to the engine 5.2 inches in diameter. The total area occupied by this apparatus is 140 square yards, of which two-thirds are built on. The anthracite employed was from Swansea, containing 5.4 per cent. of ash. The observations made with a string friction brake were continued for 68 hours, everything used being carefully weighed and measured. One day the machine was worked for 15¼ hours on end; the other days it was worked with an interval of half an hour every 12 hours to clear the hearth, poke the fire and lubricate the machine; and it was clearly established that with a big enough generator it would be quite possible to work continuously for several days.

The following were the data for a day of 24 hours, with an interval of half an hour: 8:55 P.M. one day to 8:55 P.M. the next, interval 8:30 to 9 A.M. Anthracite used, 18.4 cwt.; coke used, 3.42 cwt.; water used for steam injection, 217.3 gallons; water used in scrubber, 4,106 gallons; water used in cooling the cylinder, 20,000 gallons; oil used in cylinder, 14.84 pounds; grease, 1.8 pounds; revolutions of machine, 142,157, or 100.8 per minute; effective work, 75.86 French horse power, or 77.4 British; gas used, 6,742 cubic feet per hour, at 772 mm. pressure and 70.7° F., or 83.7 cubic feet per effective horse power; efficiency, 69 per cent.

Now, with regard to the comparison between the large gas motors and steam engines of the same size, M. Witz goes on to remark that the gas engine is by no means, as was formerly thought on high authority, necessarily restricted to the domain of smaller work and sizes. Even in early times it was seen that the gas engine belonged to a type in which there were possibilities of improvement greater than those available in the steam engine, because the difference of temperature between the working substance in its hotter and its cooler condition was greater than in the steam engine; and consumptions of 5,250 cubic feet per horse power per hour soon descended step by step as far as 2,060, while the power went up, past 4, 8 and 12, to 25 or 50 horse power; and in the exhibition of 1889 there were gas engines seen in which the explosion chamber had a diameter of as much as 23 inches.

But the price of coal gas seemed to be too high for use in these large engines, in which sizes steam is comparatively cheap; and so poorer gas, which, though possessing only about 28 per cent. of the heating power, is still cheaper in proportion than coal gas, when it is made on the spot, was introduced to tide over the difficulty. Difficulties have been successively overcome, with the result which we have just seen, namely, 1.37 pounds of anthracite per effective horse power, or about half the carbon which a steam engine of the same power of excellent design, and well kept up, would consume. A 50 horse simplex at Marseilles, in Barataud's flour mill, is said to have run for the last 2 years on 1.12 pounds of English anthracite per effective horse power; and thus M. Witz says his predictions of 10 years ago, that the gas producer would some day replace the boiler, are being verified in such a way as to surprise even himself.

But the objection is stated, and it is a serious one: the weight of fuel is not the only thing to be considered. The steam engine uses coal, the producer requires English anthracite, which is dearer; the gas motor uses a great deal of water and a great deal of oil, which cost money; and gas motors are dear, while gas producers and their adjuncts cost a tidy bit of money, and wear out pretty fast. Is not steam, after all, more economical in the long run? Besides, producers are bulky and take up a great deal of space; the weight of fuel is only one element in a complicated problem.

In order to study the grounds of this objection, M. Witz has instituted a comparison between the actual cost of large steam engines and that of gas motors of similar size.

Take a good Galloway or multitubular boiler; for 75 horse power effective the heating surface must be at least 74 square feet. Using good Cardiff coal, with 4 per cent. of ash, and a heating power of 15,660 Fahr. units; the steam raised will be 8 to 9 pounds per pound of coal, so that 9,400 to 10,577 Fahr. units are utilized in raising steam, or 68 to 76 per cent., which is an excellent result. Take an engine of 16 inch cylinder diameter, 40 inch stroke, and 66 revolutions, etc.; it will use 22.4 pounds of steam per horse power effective, which represents 2.47 to 2.8 pounds of coal under the boiler. These 10 pounds of steam carry 11,752 Fahr. units of heat, and produce work equal to 75 horse, or 1,143 Fahr. units of heat; which corresponds to an efficiency of 9.7 per cent. In a gas motor, on the other hand, we find the materials employed, as per the above data, to contain 8,958 Fahr. units of heat, and to make gaseous fuel in which 6,343 units are available; a return of 70.6 per cent, in the producer. The motor receives these 6,343, and converts 1,143 of them into work; an efficiency of 18 per cent. In order to be equivalent from the heat point of view, a steam engine ought to produce a horse power effective per 9.72 pounds of steam at 5 atmospheres; but no such steam engine exists.

M. Witz goes on with comparative estimates. For a Corliss engine and boiler, with chimney, etc., complete, and putting these up, he allows £1,280; for a Simplex gas motor and Dowson producer complete, including putting up, he allows £1,290, which he explains to be average actual prices; but these prices do not cover cost of transport, and M. Witz does not go into cost of masonry for buildings, apart from foundations, etc., for the apparatus and machinery.

As to water, the gas motor takes 215 cubic feet per horse power effective. A condensing steam engine uses five times as much.

The lubricating oil used at Rouen was a mixture of Russian oil at 430 fr. per ton, and Ferry and Heduit F.H. oil at 900 fr.; the average was 650 fr. per ton, or 2.8d. per pound. Wanner grease, at 6.4d. per pound, was used for the moving parts. A steam engine requires less oil for the cylinder, but the same quantity for the moving parts.

The attendance on the gas motor is too much for one man, not enough to occupy two; reckon it at 4s. 9½d. a day.

These elements enable us to calculate the daily cost of the gas motor, of 75 actual horse power, in comparison with a steam engine of the same size.

_Steam Engine_.

s. d.
Upkeep, interest and sinking fund at 15 per
cent, on £1,292 = £193.8 = per day. 12 11
Cardiff coal, 2.643 pounds per actual horse
power per hour; 2.643 × 10 × 75 = in 10
hours 1,982 pounds coal at 22s. a ton. 19 5½
Oil, 3.36 pounds per day at 2.8d. per pound. 0 9½
Grease, 0.67 pound at 6.4d. 0 4½
Wages. 4 9½
---------
£1 18 4

_Gas Engine_.

s. d.
Upkeep, interest and sinking fund at 15 per
cent. on £1,292 is, per day. 12 11
Anthracite, 1.156 pound per actual horse
power per hour = for 750 horse-hours, at
25s. 6d. 9 10
Coke, 0.215 pound × 10 × 75 = 161¼ pounds
at 28s. 2 0
Oil, 0.0084 pound per actual horse power per
hour, or 0.0084 × 10 × 75 = 6.28 pounds at
2.8d. 1 5½
Grease, 0.754 pound per day at 6.4d. 0 5
Electric kindling, on cost. 0 3½
Wages. 4 9½
---------
£1 11 8

The big gas engine making its own poor gas, and running 10 hours a day, has thus the best of it in the comparison with the steam engine of equal power.

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A PROJECTING APPARATUS FOR BALANCES OF PRECISION.

The luminous projection apparatus illustrated herewith, when adapted to a balance of precision, permits of effecting weighings very rapidly. For the same approximation, the velocity of oscillation becomes five or six times greater, and, by the method employed, the last centigrammes and the milligrammes and their fractions are estimated directly, with immediate verification. As the apparatus is independent of the parts of the balance, it can be placed on all the existing laboratory balances of precision.

The modification introduced into the balance consists in the displacing of the center of gravity of the beam in such a way as to diminish the sensitiveness, and consequently to obtain a much greater velocity, and then, by optical means, to considerably increase the amplitude of the oscillations.

Instead of the oscillations being observed through the microscope, they are projected upon a divided screen forming a dial, the division of which is seen by transmitted light.

The apparatus consists of a small achromatic objective placed at the extremity of the tube of a microscope, in which there is a divided screen that receives the enlarged image of the reticule fixed upon the needle. Upon this reticule are projected the rays (condensed by a powerful lens) that come from a luminous source placed behind the balance. The focusing is done by means of a rack and pinion.

The luminous source employed is a gas burner with reflector. This is placed in a walnut box in order to prevent any projection of heat upon the balance. This burner, thus isolated, is lighted for but one or two minutes at a maximum, at the end of each weighing. So, on fixing a thermometer in the cage, we find that no variation, ever so slight, occurs in the temperature. In order to effect a weighing, the gas being turned down to a taper, we proceed as with an ordinary balance until the extremity of the needle no longer emerges from the lower dial. Then we count the difference of the number of the divisions made by the needle to the right and left of zero. This difference, multiplied by the approximate value, in milligrammes, of each division of this dial (value given by the instrument) immediately gives the number of centigrammes and milligrammes that must be added to the weights already placed upon the pan of the balance in order to obtain an equilibrium, to about a half division of the lower dial.

The value of each division of this dial varies from 3 to 10 milligrammes according as the balance shows 0.1 or 0.5 milligramme. As the dial has 10 divisions on each side of the central mark, we thus estimate, without tentatives, the three last centigrammes or the last decigramme, according to the sensitiveness.

At this moment the doors of the cage are closed, in order to prevent draughts of air, the gas is turned on by means of a regulating cock, and the balance is manipulated by first lowering the beam and then bringing the pans to a standstill. We then read the difference of the divisions traversed to the left and right upon the luminous dial through the image of the reticule. The images are reversed upon the dial, but practice soon causes this petty difficulty to disappear. This number of divisions indicates the number of milligrammes and fractions of a milligramme by which it is necessary to shift the counterpoise on its arm in order to obtain a perfect equilibrium, which latter is verified by a simple reading. Every half division of the dial corresponds, as to weight, to the sensitiveness indicated for the instrument.

With a little practice a weighing effected as above described takes but a quarter or a fifth of the time that it does with an ordinary balance.--_Revue Industrielle._

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STARCHES FOR THE FINISHING OF COTTON FABRICS.

The starches have been classified by Dr. Muter, according to the appearance they give under the microscope, into five groups:

_Class I_.--Hilum and concentric rings visible. All the granules, oval or ovate. Tous-le-mois, potato, arrowroot, etc.

_Class II_.--The concentric rings are all but invisible, the hilum is stellate. Maize, pea, bean, etc.

_Class III_.--The concentric rings are all but invisible, also the hilum in the majority of granules. Wheat, barley, rye, chestnut, etc.

_Class IV_.--All the granules truncated at one end. Sago, tapioca, etc.

_Class V_.--All the granules angular in form. Rice, tacca, arrowroot, oats, etc.

The principal starches used for finishing cotton fabrics are potato (farina), wheat, Indian corn (maize), rice, tapioca, arrowroot, sago; the last three not so often as those previously named.

* * * * *

MARBLE AND MOSAIC.

[Footnote: A paper recently read before the Architectural Association, London.--_From the Architect_.]

By T.R. SPENCE.

I do not propose to enter into any historical details as to the first and subsequent application of mosaics. In a general sense we understand mosaic as a combination of various more or less imperishable materials--fixed together by cement or other adhesive substances--and laid over walls, floors, etc., with a view to permanent decorative effect. The substance of the tesseræ is of many kinds, namely, glass, cheap and precious marbles, hard stone, and burnt clay, these mentioned being mainly in use for architectural purposes. For decorative schemes we collect as many gradations of color as are obtainable in such durable materials in their natural or manufactured state, and thus form a color palette which we regard in the same sense as a painter would his pigments.

Of course, the first proceeding is to prepare a design on a small scale, which shall embrace your notions of color only. Then follows a full-sized cartoon, which I need hardly add shall embrace your best efforts in drawing. A tracing is made of the latter and transferred to sheets of cardboard. This cardboard is cut to the size of certain sections of your design, and, for convenience, should not be more than, say, 20 in. square. Of course, it will not always be square, but will bear the same relation to your complete cartoon as a map of the counties would to that of all England. Now, working from the small design (of color), the tesseræ are cut to the forms required, laid face downward, and glued on to the cardboard sections containing your enlarged cartoon. When the design is all worked out on these sections they are ready for fixing on walls or floor by laying them home on a float of cement. When the cement sets, the cardboard sticking to the face is washed off, and the joints of tesseræ flushed over with cement and cleaned off, leaving all joints filled up level.

There are other processes used for the same end. The technical processes need not occupy our attention at present. There is one process that may appeal to you, and that is executing the work _in situ_ by floating on a limited expanse of cement, and sticking on the tesseræ at once. It has the advantage of enabling the artist or architect to see the effect of his efforts under the fixed conditions of light and height.

I shall confine myself to vitreous or glass mosaic, which for durability, extended scales of primary colors and their numerous semi-transparent gradations is unequaled by any substance yet used for wall or floor decoration. I am surprised, having all these fine qualities, it is not more used by architects. If you require proofs of its triumphs, go to St. Mark's, of Venice, and stand under its mellow golden roof. There you will find its domes and vaulted aisles, nave and transepts entirely overlaid with gold mosaic, into which ground is worked--in the deepest and richest colors and their gradations that contemporary manufacturers could produce--subjects selected from the creation down to the life of Christ, in addition containing a complete alphabet of early Christian symbolism. The roof surfaces being one succession of over-arching curves become receptive of innumerable waves of light and broad unities of soft shadows, giving the whole an incomparable quality of tone and low juicy color.

Never use your gold but on curved or undulating surfaces. Flat planes of gold only give the effect of a monotonous metallic yellow, and can never be beautiful, owing to the absence of the variations that come with waves of shadow. By letting out the reins of imagination we might feel that in this a tenth century Giorgione has given off the mental impressions of all the golden autumn of his life. His material gave him an advantage over his great followers of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, insomuch that glass has a living and glowing quality of light not existing in the somewhat clouded purity of oil or fresco.

In St. Mark's we have an example of the superb treatment in deepest and most Titianesque scales applied to curved forms, but to find a similarly complete example of the use of lighter tones and on flat surfaces, we must turn to Ravenna. I can give you no adequate description of the wall mosaics of Ravenna. In the sense of delicate color they remind me of some of the subtile harmonies of many of the finest works of the modern French school--of the Impressionists and others who combine that quality with a true instinct for design. In standing before them you feel that the Dagnan Bouverets, the Mersons, the Cazins, the Puvis de Chavannes, etc., of the fifth century have had a hand in the conception and realization of the beautiful compositions to be found on the nave walls of the two churches of St. Appollinare Nuovo and St. Appollinare in Classe. Here all the scales are of delicate degrees of light tones, supreme in their beauty, completeness, and, most important to us, their true decorative instinct. In the Baptistery we find what I may term a third essay in color, by weaving in rich, dark, and glowing colors on figures and bold sinuous forms of ornament in such a skillful and judicious manner that the whole dome seems to be alive with harmonies, although they are mostly primaries.

As you know, rules for the disposition of color are futile, yet some details that struck me as eminently satisfactory may interest you. In all cases the tesseræ are of small dimensions, about a quarter of an inch square. The stucco joints are large and open, surfaces far from level, but undulating considerably. The tesseræ stick up in parts, brilliant edges showing. Absence of flatness gives play to the light. The gray of the stucco joints brings the whole composition together, serving as cool grays in a picture to give tender unity. Gold, apart from backgrounds and large surfaces, is used very cleverly in small pieces in borders of garments, and more especially in thin outlines to make out the drawing and certain flowing forms of ornament. Brilliant pieces of glass actually moulded at the kiln into forms of jewels add brilliancy to crowns, borders, etc. These stick boldly out from the surface. I noticed in the Baptistery below the springing of the dome a frieze about 2 ft. 6 in. deep, having the ground entirely in black, through which was woven in thin gold lines a delicate foliated design. This, in conjunction with the upper surfaces in dark, rich color, had a most delightful effect.

We, as students, can learn most from the Ravenna examples, for great are the needs of light and silvery color in this country, where gray and gloomy days far outnumber those in which the sun gives liberally of his light. I may say, in passing, as our subject is really a matter of decoration, that our nineteenth century efforts in this direction are all of a somewhat gloomy tendency. We fill our rooms with imitations of somber Spanish leather, stain and paint our woodwork in leathery and muddy tones, to arrive at what is now a sort of decorator's god. Quaintness is the name of that god. Many are the sins for which he has to answer. Had we not better worship a deity called beauty, whose place is a little higher up Parnassus? Why should we not in our endeavors attempt in some measure to transfix the brilliant harmonies that follow the sun in his liberal and gracious course? This muddy quaintness is certainly pleasant for brief periods, when lamps are low and fire light gilds and deepens its parts. Turn the sunlight on these so-called triumphs of the modern decorator's art, and then you feel the lack of many a phase of color that might have been borrowed from the thousand and one examples that in nature he vivifies and makes brilliant.

Referring again to the Ravenna mosaics, I can only add that at the present day an extended palette of colored glass is available. The technical difficulties are not great, and there is no question as to the fine qualities of design and color that are to be obtained in this material. The great point in this, as in all other schemes of decoration, is the art, the mental quality of conception, and the sense of color and fitness. If we hold the precious heritage of an artist's mind--that divine and rare something which gives form, color, and completeness to a story, a dream or a vision--then very little difficulty follows in making vitreous mosaic a valued servant in the realization of a fine creation.

It is the function of architects to design suitable spaces for color decoration, so bound in by dignified mouldings and other details of his constructive art, in such a manner that the addition of decorative color shall in no way mar the scheme of his complete work, but shall (under these well ordered distributions) have set on them the seal and crown of color which is inseparable from a perfect piece of architecture. In such spaces he may dream his dreams, tell his stories, and stamp on them for centuries his subtilest and divinest thoughts. May I not urge that to such spaces must be given the best that is in you? for once placed so shall they remain unchanged through generations, time being powerless to add any mellow garment of tone or softening quality whatever.

I mistook the title of the subject in thinking that it was mosaic only, and at the last moment found it was marble and mosaic. However, the same dominant principles shall underlie the treatment of marble. It is a question of the finer instincts for form and color.

In recent years the demand for choice decorative materials has been the means of opening out many marble quarries all over the world. Transit being easy, a large scale of varieties is available. One fine addition is the Mexican onyx. My feeling is that the most beautiful marbles are those where the soft and sinuous veins melt and die into the general body, comparatively sharp markings dying right away at the edges into innumerable gradations. Marbles having strong and hardly marked veins present great difficulties in distribution. If they are near, they offend you with their coarseness; and, placed at a distance, the hard vein lines have very little decorative value. I should say use these in narrow slips, with very little moulded profile or as parts of intazzio.

Mouldings should be specially designed for different marbles. I should say mainly on the principle of sudden contrasts; that is, large members with very little curve bound with members very small in detail, thus obtaining sharp lines, having little surface to be influenced or distorted by the veined markings, and serving to sharpen up and give form to the broader members (which show the color qualities of the marble), much as you sharpen up an ink drawing by underlining. These small members serve the architect's purpose for the expression of vertical and horizontal lines, and where decisive and cutting shadows are required in the composition of his work.

If delicate carving forms part of your design, I should say statuary is the best, as you have no veins to distort your detail. I need hardly add that economy should be studied in using precious marbles, without injuring the durability of the work. Contours may be built up in thin sections.

Intazzio is a beautiful form of treating marble on an inexpensive ground. Gem-like effects may be obtained by inlaying with smaller pieces, following such ornamental forms as your inventive brains shall dictate. Perhaps the pockets of your clients will be the chief dictator.

Heraldic emblazonings, inlaid in marble, are highly effective. The conditions of the heraldry necessitate the use of many varieties, but in such small quantities that on a large simple field they are rarely out of harmony. In addition they map out a large and interesting variety that will save the worry of creation of designs coming entirely from your own brain, and you know the worry of an architect's life makes him hail with pleasure at times a rest from the strain of creation. This heraldic work may be seen to perfection in the chapel of the tombs of the Medici at Florence.

At the Pitti Palace are some tables which you may know where marble intazzio can no further go. Alabaster does not appeal to me, it is somewhat sugary in results. If you are fortunate enough to have a sculptor who is a sort of nineteenth century Donatello, let him work his will on statuary or such restful marble.

The celebrated monument in the church of S. Giovanni Paulo, at Venice, which Ruskin says is the finest monument in the world, if my recollection serves me correctly, is in white marble, and its beauty comes entirely from the sculptor's art. Such monuments give you much better than any words of mine ample suggestions for marble treatment. I may quote such names as Nicolo Pisano and Verocchio.

Photos of some of their work I have brought. Note Pisano's beautiful white altar at Bologna, and Mina de Fiesole's work in Florence. They all show the sculptor as supreme. Why should not we encourage individual young sculptors more? Give them portions of your work in which they can put all the fervor and enthusiasm of young manhood. Their powers may not be ripe, but they possess a verve and intensity that may have forever fled when in later years the imagination is less enthusiastic and the pulses slower. I am sure there are many young sculptors now wanting commissions who have been trained at the academy, and better still, in the best French schools. I maintain that the contemporary French school of sculpture is in its line equal to any school of sculpture that has ever existed, not excepting that of Phidias or that of the Italian Renaissance of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. I believe history will confirm this. Why not give these men an opportunity, and help on the movement to found a truly English school of sculpture, rather than give all such work to trading firms of carvers, who will do you any number of superficial feet, properly priced and scheduled, and in the bills of quantities, of any style you please, from prehistoric to Victorian Gothic? Of course, this is our British way of founding a great school.

There is one method of treatment that appeals to me very strongly, and that is the application of colored metals to marble, more especially bronze and copper. I may quote as a successful example near the Wellington Memorial at St. Paul's. Another suggestion--although it is not used in combination with marble, but it nevertheless suggests what might be done in the way of bronze panels--that is, the Fawcett Memorial, by Gilbert, in the west chapel at Westminster Abbey.

* * * * *

THE ST. LAWRENCE HOSPITAL FOR THE INSANE.

The St. Lawrence State Hospital at Ogdensburg, N.Y., is a center of public, professional, philanthropic, and legislative interest. Though projected in advance of the adoption of the system of State care for the insane, it was opened at a time to make it come under close observation in relation to the question of State care, and the friends of this departure from the inefficient, often almost barbarous provisions of county house confinement could have no better example to point the excellence of their theories than this new and progressively planned State hospital. The members of the State Lunacy Commission and Miss Schuyler and her colleagues of the State Charities Aid Society, who fought the State care bills through the Legislature this winter and in 1890, would be repaid for all of their trouble by contrasting the condition of the inmates of the St. Lawrence State Hospital with the state they were in under their former custodians, the county officers of the northern New York counties. At the best, even when these officials realized the responsibility of their charge and were actuated by humane impulses, the county houses offered no chance of remedial treatment. Custody and maintenance, the former mainly a reliance on force, the later often of scant provision, were the sum total of what was deemed necessary for the lunatics. In their new environment they find everything as different in accommodations and treatment as the word hospital in the title of the institution is different in sound and significance from the hope-dispelling, soul-chilling names of "asylum," "mad house," and "bedlam" formerly given to all retreats for the mentally afflicted. They find, and it is an encouraging feature of the plan that so many of them quickly see and appreciate it, that they are considered as sufferers from disease and not from demoniacal possession. The remarkable range of classification provided for, the adaptability of construction to the different classifications, the reliance on occupation, the dependence on treatment, and the subordination of the custodial feature, except where a wise conservatism demands its retention, are apparent alike to inmates and visitors.

This hospital is complete as to plans, and as to the power plant, drainage, and subway construction necessary for the 1,500 patients, that the legislature has provided for in its law establishing the institution. Buildings are already finished and occupied that accommodate 200 inmates, and the contractors have nearly finished part of the central group that will bring that number up to nearly 1,300. The appropriation asked for this year by the managers will be scaled down considerably by Mr. McClelland, the very economical chairman of the Ways and Means Committee of the Democratic Assembly. But, unless he has miscalculated, there will be money enough to carry on the work of construction to advantage for the year. An appropriation sufficient to complete the buildings at once was thought by many to be the wisest economy, but big figures in an appropriation bill have very little chance this year. The bill establishing the State Hospital district and providing for the building of the institution fixed the per capita cost of construction, including the purchase of land, at $1,150, and the plans have been made on that basis for 1,500 patients. But if the needs of the district should require it, the capacity could be increased by an almost indefinite extension of the system of outlying colony groups at a very small per capita cost, as the central group is by far the most expensive in construction.

The administration group in part, and one outlying group, with the general kitchen, bakery, workshop, laundry, employes' dwelling house, power house, and pumping station, are already erected, and have added a feature of architectural beauty to Point Airy. This point, of itself of picturesque and romantic beauty, juts into the St. Lawrence River at the head of the Galoup Rapids, three miles below Ogdensburg. It is a part of the hospital farm of 950 acres, which includes woodland, meadow, farm land, and a market garden tract of the $100 an acre grade. The location of the institution in these particulars and in reference to salubrity, sewerage facilities and abundance and excellence of water supply, is wonderfully advantageous.

In planning the hospital Dr. P.M. Wise, who has since become its medical superintendent, aimed to take the utmost advantage of the scenic and hygienic capabilities of the site, and to improve on all previous combinations of the two general divisions of a mixed asylum--a hospital department for the concentration of professional treatment, and a maintenance department for the separate care of the chronic insane. He was anxious to secure as much as possible of the compactness and ease of administration of the linear plan of construction, with wings on either side of the executive building of long corridors occupied as day rooms, with sleeping rooms opening out of them on both sides. But he wanted to avoid the depressing influence of this monotonous structure, as the better results of variety and increased opportunities of subdivision and classification are well recognized. He was not, however, prepared to accept wholly that abrupt departure from the linear plan known as the "cottage plan," which in some institutions has been carried to the extreme of erecting a detached building for every ward. The climate of St. Lawrence county forbade this. Her winters are as vigorous as those of her Canadian neighbors, even as her people are almost as ebullient in their politics as the vigorous warring liberals and conservatives across the river. And there are features of the linear plan that can only be left out of our asylum structure at the expense of efficiency. Other rules that he formulated from his experience were that a building for the insane should never exceed two stories in height; that fire proof construction and at least two stairways from the upper floors should be provided; that day rooms should be on the first and sleeping rooms on the second floor; that all buildings for the insane who suffer from sluggish and enfeebled circulation of the blood should be capable of being warmed to 70° in the coldest weather; that ample cubic space and ventilation should be provided; and that, as far as possible, without too great increase of the cost of maintenance or sacrificing essential provisions for treatment and necessary restraint, asylums should aim to reproduce the conditions of domestic life.

State Architect Isaac G. Perry planned the St. Lawrence State Hospital buildings on ideas suggested by medical experience, with a breadth of comprehension and a technical skill in combining adaptability, utility, and beauty that have accomplished wonders. The buildings are satisfactory in every particular to every one who has seen them, and even the most casual observer is impressed with the effect of beauty. This was accomplished without elaboration of material, expressive carving or finish. The ornamentation is purely structural and is obtained by a handling of the materials of construction which also yielded the largest promise of strength and durability.

The central hospital group, of which an idea is given in the cut, now consists of five buildings. The picture shows three, the center one and two of the flanking cottages on one side. They are matched on the other side. The central or administration building is a three story structure of Gouverneur marble, and, like all of the stone used, a native St. Lawrence county stone. The marble's bluish gray is relieved by sparkling crystallizations, and its unwrought blocks are handled with an ornamental effect in the piers, lintels, and arches, and well set off by a simple high-pitched slate roof, with terra-cotta hiprolls, crestings, and finials. The open porches are both ornamental and useful, taking the place of piazzas. The tower is embellished with a terra-cotta frieze. All accommodations for an executive staff for the 1,500 patients may be provided in this building.

Behind it on the south is a one story building whose ground plan is the segment of a circle. It contains sun rooms, medical offices, general library, laboratory and dispensary, and the corridor connecting the reception cottages, one for women, on one side, and one for men on the other, with the administration building. As this one story structure is 171 feet by 41, the buildings known as cottages of the central group are more than nominally separated. All the advantages of segregation and congregation are combined.

The reception cottages are of pale red Potsdam sandstone. Their simple construction is pleasing. The ground plan is in the form of a cross; the angles of the projections being flanked by heavy piers between which are recessed circular bays carried up to the attic and arched over in the gables. The cross plan affords abundant light to all the rooms, and as much of the irregular outline as possible is utilized with piazzas. With still another recourse to the combination corridor plan, the observation cottages are joined to the reception cottages on each side. The other utilization of the corridor in this case is for conservatories. The observation cottages are irregular in plan and vary from each other and from the other buildings in the group. Unwrought native bluestone is the building material. These cottages contain a preponderance of single rooms, the purpose being to keep patients separate until their classification is decided upon.

The buildings planned but not yet constructed of the central group include two cottages for convalescents and two one-story retreats for noisy and disturbed patients. In both cases the plans are the most complete and progressive ever made. In the first the degree of construction is reduced to the minimum. Convalescents are to have freedom from the irritations of hospital life that often retard recovery. Great reliance is placed upon that important element in treatment, the rousing of a hopeful feeling in the mind of the patient.

The retreat wards, with accommodations in each wing for eighteen patients, show in this particular how little the old method of strict confinement is to be employed in the new institution. That proportion of the total insane population of 1,500 is regarded as all that it is necessary to sequester to prevent the disturbance of the rest. Hollow walls, sleeping room windows opening into small areas, and corridor space between the several divisions are features which make the per capita cost of the construction comparatively large for these two cottages, but which, it is believed, will prove to be wise ones.

All of these buildings are as complete from a hospital standpoint as can possibly be devised. Outer walls wind and moisture proof, and inner walls of brick, with an absolutely protected air space between, insure strength and warmth. An interior wall finish of the hardest and most non-absorbent materials known for such uses is a valuable hygienic provision, and both safety and salubrity are further conserved by an absence of any hollow spaces between floors and ceilings, or in stud partitions. No vermin retreats, no harbors for rodents, no channels for flame exist. Heating is accomplished by indirect radiation with the steam supply from the power house, but there are many open fireplaces to add to the complete stack and flue system of ventilation.

Attached to the central group and completed are the kitchen building, the laundry building and a dwelling house for employes, which are so disposed in the rear of the group as to make a courtyard of value for the resort of patients, as the main buildings protect and shelter it. These buildings are ample for their work when the institution's full capacity is attained. The kitchen building is a particularly interesting one. All of the cooking is to be done there, and a system of subways, with tracks on which food cars are run, connects it with all of the groups. An idea of the magnitude of kitchen plans for such an institution may be got from one single fact. The pantry is a lofty room, 20x32 feet.

The calculation that 80 per cent. of the insane of the district would be in the chronic stages of the disease explains the provision in detached cottage groups for this proportion of the patients. A great proportion of these are feeble and helpless, requiring constant attendance night and day, but attendance that can be given cheaply and efficiently in associate day rooms, dining rooms and large dormitories. Detached group No. 1, which is completed, is an infirmary group for patients of both sexes of this class. It is chiefly one story in height, and the plan permits an abundance of sunlight and air for every room.

Detached group No. 2 is intended for 185 men of the chronic insane class, who require more than ordinary care and observation. Detached group No. 3 is composed of two-story buildings for 322 women. It has several large work-shops. Occupation is one of the main reliances of the planners of the institution as a part of the treatment there.

Detached group No. 4 is designed for both men and women, and will accommodate 150. A wholly different classification is here provided for, the actively industrious classes being intended for this group. Those who are able to do outdoor work, and for whom some diverting employment will be beneficial in making them contented and physically healthy, will live here. There is complete separation of day rooms, but the two sexes will dine together in an associate hall.

An amusement hall to harmonize with the central group, and to be built adjacent to it, is planned, and will be built this year if the appropriation will permit. It is a valuable and necessary adjunct to the other provisions for the care of a population of 1,500. Accommodations for entertainments, chapel exercises, dancing and a bathing establishment are included in the plans in a way that gives great results with great economy of construction.

Probably the feature in the scheme of the St. Lawrence State Hospital of the greatest popular and professional interest is Dr. Wise's plan to have there an Americanized and improved Gheel. The original Gheel in Belgium is a colony where for many years lunatics have been sent for domiciliary care. Its inhabitants, mostly of the peasant class, have grown accustomed to the presence and care of patients with disordered minds. The system is the outgrowth of a superstition founded in the presumed miraculous cure of a lunatic whose reason was restored by the shock of the sight of the killing of a beautiful girl by her pursuing father, whose fury had been roused by her choice of a husband. A monument to this unfortunate graces Gheel, and as St. Dymphna she is supposed to be in benign control of the lunatic-sheltering colony. Some of the features of the Gheel system of care are also distinctively known as the Scotch system. There the placing of patients in family care is common. Massachusetts has also adopted it to a considerable extent. But there are many objections to family care in isolated domiciles, as practiced in Massachusetts. Special medical attention and official visits are made expensive and inconvenient. Dr. Wise plans to get all the advantages of such a mode of life for patients whose condition retrogrades under institutional influence. Not the least of these advantages is that of economy in relieving the State from the per capita cost of construction for at least one-fourth of the insane of the district. He would utilize the families in the settlement which always grows up in the vicinity of a large hospital. It is composed of the households of employes, many of which are the result of marriages among the attendants and employes. On Point Airy, by the use of the buildings that were on the different plots bought by the State to make up the hospital farm, such a settlement can be easily made up. Its inhabitants would pay rent to the State. They would be particularly fit and proper persons to board and care for patients whose condition was suitable for that sort of a life, and the patients could have many privileges and benefits not possible in the hospital. Point Airy's little Gheel on such a plan would be a most interesting and valuable extension of the beneficent rule of St. Dymphna.

The St. Lawrence State Hospital was built and is operated under the supervision of a board of managers, whose fidelity to it is described as phenomenal by the people of Ogdensburg. The members of the executive committee, Chairman William L. Proctor, Secretary A.E. Smith, John Hannan and George Hall, especially Mr. Proctor and Mr. Smith, have given as much time and attention to it as most men would to a matter in which they had a business interest. The result has been a performance of contract obligations in which the State got its money's worth. The people of Ogdensburg, too, have taken a great interest in the institution. Such men as Mayor Edgar A. Newell, ex-Collector of the Port of New York Daniel Magone, Postmaster A.A. Smith, Assemblyman George R. Malby, and his predecessor, Gen. N.M. Curtis, who was the legislative father of the hospital scheme; Frank Tallman and Amasa Thornton take as much pride in the institution that the State has set down at the gates of their city as they do in their cherished and admired city hall, which combines a tidy little opera house with the quarters necessary for all public and department uses.

The executive staff of the hospital consists of Dr. P.M. Wise, medical superintendent; Dr. J. Montgomery Mosher, assistant: Dr. J.A. Barnette and Steward W.C. Hall.--_N.Y. Sun_.

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THE ELECTRICAL PURIFICATION OF SEWAGE AND CONTAMINATED WATER.

[Footnote: Recently read before the Chemical Society, London. From the _Journal_ of the Society.]

By WM. WEBSTER.

The term sewage many years ago was rightly applied to the excremental refuse of towns, but it is a most difficult matter to define the liquid that teems into our rivers under the name of sewage to-day; in most towns "chemical refuse" is the best name for the complex fluid running from the sewers.

It is now more than ten years since I first commenced a series of experiments with a view of thoroughly testing various methods of purifying sewage and water contaminated with putrefying organic matter. It was while investigating the action of iron salts upon organic matter in solution and splitting up the chlorides present by means of electrolysis, that I first became aware of the importance of precipitating the soluble organic matter in such manner that no chemical solution should take the place of the precipitated organic matter. If chemical matter is substituted for the organic compounds, the cure is worse than the disease, as the resulting solution in most cases sets up after precipitation in the river into which it flows.

My first electrolytical experiments were conducted with non-oxidizable plates of platinum and carbon, but the cost of the first and the impossibility of obtaining carbon plates that would stand long-continued action of nascent chlorine and oxygen made it desirable that some modification should be tried. I next tried the effect of electrolytic action when iron salts were present, but did not think of using iron electrodes until after trying aluminum. I found that the action of non-oxidizable electrodes was most efficacious after the temperature of the fluid acted upon rose 4° or 5°; but the cost of working made it impossible on a large scale.

After a long series of experiments, iron plates were used as electrodes, with remarkable results, for the compounds of iron formed not only deodorized the samples of sewage acted on, but produced complete precipitation of the matters in suspension, and also of the soluble organic matter; the resulting effluents remaining perfectly free from putrefaction. The first part of the process is well illustrated by the small experiments now shown; the organic matter in suspension and in solution separates into flocculent particles, which rise to the top of the liquid and remain until the bubbles of hydrogen which have carried them up escape, when the solid matter will precipitate. In the arrangement adopted on a working scale, the separated particles precipitate readily. As an illustration of the action upon organic matter in solution I take a small quantity of dye, mix it with water, and placing the connected iron electrodes in the mixture, the dye in solution separates into flocculent particles. The electrolytical action is of course easily understood, but the chemical changes that take place need an explanation. At the positive pole, hypochlorite of iron seems to be formed at first, but this is quickly changed into a protochloride, and as at the negative pole an alkaline reaction takes place, the iron salt is precipitated in the form of the ferrous hydrated oxide, together with the organic matters in suspension and solution. Owing to the carbonates that are always present in sewage, ferrous carbonate is also formed.

The success of these laboratory experiments led me to a trial of the process on a larger scale, for hitherto only a gallon at any one time had been treated.

Small brick tanks were erected at my wharf at Peckham and iron electrodes fitted to them.

Wrought iron plates were fixed about an inch apart, and connected in parallel in the tanks, forming one big cell. Sewage to the amount of about 200 gallons was run into the electrode tank and then treated, the results being so satisfactory that larger works were erected, when a supply of sewage equal to 20,000 gallons an hour could be obtained.

After a number of experiments had been carried out it was decided to run the sewage as rapidly as possible through electrodes, six cells or two rows in series fixed in a long channel or shoot, for experience showed that the motion of the liquid acted on reduced the back E.M.F. and hastened the formation of the precipitate.

A channel is kept at the bottom of the electrodes for the silt to collect, with a culvert at side to flush it into, so as to prevent any block occurring; the advantage of this is obvious. The plates in each section may be from half an inch to an inch thick, and can be of any length up to 6 ft. It may possibly be objected that a large number of plates is required. This may be so, but the larger the number of plates, the less the engine power required, and the longer they last. In each section the electrodes are in parallel, and any one section is in series with the other, the arrangement being exactly like that of a series of primary battery cells.

By actual experience I have been able to prove that at least 25 sections of electrodes should be in series and across any one of these sections the potential difference need not be greater than 1.8 volts, the current being of any desired amount, according to the surface of plates used.

The electrical measurements taken by Dr. John Hopkinson during these experiments for the Electrical Purification Association, to whom I had sold my patents, entirely corroborated my contentions as to E.H.P. used, and agreed with the measurements of the managing electrician, Mr. Octavius March.

The process was then thoroughly investigated by Sir Henry Roscoe, who had control of the works for one month. He reports as follows: