L. M. RUMSEY MANUFACTURING COMPANY. RAILWAY & CAR LUMBER.

Fence Wire now offered in Shovels, Spades & Scoops,

SPADES & SCOOPS, Bolt Cutters,

ESTABLISHED 1827.

EDWARD SMITH & CO.,

COACH CAR VARNISHES

N

ESTABLISHED 1845.

VARNISHES.

DETROIT

MICH.

Frontage on Lieb St. 200 Ft.

MOSES BIGELOW & CO., NEWARK, N.J.

RAILWAY VARNISHES.

THE

Railway Purchasing Agent.

Devoted to the Interests of the Purchasing Department of Railways.
CHICAGO, OCTOBER, 1881.

Volume 4.

States and Canada, and will contain all of the official notices of that organization.

No. 10.

varnish are applied. On the seaboard the atmosphere is saturated with salt or kelp; in such an atmosphere as Pittsburgh, or the bituminous coal regions, the air is filled with the fumes of sulphur; the shops of the Far West, and particularly those bordering on the plains, are filled with alkali, and so in different sections, each having a different effect upon the coloring matter and its durability.

Communications on subjects within the scope solidation of that road with the Gould On the Separation of Hydro-Carbon Oils of this paper are solicited.

Southwestern system. Mr. R. B. Lyle, purchasing agent of the Missouri Pacific, succeeds him; and also assumes the duty of purchasing agent of the other leased 182 and 184 Dearborn Street, CHICAGO, ILL. lines as per the following order issued by

Subscription price, One Dollar and fifty cents ($1.50) per year, payable in advence. Advertising rates given on application.

ADDRESS: RAILWAY PURCHASING AGENT,

Geyer's Stationer (N. Y.) has just issued an elegant illustrated stationery catalogue.

THE American Society of Mechanical Engineers holds its annual meeting in New York, November 3d.

THE Southern Railway & Steamship Association holds its annual meeting in Washington, Oct. 26th.

THE adjourned convention of the International Roadmasters' Association will be held in Cleveland, Nov. 16th.

THE use of cotton seed hulls as a sub

stitute for cotton waste is making a favorable record. Where properly used it is

an undoubted success, and gives some really remarkable results.

GENERAL MANAGER JOHN SCOTT, of the Alabama Great Southern, announces that the duties of R. W. Healy as Purchasin Agent are extended over the Vicksburg & Meridian and Vicksburg, Shreveport &

Pacific divisions of the road.

From Fat Oils.*

[By Alfred H. Allen, F. C. S., F.I.C., Lecturer on Chemistry at Sheffield School of Medicine.] The extensive production of various hydrocarbon oils suitable for lubricating purposes, together with their low price, has resulted in their being largely employed for the adulteration of animal and vegetable oils. The hydro-carbons most commonly used for such purposes are:

1. Oils produced by the distillation of petroleum and bituminous shale, having a density usually ranging between .870 and

2. Oils produced by the distillation of common resin, having a density of .965 and upwards.

Vice President R. S. Hayes: Mr. R. B.
Lyle is appointed purchasing agent of the
Texas & Pacific Railroad, St. Louis, frcn
Mountain & Southern Railroad, and the
International & Great Northern Railroad,
in addition to his present duties in that
department of the Missouri Pacific and
and Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railways.
He will be addressed at St. Louis as Pur-.915.
chasing Agent Missouri Pacific Railroad
and leased lines. The purchasing and
supply departments of the above railways
will report to Mr. Lyle as he may direct.
All requisitions for purchases may be ap-
proved by the general manager of the
division in which they originate, who will
also approve the vouchers of purchases
made upon such requisitions. All con-
tracts made by the Purchasing Agent are
subject to the approval of the under-
signed.

AT the recent meeting of the Master Car
Painters' Association, in New York, the
subject of the cracking of varnish was dis-
cussed. Mr. Devoe, of the firm of F. W.
Devoe & Co., New York, said that the
cracking of varnish depends to a very
great extent upon the character of the
paint underneath. It is necessary where
a road has adopted a shade of color for its
cars, in order to insure uniformity of color,
the paint should all be prepared by one
person or one house. Then it makes no
difference who applies it. Paints fur-

A MEETING for perfecting the organization of the American Association of Railroad Superintendents was held at the Windsor Hotel, New York, Sept. 21st and 22nd. About twenty gentlemen were present and some sixty more gave notice of their intention to join the association. A Constitution and by-laws were adopted and officers were elected as follows: Pres-nished, ground, mixed, and applied in ident, Peyton Randolph; first vice president, T. M. Fish; second vice president, John Adams; third vice president, P. S. O'Rourke; secretary, Waterman Stone; Assistant secretary, D. W. Sanborn; treas- There is also a very marked difference urer, E. T. D. Myers. The following sub-in tints and subsequent wear, dependent jects were selected for discussion at the upon the atmosphere, when paints and

several shops belonging to the same line,
will be different in tint, by reason of a dif-
ference in the strength of the lead or col-
oring, and the method of grinding.

3. Neutral coal oil, being the portion of the products of the distillation of coal tar boiling about 200° C., and freed from phenols by treatment with soda.

4. Solid paraffin, used for the adultera

tion of beeswax and spermaceti, and employed in admixture with stearic acid for making candles.

The methods for the detection of hydrocarbon oils in fat oils are based on the density of the sample, the lowered flashing and boiling points, the fluorescent characters of the oils of the first two classes, and the incomplete saponification of the oil by alkalis. The taste of the oil, and its odor on heating are also useful indications. If undoubtedly fluorescent, an oil certainly contains a mixture of some hydrocarbon, but the converse is not strictly true, as the fluorescence of some varieties of mineral oil can be destroyed by chemical treatment, and in other cases fluorescence is wholly wanting. Still, by far the greater number of hydrocarbon oils employed for lubricating purposes are strongly fluorescent, and the remainder usually become so on treatment with an equal measure of strong sulphuric acid.

If strongly marked, the fluorescence of a hydrocarbon oil may be observed in presence of a very large proportion of fixed

oil, but if any doubt exist the hydrocarbon ceeds 1 per cent., and is usually much
oil may be isolated. As a rule, the fluor-less. Sperm oil, however, constitutes a
escence may be seen by holding a test tube remarkable exception, yielding by this
filled with the oil in a vertical position in process about 40 per cent. of matter
front of a window, when a bluish "bloom" soluble in ether.* This peculiarity has no
will be perceived on looking at the sides of effect on the applicability of the process,
the test tube from above. A better as sperm oil, being the most valuable of
method is to lay a glass rod, previously commercial fixed oils, is never present
dipped in the oil, down on a table in front without due acknowledgment of the fact.
of a window, so that the oily end of the Spermaceti and the other waxes yield,
rod shall project over the edge and be after saponification, large percentages of
seen against the dark background on the matter to ether, and hence the process is
floor. Another excellent plan is to make a not available for the determination of par-
thick streak of the oil on a piece of black affin wax in admixture with these bodies,
marble, or glass smoked at the back, and though it gives accurate results with the
to place the streaked surface in a horizon- mixture of paraffin and stearic acid so
tal position in front of and at right angles largely employed for making candles.
to a well-lighted window.t Examined in The following figures obtained in my
this manner, a very slight fluorescence is laboratory by the analysis of substances
readily perceptible. If at all turbid, the of known purity and of mixtures of known
oil should be filtered before applying the composition, show the accuracy of which
test, as the reflection of light from minute the process is capable. The results are
particles is apt to be mistaken for true expressed in percentages:
fluorescence. An exceedingly small
amount of mineral oil suffices to impart a
strong blue fluoresence to the ether.

The quantitative analysis of mixtures of fat-oils with hydrocarbon oils has till recently been very uncertain, the published methods professing to solve the problem

When admixture

being for the most part of very limited applicability, and in some cases wholly untrustworthy. the hydrocarbon oil in happens to be of comparatively low boiling point, it may often be driven off by exposing the sample to a temperature of about 150° C., but the estimation thus effected is generally too low, and often quite untrustworthy.

When it is merely desired to estimate approximately the proportion of the hydrocarbon oil present and not to isolate it or examine its exact character, Koettstorfer's titration process may be used, as suggested by Messrs. Stoddart.

Composition of sub-
stance taken.

Hydro-
carbon.

1.14

1.821

0.71

0.54

96.0

41 49

89.65

0.22

Fat oil.

1:14

.100

U

0.23

Lard

80

09

Hydrocarbon.

Fat oil.

.20 19 37 Rape.

40 Rosin oil.....60 59 42 Castor......100
.80 Rosin oil.....20 19 61 Cod-liver.

Cotton seed..60 Rosin oil.....40,39 74 Butler-fat

The following table

20 Paraffin wax.80

indicates the gen

indebtedness to Mr. Charles Harrison for the valuable assistance he has rendered me in establishing the analytical facts described in the foregoing paper.

Car Spring Specifications. The following are the specifications under which all springs used upon the different classes of cars of the Pennsyl. vania Railroad are made. Each spring upon being received at the Altoona shops, is proved by an application of the test prescribed in the specification, applying to that particular class of spring. The

elliptic springs are classed as follows: "Single Elliptic," which signifies a single elliptic spring. "Double Elliptic," meaning two in a bundle. "Triple Elliptic," meaning three in a bundle, and "Quadruple Elliptic," meaning four in a bundle. BB signifies between bands. Auxiliary plates are two plates placed within each spring, so that the compressed spring will be relieved from the damaging action caused by the violent oscillations of a car in passing around curves. The ends of the auxiliary plates touch each other under these circumstances. and form a firm support for the springs.

eral behavior of the constituents of com-
plex fats, oils, and waxes, when the aque-
ous solution of the saponified substances Motion to be soft and slow.
is shaken with ether.

But the best and most accurate method of detecting hydrocarbon oils in and quantitatively separating them from the fat oil is to saponify the sample, and then agitate the aqueous solution of the soap with ether. On separating the ethereal layer Hydrocarbon oils, inand evaporating it at or below a steamheat the hydrocarbon oil is recovered in a state of purity.

The agitation with ether must be repeated several times to effect a complete extraction of the hydrocarbon oil from the soap solution.

The foregoing process has been proved to be accurate on numerous mixtures of fat oils with hydrocarbon oils. The results obtained are correct to within about 1 per cent., in all ordinary cases. In cases where extreme accuracy is desired, it is necessary to remember that most, if not all, animal and vegetable oils contain traces of matter wholly unacted on by

alkalis. In certain cases, as butter and cod-liver oil, this consists largely of Cholesterin. The proportion of unsaponifiable matter soluble in ether which is naturally present in fixed oils and fats, rarely ex

SPECIFICATION C.

I have, in conclusion, to express my Motion to be soft and slow.
*A paper read before the Chemical Section of
the British Association, York Meeting.

Either of these plans is greatly superior to
the polished tin plate usually recommended.
In short, the background should be black, not
white.

SPECIFICATION E.

40′′ Single Semi-Elliptic Bolster Spring. Single, 3' plates, 40" long between centers.