Page:Science vol. 5.djvu/302

 [Vol, v., So. 111.

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��As a nolnlile example of the patient ploilding In- ilusiry sliovii by the Chinese, may be instanced the maiiufACture of the very thin caat-iron Hce pans which may be seen In any cook-houec in Hong-Kong. Thu priiicijial seUi of this Industry are at the toivus of Sam-tiii-cliuk anil Fawhan. The iron used is obtxiiied by smelting magnetic o:iide. The ore is brolien up and smelted with charcoal in a very prim- itive Bmelting-fiiruace some eight feet high. The cupola is cone-aliaped, having its apex at the bot- tom. The single tuyere pipe Is of earthenware, the opening for the cinisaion of the blast being inclined downwards. The (iLriiace itself Is of earthenware, strengthened by hoop<i nnd longitudinal straps of iron. The whole Is lined with clay several inclies thick. The internal diameter at (be bottom is about two feet, anil at the top three feet and a half; the in- side depth being about six feet. The blast is pro- duced by a rude tjellowa, formed of a wooden box five feet long, by three in horliuntal, and a foot and a half In vertical section. This box is divided longitudinally into two compartments, each eighteen inches square In vertical section. la each of these 'compartments a piston works, the Talves being so arranged that one piston is eSective in the up, and the other in the down or return stroke. As there is no air-chamber, the blast is not perfectly continuous. The fuel used is cbarcoal: and the furnace, being first healed by starting a liru with fuel alone, is then filled up with alternate layers of charcoal and ore in small frag- ments. The blast is urged, and, after a sufficient tlmo has elapsed, the molten metal is drawn off from a lap-hole at the l)ottom, and cast into Ingots. These, when intended for export, are afterwards reheated in an open forge.

For making the very thin rieepans, which are cast without tiandles, pure iron of native manufacture alone Is used. The moulds In which the pans are cast require weeks of tedious and patient labor to bring Ihem to perfection. They are composed of two parti, an upper and a lower, and are made of eare- (utty puildled clay. The great secret of the process which enables the Chinese founders to cast their iron pans of such large diameter, yet so Mn and light as to be scarcely thicker than a sheet of paper, appears to be the use of highly healed moulds and pure char- coal pig-iron. When the ovens and their contents have cooled down, which takes about two days, the luting attaching the up[ier portion of the mould to the lower is carefully removed, and, the moulds being separated, the pan can tie extracted. When the operation is successful, the same mould can be used several times. The pans now have ea^h attached to its bottom a lump of iron, which, from the extreme briltleness n( the pans, requlrei the greatest care in its removal. These runners are carefully sawn off, and the edges sm'iothed down: the pan Is then ready for the export market. Handles are allrtclipd tolliese pans by the retail dealer;.

��The pans niude ai F^itshan dlfler from the pmcd- 1 tng in being cast with handles attaclicd ue to the inner surface of the pan, which n the breaking ul the mould at encli casting. Th«ju< usually cast niucii thicker and heavier than those ot Sam-tiu-chuk, and occasionally one-third of tortl^ pig-Iron is inived with Ihe native iron f In other respects the process foilowcti at both plsct* Is the same.

��In an article in l'heZeU«clir(ft Jiir ethnologit, on the great antiquity of the human races. Dr. Kollmann takes American material to test his theory thai tbe craniological varieties of mankind existed in qos- temary Umes as they are found to-day. For (hi» purpose, accepting the geological evidence of their antiquity as conclusive, he brings together observi- tions and measurements upon crania from Caiifomi*, liiinois, Fatl^;onia, central Brazil, and Buenos Aires. The first will be recognized immediately si the celebrated Calaveras skull. To the originsl measurements ot Dr. Wyman, the anthur adds his own measureraenia taken upon Whitney's plate (' Ao- riferous gravels of California'), using for a term o( comparison the heads of six Indians who visited Basle In ISS2. He finds the Calaveras skull does not resemble European, but Indian crania In specific raoe- characters, which have persisted since the glacial epoch. The less familiar cranium from Iltlnol*, known as the McConnel skull, was found enveloped in drift material in a cleft In a rock-bluS. It is no* owned by Dr. Schmidt ot Berlin, whose meauiT*- ments are incorporated in the text with bis coitcln- sion, from a comparison of tlils skull with thoae la the collections at Washington and Phliadelpliia, Uwt it is not unlike more recent long skulls from Illinois.

The rest ot the study is based on material froin South America. On tbe banks ot the Sio ISegn, Patagonia, in a stratum similar to liiat ot the qi)»- ternary loess of Uie pampas, Sloreno found two skulls which seem to him identical with exisUng forms. At the last Congrts des American isles, 18S3, Liilken invited the attention ot craniologisls to the as j«l unmeasured material representing the remain* ot thirty individuals, which Land obtained in the cave of Sumidouro, near Lagoa Santa, Brazil. In a re- cent visit to Copenhagen, Dr. Kollmann measured four of the best preserved male crania, which, like one given by Lund to a Brazilian colleclioTi, and measured by Lacenla and Peiioto, are long, wjtli broad faces. Accurding lo liie latter anthorltica, they resemble the heads ot Uotocudns. The last of the group Is one taken by Roth from the uppvr pampas formation ot northern Duenos Aires. T* Virchow. who took its measurements upon photo- graphs, it recalleil Involuntarily the brachycephalle. prognathic skulls of Sambaqnis. N'ehring also MktMl lo the Antiiropological society ot Berlin, that he bu in his possession a Sambaqul skull from Sadu*) which presents a real resemblance to this.

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