PROFESSOR BLACK AT WAIORONGOMAI AND TE AROHA.

Te Aroha News, Volume III, Issue 131, 5 December 1885, Page 7

PROFESSOR BLACK AT WAIORONGOMAI AND TE AROHA.

On Thursday afternoon last Professor Black Accompanied by M r Fenton, reached Te Aroha from the Thames, and after a few minutes spent in visiting t!ie Thermal Springs, both resumed the journey ' to " Waiorongoniai. In^ the cvetitng~h large and representative com)>any came together in the Public Hall to hear the Professor. JMr Warden Kenrick, as chairman, npened the meeting) and in introducing tue lecturer, referred in eulogistic terms to his skill and popularity as a lecturer tiud to the importance of the work he was engaged in, and which iiad brought him amongst them on that occasion. The Professor, on coming forward, Vrcis greeted with applause, and having first referred to the great pleasure it afforded him to address the miners and residents of Waiorongotnai, proceeded to discourse on the subtect- of " The Formation of Quartz Keefs," preceding his lecture by general leference to oxygen and carbonic acid passes (illustrated by a number of experiments) as these gasses were the most important agents in the formation l>oth of the quarts and the gold found therein. ]Soti>ihg was so common as oxygen^ being the most abundant element existing iv tiie earth. Quartz was more thtn half oxygen, every 60 tons containing 32 tons of it, the residue being a kind of charcoal. One hundred gallons of atmospheric air contained 20 gallons of oxygen gas, and wator was composed of 8 parts of oxygen aud 1 of liylrogeu. Limestone was al»o largely composed of oxygen, ana the .same remark applied to nil plants, etc. fn (lie case* of live animals more than half their weight was corrposed of it also. The Professor combined oxygen and hydrogeni and burnt the latter at the vent of a glask retort. ; burnt five-ply iron wire in b glass vessel containing oxygen, and likewise by the mingling of gasses caused a small explosion on the application of a light, and in connection with the f latter experiment explained the causes of explosions in collieries and danger of fire damp. With respect to carlvonic acid gas, the le 'iurer then proceeded to illustrate how it could be made liom. lime stone, stated thtf "very 100 t'»iis oi lime stone contained 44 to is of carbonic acid and 56 of quicklime. Three glass cylinders filled with carbonic acid gas. oxygen gas, and atmos p-ifirio air, respectively, were next used> an! on a flam« being introduced into the carbonic acid it was immediately extinguished whilst in the oxygen it burned .brilliantly. Nearly every kind of rock contained a gas and a base, and all salts were nothing more than-cora-p.mn Is of basiS and acids. Limestone was a strong base in combination with carbonic acid, which was weak, and by the application of a more powerful acid — say muriatic, otherwise known as Spirits of -salt— the weaker was expelled. The Professor here compared such a result to what was daily going on at Te Aroha, where the carbonic acid was t<> !>>• pee > bubbling and Imiiinr up hi a mtii i • (■*, an-! remargin! perhaps tin re uas some Iel1o"-v down below t.ieie wiiu a o i» iv;i v; laloratory at work. Car onic at-i \ w s foiin I in i * i uoiM in vaiious ion us, in tile atmosphere it cxV< i <l in th; pr«»por tiou of •£ traUons to av.ry 10,000 g:»il«m«< of air. It c">ie into f'le air from t.ie exhalations of all auiiitald, lrom tie fume^ of fires, the -leoay of \»pwe(ablp and animal matter,whiie it wart distribute by the law of diffusion of case's, and absorbed by the leaves oi: living plants, which again used its carbon, and exhalf) the oxygen. Tud Prof.-ssnr proceeded to iliublrate the formation of Quartz by placing iv a glass retort powdered window glass and fluor spar, on which was poured sonic sulpnuric acid, a tube leading from the retort was conducted into the bottom, ol a cylin l<ir, cont.lining- a small quantity of mercury, a* d tie retort then filled with water, wit li the effect, that the formation of the silica on t«je of the water was plainly seen.