the various purposes of a colliery, including, no doubt, before long,
the generation of electricity for its illumination. It is right to
state that prior to 1879 Mr. Henry Aitken had applied bottom flues for
taking off the oil and ammoniacal water to beehive ovens at the Almond
Ironworks, near Falkirk. He states that the largest quantity of oil
obtained was eleven gallons, the specific gravity varying from 0.925
to 1.000, and that the water contained a quantity of ammonia fully
equal to 5½ lb. of sulphate of ammonia to the ton of coal coked. The
residual permanent or non-condensed gases were allowed to issue from
the end of the condenser pipe, and were burnt for light in the
engine-houses, but it was intended to force them into the oven again
above the level of the coke. Owing to the works being closed, nothing
has been done with these ovens for some years. I may mention, by the
way, that it is proposed to apply the principle of Mr. Jameson's
process to the recovery of oil and ammonia from the smouldering waste
heaps at the pit-bank, by the introduction into these of conduits
resembling those which he applies to the bottom of the beehive oven.
There is every reason to expect that one or more of these various
methods of utilizing valuable products which are at present lost will
be carried to perfection, and will tend to cheapen the cost at which
iron can be produced, and still further to increase its consumption
for all the multifarious purposes to which it is applied.


WONDERFUL USES AND DEMAND FOR IRON AND STEEL.

But the world's annual production of 20,000,000 tons of pig iron is
itself sufficiently startling, and without attempting to present to
you the statistics of all its various uses--for which, in fact, we do
not possess the necessary materials--the increased consumption of more