i6 



CONSERVATION 



cubic feet of gas, worth $22,000,000; four 

 hundred and fifty thousand tons of ammon- 

 ium sulphate, worth a similar amount, and 

 nearly four hundred million gallons of tar, 

 worth $9,000,000. The gases evolved in coke 

 Dvens have high calorific power. Dentin esti- 

 mates that in modern ovens only sixty-five 

 per cent of this is necessary to effect the car- 

 bonization. The remaining thirty-five per 

 cent amounts to above 3,700 cubic feet of gas, 

 equivalent to 420,000 calories per ton of coke 

 produced. As a gas engine of 100 kilowatt 

 power absorbs 3,600 calories per kilowatt, 

 the power wasted in bee-hive coking amounts 

 to over 4,000,000,000 kilowatt, or about 3,000,- 

 000,000 horse-power. We are, therefore, wast- 

 ing enough power to establish a great manu- 

 facturing center, enough ammonium sulphate to 

 fertilize thousands of acres, enough creosote 

 to preserve our timber, and enough pitch and 

 tar to roof our houses and briquette our slag 

 and waste coal. Lignites have been found to 

 give out not onfy an excellent yield of gas, 

 but also tar, oils, paraffin and other valuable 

 by-products. It has recently been claimed 

 that one ton of dried peat can be made to 

 yield 162 liters of pure alcohol, and about 

 sixty-six pounds of pure ammonium sulphate. 



In 1907 4,000,000 tons of coal were con- 

 sumed in the production of 34,000,000,000 

 cubic feet of coal gas for heating and illumi- 

 nation, worth $36,000,000, in addition to over 

 100,000,000,000 cubic feet of water and oil 

 gas, worth $90,000,000, or $126,000,000 worth 

 all told. 



The value of coal to the consumer depends 

 upon its heating power, the percentage of 

 water it contains, the amount and character 

 of its ash and of the clinker formed, and how 

 extensively it corrodes the grate bars. For 

 an authoritative answer to these and similar 

 questions, the chemist must be consulted. 



The composition of furnace and fine gases 

 has been determined by chemical analysis in 

 smelting and other industries, and by the 

 utilization of these gases for preheating and 

 for the generation of power, the amount of 

 coal consumed has been reduced, and in addi- 

 tion valuable by-products recovered. In gas 

 illumination the invention of the Welsbach 

 mantle has greatly increased the amount of 

 light obtainable from a given weight of coal, 

 and has correspondingly reduced the drain 

 upon our coal resources. The conversion of 

 carbon into acetylene through calcium car- 

 bide should also be mentioned. 



As iron, according to Clarke, composes 

 four and one-half per cent of our lithosphere, 

 the chance of our discovery of other import- 

 ant deposits of iron ore seem far better than 

 in the case of other metals or of coal. Tlic 

 development of iron alloys is a most promis- 

 ing field and among these we may find satis- 

 factory substitutes for other metals now more 

 seriously threatened with exhaustion. The 

 production of ferro-silicon may render avail- 

 able certain siliceous ores hitherto regarded 

 as unworkable. 



The chief use of iron is in the construction 

 of railroads and building. In building opera- 

 tions concrete is helping, not only as a substi- 

 tute for iron and steel, but also as a protective 

 covering for metallic pillars, girders, and the 

 like. Tiie iron and steel industry rests mainly 

 upon chemistry and is under chemical control 

 at every point. The production of steel by 

 the Bessemer process depends upon the com- 

 bustion of the carbon and silicon of the pig 

 iron, the heat of combustion serving to main- 

 tain the mass molten. By the utilization of 

 what was formerly the waste heat of the 

 blast furnaces to raise steam for the blowing 

 engines and preheat the blast, the amount of 

 coal necessary to produce one ton of pig iron 

 is only one-quarter what is was. 



The slags are now largely used for the pro- 

 duction of cement and concrete, as fireproof 

 packing for steam pipes, and so forth, as 

 ballast for railroad tracks or macadamizing 

 highways, and for building purposes, as slag 

 brick, slag blocks, etc., while those rich in 

 phosphorus, as from the Thomas-Gilchrist 

 process, are extensively employed in ferti- 

 lizers. In the words of James Douglas, 

 "When all the volatile products of the blast 

 furnaces are deprived of their heat-giving 

 property and their chemical constituents, and 

 when the slags as well as the metal have re- 

 turned their heat to man instead of to the at- 

 mosphere, and the slag itself has been turned 

 into cement or some other useful article, it 

 will be a question as to whether the pig iron 

 is the principal object of manufacture, or one 

 of the by-products." 



The safety and comfort of travel on our 

 railroads depends in large measure upon the 

 skill of the chemist in testing the character 

 of the materials employed in their construc- 

 tion and operation. It may be only a delay 

 from a hot box, due perhaps to a poor quality 

 of lubricant, or it may be a disaster from the 

 failure- of a signal or headlight at a critical 

 moment, or a breaking of an axle or locomo- 

 tive part, because of steel brittle from im- 

 purities. 



Chemistry has played a prominent part in 

 copper metallurgy. The matter is now besse- 

 merized, and seventy per cent of our total 

 product is refined electrolytically. The avoid- 

 able waste in mining copper, zinc, lead, silver, 

 and many other metals is estimated as at 

 least thirty per cent. But the value now 

 locked up in the Arizona slags, the Corn- 

 stock slimeSj and the Anaconda tailings, will 

 sooner or later be recovered by chemistry. 



Chemistry has finally pointed the way by 

 which aluminum may be obtained cheaply and 

 in large amount from its ores. Last year our 

 consumption of aluminum was 8,500 tons, 

 worth $5,000,000, the world's production for 

 1907 being estimated at 20,000 tons. The com- 

 mercial utilization of aluminum and its alloys 

 is writing a new chapter in our mineral his- 

 tory. To appreciate what this development 

 in aluminum means, it should be recalled that 

 the total supply of it is nearly twice as great 



