BY .T, W. SUTTON. XXI. 



question that in large towns, coal gas can and Avill hold its own, 

 but for places beyond the limit of supply, a large field is open 

 to acetylene, but at present, owing to the prejudice against a 

 new and untried article, high rates of carriage, heavy royalties, 

 insufficient and intermittent supply, mitigate much against 

 its adoption. Still, at the present time there are about fifty 

 odd works running and in course of construction, with a 

 production of about 80,000 tons per annum, yet the demand 

 is far above the supply, and now as I write these notes, I 

 learn that a method has been devised whereby the mixing of 

 the gas with some inert matter, it can be sent out from the gas 

 holder through mains and burnt in the ordinary gas fittings. 

 Electro Metallurgy. — The progress of electrolysis and 

 electro metallurgy, has within the past few years been 

 very rapid and great. Electrolysis and electrolitic methods, 

 being now largely used in chemical analysis, in preference 

 to older chemical practice, it being much quicker and very 

 accurate, and now that we are able to transform the energy 

 stored in coal, into electric energy with a minimum 

 of loss, and also to transmit that power from sources of 

 cheap production, such as water power, the electrolitic 

 production of materials has extended enormously, in fact, it 

 has entirely revolutionised the chemical industry. In metallurgy 

 the most extensive application of electrolysis have been in con- 

 nection with the refining of copper from the impure matte 

 produced by the smelting furnace. There was in operation in 

 1897 five electrolitic refiners in Germany, four in France, five in 

 England, two in Russia, and eleven in the United States. I 

 have only been able to obtain the output of the American eleven 

 works for 1896, but it will be sufficient to show, and also what 

 the future will be of this comparatively new and rising industry, 

 made possible only by the late developments of modern dynamo 

 machinery. Thus from eleven works out of twenty-seven no less 

 than 124,000 tons of copper, 14,000,000oz?. of silver, and 

 70,000ozs. of gold was produced. As the process is now em- 

 ployed, the anode consists of the impure copper, and the cathode 

 of pure copper, the bath being an acid solution of sulphate of 

 copper. Electrolysis is also employed for the separation of nickel 

 from copper, and from gold, silver, and platinum. In these 

 cases the anodes are the matte containing the various metals, 

 and the cathodes are sheets of pure copper, the bath being dilute 



