168 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. [Voyr. VIII 
refuse matter, such as blood, tankage, bones, and offal, besides natural 
phosphates. Ontario, New. Brunswick, Quebec, Nova Scotia, Prince 
Edward Island, and British Columbia, all produce fertilizers, more or less.34 
VIII.—Coa-Tar AND ASPHALT. 
Very little tar distillation is carried on in the Dominion, owing mainly 
to the tar produced in the gasworks being too thick for treatment with 
any degree of success. It is mainly used for saturating paper, which is 
employed largely as a waterproofing material by builders. Some is boiled 
down into pitch, but about one half of the tar produced is exported to the 
United States. There is a small distilling plant at Hamilton, Ontario, 
which the writer understands, was, up to eighteen months ago, the only © 
one of its kind from which coal-tar oils were produced in Canada. The 
Dominion Iron and Steel Company at Sydney obtain a considerable quan- 
tity of coal tar from their coke-ovens. This, at one time, found a market 
in the States, in Montreal and other points in Canada, but recently arrange- 
ments were made w.th an English chemical company to locate at Sydney 
with a view to utilizing all the coal-tar produced from the coke-ovens. The 
works, which are one of the largest on the continent, are now in operation 
and doing a large business in Canada, Europe and the United States; the 
demand for the company’s products in Canada is not sufficient, hence the 
European and American exports. The present products are pitch and 
the various grades of benzol, creosote-oil and carbolic acid.?° Large exten- 
sions are looked for from this company, which will be guided by the motto 
jestina lente, and as opportunity offers, will branch into the production 
of other commercial commodities arising out of coal-tar and its distillation 
products. 
ASPHALT. 
Asphalt occurs naturally in several varieties as albertite, found in 
King’s and Albert Counties, N.B., and as maltha, one of the stiffer petrol- 
eum compounds, which is not of much importance however, being almost 
too hard for use in street paving. Up to 1898, albertite was employed in 
gas-making, and much of it was shipped to the United states; but the 
original supply is now exhausted. 
IX.—Ca.cium CARBIDE, CARBORUNDUM, CORUNDUM, AND GRAPHITE. 
CALCIUM CARBIDE. 
The production of this substance on a manufacturing scale dates back 
only to the year 1891, when Mr. T. L. Willson, of the Willson Aluminum 
(34) Inland Revenue Bulletin, No. 81, 1902. 
(35) Letter from Mr. John Craven, Sydney, 2nd Feb., 1905. 
T=... 
