CnEMJCAh JNDUSTRY. 229 



tion of soda, bleaching- powder, and certain other substances which will be mentioned 

 iiereafter. 



Thus the chemical industry of Russia can only be considered us being at the 

 tirst stage of its growth, and its further progress can only be looked for in the 

 further development of other kinds of industries offering a demand for chemical 

 products. And as regards certain of them, when their exploitation attains its requi- 

 site and possible dimensions, then the natural conditions of Russia are such that it can 

 produce an abundance of goods of the kind. Thus for instance, native hydrated sul- 

 phate of sodium, glauberite, or mirabilite occur in abundance in certain of the Cen- 

 tral Asiatic lakes, in a dried up lake near the Zhandarmsk mountain near Tiflis, and 

 is self-deposited in large and small lakes in the neighbourhood of 13atalpashinsk not 

 far from the Black Sea, to the north of the Caucasus, and in many other localities. 

 Its exploitation has hardly been commenced, but when developed it could form a 

 means for the manufacture of exceedingly cheap soda and caustic soda, as in 

 Leblanc's process common salt has first to be converted into glauber salt, which 

 requires the manufacture of sulphuric acid, and hence of hydrochloric acid, the de- 

 mand for which is not sufficiently great. 



This native glauber salt might also be a source of sulphur, which is now im- 

 ported from Sicily. The vast masses of copper pyrites occurring in the Urals are 

 now hardly touched, and are only converted into sulphuric acid on the spot at Po- 

 lovtsev's works, and on the Kama. The pyrites occurring at Borovichi, and in the Sub- 

 Moscow and Donets coals, are only converted into sulphuric acid at small works, 

 while they might serve as a most profitable source for the preparation of sulphuric 

 acid and its by - products. The exploitation of the vast beds of native sulphur in 

 Daghestan in the Caucasus, and in the Kara-Koumsk steppes in Transcaucasia, has 

 hardly been started, although they are not inferior to the Sicilian deposits, and oft'er 

 the important advantages of being near the surface and of being very rich. A similar 

 untouched treasure-house is presented in the exceedingly thick beds of pure alumite 

 or alum stone, discovered beyond the Caucasus at Zaglik in the government of 

 Elisavetpol. Such stores of wealth, together with the inexhaustible deposits of 

 phosphorites in the governments of Podolsk, Riazan and Smolensk, of manga- 

 nese ore in the Caucasus, Dnieper and Ural, of chrome iron ore in the Ural, of nick- 

 el ore in the Ural, and of many other minerals, and also an abundance of every 

 class of vegetable and animal raw stuffs suitable for chemical treatment, and for the 

 preparation of most varied chemical products, all this wealth is still awaiting the 

 hand of entreprising individuals to be converted into goods capable of export to other 

 lands. 



In a word, the natural conditions favourable to a vast and independent devel- 

 opment of a large chemical industry in Russia, are so numerous that, when the home 

 production attains its full growth, it will not only be able to satisfy the home de- 

 mand in excess, but to attain such a degree of cheapness as would open the foreign 

 markets to its goods. At the present time, however, it is only possible to bear wit- 

 ness to a feeble beginning in the growth of the Russian chemical industry, and for 

 this purpose a short review of the production of certain of the most important chem- 

 ical products will be given. 



It is well known that the manufacture of sulphuric acid forms the basis of the 



