CHEMICAL INDUSTEY. 231 



ifying the naphtha distillation products. In Poland. Kazan, Odessa, Kiev, and various 

 other parts of Russia, as well as in St. Petersburg and Moscow, tliere are several 

 sulphuric acid works, although the exact number of chambers is unknown, but it is not 

 less than fifty; however, only a small number of these are of considerable dimensions, 

 like those used at large chemical works. At many works the concentration of the 

 acid is effected in platinum vessels, but the small works, and in some cases the 

 larger, carry on the concentration in glass retorts. Many of the better works are 

 furnished with the Gay-Lussac and Glover towers, so that in its qualitative aspect, 

 the manufacture of sulphuric acid may already be considered as standing upon the 

 basis of a technical and economical perfection, althougli there is still a lack of 

 competition, which is seen from the fact that the price of acid concentrated to 93.5 

 per cent is rarely under 75 kopecks per poud. Nevertheless, the import of foreign 

 sulphuric acid is small, for instance iu 1890, not more than 51 thousand pouds of 

 oil of vitriol, and under 11 thousand pouds of fuming acid, were imported. 



The second most important branch of the chemical industry is the manufacture 

 of caustic soda and carbonate of soda from common salt, by the Leblanc method or by 

 the ammonia process. Now, both of these manufactures may be regarded as already 

 established in Eussia, although not long ago nearly all the soda required by the 

 numerous industries using the salt, such as the naphtha industry and the soap 

 manufacture, was imported. The import began to fall in the middle of the eighties, 

 and was most marked in respect to carbonate of soda, which was produced in con- 

 siderable quantities at Lubimov and Solvey's works situated at Beresniaki on the Kama, 

 working with the ammonia process. But the import of caustic soda did not decrease. 

 In 1890 over one million pouds, value at 2,333,333 million roubles, were imported. 

 Nor did the import of bleaching powder and sulphate, 203,000 pouds in 1890, dimin- 

 ish, which cleai'ly indicates the necessity of the creation of Avorks for the production 

 of soda by the Leblanc process, where caustic soda, bleaching powder, sulphate, and 

 many other substances containing sodium and chlorine of common salt, can be simul- 

 taneously and conveniently produced. This evident want was satisfied by the works of 

 Messrs. Oushkov and Co., also situated on the Kama. Thanks to the protective measures 

 oftered by the customs tariffs, and especially by that of 1891, the soda manufacture 

 which forms the basis of the chemical industry is now firmly established, as is seen 

 from the fact that since then Lubimov and Solvey have created a second large soda 

 works for the manufacture of both carbonate and caustic soda in the Donetsk district 

 near Lissichansk ; and Messrs. Oushkov and Co. now turn out three hundred thousand 

 pouds of caustic soda, and as much as two hundred and fifty thousand pouds of bleach- 

 ing powder. 



Besides the larger works, many of the smaller ones have started the manu- 

 facture of these most important products, so that in the near future the cessation of 

 the foreign import, a revival of competition, a fall in prices, and even a foreign ex- 

 port may be looked for. It must, however, be acknowledged that the necessity of the 

 manufacture of soda in Eussia was long felt, but there were not the necessary eco- 

 nomical conditions for it. It is true that in the seventies the salt destined for chem- 

 ical treatment was freed from the excise of 30 kopecks to wliicli it was then subject, 

 but at that period, owing to the competition of the chemical works producing soda by 

 the old Leblanc and the new ammonia processes, the price of soda and its products 



