234 MANUFACTURES OF RUSSIA. 



pouds of clii'omate and 128,000 pouds of alumina compounds were imported. The in- 

 ternal production exceeds the import by several times. 



Among the other chemical products used in manufactures, bleaching pow- 

 der is particularly important. It has now found a further application in the extrac- 

 tion of gold by chemical processes. Up to recent times it was brought into Eussia 

 from abroad to the amount of about 400,000 pouds a year. Now, when the duty 

 upon it has also been rendered more protective (according to the customs tariff of 

 1868 the duty was 40 kopecks per poud, while now it is 70 kopecks gold), 

 there are several works producing up to 300,000 pouds annually, and the import 

 is likely to decrease, although in 1892 it remained almost the same, owing to 

 the increased demand proceeding from the gold mines of the Urals, for the treat- 

 ment of the gold « schlich » in the wet way, which considerably increases the 

 yield of gold. The cost of the production of bleaching powder is naturally chiefly 

 dependent upon the cheapness of hydrochloric acid, and so far this ha's not been 

 the case in Eussia, although it has long been so in Western Europe, owing to the fact 

 that this acid appears there as a by-product in the manufacture of soda by the Le- 

 blanc process, while in Eussia soda is produced in considerable quantities by the 

 ammonia process; therefore hydrochloric acid is still comparatively dear, and the 

 demand for it is considerable, especially for the preparation of chloride of zinc, 

 which is used for soaking railway ties. As regards the manganese ore required for 

 the preparation of chlorine and bleaching powder, Eussia abounds in a mass of 

 excellent deposits in the Urals, Caucasus, and in the neighbourhood of the rapids of 

 the Dnieper, which in 1892 yielded as much as eight million pouds of ore. 



Among other chemical products mention should be made of the manufacture of 

 acetic, tartaric, and galUc acids, which is carried on, and is progressing at many 

 works, as well as that of soluble glass, of green and blue vitriol, sulphate of zinc, 

 sulphuric ether, etherial fruit essences, and all kinds of pharmaceutical extracts and 

 preparations, including iodoform and chloroform. The latter are prepared at Keller's 

 pharmaceutical works at Moscow, and at Pehl's • laboratory in St. Petersburg, and 

 others. But it is impossible to discuss these substances in detail from the want of 

 accurate statistical data, and from want of space. In any case their production is de- 

 pendent upon the degree of the development of the above mentioned larger chemical 

 industries, which are only in their infancy and are still far from satisfying the grow- 

 ing Eussian demand, as is seen from the fundamental data of the table on page 226. 

 It must be said, however, that the natural sources and means of Eussia are often 

 applied to manufactures of a chemical character when the necessary initiative ap- 

 pears in a given circle of inhabitants. 



Thus, when there was a large demand for it, the manufacture of yellow prus- 

 siate or ferrocyanide of potassium was widely distributed among the peasants of 

 central Uussia, in over a hundred localities, because it did not require much outlay 

 for its installation, and the raw materials, leather scraps, horn and hoof cuttings, and 

 wood ash, were at hand. The growing of mint, cumin, and aniseed, which was first 

 carried on for domestic pui-poses, formed under the initiative of the apothecaries the 

 basis of a large rural industry for the preparation of the volatile oils contained in 

 these herbs, so that now Eussia exports considerable quantities of these ethereal 

 oils, especially to Germany. Still more instructive is the example of the so-called 



