402 
‘ NATURE 
iy 
[ Feo. 225 1883 
1880 they produced 18,800 tons, and their output is now at the 
rate of 52,000 tons per annum. The new works now in course 
_ of construction in this country and on the Continent, when com- 
pleted, will at once increase the production of ammonia soda by 
- 65,000 to 70,000 tons annually. 
What then can the mannfacturer of Leblanc soda expect save 
utter collapse? But the state of the alkali-maker threatens to 
become even worse than it is. The source of the sulphur which 
is used in the Leblanc process is pyrites; the pyrites employed 
in this country is almost exclusively imported by three large 
companies from Spain and Portugal; it contains from 2 to 3 
per cent. of copper, and very small quantities of silver and gold. 
When the soda manufacturer has burnt off the sulphur, he sends 
the residual ore to the copper extractor, who is able to sell the 
iron oxide which remains when he has taken out the copper at 
about 12s. per ton. Now the French soda-manufacturers make 
use of pyrites of their own, which contains little or no copper ; 
one of the large companies which supplies the English market 
purposes, therefore, to start works in France, which shall 
employ Spanish pyrites, but which shall depend for their profits, 
not on the soda which they manufacture, but on the copper and 
icon oxides remaining after the sulphur has been burnt off from 
the pyrites. This company, which starts with a capital of over 
‘a million sterling, speaks of building five large works in France, 
and one in the neighbourhood of Antwerp. 
The Leblanc soda manufacturers have tried to persuade them- 
selves that the price of ammonia must rise considerably, and 
that thus they may be able to compete with the ammonia soda- 
makers on more equal terms than at present. But in place of 
ammonia becoming dearer, its price is steadily falling. New 
sources of ammonia are being found; a process for collecting 
ammonia and other volatile products from coke-ovens, which is 
easily applied to existing ovens, has recently been patented by 
Mr. J. Jameson of Newcastle-on-Tyne. If this method should 
be generally applied to the coke-ovens in this country, a quantity 
of ammonia corresponding to 180,000 tons of ammonium sulphate, 
worth about three and a half millions sterling, would be annually 
saved. 
Mr. Ferrie—a member of the great iron firm of William 
Baird and Co.—has also contrived a method whereby the 
ammonia and tarry matters which are present in the gases of the 
blast furnace may be condensed; this process has been at work 
for some time at Gartsherrie, and by its help about 20 lbs, of 
ammonium sulphate are obtained per ton of coal burnt in the 
__ blast furnaces, 
Another difficulty which presses heavily on the manufacturer 
of soda by the Leblane process consists in the want of an ou let 
for the great quantities of hydrochloric acid which accumulate 
during the soda manufacture, 
This difficulty is not felt by the Continental manufacturer 
because he finds a ready market for the chlorine which can be } 
extracted from hydrochloric acid ; but in England the supply of 
chlorine at present much exceeds the demand. But Mr. Weldon 
holds out hopes to the English chlorine-maker ; he says: ‘‘I 
think that our English manufacturers of Leblanc soda will have 
to cease to devote their hydrochloric acid—when they do not 
throw it away—exclusively to chlorine making; . . . the diffi- 
culty hitherto has been how to turn it to account otherwise. I 
' believe that difficulty is about to disappear. I am not free to 
enter into that matternow; . . . but I have very great confidence 
that new applications of hydrochloric acid, admitting of being 
applied very extensively, at comparatively small expense, are 
among the things of the immediate future.” 
Mr. Weldon then considers the ways in which the English 
manufacturer of Leblanc soda may hope to recover himself and 
again make soda at a reasonable profit. First of all, he must 
get his pyrites about 50 per cent. cheaper than the price he now 
pays for it; the present combination between the pyrites com- 
panies will expire at the end of next year; after that time the 
price of pyrites must, in Mr. Weldon’s opinion, fall very 
considerably, 
Secondly, the soda-manufacturer must recover all the sulphur 
in hisalkali waste; if he can recover the sulphur at a cost not 
exceeding 2/, per ton, he will become master of the sulphur 
market, as the actual cost of Sicilian sulphur delivered at Mar- 
seilles is now about 5/. per ton. 
The third thing which the soda-manufacturer must do is to 
distil the coal which he now uses as fuel, condense and sell the 
volatile products, including tar, oils, and ammonia, and employ 
the residual coke as fuel ; he will thus get his fuel for nothing, 
and at the same time will confer an inestimable boon on the towns 
where coal is now largely used as fuel. 
These three courses, says Mr. Weldon, must be all adopted by 
the English soda-maker. If, in addition to doing this, the 
strictest economy in manufacture is practised and the purest and 
best product that can be made is always turned out, the manu- 
facturer of soda by the old Leblanc method may yet hope to 
hold his own against the new and wonderfully successful 
ammonia process. M. M. P. M. 
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE 
OxForp.—The following persons have been elected Members 
of the Committee for the nomination of examiners in the Natural 
Science Schools: Prof. R. B. Clifton; Prof. W. Odling ; and 
Prof. H. N. Moseley. The Vice-Chancellor and Proctors com- 
plete the Committee. Up till this term the nomination of 
examiners lay with the Vice-Chancellor and Proctors, who 
appointed in turn, 
The Examiners for the Burdett-Coutts Geological Scholarship 
have recommended Mr. F. W. Andrews, of Christ Church, for 
election. 
Magdalen College advertises a demyshipin Natural Science to 
be competed for in June. 
CAMBRIDGE.—The following farther appointments of Boards 
of Electors to Professorships have been made :— 
Mineralogy :—Prof. Story-Maskelyne (Oxford), Dr. H. C. 
Sorby, Profs. Stokes, Warrington Smyth, and Liveing, Dr. 
Phear, Dr. Percy, and Mr. Glazebrook. 
Mental Philosophy and Logic :—Prof. Croom Robertson 
(Univ. Coll. Lond.), J. B. Mayor (King’s Coll. Lond.), and 
Adamson (Owens College), Messrs. H. Sidgwick, J. Ward, 
I, Todhunter, Shadworth H. Hodgson, and the Master of 
Trinity College. 
Music :—Sir F. Ouseley, Messrs. Pole, T. P. Hudson, G. 
Grove, Sedley Taylor, G. F. Cobb, R. Pendlebury, and 
E. S. Thompson. 
Mr. ALBERT SCHAFER, F.R.S., Fullerian Professor of 
Physiology at the Royal Institution, has been appointed Jodrell 
Professor of Physiology at University College, London, in the 
vacancy occasioned by the resignation of Dr. J. Burdon 
Sanderson, LL.D., F.R.S., appointed Wayneflete Professor of 
Physiology in the University of Oxford. 
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 
LONDON 
Chemical Society, February 1.—Dr. Gilbert, president, in 
the chair.—The following were elected Foreign Members :— 
F. Beilstein, P. T. Cléve, H. Debray, E. Erlenmeyer, R. Fittig, 
H. Helmholtz, D. Mendeleeff, Victor Meyer, Lothar Meyer. 
The following were elected ordinary Fellows :—H. C. Bond, 
G. C. Basu, J. Brock, A. M. Chance, J. T. Donald, H. C. 
Foote, W. Fox, W. R. Flett, J. A. M. Fallon, E. C. Gill, F. 
Gothard, J. Hunter, H. Jones, B. R. Lee, A. H. Jackson, 
Joowansinghi, T. Jenner, J. E. Johnson, W. W. J. Nicol, F. 
W. Richardson, E. S. Spencer, C. A. Serré, T. Turner, J. E. 
Tuit.—The following papers were read:—On derivatives of 
fluorene, by W. R. E. Hodgkinson and F, E. Matthews. The 
fluorene was crystallised five or six times from alcohol ; it melted 
at 113°; when pure, it does not fluoresce. A dibrom and mono- 
brom derivative were obtained, and a fluorene sulphonic acid ; 
by the action of caustic potash on the potassium sulphonate, a 
trihydroxy-diphenyl was formed ; and by dropping the hydro- 
carbon into fused caustic potash, a dihydroxy-diphenyl was pro- 
cured.—On the action of chlorine on certain metals, by R. 
Cowper. As observed by Wanklyn, dry chlorine has no action 
upon melted sodium ; the author finds that dry chlorine has no 
action upon Dutch metal, zine, or magnesium ; it acts very 
slowly upon silver and bismuth ; tin, arsenic, and antimony are 
attacked rapidly, with evolution of heat.—Some notes on 
hydrated ferric oxide, and its behaviour with sulphuretted hydro- 
gen, by L. T. Wright. The author found great difficulty in 
obtaining ferric hydrate, by precipitating the chloride with am- 
monia, free from basic chloride. Having poured some ferric 
chloride into an excess of ammonia, he evaporated to dryness at 
100°, The residue, when treated with water, gave a reddish 
solution which would not yield a clear filtrate, some of the 
