€40 KEPOET — 1887. 



There are iii Germany twenty-four alkali works, from wLich the yearly output 

 is a quantity equivalent to 150,000 tons pure carbonate. This is against an output 

 in 1878 of 42,000 tons. 



It is doubtful, however, whether Germany can permanentlj' maintain an export 

 trade in soda products, since in England all the materials of that industry are 

 cheaper and the alkali works are better situated in relation to the seaports. 



2. On the Composition of some Colce Oven Tars of German Origin. 

 By Professor Lunge. 



3. On the Constituents of the Light Oils of Blast-Furnace Coal Tar from 

 Gartsherrie WorJcs. By Watson Smith. 



4. On the Utilisation of Blast-Furnace Creosote. 

 By Alfred H. Allen, F.C.S. 



The crude oil or tar obtained by the condensation of the gases from blast 

 furnaces consuming bituminous coal is remarkable for the large proportion of 

 phenoloid bodies contained in it, the usual proportion ranging from 20 to as much 

 as 35 per cent. The phenoloids are now extracted from the tar on a large scale 

 by the Eglinton Iron Company by means of caustic soda, and the residual hydro- 

 carbons are much increased in value thereby, and become better adapted for their 

 application for illumination (especially for use in the 'Lucigen' light), use as fuel, 

 lubrication, &e. 



The phenoloids are recovered from their solution in caustic soda by means of 

 an acid. They present a marked contrast to the .phenols from ordinary coal-tar, 

 and somewhat' resemble the phenoloids from wood-tar. Thus phenol and cresol are 

 present in but small proportion, but the higher homologue phlorol, and probably 

 creasol and guaiacol, are met with, together with other of the characteristic con- 

 stituents of wood-tar creosote. By distillation a purified product is now obtained 

 which has been named ' Neosote,' or ' new preservative,' and is likely to meet with 

 considerable employment as an antiseptic. Experiments have proved that, as an 

 antiseptic, the purified creosote from lalast-furnace tar is quite equal to carbolic 

 acid ; but the sale of a very crude product of the same origin, under the name of 

 * crude carbolic acid," as now practised, is reprehensible and misleading. 



The phenoloids of shale tar are of similar general character to those from blast 

 furnace tar, but their purification presents greater difficulties. 



The purified product, or neosote, from blast furnace tar, distils almost wholly 

 between 200° and 226° C. ; whereas many of the crude phenoloids from coke-oven 

 tar and other sources, now being illicitly disposed of as crude carbolic acid, give 

 little or no distillate below 220°, and distil in great part above 300°. Calvert's 

 ' No. 5 carbolic acid,' which represents a fair qualitv of coal tar acids, distils chiefly 

 between 200° and 220° C. 



5. A neiu Apparatus for Condensing Gases by Contact with Liquids. 

 By Professor Lunge. 



6. The Extent to which Calico Printing and the Tinctorial Arts have been 

 affected by the Litroduction of Modern Colours.'^ By Charles O'JS'eill. 

 The author said the first of the modern colours was M. Perkin's aniline mauve, 

 •which was discovered and applied in the year 1S5G. It was two or three years after- 



-wards in April, 1869 — that the next modern colour, magenta or fuchsia, made 



its appearance. The tide rose slowly in 1860 with purples, blues, and violets, and 

 gained every year in force and volume, until the flood had now risen to such 

 a heio-ht, that "one who would like to keep up with it stood astonished and dismayed 



' Printed i/i c:rtenso in the Journal of the Society of Chemical Industry, Nov. 1887. 



