XVIII. T. H. HOUGHTON. 



the construction of steel works for the production of the rails, 

 bars and plates used here from local ores, which at one time 

 seemed probable, has, for the present, apparently been dropped. 

 New industries have started which it is to be hoped will nourish 

 and be followed, as the demand increases, by the investment of 

 more capital, amongst these may be mentioned the works for the 

 production of anhydrous ammonia from gas liquor. These works 

 have been constructed on the model of American works and are 

 fitted with the best plant available ; they are a means of working 

 up a bye product from the manufacture of gas into a valuable 

 agent used in many refrigerating machines. 



The low rate of ocean freights and facilities for communication 

 tend to place all countries on a level, and if we aspire to be a 

 manufacturing country, or an exporting country, we must be 

 prepared to sell as good or a better article than others at the 

 lowest price ; to enable that to be done it is necessary that 

 there shall be no waste product unutilized, for it is out of these 

 bye-products that the profit is generally made. 



A useful illustration of the saving of waste products is to be 

 found in the sugar refining business. To whiten the sugar, 

 filtration through bone charcoal is necessary, and when making 

 the charcoal by the distillation of the bones a large supply 

 of lighting gas is obtained, while the ammonia is fixed by passing 

 the gas through sulphuric acid, and sulphate of ammonia is thus 

 made. Then the dust removed from the charcoal is worked up 

 into boot blacking, and the charcoal when spent is turned into 

 superphosphate by mixing it with sulphuric acid, the bones thus 

 producing material for four trades, sugar refining, acid making, 

 blacking manufacture, and agriculture. 



In the manufacture of sugar the only waste product is 

 molasses (of which the mill-owner seeks to produce as little as 

 possible), for the crushed cane all goes direct to the boiler fires, 

 as it has about one-fourth or one-fifth of the calorific power of 

 coal. A small part of the molasses made in Australia is used for 

 distilling, but this trade is of little value, as the spirit has to be 



