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crude liquor, on being neutralised with lime and distilled, 
yields up its ammonia, which is made to pass into a vessel 
containing sulphuric acid, by which means sulphate of am- 
monia, a salt of great value in the arts, and for agricultural 
purposes, is obtained. A quantity of inflammable spirit 
known as pyroxylic or wood spirit, or vegetable naphtha, also 
passes over, and is collected and rectified by repeated dis- 
tillations with lime, potash, or soda. The residuum in the 
still is a solution of acetate of lime, which may be evaporated 
to dryness and sold as acetate of lime, or be decomposed by 
sulphuric acid to furnish strong acetic acid, which, when 
rectified, is used for various manufacturing purposes. 
From the tar obtained by subsidence, or distillation, from 
the crude liquor, there are obtainable by further distillation, 
1. A light oil, to which the name of peatine has been given, 
forming an excellent substitute for camphine, and a very 
good solvent of India rubber and gutta percha. Although 
of strong odour, it evaporates readily, and leaves no per- 
sistent smell on any article to which solutions of caoutchouc 
&c, have been applied. 2. A heavy oil, useful as a lubri- 
cant of machinery. 3. Paraffine, a solid substance some- 
what resembling wax when purified and bleached, and capable 
of very useful application in the manufacture of candles. 
Peat tar forms a very good paint for palings, fences, out- 
door wood work generally, &c. ; and the impure paraffine 
makes a very good grease for heavy machinery. 
During the last nine years many fruitless attempts have 
been made, and many thousands of pounds expended, to 
make the obtaining of these products from peat successful in 
a commercial point of view. Two of these I will now 
notice. 
The first was at Dartmoor, in Devonshire, the carbonisa- 
tion of the peat being carried on in closed iron retorts, as in 
the ordinary mode of distilling wood and coal. Peat was 
