ON FOG. 
33 
It really seems as if we could burn our bituminous stores of fuel 
more economically, as we certainly can more pleasantly and 
healthily, by committing them to a preliminary sorting and 
separation into coke and gas. It will surprise no one at the 
present day to be told that slow, imperfect distillation in a 
small hearth is less thoroughgoing and perfect, and more liable 
to waste, than that of a gas retort. It is like bartering rough 
gold-dust against food and clothing, instead of having it first 
packed in neat circular blocks of equal value guaranteed by a 
government department. But, unfortunately, the middle-man, 
in the two cases, differs materially ; and until the average 
Englishman possesses more power than he now has over the 
gigantic gas monopoly, he is not likely to reap the benefits of 
the discovery. He has not as yet gained by the improved 
methods introduced of late years for equalizing the supplies of 
fresh meat in different parts of the world ; and if the butcher 
has been too strong for him in intercepting profits, how shall he 
struggle against the act-of-parliament protected gas companies ? 
As is usual in social questions of this order, the sufferer is 
him self most to blame. Coke is well known as a cheap fuel. It 
produces, when well managed, a brisk, cheerful, and singularly 
hot fire. But what householder of any experience has ever 
been able to secure its regular use in his domestic grate ? Ser- 
vants steadily, perseveringly, and heroically, refuse to touch it. 
If a store is kept in the cellar it is allowed to run out unnoticed, 
or, still worse, is buried beneath fresh and costly importations of 
new coal. Few householders, moreover, are aware that that sin- 
gularly repulsive, dictatorial, and generally unmanageable func- 
tionary the sweep carries away as refuse in his bag what he gains 
far mare by than he does by the money paid for the act of sweep- 
ing chimneys. Soot, which is only the difference between the 
waste coal and what has been converted into fog, is a valuable 
and most saleable commodity, which it is actually worth while 
to adulterate ! It is imitated by dyed sawdust, and commands, 
even when thus sophisticated, an excellent price. 
Mr. W. D. Scott Moncrieff, in a short paper headed 
1 Smokeless London/ which appeared recently in Nature , 
proposes a very practicable scheme in this direction. He takes 
advantage of the existing plant of the gas companies, who, 
instead of taking 10,000 cubic feet of gas per ton from the 
coal, are to take 3333 feet, and to pass three times the quantity 
of coal through the retorts. They will thus have double the 
quantity of by-products in the shape of tar and ammoniacal 
liquids, the community will have 24-candle instead of 16-candle 
gas, the fuel resulting from the process will light readily and 
will make a more cheerful fire, giving out 20 per cent more 
heat than common coal without any smoke. He works out 
NEW SERIES, VOL. V. NO. XVII. D 
