588 
Notes . 
[August, 
trie,” that even supposing the gas manufacture should ultimately 
be abandoned, the tar colours could be prepared from the residues 
left on rectifying the petroleum of the regions on the Caspian. 
These are estimated at 120 million kilos, yearly, and are ten times 
richer in benzol and five times richer in anthracen than is coal- 
tar. The American petroleum has not yet been examined from 
this point of view, but it will probably also prove to be a rich 
source of aromatic compounds. 
Metallurgy, Mineralogy, Mining, &c. 
In a Paper read at a Meeting of the Societe de l’lndustrie 
Minerale, M. Pourcel, after describing the rise and progress of 
the Thomas and Gilchrist method of dephosphorising iron, gives 
an interesting account of his visit to Messrs. Bolckow and 
Vaughan’s works, at Eston, in May last, where the process was 
carried out in his presence. The method of working in no way 
differed from that described by Messrs. Thomas and Gilchrist, 
in their Paper read before the Iron and Steel Institute in May 
last. The prime conclusion which M. Pourcel draws from his 
investigations is that the dephosphorisation of iron in the 
Bessemer converter is an accomplished faCl, and that the prac- 
tical difficulties in the way of its industrial application may be 
surmounted by an attentive examination of the chemical pheno- 
mena which occur during the various operations. 
A new application of rapid oxidation by which sulphides are 
utilised for fuel has been made by Mr. John Hollway, whose 
process has been fully described and discussed before the Society 
of Arts. This process has for its objecft the utilisation of the 
heat generated by the rapid oxidation of certain mineral sub- 
stances which have not hitherto been used as sources of heat for 
smelting operations. The heat thus obtained is employed in the 
reduction of the furnace charge, which may be composed partly 
of sulphides and partly of silicious ores. A current of air is 
forced through molten sulphides, by which means they are very 
rapidly oxidised. Great heat is thus developed, rendering the 
process of smelting a self-supporting operation ; therefore no 
extraneous fuel is required, excepting that employed in raising 
steam for the blowing engines ; where, however, water power is 
available, steam can be dispensed with, in which case all the 
carbonaceous fuel necessary for the operation is a little coke to 
start the furnaces, which stands in the same relative position to 
the ores as wood does to coal in the lighting of an ordinary fire. 
The process may be defined as a system of fractional oxidation, 
in which the numerous constituents of a complex furnace charge 
can be separated from each other and concentrated in different 
parts of the apparatus, the heat necessary for the operation being 
obtained by the combustion of a portion of the less valuable 
constituents. 
