194 TlMEMRl. 
that the coppers don't boil worth a cent. In the first case the changing 
from ordinary to hard firing in the coal boilers may make up for the 
deficiency of the wet megass furnaces, but at the same time it may 
increase the consumption of coal from 30 to 50 per cent, while in the 
case of the copper-wall there is no substitute — hence the failure. 
"Abolish the copper-wall," some people say, " and adopt the triple < 
effet, and the wet megass furnace will be a complete success." The 
adoption of the triple-effet will certainly effe6t a great saving in fuel, 
but we do not admit that a single ounce of that saving will be due to 
the burning of wet fuel but if there is a saving with wet, the saving 
with dry fuel will be much greater. 
From anything that I have said in the foregoing remarks, you are not 
to conclude that I consider the furnace of no importance. I have only 
tried to clear away the rubbish that we may have a sure foundation to 
build upon. With such a fuel as megass or indeed with any other kind 
of fuel, the construction of the furnace is of very great importance, both 
from an economical and a scientific point of view ; and although the 
attempts to perfect that apparatus have not as yet been entirely success- 
ful, yet in the end they are bound to lead to important results. Not 
only is the construction of the furnace an important matter, but the 
construction of the boiler is in my opinion of not less importance, and I 
venture to question if we have yet got the proper type of either of them. 
In the north of England where blast furnaces are at work, gases are 
much used for firing ; the boilers are made very long, in some cases I 
believe over sixty feet ; they are hung from the top, and the gases are 
allowed to play all over the underside up to the water line. Might not 
a boiler of this type suit our megass fuel, which like blast furnace 
gases, has the property of carrying flame to a very great distance. The 
old planters certainly knew the value of this property when they added 
one copper after another to the copper wall, and then placed a boiler 
behind all. If our copper walls are to be abolished we ought to take 
care that something equally well suited to the economical consumption 
of our megass fuel is put in their place. This leads me to consider the 
experiment mentioned by Mr. Russell, to determine the value of logie- 
dried megass, containing i8 - 86 per cent combined moisture, versus 
megass direct from the mill, containing 48-03 per cent, combined 
moisture, from which he concludes that the latter is 17 per cent more 
valuable as a fuel than the former. I am surprised that Mr. Russell as 
a practical man should pin his faith on a single experiment, and that 
