38 
MANUFACTURE  OF  AMMONIA,  ETCJi 
condensing  apparatus,  is  used.  The  gases,  on  their  exit  from  the 
condensing  apparatus,  may  be  collected  for  use  as  fuel  or  otherwise  ; 
and  the  tarry  and  other  products  pass  into  a  suitable  receiver.  The 
tarry  products  may  be  employed  to  obtain'  paraffine  and  oils  for 
lubricating  machinery,  &c,  and  the  other  products  may  be  made 
available  for  evolving  ammonia,  wood  spirit,  and  other  matters  by 
any  of  the  existing  processes.  On  the  27th  of  July,  1849,  a  state- 
ment was  made  in  the  House  of  Commons  to  the  effect  that  100 
tons  of  peat  would  produce  2,602  lbs.  of  carbonate  of  ammonia,  of 
the  value  of  «£32  10s.  2d.,  and  other  products  of  the  value  of  =£59 
6s.  6d.  ;  the  peat  costing  -£8,  and  the  labor  of  converting  it  into 
these  valuable  products  £&  more.  An  amended  statement  after- 
wards  appeared  in  the  Company's  prospectus,  from  which  it  ap- 
peared that  36,500  tons  of  peat  were  capable  of  yielding  sufficient 
ammonia  to  furnish,  with  the  aid  of  the  requisite  quantity  of  sul- 
phuric acid,  365  tons  of  sulphate  of  ammonia.  Dr.  Hodges,  of 
Belfast,  states  that  in  his  experiments  he  obtained  nearly  22|  lbs. 
of  sulphate  of  ammonia  from  a  ton  of  peat.  Sir  Robert  Kane, 
who  was  employed  by  Government  to  institute  a  series  of  experi- 
mental researches  on  the  products  obtainable  from  peat,  states  that 
he  obtained  sulphate  of  ammonia  at  the  rate  of  twenty-four  lbs. 
and  eight-tenths  per  ton  of  peat.  Messrs.  Drew  and  Stocken 
patented,  in  1846,  the  obtaining  ammonia  from  peat  by  distillation 
in  a  close  vessel,  as  practised  in  the  carbonization  of  wood.  It  will 
thus  be  seen  that  peat  is  a  source  of  ammonia,  but  that  this  source 
is  a  profitable  or  economical  one  in  a  commercial  point  of  view,  we 
believe  has  yet  to  be  determined. 
Ammonia  from  Schist. — Another  source  of  ammonia  is  bitumi- 
nous schist,  which,  when  submitted  to  destructive  distillation,  gives 
off  an  ammoniacal  liquor,  which  may  be  employed  in  the  manu- 
facture of  ammoniacal  salts  by  any  of  the  usual  processes.  The 
obtaining  ammonia  from  schist  forms  part  of  a  patent  granted  to 
Count  de  Hompesch,  September  4,  1841.— London  Pharmaceuti- 
Journal,  July,  1853. 
(To  be  continued.) 
("A  series  of  papers  have  been  published  in  the  Pharmaceutical  Journal 
developing  the  manufacture  of  ammonia  and  its  salts  ;  it  is  designed  to  pub- 
lish them  in  several  numbers  of  the  current  volume  of  this  Journal.  The 
increasing  manufacture  of  coal  gas  in  this  country  offers  the  crude  materia 
