Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
July,  1 9 17. 
The  Badische  Aniline  &  Soda  Manufacturing  Company  has  even 
admitted  in  a  recently  announced  patent  that  a  spongy  iron  produced 
by  a  reduction  from  iron  ore  by  means  of  coal  in  Sweden  for  smelt- 
ing purposes  is  suitable  for  the  preparation  of  hydrogen. 
Experts  have  long  been  aware  that  the  maintenance  of  a  proper 
temperature  is  indispensable  for  the  production  of  spongy  iron  free 
from  carbon.  If  this  is  done,  any  reducing  gas,  even  pure  carbonic 
oxide,  may  be  used  for  reducing,  but  water  gas  has  the  advantage  of 
acting  more  quickly,  as  has  been  decided  by  experts  who  investi- 
gated the  matter  several  decades  ago. 
Many  defects  of  the  iron-contact  method  for  production  of 
hydrogen  have  been  overcome  in  recent  years,  but  there  still  remain 
further  refinements  to  bring  the  process  to  its  highest  efficiency. 
INVESTMENT  IN  MINES.1 
It  is  quite  probable  that  most  of  the  people  who  buy  shares  in  the 
stocks  of  mining  companies  do  not  care  whether  the  mines  are  good 
or  bad.  Their  money  is  put  on  the  cards  with  certain  mining  names 
and  they  occasionally  win,  and  often  lose,  with  the  rise  and  fall  of 
the  markets.  The  extraordinary  feature  of  this  game  is  that  the 
more  money  the  dealer  collects  in  his  pile,  which  of  course  is  taken 
from  them,  and  the  richer  he  gets,  the  more  confidence  they  have  in 
him  and  the  harder  they  play. 
If  it  had  been  customary  for  the  land  to  be  tilled  by  agricultural 
companies  incorporated  under  the  Joint  Stock  Companies  Act  the 
names  of  such  companies  might  have  been  substituted  for  those  of 
mining  companies,  and  any  disrepute  which  might  have  been  attached 
to  the  one  name  might  have  been  transferred  to  the  other.  So  that 
for  any  disrepute  that  the  mining  industry  has,  the  Joint  Stock  Com- 
panies Act  and  not  the  mines  are  largely  responsible. 
I  have  nothing  to  say  to  such  gamblers.  They  should  be  handed 
over  to  their  clergymen  for  curative  moral  and  religious  treatment. 
But  there  are  men  in  the  community  who  are  interested  in  the  de- 
velopment of  the  mining  resources  of  the  country,  and  who  are  pre- 
pared to  follow  their  interest  with  some  of  their  money.  To  such 
men  a  few  remarks  may  be  of  interest. 
First,  let  them  disabuse  their  minds  of  the  idea  that  mining  is  any 
1  Reprinted  from  the  Canadian  Mining  Journal,  1917,  p.  no, 
Investment  in  Mines.  319 
