548 
Teclinical  Chemistry, 
/  Am.  Jour.  Plmrra. 
\  November,  1900. 
which  is  to  mark  the  coming  decade.  In  several  cases  this  shifting 
has  already  been  nearly  completed,  notably  in  the  production  of 
chlorate.  Norway,  Scotland,  Switzerland  and  the  mountain  regions 
of  France  and  the  United  States,  where  waterfalls  abound,  are 
destined  to  become  centres  of  manufacturing  activities  fully  as  great 
in  many  industries  as  the  older  coal  localities,  and  with  the  advan- 
tage that  the  coal  fields  once  exhausted  are  gone  forever,  while 
water  powers  last  for  all  time.  This  recent  great  development  of  the 
uses  of  water-power  is  due  to  new  electrolytic  processes,  to  material 
improvements  in  the  transmission  ot  high-tension  currents,  to  im- 
provements of  dynamos,  and  to  the  development  of  water  turbines 
to  utilize  extreme  pressures.  This  transference  of  many  old  indus- 
tries to  water-power  districts  will  be  limited  only  by  the  cost  of 
carriage  of  the  raw  material  to  the  plant,  and  of  the  finished  pro- 
duct to  its  market.  The  competition  with  coal-generated  power 
thus  occasioned  must  result  in  a  more  and  more  economical  use  of 
fuel,  and  the  year  has  shown  material  progress  here.  The  previously 
mentioned  use  of  blast  furnace  gases  in  gas  motors  is  of  this  nature, 
but  the  very  large  year's  increase  of  by-product  coke-oven  plants  is 
of  greater  significance.  In  America  new  ovens  of  the  Semet-Solvay 
or  the  Hoffman  type  have  been  started  during  the  year  at  Halifax, 
Boston,  Glassport,  Pa.,  Benwood,  W.  Va.,  and  Ensley,  Ala.  This 
is  a  satisfactory  improvement,  because  the  wasteful  use  of  coal  in 
bee-hive  ovens  will  always  remain  a  reproach  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  especially  in  American  and  English  practice.  These  by- 
product coke  ovens  effect  an  increase  of  from  10  to  15  per  cent,  in 
the  amount  of  coke  produced,  with  a  saving  of  3-4  per  cent,  of  the 
weight  of  coal  tar,  0-4-0-8  per  cent,  ammonium  sulphate,  and  7-10 
per  cent,  gas  in  excess  of  that  required  for  coking.  These  last 
three  items  almost  equal  in  value  the  coke  produced. 
The  skill  and  care  required  in  operating  the  Mond  gas  producer, 
considerable  fluctuations  in  the  price  of  tar  and  ammonia,  and  the 
high  cost  of  construction  and  depreciation  of  plant  have  restricted 
the  introduction  of  this  most  valuable  invention  to  a  few  localities, 
but  a  number  of  such  plants  have  been  started  during  the  year  and 
with  considerable  success.  Probably  the  most  important  progress 
in  the  use  of  fuel,  and  our  greatest  present  hope  of  delivery  from  the 
smoke  domination  in  soft  coal  districts,  lies  in  the  success  of  the 
Dellwick  water-gas  process  which  the  past  year  has  shown.    In  this 
