EDITORIAL. 
Lieut. C. H. Blumer, intend to undertake this task. Both are organic 
chemists and engineers, and with developmental work in view are now 
in Belgium studying the latest methods. Captain Adcock writes :— 
“We have studied and are studying the latest methods at Grasse, and 
before our return will have had considerable experience, besides passing 
through a school of herb-growing in England.” He hopes from research 
work he and Lieut. Blumer are engaged upon to soon get some useful 
results from essential oils in the matter of dyes. 
BROWN COAL IN GERMANY. 
Lieutenant-Colonel (Professor) David, having visited the brown 
coal fields of Germany, states—“The Germans have devised a very 
clever arrangement of furnace construction, disposition of firebars, and 
control of the hot gases of combustion, so as to secure the absolute 
maximum of efficiency and power. The drawback presented iby the pre- 
sence of so much water in the coal is overcome by allowing the coal to 
travel slowly down inclined chutes, where, by the operation of hot gases, 
the moisture is extracted before the coal reaches the furnace. Nothing 
is wasted, for the gases used for desiccating the coal are re-admitted to 
the furnace. The steam generated acts direct on the largest turbines 
I have ever seen. The turbine shaft drives a generator. which produces 
50,000 kilowatts. I saw several of these large turbines at work 
in one great engine-room. It was a most impressive sight, and 
in view of the difficulties of handling this brown coal material, which 
So many nations would have neglected to use altogether, I cannot help 
wondering how it has been given to us to conquer a people which had 
mastered so difficult a problem and applied the highest principles of 
science to the full utilization for arts and manufactures of this natural 
product.” 
PRODUCTS OF. SEAWEED. 
“For the past few years,” says Nature, “Swedish seaweed has been 
coveted by the Germans, who, by chemical treatment, made it into 
fodder, and also extracted valuable chemical products from it. A 
number of experiments have been made at Stockholm, according to the 
Svenska Dagbladet for 12th May, and it has been found that by dry 
distillation of 1 kg. of dried seaweed the following substances can be 
extracted :-—30 to 32 litres of illuminating gas, 43 per cent. of carbon, 
45 per cent. of distillates (acetic acid, methylated spirit, formic acid, 
acetone, &¢.), 14 per cent. of salt (soditim sulphate, potassium sulphate, 
potassium chloride), also iodine, bromine, a very aromatic tar product, 
and carbolie tar (creosote)—an excellent preservative of timber. A 
factory is about to be started by the Focus Co. to take up the conversion 
of seaweed on a large scale.” ; 
EUCALYPTS IN EUROPE. 
Dr. L. De Launay, in the issue of La Nature for 18th May, describes 
the efforts of a French company to cultivate the eucalyptus and pine on 
a large scale in the Penarroya district of Spain (on the borders of 
Cordoba and Ciudad Real) for the production of paper pulp. At first, 
the geological conditions of this region were not considered favorable 
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