‘SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 
ooo 
substitute for petrol, has already been produced in considerable quanti- 
ties by the Maui Company, and has been submitted to a number of trials 
all of which gave excellent results. It left no deposit of carbon, but 
cleaned the cylinders of the machines in which it was tried of the 
carbon left there by petrol. The machine ran with less vibration, with 
less lubrication, and at a higher uniform velocity with the same opening 
of the valve that obtained with petrol. The fuel consists of a mixture 
of 100 gallons of alcohol with 5 gallons ether, 2 gallons of benzine, 
and 1 gallon of pyridine. 
ECONOMIC BOTANY AND CHEMICAL INDUSTRY. 
_ In an article in the May issue of the Journal of the Society of 
Chemical Industry, Professor J. B. Farmer, F.R.S., draws attention to 
the importance of more extended inyestigations into the best means 
of utilizing vegetable products as raw materials for industry. Few’ 
people sufficiently visualize how absolutely dependent we are on plants 
for the sheer necessities of life, or realize how urgent is the demand 
for investigations which will enable us not only to increase our wealth, 
but also give us a further measure of control over the sources of, and 
the conditions that affect, this plant revenue. Professor Farmer states 
that greatly increased recognition of the value of science in industrial 
enterprise is being given, not only in regard to chemical and engineering 
problems, but also in the biological sciences. He mentions such 
problems as those connected with the exploitation of oil, rubber, and 
other tropical products, fermentation industries, and. immunity to 
fungal and other disease-producing organisms. Ite points out that both 
in the field and in the laboratory the amount of scientific work that is 
urgently needed in connexion with cotton alone is stupendous, and that 
the results will have an Imperial no less than a national influence and 
significance. 
RESEARCH ON CONCRETE. 
Many problems of great interest and importance in connexion with 
the tise of concrete were discussed at a recent Convention of the American 
Conerete Institute. Special attention was given/ to problems relating 
to concrete house construction, so as to assist in solving the shortage 
of houses, and to the question of concrete roads, the increasing use of 
which has led to many developments in the United States. Attention 
was directed to the fact that concrete, as employed for many purposes 
at the present time, is a new material, the science and art of which 
have not been adequately developed. The Engineering News Record, in 
commenting on the proceedings of the Convention, describes conerete 
as “a changing science,’ for the report of the proceedings of the 
Convention seems to indicate that, even in America, where this material. 
is used on a far wider scale than in this country, there is still much 
dissatisfaction as to our knowledge regarding it, Seeing the amount 
of attention and study the question receives in America, it’ is suggested 
that, in view of the extensive building operations that must be under- 
taken in this country, and bearing in mind. the shortage of all building 
materials, the various aspects of concrete construction and design call 
for much fuller consideration than they have received up to the present. 
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