The reading of papers was then resumed, and President Vanderpool stated that two communications had been received on the subject of working with limed coal. One of these was contributed by Mr. Jas. Somerville, of Indianapolis, Ind., the other being handed in by the Hon. Member, Mr. R. P. Spice, of London, England. It was agreed that the papers be read in succession, thus paving the way to joint discussion on prominent features of either or both. Mr. Somerville's paper was as follows:

THE RESULT OF A MONTHS WORKING WITH LIMED COAL.

At the last meeting of the Western Gas Association Mr. G. S. Page read a paper on the advantages of adopting the "Cooper Coal Liming Process -a process with which, no doubt, you are all familiar. I listened with much interest to that paper, and those of you who have had the pleasure of hearing the gentleman speak need not be told by me that his words carry conviction with them —that he has the power, to an imminent degree, of convincing his hearers; and although I had some doubts as to the success of the process, yet before he had finished his essay these doubts had vanished, and he had succeeded in making a convert of me on the spot. Indeed, I began to blame myself for not sooner adopting a process which promised such rich results at so small an outlay.

On my arrival home from the meeting I had two carloads of lime dumped in the coal shed, and proceeded to make ready for the experiment, which consists of thoroughly mixing one ton of coal with 60 pounds of lime slacked with its own weight of water. I began the use of this mixture on the first day of last June, and continued it during the entire month-all the coal carbonized being thus treated. As we are making sulphate of ammonia, and running our works regularly every day, I concluded that by comparing this month with previous and following months a very fair and complete test of the process would be made-the conditions being the same, and lime exclusively used in purification.

The first result which I consider worthy of recording was the transformation that occured in the coal shed, owing to the slackening of so much lime. It had the appearance of having been newly whitewashed; the coal men were changed to dusty millers;

and I can assure you the effect was quite startling to one so long accustomed to the familiar gloom and blackness of that part of the works. The retort house also had quite a changed look. As the charges were drawn a fine white powder would rise and settle on roof and rafter, main and stand-pipe, bringing them out in bold relief. In winter you have observed on the trees and foliage the beautiful effect of hoar frost, from which observation you may get some idea of the influence which the fine white dust exerted upon the appearance of everything in the retort house. But, however pleasant these results were, they were not those which I had in view, and about which I have now to record some disappointment.

The make of sulphate did not increase at the rate which I had anticipated. The heats were not so good, owing, I suppose, to putting so much damp lime in the retorts; and, consequently, the yield fell off somewhat. The amount of fuel was also increased to 10-and even 15-per cent., and the men complained a trifle about the coke clinkering more rapidly in the furnaces. The candle power was not affected in any way. The boxes purified 1,036,000 cubic feet more gas during the month, but the yield of coke was just the same. The coke had a few whitish specks scattered through it; but no one would observe anything unusual about it unless as a result of close examination. The contractor took it all away, and made no sign of disapproval.

To conclude: The make of sulphate was 20 pounds per ton of 2,000 pounds of coal carbonized-one pound more than in the previous and following months. The cost of the lime and labor for mixing was $117.32. The saving in purification was $6.22, and the value of the extra sulphate obtained was $26.22-leaving a deficit of $84.88.

Thus ended the experiment. I should add that last year the yield of sulphate was 21 pounds per ton; but in May of this year I began to use fresh coal from a new mine, and the make of sulphate fell forthwith 12 to 2 pounds per ton of coal carbonized; showing, I think, that freshly mined coal does not contain so much nitrogen as does coal that has been exposed for some time.

When Mr. Somerville had finished reading, President Vanderpool introduced Mr. R. P. Spice, who read the following paper:

COOPER'S COAL LIMING PROCESS.

It has been said that there is nothing new in using lime with coal in the gas retort, and to a certain extent this is true, just as

it may be true, as we read in Ecclesiastes, that "there is no new thing under the sun."

But I am not concerned to show, nor have I ever said, that the mere mixing of lime with coal and distilling the one in the presence of the other, is either new or novel. On the contrary, I unreservedly admit that Mr. Patterson, of Warrington in Lancashire, is entitled to credit for having carbonized coal in that way as far back as about forty years ago.

Probably other men of genius may have had recourse to the same expedient since then, with the sole object of effecting the removal of a portion of the sulphuretted hydrogen from coal gas; and in that way helping their insufficient purifiers to complete the work of purification, in a period of difficulty occasioned at the time by having the purifiers of too small capacity, and unable to supplement them by larger vessels.

All such attempts, however, were merely temporary expedients to tide over the difficulty which was occasioned by deficiency of purifying space and power, and when this want had been met by the erection of larger purifiers, the expedient having served its purpose, was no longer had recourse to.

In more modern times, when the demand for higher degrees of purity arose, and the removal of sulphur compounds was called for by public opinion in England, extensive and expensive additions to purifying plant were occasioned and adopted. Chemical research led up to the use of the "Sulphide of Calcium" method as recommended by the London Gas Referees, and formulated by Dr. Odling, in 1872, and that has been, till recently, the only known method of keeping the sulphur compounds down within satisfactory limits.

The coal liming process as now known, which was formulated in a laboratory in Victoria street, Westminster, and patented by Mr. Cooper, in 1882, had not previously been promulgated; and when it was made known the invention was treated to the old and familiar luxury of "the cold shoulder" misrepresentation and

acrimonious criticism, the usual fruits of the spirit of unbelief, the sad and much too common lot of inventors.

Facts, however, are proverbially stubborn things, and as the facts are all in favor of the process at the end of two years' uninterrupted working, all denials of the undoubtedly great commercial and sanitary value of it must prove to be utterly futile and unavailing.

Let whosoever will,

Attempt to "block the Bill."

The time, indeed, has already come when men who have remained unbiased, while waiting for issues, are beginning to open their eyes to the force of the evidence which has been established in favor of the method; and already my ears have, in this country, been greeted by the common-sense remark, "What can be done at Tunbridge Wells in gas making can be done in America or anywhere else." My reply has been, "Certainly." Nothing, indeed, can be more obviously true; let any man, who may be so minded, assert the contrary, and he will, by so "holding the mirror up to nature," exhibit himself as being one of a lower order of intelligence and mediocre ability; unable to lead, unwilling to follow, and incompetent to do what another man has done and is doing every day, in working a process which, if carried on under the same conditions, must produce similar results anywhere and everywhere alike.

The coal used at the Tunbridge Wells Works is from the Newcastle collieries, except about two per cent. of cannel; it contains about one per cent. of sulphur, more or less within small limits, just as it may come from one colliery or another. It has been worked continuously since the 31st of October, 1883, now within a few days of the completion of two years, and the purification has been effected as follows:

One purifier, 20 feet square and 5 feet deep, charged, as it happened to be when gas from limed coal was first turned into it, with 30 tons of oxide of iron, has practically done all the purification of about 230 million feet of gas in two years, and has been opened only once in that time-at the end of the first thirteen months' work; when, owing to the deposit of sulphur, the oxide had so greatly increased in bulk as to render the removal of a

portion of it imperative, on account of the increased pressure which was so occasioned. It was then found that the 30 tons contained an average of 40 per cent. of sulphur, 30 per cent. being in the upper of the two layers and 50 per cent. in the lower; and, the box having been emptied, only one-half of the quantity, or 15 tons, was returned to it, the other half being placed in the store. Since then this reduced quantity of oxide has been doing the work, with a catch purifier charged with 71⁄2 tons of oxide; and this, as previously, has very little to do. Very recently the gas has been passed through a second catch purifier, by way of precaution.

Formerly, on what may now be called the old system, six of these 20-feet square purifiers were employed to do the work, two being lime boxes and four oxide, and were all required. One of these six vessels would go only ten days in the winter months before being exhausted, and the average number of changes was twenty per annum; whereas, by using limed coal, one purifier only has been opened once in two years, and possibly may continue to do effective work much longer, for we have not yet discovered the limit of its vitality.

Thus the problem of "how to make gas in close vessels," so long desired, has been shown to be not only practicable but economical, and conclusively demonstrated. Words need not be employed to "point the moral or adorn the tale." Purification is no longer a trouble or a nuisance, as hitherto it always has been; and so marked is the improvement in its effects that gas works may be planted in any residential suburb of a town or city, and the manufacture of gas carried on without giving forth any vapors or odors which the most fastidious can designate as being offensive to olfactory organs or health.

The oxide of iron need never more be removed for exposure to the atmosphere for revivification, because as four-fifths of the impurities contained in crude gas are retained and converted into other elements in the retort, only one-fifth go forward to the purifier; and thus the quantity to be dealt with is so small that one per cent. of common air is sufficient to effect constant revivification of the purifying material in situ, without any variation or diminution of vitality, and this will go on until at least 90 per cent. of sulphur has been deposited in the oxide-which will