rating the brine more slowly and at a still lower
temperature than when salt for soda makers was required. At the
Clarence works experiments had been made in utilizing surplus gas from
the adjacent blast furnaces, instead of fuel, under the evaporating
pans, the furnaces supplying more gas than was needed for heating air
and raising steam for iron making. By means of this waste heat, from
200 to 300 tons of salt per week were now obtained.

The paper concluded with some particulars of the soda industry. The
well-known sulphuric acid process of Leblanc had stood its ground for
three-quarters of a century in spite of several disadvantages, and
various modes of utilizing the by-products having been from time to
time introduced, it had until recent years seemed too firmly
established to fear any rivals. About seven years ago, however, Mr.
Solvay, of Brussels, revived in a practical form the ammonia process,
patented forty years ago by Messrs. Hemming & Dyar, but using brine
instead of salt, and thus avoiding the cost of evaporation. This
process consisted of forcing into the brine currents of carbonic acid
and ammoniacal gases in such proportions as to generate bicarbonate of
ammonia, which, reacting on the salt of the brine, gave bicarbonate of
soda and chloride of ammonium. The bicarbonate was placed in a
reverberatory furnace, where the heat drove off the water and one
equivalent of carbonic acid, leaving the alkali as monocarbonate. Near
Middlesbrough, the only branch of industry established in connection
with its salt trade was the manufacture of soda by an ammonia process,
invented by Mr. Schloesing, of Paris. The works were carried on in
connection with the Clarence salt works. It was believed that the
total quantity of dry soda produced by the two ammonia processes,
Solvay's and Schloesing's, in this country was something under 100,000
tons per annum, but this make was considerably exceeded on the
Continent.

* * * * *

COTTON INDUSTRIES OF JAPAN.

The cotton plant principally cultivated in Japan is of the species
known as _Gossypium herbaceum_, resembling that of India, China, and
Egypt. The plant is of short stature, seldom attaining a growth of
over two feet; the flower is deciduous, with yellow petals and purple
center, and the staple is short, but fine. It is very widely
cultivated in Japan, and is produced in thirty-seven out of the
forty-four prefectures forming the