le to reduce the price of the metal to below four
dollars per pound; and there is now erecting at Lockport, New York, a
plant involving one million of capital for the purpose.

Turning from the employment of the expensive reducing agents to the
simple and sole application of heat, we are unwilling to believe that we
do not here possess in eminence both the mineral and the medium of its
reduction. Whether the electric or the reverberatory or the converter
furnace system be employed, it is surely possible to produce the result.

To enter into consideration of the details of these constructions would
involve more time than is permitted us on this occasion. They are very
interesting. We come again naturally to the limitless consideration of
powdered fuel, concerning which certain conclusions have been reached.
In the dissociation of water into its hydrogen and oxygen, with the
mingled carbon in a powdered state, we undoubtedly possess the elements
of combustion that are unexcelled on earth, a heat-producing combination
that in both activity and power leaves little to be desired this side of
the production of the electric force and heat directly from the carbon
without the intermediary of boilers, engines, dynamos, and furnaces.

In the hope of stimulating thought to this infinite question of proper
fuel combustion, with its attendant possibilities for man's
gratification and ambition, this advanced step is presented. The
discussion of processes will require an amount of time which I hope this
Board will not grudgingly devote to the subject, but which is impossible
at present. Do not forget that there is no single spot on the face of
the globe where nature has lavished more freely her choicest gifts. Let
us be active in the pursuit of the treasure and grateful for the
distinguished consideration.

* * * * *

THE ORIGIN OF METEORITES.

On January 9, Professor Dewar delivered the sixth and last of his series
of lectures at the Royal Institution on "The Story of a Meteorite." [For
the preceding lectures, see SUPPLEMENTS 529 and 580.] He said that
cosmic dust is found on Arctic snows and upon the bottom of the ocean;
all over the world, in fact, at some time or other, there has been a
large deposit of this meteoric dust, containing little round nodules
found also in meteorites. In Greenland some time ago numbers of what
were supposed to be meteoric stones were found; they contained iro