PRODUCTION OF SULPHATE OF AMMONIA.

Otago Witness, Issue 2008, 18 August 1892, Page 6

PRODUCTION OF SULPHATE OF AMMONIA.

It will be remembered that only a few years back efforts were made at the local gas works to fix and economise for manurial purposes the gaseous sulphato of ammonia evolved in gas manufacture and carried away in the fumes and water from the works. Legal proceedings were instituted by residents in tho neighbourhood against tho City Corporation on the plea that the means employed to utilise the valuable byeproduct caused a»nuisance, and so the business was abandoned. It appears that no such obstacles are encountered in the United Kingdom, and the chief inspector there of gas and chemical works in his report for 1891 supplies tho following figures, which show tho continued growth in tho amount of sulphate of ammonia produced : — 1S!)1. 18.00. 1&8.X , „ , Tons. Tons. Tons. Production at— Gasworks 107,950 102,138 100,711 Ironworks (>,2!W S.OGI (i US Shale works ... 20,000 24,7:J0 23,95.] Coke and carbonising worka ... 2,7(J6 2,325 2,795 Totals 143,001* 13J.257 133,004 He points out that the gradual advance in these figures shows an increase of skill and care applied to many manufacturing processes. The "ammonia water" of the gasworks, ouco regarded as an entirely waste product, material that would not burn, and that was too offensive to be thrown away, now yields the principal supply to the United Kingdom of the marketable sulphate of ammonia, the most valuablo of all nitrogenous fertilisers. The distillation of shale for the production of paraffin oil ranks next in affording a supply, and after theso the waste gases from the blast furnaces, which used to fiare away like beacons. These gases are now brought down and burned under tho steam boilers, and they give off tar and ammonia of considerable value.