The Widnes Alkali Company have recently erected an enormous revolving black ash furnace, which is 30 ft. in length and has a diameter of 12 ft. 6 in.  The inside length is 28 ft. 6 in., with a diameter of 11 ft. 4 in.  The furnace is lined with 16,000 fire bricks and 120 fire-clay breakers, each weighing 11/4 cwt.  The weight of salt cake per charge, i.e., contained in each charge of salt cake, limestone, mud, and slack, is 8 tons 12 cwt.  For 110 tons of salt cake charged there are also used about 100 tons of lime mud and limestone and 55 tons of mixing slack.  The total amount of salt cake decomposed weekly is about 400 tons, which may be calculated to yield 240 tons of 60 per cent caustic soda.  There is claimed for this massive furnace an economy in iron plate, in expense on the engine power and on fuel consumed, as well as on wear and tear.—­Watson Smith, in Industries.

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THE STATUE OF PHILIP LEBON.

The inauguration of the statue of Philip Lebon, the inventor of lighting by gas, occurred on the 26th of June, at Chaumont, under the auspices of the Technical Gas Society of France.  The statue, which we illustrate herewith, is due to the practiced chisel of the young sculptor Antide Pechine, who has perfectly understood his work, and has represented the inventor at the moment at which he observes a flame start from a glass balloon in which he had heated some sawdust.  The attitude is graceful and the expression of the face is meditative and intelligent.  The statue, which is ten feet in height, was exhibited at the last Salon.  It was cast at the Barbedienne works.

It would be impossible to applaud too much the homage that has just been rendered to the inventor of gas lighting, for Philip Lebon, like so many other benefactors of humanity, has not by far the celebrity that ought to belong to him.  When we study the documents that relate to his existence, when we follow the flashes of genius that darted through his brain, when we see the obstacles that he had to conquer, and when we thoroughly examine his great character and the lofty sentiments that animated him, we are seized with admiration for the humble worker who endowed his country with so great a benefit.

Lebon was born at Brachay on the 29th of May, 1767.  At the age of twenty, he was admitted to the School of Bridges and Roads, where he soon distinguished himself by his ingenious and investigating turn of mind.  His first labors were in connection with the steam engine, then in its infancy, and on April 18, 1792, the young engineer obtained a national award of $400 to continue the experiments that he had begun on the improvement of this apparatus.