diffused through a very large volume of other gases, so that the very peculiar protective action which the hydrochloric acid does exercise in retarding the dissociation of ammonia in ammonium chloride vapor, where an atom of ammonia is always in contact with an atom of hydrochloric acid, will be diminished almost to zero in such a dilute gas where the atoms of hydrochloric acid and ammonia will only rarely come into immediate contact with each other.

When we burnt coke by a mixture of air and steam in presence of a large excess of hydrochloric acid, the yield of ammonia certainly was thereby considerably increased, but such a large excess cannot be used on an industrial scale.  I have therefore for the present to rest satisfied with obtaining only half the nitrogen contained in the fuel in the form of ammonia.

The enormous consumption of fuel in this country—­amounting to no less than 150 million tons per annum—­would at this rate yield as much as five million tons of sulphate of ammonia a year, so that if only one-tenth of this fuel would be treated by the process, England alone could supply the whole of the nitrogenous compounds, sulphate of ammonia, and nitrate of soda at present consumed by the Old World.  As the process is especially profitable for large consumers of fuel situated in districts where fuel is cheap, it seems to me particularly suitable to be adopted in this country.  It promises to give England the privilege of supplying the Old World with this all-important fertilizer, and while yielding a fair profit to the invested capital and finding employment for a considerable number of men, to make us, last not least, independent of the New World for our supply of so indispensable a commodity.

Before leaving my subject, I will, if you will allow me, give you in a few words a description of two other inventions which have been the outcome of this research.  While looking one day at the beautiful, almost colorless, flame of the producer gas burning under one of our boilers, it occurred to me that a gas so rich in hydrogen might be turned to better use, and that it might be possible to convert it direct into electricity by means of a gas battery.

You all know that Lord Justice Grove showed, now fifty years ago, that two strips of platinum partly immersed in dilute sulphuric acid, one of which is in contact with hydrogen and the other with oxygen, produce electricity.  I will not detain you with the many and varied forms of gas batteries which Dr. Carl Langer (to whom I intrusted this investigation) has made and tried during the last four years, in order to arrive at the construction of a gas battery which would give a practical result, but I will call your attention to the battery before me on the table, which is the last result of our extended labors in this direction, and which we hope will mark a great step in advance in the economic production of electricity.