SAVE FUEL BY USING BABCOCK BOILERS, AND MECHANICAL STOKERS BABCOCK & WILCOX LTD. LONDON AND GLASGOW Head Office for Canada-NEW YORK LIFE BUILDING, MONTREAL We are Contractors in the Physics Building The BENNETT & WRIGHT CO. LIMITED 72 Queen St. East, TORONTO THE THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO MONTHLY is published during the college year in nine monthly issues. The subscription price is ONE DOLLAR a year, (single copies FIFTEEN CENTS). All subscriptions are credited November-July, unless otherwise ordered. All remittances and corresponde ice of a business nature should be addressed to J. C. McLennan, Ph.D., Secretary-Treasurer of the University of Toronto Alumni Association, Dean's House, University of Toronto, while communications intended for the MONTHLY should be sent to the Editor, J. Squair, B.A., at the same address. I CHEMICAL INDUSTRY IN BRITISH COLUMBIA. Read at a meeting of the Canadian section of the Society of Chemical T would be impossible to do justice to the whole subject of the chemical industries in active operation in British Columbia on the strength of the comparatively short acquaintance I had with that Province. An account of the mineral industries alone would occupy volumes, but it must be remembered that these are not the only ones; chemical works, sugar refineries, vinegar making and a host of other smaller industries are flourishing in the West, and a short and imperfect account of some of these will be found in the sequel. At Victoria, Vancouver Island, there is an excellent plant for the preparation of sulphuric acid. The lead chamber process was in full swing at the time of my visit, and a large experimental plant for preparing sulphur trioxide by the "contact" process was just in progress of demolition, to be set up again on a large scale. The manager there expressed himself as perfectly satisfied with the results of their experiments, extending over a number of months, and looked forward to a successful working of the new process commercially. To hear that Canadian sulphur was not used in making the acid was somewhat of a surprise, but the receipt of a few figures relative to the comparative cost of native sulphur imported by sailing ships from islands in the Pacific and the expense alone of bringing the sulphur-if it was recovered from the sulphide-ores there, even-from the Kootenay District, served to shatter at once the long cherished idea that all the materials necessary for the production of even this one "chemical" could be obtained readily in the Dominion. In time, no doubt, importation of sulphur will be unnecessary, but at present the five hundred odd miles of rail and water between Victoria and the Kootenay Mines effectually prevent any use being made on the coast of the sulphur these mines might produce. Vancouver city is possessed, among other things, of two large breweries, a distillery, vinegar works and a sugar refinery. This last is a very fine one, replete with all the most modern machinery and producing both syrup and fine sugars, the raw materials for which are imported from Peru, Java, Fiji and Central America. The vinegar works close at hand convert weak alcohol, obtained from the distillery, into vinegar by the "quick vinegar" process. The spirit is allowed to trickle through a series of large vats placed on three floors, one above the other, over suitably arranged shelves in the vats to which a properly regulated air supply is admitted. The resulting vinegar is of a very good quality. About the beginning of 1905 a Portland Cement plant was erected and put in operation on Vancouver Island some distance from the city of Victoria. It is known as the Vancouver Portland Cement Company, and is controlled by the same people who operate the Owen Sound Portland Cement Company, and the Lakefield Portland Cement Company in Ontario. They have two rotary kilns in operation, though they expect to enlarge their plant in the near future. Fire brick, drain-pipes, and tiles are also manufactured on Vancouver Island and supply local demands; indeed lime and brick are produced in almost every district. British Columbia claims to be the "Mineral Province" of the Dominion; iron, gold, silver, lead, copper, zinc, mercury, and even platinum are being worked, while the coal deposits are a most valuable asset. The iron ores of British Columbia are practically the only ones of any importance along the northern coast of the Pacific, consequently iron manufacturered there would have all this territory as a market. At present much of the iron used there comes by sea from Great Britain. Vancouver Island, the mainland, Kamloops, and to some extent East Kootenay, are possessed of iron deposits. As cheap transportation of ores, coke, and fluxes are essential for the success of the iron industry, British Columbia is eminently fitted, with its coast and other waterways, to become a large producer. Vancouver Island has an abundant supply of coal of a good coking quality while, as to fluxes, the limestone found associated with the iron is exceptionally pure. Circumstances have so far militated against the progress of |