pound
could be saved in the manufacture of iron by freezing all the moisture out
of the atmospheric air before it was heated for the blast. But the best is
yet to come. Quite a little bit of money has been made in this country
from the manufacture of iron. What do you say to the proposition to make
the iron itself a mere by-product to something even more valuable?

Valuable Gas Ran to Waste.

From the top of the furnace in which iron ore is liquefying in the fervent
heat there rushes out a gas, largely carbon monoxide, whose hunger for
oxygen has been only half satisfied. If it could get that other atom of
oxygen it would be a gas that would only smother us when it didn't make
the soda-fountain fizz. As it is, carbon monoxide is deadly poison.

It has to be put to some use. It doesn't burn under a boiler very well. It
is necessary to keep a bed of coals going so that the furnace-gas may stay
lighted. But it has been found that even when it is too poor to keep
alight it will explode in the combustion chamber of a gas-engine.

It has also been found that a furnace smelting seven tons of pig-iron an
hour will make enough furnace-gas to supply nine thousand horse-power per
hour.

Deducting gas and power that can be economically used on the premises, it
is estimated that there will be a surplus of power to sell of five
thousand horse-power per hour. Now that we are able to transmit power
cheaply by high-tension currents, it is easy to see what this means. In
New York they sell electromotive force for from four cents per horse-power
per hour up to twelve cents. Call it two cents, and five thousand
horse-power per hour means a hundred dollars, which is more money than
seven tons of pig-iron will bring.

A lot has been done with cog-wheels; a lot is being done with wires; but
when it comes to recovering wealth from waste, it is the test-tube that
will do it. And so, study chemistry, young man.

OLD MAY-DAY CUSTOMS.

The Ancient Romans and the Druids Are Partly Responsible for Some of the
Modern Methods of Celebrating the Festival of the Spring Deities Which
Are Now Represented by Youthful Queens and Kings.

Customs do not become established without reason. If no meaning is seen in
a popular superstition or an annual festival, the significance or the
apparent lack of significance, is simply that the ritual, as so often
happens, has long outlived the belief.

In many of our hereditary customs we bow down,