-------------------------------------------+-----------+----------+----------- Company. | | | Estimated | Date of |Estimated | time of | contract. | cost. |completion. -------------------------------------------+-----------+----------+----------- Donner Steel Co., Buffalo, N. Y. |May, 1918 |$6,000,000| Mar., 1920 Birmingham Coke Co., Birmingham, Ala. |July, 1918 | 2,500,000| Oct., 1919 Domestic Coke Corporation, Fairmont, W. Va.|Sept., 1918| 2,700,000| Nov., 1919 Domestic Coke Corporation, Cleveland, Ohio |July, 1918 | 1,500,000| Feb., 1920 International Coal Products Corporation, |May, 1918 | 2,000,000| Aug., 1919 Clinchfield, Va. | | | -------------------------------------------+-----------+----------+----------- From these sources the monthly production of toluol in 1920 would have been increased by 600,000 pounds a month. While all these arrangements for vastly increasing the supply of this chemical in 1919 and 1920 were being made, technical experts of the Ordnance Department stimulated production by visiting existing by-product coke ovens and advising as to changes and alterations in the plants, both in regard to equipment and methods of operation. Investigations were made early in the summer of 1917 on the possibility of recovering toluol by stripping illuminating gas, and a report was made on this subject in October, 1917. Construction of the necessary plants to carry out this plan was begun late in November, and the first plants were in operation in April, 1918. This was considered a remarkable record, in view of the fact that the operating personnel for the purpose had to be established and trained in this entirely new line of activity. In this connection it is extremely interesting to note that the American people in 13 of the largest cities of the country played an unconscious part in contributing to the successful termination of the war by using artificial gas of considerably less heating power, as a result of the removal of the toluol for explosive purposes. For example, in New York City, due to the extraction of toluol, the artificial gas there was reduced in heating value approximately 6 per cent and the candlepower lowered from 22 to 16 because of this stripping process. Contracts for taking the toluol from artificial gas were made with companies in the following cities: New York and Brooklyn, N. Y.; Boston, Mass.; New Haven, Conn.; Albany, N. Y.; Utica, N. Y.; Elizabeth, N. J.; Washington, D. C.; Detroit, Mich.; St. Louis, Mo.; New Orleans, La.; Denver, Colo.; and Seattle, Wash. The total cost of the installations made for this purpose in these cities in connection with the gas plants was about $7,500,000.