passages between the tiles, and occasionally pushing back the coke on to the fire bars. These latter are not interfered with, and will not require cleaning unless any bricks in the furnace have been melted, when a bed of slag will be found on them. THE AMOUNT OF DRAUGHT required for these fires is very small, and less than with coke firing. I find that 0.08 in. vacuum is sufficient with tar fires, and 0.25 in. for coke fires. The fires would require less attention with more draught and larger tar supply, as the apertures do not so easily close with a sharp draught, and the tar is better carried forward into the furnace. A regular feed of tar is required, and considerable difficulty seems to have been experienced in obtaining this. So long as we employed ordinary forms of taps or valves, so long (even with filtration) did we experience difficulties with the flow of viscous tar. But on the construction of valves specially designed for the regulation of its flow, the difficulty immediately disappeared, and there is no longer the slightest trouble on this account. The labor connected with the feeding of furnaces with coke and cleaning fires from clinker is of a very arduous and heavy nature. Eight coke fires are normally considered to be work for one man. A lad could work sixteen of these tar fires. COMPOSITION OF FURNACE GASES. Considerable attention has been paid to the composition of the furnace gases from the tar fires. The slightest deficiency in the air supply, of course, results in the immediate production of smoke, so that the damper must be set to provide always a sufficient air supply. Under these circumstances of damper, the following analyses of combustion gases from tar fires have been obtained: No Smoke. CO_{2}. O. CO. 11.7 5.0 Not determined. 13.3 3.7 " 10.8 5.4 " 14.8 2.5 " 13.5 3.0 " 12.4 5.6 " 12.4 4.6 " 13.1 5.9 " 15.3 1.0 " 10.8 4.0 " 14.0 2.8 " ______ ______ Average 12.9 3.9 (11 analyses) ______ ______ 11.5 Not determined. 14.3 " 14.6 " Damper adjusted so that a slight smoke was observable in the combustion gases. CO_{2}. O. CO. 17.30 None. Not determined. 16.60 " " 16.50 0.1 " 15.80 0.1 " 16.20 1.8 0.7 _______ _____ _____ Average 16.48 0.4 0.7 --_Gas Engineer_.