These explosive bases are derived from benzol and toluol, which in turn are derivatives of coal extracted in the manufacture of coke. And long before the war cloud had arisen the Corporation had been pioneering in the coke by-products industry. It had for years been building plants to convert into valuable chemicals the gases and oils formerly wasted in the manufacture of coke. And the work it did in these early years along these lines formed a foundation on which could be erected rapidly a great explosive industry. Prior to the war, the big company had made no effort to produce benzol and the other bases for dyes and explosives. It had confined its activities, in respect to coke by-products, to saving surplus gas which was used for the operation of its own plants and to producing tar and ammonia sulphate. But with the plants already equipped for these purposes, it was a simple matter to make the necessary installations for the extraction of benzol and other light oils and the experience gained at those plants was of invaluable assistance in constructing and operating complete new equipment at others. Of the Corporation’s total coke by-products capacity to-day, consisting of 2,992 ovens with an annual capacity of 11,960,200 net tons of coke, 131,805,500 gallons of tar, 174,960 net tons of ammonia sulphate, 99,550,900 cubic feet of gas, and 45,785,000 gallons of benzol and other light oils, 53.6 per cent., or more than half, was installed under war pressure, much of it at inflated cost, for patriotic rather than for commercial reasons. Actual expenditures by the big company in this field subsequent to the commencement of the World War aggregated $62,000,000 as compared with about $16,000,000 prior to August 1, 1914. These figures reflect the increased cost of construction due to war conditions, and make it easy to believe the assertion that much of the work done would never have been undertaken had it not been for the urgent need of the United States and the Allies. When the war started, the Steel Corporation owned 1,452 by-product coke ovens, of which 120, at the Benwood, W. Va., plant were operated under a lease with the Semet-Solvay Co., this lease having been operative when the Corporation was formed. Another 212 ovens were acquired when the Corporation purchased the Union Sharon Steel Co., and the remaining 1,120 were constructed by the Corporation itself at its Joliet, Ill., Gary, Ind., and Fairfield, Ala., plants. These ovens had an annual capacity of 5,545,500 tons of coke, 44,888,400 gallons of tar, 66,750 tons of sulphate of ammonia, and 45,472,900 cubic feet of gas. Between August 1, 1914, and April 6, 1917, the Corporation installed an additional 1,118 ovens, of which 90 were at its Duluth plant, 640 at Clairton, Pa., 208 at Lorain, Ohio, and 180 at Cleveland, Ohio. These new plants were equipped to produce benzol, and at the same time, the plants existing prior to the war were similarly equipped.