The recovery of benzol is every whit as essential to the community of these islands as is the provision of drinking water. It may appear to be Draconic to compel the delivery of the last ounce of benzol from the coal or gas we burn, but there are many other enactments in force of a more exasperating character, and which are productive of extremely little benefit either to the individual or the community. In this particular instance no one would suffer in any way, because, while the whole trend of scientific thought is towards the thorough recovery of this valuable liquid fuel and industrial weapon, it does not hesitate to demonstrate how the desired end can be obtained without inflicting the slightest hardship upon the citizen. The steel trade demands huge quantities of coke to conduct its operations. The carbon residue from coal is preferable to the raw mineral fuel. To meet this technical requirement special ovens have had to be evolved to turn the coal into coke. Yet for years we carried out this conversion and allowed the substance thrown off in the process to run to waste. We even continue to do this to-day. It was found that the coke could be obtained more readily and easily, as well as cheaply, by means of what is known as the bee-hive oven. This coke-producer attracted the attention of the interests concerned because it was not only cheap to install but inexpensive to maintain and renew, while it facilitated compliance with the fluctuating demands for the coke which naturally is due to the alternating periods of depression and prosperity in the steel trade. But we have no monument to waste comparable with the bee-hive oven. However, it became so firmly entrenched as to prove wellnigh resistant to progress when science came along with an improved system yielding a coke of equal quality, but which had the additional recommendation of enabling all the other products arising from distillation and which formerly were permitted to escape, to be recovered. The virtues of the new method were conceded, but the heavier initial expenditure which it entailed was regarded as an insurmountable adverse feature, especially as the Britisher gave expression to another peculiar trait in his character--would the revenue derived from the by-products more than offset the increased costs, capital charges and maintenance expenses? One disturbing factor demanded particularly careful study. When the call for coke declines, and a certain number of the ovens have to be closed down, they cannot be brought into re-activity upon the revival in the steel trade without an overhaul.