to produce large or small quantities of steel for castings or other purposes at about the cost of cast-iron, and of a quality superior to most crucible steel used for castings. It is claimed also that steel may be produced by this apparatus of any temper or quality, except, perhaps, the highest class of tool-steel, in large or small ingots, at $20 or $22 per ton. The cost of the apparatus is small as compared with the Bessemer plant, and its working is so simple that it can be managed by any ordinarily intelligent workman.

Three plants for the manufacture of steel by this method are already ordered for the United States; and, in Sheffield, no less than 24 sets of plants are being removed to make way for Mr. Davy's apparatus.

SHEFFIELD RUBBISH.

But with all the modern improvements it is not too much to say that so great is the strife for business that methods are resorted to that are calculated to injure seriously the high reputation of Sheffield's great staple. The following extract will confirm this statement; it is taken from a letter in The Engineer, written by Mr. R. F. Mushet, whose name is well known to all who are interested in the steel business. He writes of Mr. Davy's process as follows:

I think his arrangement, or a similar one, is much needed in Sheffield, where alloys of Scotch pig-iron and scrap are made into castings by certain enterprising parties and vended as crucible steel castings, with a tensile strength of only about 8 tons per square inch, and very far inferior for standing wear and tear and in strength to good honest anthracite pig-iron. The buyers, however, of these crucible steel-castings have only their own insatiable craving for the cheap and nasty to thank for their silly credulity and its consequences.

There was a time when the cutlers company were very jealous of the high repute in which Sheffield goods were held. By process of law they took possession of and publicly destroyed in Pot (now Paradise) square any cutlery that was found to be made of material inferior to what it professed to be. It is said the company would have much work to do should it exercise a similar vigilance at the present time.

What must be thought of a pocket-knife that can be sold at a profit at $3.50 a gross, or less than 2 cents apiece; or of a good-looking razor, with horn handle and etched blade, at 75 cents a dozen?

What can be expected of the quality of the steel, if it be steel, of which these articles are made? And what of the quality of the labor that is put upon them? There is an expressive word much used in Sheffield that is applicable-" rubbish."

With all the patent processes of the present day, it has come to be very difficult to know with much certainty what it is that one buys under the name of steel. Many of the changes in the modes of manufacture are no doubt improvements.

The extent and complexity of the steel industry make the whole subject a study very difficult and interesting, upon which years may be spent.

We must conclude that the chief reliance of the purchaser of steel, as of many other things, must now rest upon the well-known character and standing of firms and individuals who have good names to preserve, and who value it more highly than any mere temporary advantage that is to be gained by questionable methods that lower the quality of their manufactures.

CONSULATE OF THE UNITED STATES,

C. B. WEBSTER,

Consul.

Sheffield, May 7, 1884.

THE JUTE INDUSTRY IN GERMANY.

REPORT BY CONSUL-GENERAL VOGELER.

There is a branch of the textile industry which employes, as its raw material, that which in Germany is commonly called "jute" or "Calcutta hemp," in France "Chanvre de Calcutta," in England and the United States "Indian grass," or "gunny fiber." This branch of industry is at present receiving considerable attention in Germany, and, inasmuch as the United States are much interested in the subject, I deem it proper to give such facts with reference to the manufacture and consumption of jute products in Germany as I have been able to collect.

The jute plant, Corchorus olitorius, the fiber of which is the raw material referred to, is indigenous to India. The principal requisite for the cultivation of the plant is a moist, warm climate; given such a climate it will thrive almost equally well in the lowlands and on the plateaus. It is sown, according to the situation of the country, in the months of February to April, sometimes as late as May and June. The ground must be well tilled and manured. The amount of seed required is 20 to 30 pounds per acre. Cutting commences twelve to fifteen weeks after sowing. The plant reaches a height of 10 to 12 feet. The average yield of fiber is 2,000 pounds per acre. The cutting takes place when the plants blossom, because at that time the fiber is smooth and shiny, and the stem of the plant most pliable. In order to separate the fibers from the stem the plant is then water-retted. Flowing water is preferable because it bleaches the fiber, making it almost perfectly white, but the process of separation is quicker in standing water. Here only ten days of immersion are required, but the fiber frequently loses in strength and uniformity of color. The fiber is from 4 to 7 feet long. No part of the plant is worthless; the leaves are fed to the cattle; the stems are used for making baskets and brooms, or are burnt or turned into manure; the seed is converted into oil and oil-cakes, the lower end, into paper, and the shining skin, which comes off easily, is used for the manufacture of hats.

The spinning properties of the plant have been known to the Hindoos for many centuries. They worked up a great part of their growth at home, making of the better article threads or yarn for carpets, curtains, tents, twine, and rope, and of the inferior coarse bags, "tat" or "choti," whence the name "jute." By far the greater part of the jute production was formerly used as bags for rice and sugar, and formed, as "gunny bagging" or "gunny cloth," an important export article. To-day jute is one of the leading export articles of India. It is exceeded in importance only by cotton, opium, and rice. The jute industry of India has developed rapidly. One spinning and weaving establishment at Barnaypoor, near Calcutta, alone employs more than 4,500 workmen, and consumes more than 30,000,000 of pounds of fiber. The export from Calcutta, the leading staple-point, now amounts to 8,000,000 hundredweight per year. About one-tenth of this amount is imported into Ger

many.

The process employed to manufacture the different jute products is similar to that employed in the manufacture of linen or cotton goods, but productive of less dust, and hence less detrimental to the health of the workmen. The bleaching process of jute has not yet reached that

point of perfection at which it may be performed without lessening the strength of the fabric. The number of fabrics is already very great; it comprises packing material, sacks, canvass, ropes, carpets, table-covers, belts, wicks, &c. The latest fabric is a material called "jute-velvet." This fabric, which by reason of its beautiful appearance, is singularly adapted for furniture-cloth, curtains, and wall-covering, is very rapidly coming into popular favor. The body of the velvet consists of cotton, and the pile is made of jute. This pile is produced like other velvet piles and by a very simple process designs can be pressed into it, according to the nature of the use for which it is intended. This jutevelvet is very durable, and not liable to be injured by moths.

The first attempts to utilize the jute fiber in Europe were made in England in 1834 and 1835, but it was not until, in consequence of the Crimean war in 1854, the English and Scotch mills were deprived of Russian flax and hemp that the jute fiber became really important. The leading manufacturing point of Great Britain is Dundee, which has more than 100 jute factories, employing about 25,000 workmen and consuming more than 250,000,000 of pounds of jute.

In Germany the jute industry is about sixteen years old. The first factory was established at Vechelde, near Brunswick, in the year 1868; since then others have sprung up in Hanover, Oldenburg, Barmen, Gera, Meissen, Potsdam, and lately in Berlin. It is estimated that at present this industry is represented in Germany by about 50,000 spindles and 4,000 looms.

It is claimed that the products of these German jute factories are in no way inferior to those of Scotland. The production of German jute mills last year amounted to about 70,000,000 pounds, which is esti mated to have supplied about three-fifths of the home demand, which accordingly would be about 120,000,000 pounds. The import lists of the German Empire do not separate the flax and jute yarn, hence it is impossible to give the gradual decrease of jute imports into Germany which has undoubtedly taken place.

The English export lists show a decrease of exports of jute yarns into Germany of nearly 50 per cent., as follows: In 1882, 4,470,100 pounds, of the value of £55,950; in 1883, 2,247,800 pounds, of the value of £28,215. There are eight new large jute factories now in process of construction, which, if in operation, will heighten the productive power of Germany sufficiently to satisfy the home demand. Unless, there. fore, there should be an abnormal increase of the home demand for jute products it is quite possible that this branch of industry will outgrow the home demand, and that jute yarns and fabrics, instead of figuring on the import lists of Germany, will be exported to other countries.

I learn that Mr. T. Albert Smith, of Saint Louis, Mo., has constructed a machine which greatly simplifies and cheapens the setting process of the jute plant, and that generally much attention is being given in the United States to the industry here discussed. It is not impossible that the planters of the Southern States may find the cultivation of jute safer and more remunerative than the raising of cotton. FERDINAND VOGELER, Consul-General.

UNITED STATES CONSULATE-GENERAL,

Frankfort-on-the-Main, May 1, 1884.

ATTAR OF ROSES.

REPORT BY CONSUL-GENERAL HEAP ON THE PREPARATION AND MANUFACTURE OF ATTAR OF ROSES.

Several inquries having been made at this consulate regarding the cultivation of the rose from which the ottar is distilled with a view to introducing its culture into the United States, I have the honor to inclose a report on the subject prepared from data furnished by Messrs. Ihmsen & Co., the largest exporters of attar of roses in Turkey.

Attar of roses is produced on a large scale in the province of Roumelia,. on the southern slopes of the Balkans, the soil of which is composed principally of micaceous and argillaceous schists, and it is only the attar of these districts that is of any moment to the commercial world. Small quantities are produced in India and Persia, but they are used for homeconsumption, and the same is the case with the attar of roses produced in the south of France from the rosa provinciales, which, although of quitea good quality, forms only a very small part of the consumption of these producing places. The attar of Tunis is of the best quality, but the quantity produced is comparatively small and the price high. Very little is. exported.

The attar produced in Roumelia is made by distillation from the rosa damascina, whose color is, as a rule, a bright red; it is sometimes, but rarely, white; it is not very full as a flower, and blooms in May and June. The rose trees when full grown reach a height of about 6 feet, and are planted in rows. They have to be tended very carefully from the autumn to the time of gathering. The flowers when in full bloom are plucked before sunrise, sometimes with sometimes without the calyx, but only in such quantities as can be distilled on the day they are plucked. The distilling apparatus consists of a plain tinned still, from which a long curved tube is directed through a tub filled with fresh water and empties into a big bottle; several such apparatus are usually standing on rough stone hearths by the side of each other, and, if possible, close to a brook in the shade of trees. The firing is done with wood, which formerly, under Turkish rule, every peasant was allowed to fell without having to pay for it, but which has now to be paid for, and as large quantities are required for the distillation the producing. cost of the attar is considerably enhanced.

According to the size of the apparatus, the still may hold 25 to 50 pounds of roses, on which about double that quantity of water is poured, and it is boiled briskly for about half an hour. The distilled liquid is. collected in the bottle that stands at the mouth of the cooling tube, and the attar of roses, which separates from the water, appears on the surface, where it is skimmed either by means of a thin tin tube or a spoon. The distilled water is again used for distillation, and constitutes ultimately the rose-water which enters into trade, chiefly at Constantinople, where it brings comparatively high prices, as it is largely employed. in Oriental cooking and confectionery.

After a sufficient quantity of attar is produced it has to be totally freed from the water, and is kept in copper cans, tinned both on the inside and the outside, which are manufactured at Kyzanlik and in the neighborhood.

The rose trees attain their maximum producing capacity in their fourth year; say from 500 to 800 pounds per deuneum (one deuneum

equals one-fifth of an acre). They are very sensible to cold and are easily frozen; fogs and rains are also very fatal to the blossoms. But the yield depends most of all upon the weather during the time of distillation; the latter lasts sometimes ten days only when the weather is warm and the sky clear, whereas it may require as much as one month's time and even more if the sky is cloudy, especially if rain falls at intervals. In the first case the yield is almost always unfavorable, as the roses are blooming all at the same time, and as there is no time to gather and work them all, the odor of the flower soon vanishes and the yield of attar is much less in consequence, so that to produce one miskal (about 33 penny weights) from 55 to 85 pounds of rose-leaves are required, which is equal to 5,000 to 7,000 pounds of leaves to give one pound of attar.

When the weather is favorable and the buds bloom gradually 28 to 33 pounds of rose-leaves will yield 3 pennyweights of attar, or 2,500 to 3,000 pounds of leaves will give one pound of attar. Pure attar of roses when distilled with due care is at first colorless, but soon takes a yellowish color.

No certain method is known to detect falsifications of attar of roses. Admixtures of alcohol for the purpose of increasing the freezing capacity, or admixtures of spermaceti, neither of which, at least in the wholesale trade, are now resorted to, are, of course, easily detected. But the most important falsifying medium is oil of geranium, which some dealers order even at Constantinople to be sent to Kyzanlik, to be distilled over again with rose-leaves and to be mixed with ottar of roses. erate additions of this oil defy detection.

Mod

The surest and most reliable method of testing the attar is by the smell, and it is after all the only right one, but it requires much training, and it can only be acquired by many years practice.

It is still a wide-spread belief, although an erroneous one, that the quality of the attar of roses corresponds exactly with the degree of its freezing capacity. Such a presumption is absolutely false and the best proof of this is the fact that the "stearopten," which is the freezing agent of the attar, is devoid of any smell whatever, and has therefore no bearing at all on the flavor or the purity of the attar.

A certain freezing capacity is, it is true, one of the claims which one may lay on really good attar of roses, but this only because the admix. ture of other essential oils has the effect of lowering the freezing point. The attar of roses sets at 52° to 63° Fahr., according to the quantity of stearopten contained in it; it sometimes, but exceptionally, congeals at a higher temperature; it then shows feathery, transparent crystals, filling all the liquid; its specific weight is 0.87 at 66° Fahr.

Attar made in the higher situated villages is, as a rule, considered of greater freezing capacity and of more intense but harsher flavor, whereas the produce from the plain shows a lower freezing point and is possessed of a sweeter and finer flavor; it is therefore preferable in the latter respect to the attar produced at a greater elevation.

The various properties of this essence have to be combined to obtain a really fine quality and to satisfy all the claims laid on it, and the manipulations for the attainment of this end require great experience and a thorough knowledge of the article, the more so when it is necessary to combine large quantities of attar.

Every peasant distills, as a rule, the attar from the roses grown on his own fields, which permits him to make the produce at the least possible expense; but there are distillers who do not possess rose-fields of their own, and who, at the time the roses are in bloom, and some