'R;

A shipis just in from Noweaste, and i both of her great holds clght orten men are at work shovelling the coal mto giant skips, which when full are horsted by assteam erane over our heads and emptied into trucks, When a tramn of trucks is full, an CNYZING 13 attached to it and awav it goes over g viaduet some hundred vards long mto arctort-house. I not deposited there for use, the coal is carried thrcugh it ACrossa connecting viaduet, to another housc. and so on through half-a-dozen houses if necessarv., There are o dozen retort-houses at Beekton, 1o say nothing of one now building which s 1 be the Targest in the world, and from cvery one ol these, engines and a string of trucks pop i and out hke serpents at hide and scck.

The floor of the retort-house is between the ground and the clevated rathwav. Under- heath are the furnaces which heat the retorts, The Tatter are somewhat narrow, oval ovens, Lwenty feet Tong, opening at hoth ends. Lach furnace heats nine retorts. These when shut are air-tight, so that the gasocan escape only by the pipe provided for i, In some retort-houses, as. for instance, one at the South Metropolitan Works in the Old Kent Road, the doors of the retorts are hot ol the patent perfectly arr-ticht — order. They have consequently to he luted or clayed over. At Beckton all the men have to-dois to close and fasten the retort door to render any escape impossible.,

As we enter the retort-house three doors have just been opened and a tongue of flame shoots forth. "Three men are at work at these. They are honest, white-cuticled Britons, cvery onc | of them. But thev look for all the T world like nigeers; save for the

e

My .

—_ R ey T B - 7 e d —3 e P

THI COKE-VALD,

B LAl S

QUENCHING CoK L,

absence of Certann Themr skins are sable and therr teeth gleam with g pearhv whiteness almost worthy of the vace of which Unele Tom is so fimous a member. Some of then wear only trousers, boots, and o skull-cap others a rageed flannel jersey as owell. I the attire seems scanty, 1t s soon shown o he more than adequate. Iach man picks up a rake, that 1s, an iron rod ten feet Tong with some six inches turned at the end at right angles. To Tift this rake by one end requires ho simple cffort, but experience iy cverything, Grrasping the handle firmly with both hands, the stoker places the other end in the mouth ol the retort, runs it a little way 1, and withdraws a quantity of red-hot coke. This lalls through an opening in the floor into trucks below, and s destined cither to be used agaim for furnace purposes or to he sold to outside con- sumers. o quench the red-hot coke, cither a hose s turned on to 1t or it 15 placed on barrows, as at the South NMcetropolitan Works, and run under a quadrangu- larwater-pipe, where It receives a shower bath, of which, to Judge by the way 1t spits and hisses, it by no mcans ap proves. It s then carried along a via- duct and deposited on - a tremiendous heap in the coke-

the curlv: harr and g coarseness ol feature,