This cement, which is made from a very cheap quality of asbestos, is now in common use in Canada and the States, where, as already shown, it is found to operate with a twofold effect, viz. by lowering the temperature of the boilerhouse, to the great comfort of the engineers and firemen, and also, in a very marked degree, economising the expenditure for fuel. It seems, therefore, strange that its use in this country has as yet made so little headway. In one of the large palatial buildings recently erected in London, where engines are required to be in constant work for pumping water for working the lifts and for general purposes, as well as for the dynamos, the heat from the boilers forms so great a nuisance, and occasions so much loss in other ways, that very considerable expense is about to be incurred, with a view to lowering the temperature. When conversing recently with an expert on this subject I asked whether the use of asbestos would not effect the desired object. Yes, he answered, it would, but it is too expensive. This certainly seems very strange, as I know that the cement composition referred to is made of the very commonest quality of asbestos, of the refuse, in point of fact, which could probably be used for no other purpose. The expense, therefore, cannot be great, and as to its mode of use, it is simply laid on with a trowel, like mortar or any similar composition, and when once done is singularly effective. I have stood in an engine-house where the boilers were covered with about two inches in thickness of this cement, which then showed a hard, dry, firm surface; and, when the engines were in full work, on placing one's hand on the covering there was little more than a gentle warmth perceptible on the outside surface of the composition, whilst the surrounding atmosphere was scarcely, if at all, affected by the heat from the boilers. The boiler quiltings referred to on a previous page as being manufactured by a New York firm under contract with the United States Government, for use in some of their model war ships, would no doubt be as effectual for the purpose, but naturally they would be more costly, being an altogether different contrivance, and made so as to be easily removable when required, which, of course, is not the case with the so-called cement. There is little doubt, however, that, although the use of asbestos in this form does not seem to find much favour here, its use for the purpose of coating boilers and steam-pipes will presently become as general in England as it already is on the other side, where its valuable qualities seem to be so much better known and appreciated.