ABSTRACT
Many and diverse were the projects which were discussed by the Ambassadors during their stay in London. The development of the mineral resources of the country was gravely spoken of, and information sought regarding the establishment of smelting and rolling mills for iron and also for the refinement of petroleum. No definite steps however, were taken with either project. In regard to the latter of these, I felt a particular anxiety that some decision should be come to, as the supply of vegetable oils for consuming in the lighthouses was found to be most uncertain in Japan, and mineral oil had become, by recent appliances, an excellent substitute. (It was just at this time that burners invented by Captain Doty for consuming paraffin oil, had been introduced into the Scotch lighthouse system, and gave remarkably advantageous results, the amount of light being about doubled, at one half the cost of the colza oil hitherto used.) Having obtained Ito’s authority to obtain these burners for the Japanese lighthouses, and knowing that an excellent crude petroleum could be had from wells in various parts of the country, I lost no opportunity of im-pressing upon the members of the Embassy the advantage to be derived from erecting a refinery at least of such capacity as would supply a quantity of refined oil sufficient for their use.
