PAPERS ON CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS 343 



in France, Eene Masse proposes* that fuel in the gaseons 

 form only be allowed, and that the use of solid fuel in 

 any form whatsoever be prohibited. The argument for 

 such a regulation moreover is not based as might be 

 supposed upon artistic or sanitary considerations, but 

 is advocated strictly as a conservation measure, to ex- 

 tend the life of the coal resources of France. Again, 

 Samuel Wellington of England says** "From the analy- 

 sis of thermal efficiencies given, there is every attraction 

 for the consideration of the claims of gas as a profitable 

 process in the conservation of coal for whatever pur- 

 pose it is required. ' ' 



Indeed, we are even now approaching a state of mind 

 where it may be considered in place to revive the fre- 

 quently quoted paragraph from an address by Sir AYill- 

 iam Siemens, delivered in 1881, wherein he says : 



''I am bold enough to go so far as to say that raw 

 coal should not be "used as a fuel for any purpose what- 

 soever, and that the first step toward the judicious and 

 economic production of heat is the gas retort or gas 

 producer, in which coal is converted either entirely into 

 gas or into gas and coke." 



But whatever the ultimate goal of accomplishment, it 

 is very self-evident that coke is one and the most impor- 

 tant of the way-stations. We will do well, therefore, to 

 give more than passing attention to that topic. What 

 is coke? Where does it come from! How is it made? 

 Now we will find at the outset that we cannot go far 

 toward an answer to any of these questions without rais- 

 ing the same question with regard to coal, namely. What 

 is coal! — ^W^here does it come fro? — How is it made? 

 We at once begin to see something of the magnitude of 

 the task set before us. Only a few of the more salient 

 points, of course, can be touched upon within the limits 

 of a single discussion of this sort, and then only for the 

 purpose of maintaining a certain sequence upon which a 

 better understanding of the final results may be based. 



•Chemie Indust.. 191S, p. 665. 

 •♦London Gas AVorld, 1919, p. 405. 



