CONSERVATION OF NATURAL RESOURCES—DOUGLAS. 829 
generally supposed to be from $0.75 to $1.25 per ton of coke on the 
by-products alone, it would seem as though capital, skill, and science 
could not be more profitably employed in the United States than 
in removing this crying disgrace by turning the waste products 
from our coking establishments to such profitable use. 
With regard to what will happen in the distant future when our 
coal supply is exhausted, Dr. Robert Thomas Moore, in his presi- 
dential address* before the Institution of Mining Engineers in 
London on May 27, 1909, says (p. 455) : 
Whether, indeed, it is a profitable matter to attempt to imagine the state of 
Britain three hundred years after this, with its coal exhausted, or a world, 
say, two hundred years later when it is all finished, is open to question. It is 
certainly beyond the scope of the objects of the Institution. 
I do not think it commends itself as an economic principle to restrict in any 
way the legitimate development of our mineral resources. They are a source 
of wealth to ourselves, and we are helping to develop the world. Is it not 
more reasonable to trust to the progress of science to discover some fresh 
method of utilizing the resources of nature to provide a substitute? Who 
would have expected, even thirty years ago, the immense possibilities for dis- 
tributing light and heat and power that the development of electricity has 
opened up? We have the forces of the rainfall, the wind, and the tides to 
utilize to the utmost. We may even get our heat and power direct from the sun! 
Those who come after us have a long time in which to consider the problem, 
and we may safely leave it to them to solve in their own way. 
But that of which we should be careful is, that we should use our coal 
in the best possible manner; that in the working of it and in the using of it 
there should be no waste, either of men, of material, or of treasure; and it is 
the duty of an institution such as ours to afford every aid to the presentation 
of any plan which will further the attainment of these objects. 
His remarks upon the ever-increasing consumption of coal, despite 
the efforts of the engineer to economize, are worthy of quotation. 
He says (p. 453): 
It is a striking fact that notwithstanding all the improvements which have 
been introduced to economize coal in the various industries, the total consump- 
tion has gone on increasing. It seems as if the greater the economy becomes 
the larger is the consumption. 
. There have been atmospheric engines, Watt’s condensing engines, high-pres- 
Sure engines, compound engines, triple and qaudruple expansion engines, tur- 
bines, and gas engines, each being an improvement on its predecessor, until 
the coal consumed per horsepower per hour has been reduced from over 10 
pounds to three-fourths of a pound; the methods of iron smelting have been 
improved until the amount of fuel used has been reduced from 8 tons per ton 
of pig iron to considerably under 2 tons; the processes for the manufacture of 
gas have been improved; and the whole history of the century has been a long 
series of savings in fuel. Yet the total consumption goes on steadily increas- 
ing. It would seem that the more the cost of power is cheapened, the more 
are the purposes for which it becomes available. 
“Transactions of the Institution of Mining Engineers, vol. 37 (1908-9). 
