39 



and passengers a space of about 100,000 cubic feet, representing 



an earning value of $50,000 on each round trip. 



Although we have no oil-fields comparable with the Pennsylvania, 

 Texas, Oklahoma and other fields in the United States, the chances 

 of discovering oil in Alberta may properly be described as fair. The 

 production of the Petrolia oil-field, in southwestern Ontario, in 1918, 

 was 288,692 bbls., as compared with 528,959 bbls. in 1908. 

 Economic Since its organization in 1910 the Commission has given 



Utilization special attention to the more efficient utilization of coal, 



the objects aimed at being the use of (1) lignite, 

 either as mined or with the expenditure of the minimum of cost and 

 effort in preparing it for use; (2) the more efficient utilization of 

 coking coal in plants near large markets, producing coke and gas as 

 primary products, and tar, ammonium sulphate, etc., as secondary 

 products; (3) manufacture of carbo-coal ; (4) pulverized fuel; (5) car- 

 bonized lignite briquettes. 



Pul r* d Coal ^" Great Britain, the war has emphasized the 

 enormous value of certain coals. In the Durham 

 field, certain seams contain a coal peculiarly adapted to the manu- 

 facture of a fine hard coke, low in ash and sulphur. The Carbon- 

 ization Committee of Great Britain has recommended that export 

 of this particular quality of coal should be forbidden; that, if 

 there is a sufficiently large reserve of coking coal to meet the demand 

 of the British iron and steel industry, it should only be exported as 

 metallurgical coke that the valuable by-products may be retained 

 for use in the dye and many other valuable domestic industries. 

 Practical difficulties in connection with mining will almost certainly 

 prevent carrying the recommendations into effect, but it is note- 

 worthy as indicating the great value of such coals as a national asset. 

 Economies in ^^^ ^^ ^^^ shortage of fuel, attention has been 

 Furnace directed to the possibilities of economies in furnace 



pera ion operation. In large industrial establishments in the 



United States, it has not been unusual for expert heating engineers 

 to effect a saving of 20 to 30 per cent of the fuel account. About 

 24,500,000 tons of bituminous and lignite coal is consumed in Canada 

 each year. If our consumption were reduced by only 10 per cent, 

 it would represent an annual saving of at least $7,500,000, much of 

 which is expended for coal imported from the United States. 



The Alliance Power Co. state that, by burning lignite slack, they 

 have succeeded in reducing the coal bill in the Edmonton, Alta., power 

 house from $165,000 a year, to $75,000; also, that, if an automatic 

 stoker were devised which would "respond and evaporate the neces- 

 sary water in the boilers to handle the overload at peak", much 

 better results could be obtained. 



