434 



NATURE 



[January 25, 19 12 



coke as on the gas, and cater for the supply of a good 

 domestic fuel at the price of coal, instead of treating coke 

 purely as a by-product, the demand for it would soon reach 

 a point that would enable the desired reductions in the 

 price of ijas to be made. There is no need to fear as to ! 

 the other by-products ; the output of sulphate of ammonia 

 could be doubled without affecting the market, and a fjood 

 tar will look after itself ; it was hi(<h heats that ruined 

 the tar market, and with the demand for tar increasing 

 for road work, no flooding of the market need be feared. 



During the last few years the statement has several 

 times been put forward that " as the gas manager's end 

 and nim is gas, it is his duty to obtain the greatest volume 

 ' p.>ssil)I(^- |).r ton of coal"; but with this I venture 



I'. 1 lie gas manager's duty is to obtain the 

 ^....i<^t possible value per ton of coal, and until every 

 industry dealing with coal recognises that in this respect 

 its aim is the same, little economy will be possible in 

 our rapidly diminishing store of coal. 



The pressing of temperatures in carbonisation to higher 

 and higher degrees with the old conditions of lightly 

 charged retorts has given larger yields of gas, but it has 

 loaded the gas with carbon bisulphide, depreciated the 

 coke, and ruined the tar ; and one of the chief claims for 

 the adoption of the full-charge horizontals and intermittent 

 vertical retorts for carbonisation is that they have improved 

 the character of both coke and tar. 



•As I have shown, this is due to a certain proportion of 

 the gas and tar vapour coming oflf through the cool core 

 and so escaping over-cracking, but it can be only a partial 

 improvement ; whilst, so far as the coke goes, the nearer 

 it approaches metallurgical coke the less it is fitted for a 

 domestic fiu I. True it is, that where the coke has been 

 made hard, i and brighter the gas manager's market has 

 improved ; but it has been for use in furnaces, manu- 

 facturing processes, and for producers that the increased 

 demand has been felt, and not for domestic use. 



Even for the heating of furnaces the coke made at 

 extreme temperatures is not so good as when the heats 

 were slightly lower ; and in Germany this is beginning to 

 be recognised, and Korting, in a paper read this summer 

 (iqii), points out that the inclined settings, which used to 

 work with 12 per cent, of fuel, now require fully 16 per 

 cent., an increase due partly to higher temj>eratures, but 

 largely to more highly carbonised coke. 



-Already the strides forward which gas has made as a 

 domestic fuel are telling the tale in our atmosphere, and 

 the yellow fogs of the last century are getting rarer ; and 

 if coke could be made a domestic fuel by leaving in it 

 6 to 8 per cent, of volatile matter to facilitate ignition and 

 give a flame, the gasworks of the country could command 

 the fuel market. 



Remember that the sale of gas cannot be pushed bevond 

 a certain point without overstocking with coke; the sale 

 of both pro rata must be pushed, and if onlv vou could 

 be persuaded that this is the right road, vou would be 

 backed up by the smoke reformers and the public, and 

 find yourselves able to sell a fuel coke at the price of the 

 best coals. 



I have shown that the factor for which you ruin vour 

 coke as a domestic fuel is about 3000 cubic feet of gas of 

 the same value as blue water gas; the 3000 cubic feet of 

 gas left in the coke would be worth four or five shillings 

 a ton on the selling price, and the cost of replacing it bv 

 water gas would be about one shilling, whilst the creation 

 of a large domestic market would enable a reduction in 

 the price of gas to be made that would still further increase 

 Its use as a fuel. 



Now I am sure in my own mind that these are the 

 lines the gas industry should consider seriouslv, and that 

 the advances in the next ten years must be an endeavour 

 to get nearer to the ideal of carbonisation and to improve 

 both gas and coke. 



In a course of lectures such as these, four seems an 

 ample allowance at the commencement — and probablv to 

 the audience more than ample at the end— but I realise 

 only now how miserably inadequate the time has been for 

 the expression of the matter I desired to bring before vou, 

 and can only hope that some of the points, controversial i 

 though they may be, will prove helpful in considering the '■ 

 carbonisation of coal. j 



NO. 2204, VOL. 88] 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



The committer formed to promote a scheme for pi 

 viding a college of university rank at Brighton hat resoU' 

 that the srheme shall be one for establishing a c< 

 Ntituent college of London University for the county • 

 Sussex, the subjects to be arts, sciences, engineering, and 

 pedagogy in the first instance, but medicine and law to be 

 undertaken later. 



The Old Students' Association of the Central Techni' 

 College is organising a dinner to celebrate the election m 

 Prof. W. ('. L'nwin, F.R.S., as president of the Institu- 

 tion of Civil Engineers. The dinner, which will be held 

 at the Criterion Restaurant on Saturday, February 10, 

 intended to be a gathering of old students of the Cent- 

 Technical College and Prof. Unwin's students at < 

 Hill. The chair will be taken by Mr. \V. Duddell, 1 

 president of the Central Old Students' Assonanon. 

 Tickets may be obtained from Mr. G. W. Tripp, 4 Fair- 

 field Road, Charlton, Kent. 



Several gifts to American universities are announced in 

 the issue of Science for January 12. Mr. Jacob H. Schiff 

 has given 20,000/. to Cornell University to promote stud: 

 in German culture ; the 200,000/. fund for the furtl, 

 endowment of the medical school of Western Reserve 

 University has been completed ; and De Pauw University 

 has just brought to a successful close the campaign to 

 raise 80,000/. to meet the conditional gift of 20,000/. from 

 the Rockefeller Educational Board. The subscriptions 

 amount to a little more than 88,000/. This will make the 

 productive endowment of the University something above 

 200,000/. 



The late Dr. R. D. Roberts, whose death occurred • 

 November 14 last, left estate of the gross value of 10,024 

 of which the net personalty has been sworn at 6021/. 1 

 bequeathed the ultimate residue of his property " to tli' 

 I'niversity College of Wales, at .Aberystwyth, to form the 

 nucleus of a fund to be formed and administered in accord- 

 ance with a scheme to be prepared by the said Univers:- 

 College, and approved by my trustees, to enable professo; 

 after a certain number of years of service — say, not less 

 than ten — to be released from the professorial duties for 

 a period of about a year, and, at any rate, not less than 

 six months on full salary, a substitute being paid out of 

 the income of the fund, the purpose of this release from 

 college duties being to enable the professor to refresh his 

 mind by travel or research or visits to other universities, 

 and so gain fresh stimulus and equipment for his work." 



It has been announced that the ordinance for the institu- 

 tion of degrees in veterinary science promoted by the 

 University of Edinburgh has been passed by the Privy 

 Council, and has received his Majesty's sanction. The 

 ordinance will come into operation at the beginning of the 

 next summer session, and by it the University is empowered 

 to confer the degrees of Bachelor of Science and Doctor of 

 Science in veterinary science. The Edinburgh veterinary 

 student will now be in a position to obtain an academic 

 distinction in addition to the diploma of membership of 

 the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons. The present 

 time marks a distinct epoch in the history of veterinary 

 science in Scotland. The Royal (Dick) Veterinary College 

 — the original Scottish veterinary school — is about to enter 

 upon a fresh era. inasmuch as it has been decided to erect 

 new and up-to-date buildings on a scale which will do 

 credit to the important educational centre in which it is 

 located. .At the same time, the students of the college are 

 being afforded the means of entering the ranks of university 

 graduates. These developments cannot fail to exert an 

 important effect upon veterinary teaching in Edinburgh 

 and upon the veterinary profession in Scotland. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 

 Royal Society, Innuarj- 18. — Sir Archibald Geikie 

 K.C.B., president, followed by Sir A. B. Kempe, vice-' 

 president, in the chair. — Dr. j. S. Haldane, C. Gordon 

 Douglas, Dr. Y. Henderson, and Dr. E. C. 

 Schneider : The physiological effects of low atmospheric 

 pressures, as observed on Pike's Peak, Colorado. The 



