294 



NATURE 



[December 29, 1910 



steadily progressed in favour for heat and power as well 

 as light, until at the present time nearly as much is used 

 for the one as for the other. 



What, then, stands in the way of its universal adop- 

 tion ? First and foremost, initial cost crops up, as 

 although much has been done by the companies in 

 popularising gas stoves by letting them out on hire, by 

 easy payment systems, and by looking after their main- 

 tenance, the consumers must pay something, and that is 

 sufficient to damp their ardour as smoke reformers. 

 Secondly, gas is a little more expensive for continuous 

 heating than coal, although when used for short periods, 

 as for fires in bedrooms, &c., the fact that you turn it on 

 when you want the fire and turn it off when it is done 

 with brings the fuel cost to nearly the same as coal, whilst 

 in such places as Widnes and Sheffield, where the price 

 has been reduced to a minimum for heat and power, the 

 gas engine and gas fire well hold their own. 



The chief sentimental objections to the gas fire — its 

 non-pokerbility and one's not being able to throw cigar 

 stumps and ash into it — are disposed of by a suggestion 

 made first, I believe, by Sir W. Siemens some thirty years 

 ago, and that is to decompose bituminous coal into coke, 

 tar, and gas in our gas works, and to reunite the true heat 

 producers, coke and gas, in our fire grates sans the smoke- 

 producing tar — to do, in fact, with coal what was done 

 by Chevreul a century ago with tallow, when he con- 

 verted the tallow dip into the composite candle. 



All the initial outlay needed for this is to fit the atmo- 

 spheric burner arrangements of the gas stove to any 

 ordinary fire grate, so arranging them that they can be 

 made to swing back clear of the fire when they have done 

 their work of bringing to bright combustion the gas coke 

 used as fuel in the grate. This has always seemed to 

 me to be the best economic method of using the products 

 of gas manufacture, because it would be impossible to use 

 either gas or coke alone to entirely supplant the use of 

 bituminous coal ; a market must be made for the by- 

 products if prices are to be kept down and, as we hope, 

 still further reduced, but if the use of gas and coke could 

 both be increased, the gas manager could afford a diminu- 

 tion in the price of tar from over-production, as he has 

 already ruined the tar market by overheating his retorts, 

 and so loading the tar with free carbon and naphthalene 

 as to make it nearly worthless. 



As I have before pointed out, to my mind the best 

 solution of the dual question of the most economical use 

 of coal and the cleansing of our atmosphere is to be found 

 in low-temperature carbonisation and the production of 

 such fuels as coalite, because every constituent of the coal 

 is utilised in the best way ; but when we see how little 

 expense and personal trouble is needed to attain smoke- 

 less combustion in other ways, it becomes evident that the 

 mere provision of means to bring about the desired end 

 is entirely insufficient. How can the societies interested 

 in smoke abatement influence the hundreds of thousands 

 of small consumers whose chimneys make the morning 

 cloud ; they may make their doctrines felt in the West 

 End, but will they ever touch the seething population of 

 the workers' quarters of the town? 



One is gravely told that legislation should be passed 

 dealing with the question, and that the use of bituminous 

 coal should be forbidden ; but I think this is scarcely 

 feasible, and unless we revert to the conditions of i'^o6, 

 when a citizen of London was executed for using bitu- 

 minous coal, I doubt its being effective ; but I do believe 

 that if a future Chancellor of the Exchequer would put a 

 55. tax on bituminous coal, exempting that used for gas- 

 making, smokeless fuel manufacture, and for use by those 

 burning it in smoke-preventing forms of grate or furnace, 

 the question would quickly be solved, coal economised, and 

 smoke abolished. 



UNIVERSTTV AND EDUCATIONAL 



INTELLIGENCE. 



Sir T. Carlaw Martin, editor of the Dundee Advertiser, 



has been appointed by the Lords of the Committee of 



Privy Council on Education in Scotland, director of the 



Royal Scottish Museum, Edinburgh. 



Prof. G. R. Thompson, professor of mining. University 

 of Leeds, has been appointed professor of mining at the 



NO. 2148, VOL. 85] 



South African School of Mines and Technology, Johannes- 

 burg, and principal of the college. 



The Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruc- 

 tion for Ireland has issued in pamphlet form an illustrated 

 account of technical instruction in Londonderry, by Mr. 

 G. E. Armstrong, principal of the Londonderry Municipal 

 Technical School, which was published recently in the 

 Department's Journal (vol. xi., No. i). 



The report of a higher education subcommittee of the 

 London County Council Education Committee, recently 

 prepared, provides interesting information as to the alloca- 

 tion of grants to secondary schools aided by the Council. 

 The income of aided secondary schools is derived from 

 four main sources : — endowment. Board of Education 

 grant, fees, and grants from the Council. The actual 

 receipts for the school year 1909-10 under the four head- 

 ings in order were 45,132!., 52,326/., 101,256/., and 

 37,398/., making a total of 236,112/. The estimated 

 receipts for 1910-11 — for the aided schools, which number 

 forty-two — are, under the same headings, 46,589/., 

 52,653/., 97,181/., and 38,203/., amounting to 234,626/. 

 The amounts mentioned under fees include the fees of 

 London County Council's scholars, which in the forty-two 

 schools mentioned were in 1909-10 37,938/., and are 

 estimated for 1910-11 at 37,144/. It will thus be seen 

 that the total Council grant to aided secondary schools in 

 London was in 1909-10 75,334/., and will be in 1910-11 



75.347^- 



A COPY of the annual report of the 114th session of 

 the Glasgow and West of Scotland Technical College, 

 which was adopted by the governors last September, has 

 been received. The progress of the college in regard to 

 the number of students, as well as standard of work, 

 continues to be satisfactory. While the number of in- 

 dividual evening students has increased in five years by 

 30 per cent., class enrolments and " student hours " have 

 increased by more than 45 per cent. The fourth and last 

 section of the new buildings has now been completed, and 

 provides accommodation for the department of textile 

 manufacture. The new school of navigation, to which the 

 Glasgow City Educational Endowments Board has under- 

 taken to make an annual subsidy of 500/., has now been 

 organised and opened. In their report the governors 

 acknowledge the receipt of additional grants, amounting 

 to 26,866/., from the Scotch Education Department 

 towards the building and equipment fund, and a grant of 

 3000/. from the trustees of the late Mr. Alexander 

 Fleming. 



The eighteenth annual distribution of prizes and certifi- 

 cates was held at the Borough Polytechnic on Monday, 

 December 19. Mr. J. Leonard Spicer (chairrnan of 

 governors) presided, and in the course of his opening re- 

 marks referred to the great progress made by the institute 

 during the year, the record number of class entries being 

 more than 5000, showing an increase of more than 500. 

 That the work was appreciated was shown by the 

 numerous visits paid by i>ersons from all parts of the 

 world interested in education, and as a result of one_ of 

 these visits a request had been received from the High 

 Commissioner to the Australian Commonwealth for a set 

 of specimens of metal work executed by the boys of the 

 day school, and the Japanese Commissioner, on behalf of 

 his Government, applied for the metal work of the boys' 

 day school, the specimens from the printing classes, and 

 the work of the oils, colours, and varnish department, that 

 had been displayed at the Japan-British Exhibition. The 

 principal, Mr. C. T. Millis, reported the satisfactory 

 examination results, and stated that thirteen medals had 

 been gained in examinations conducted by the City and 

 Guilds of London Institute, the Royal Society of Arts, and 

 other public bodies. Lord Lytton urged the students of 

 the polytechnic to do their utmost to realise the ideals 

 which the founders of that institution had in mind when 

 the polytechnic was first established. Was there ever a 

 more pathetic sight, he asked, than to see a man who had 

 suffered all through his life from lack of opportunity, and 

 he thought the polytechnics were established with the object 

 of equalising opportunities for all in the competition in 

 life. The polytechnics should in addition stimulate among 

 the students a sense of the duties and responsibilities of 

 citizenship. 



