i8 



NATURE 



[September i, 192 i 



a cessation of activity by the Admiralty, and not 

 until the early months of the war was airship 

 construction entered upon with vig^our. Having 

 neither knowledge nor experience of our own, 

 Britain was reduced to copying, as faithfully as 

 possible, such German designs as we were able 

 to capture. That lack of knowledge, and not a 

 concession to essential utility, accounts for the 

 present calamity may be inferred from the fact 

 that the weight of the girders and gas fabric was 

 much less than one-half of the gross weight of 

 the ship, and that a modification of the proportions 

 of total weight could have been made for the 

 purpose of strengthening the girders had the 

 necessity been foreseen. 



The Air Ministry has assumed a great responsi- 

 bility by its failure, during the last two years, to 

 provide adequate facilities for fundamental re- 

 search on airships. Now, for the second time, 

 airship development is to be abandoned, and no 

 further research is to be undertaken. This can 

 be justified only if airships are always to be use- 

 less, a decision which may reasonably be ques- 

 tioned. Whatever may be the future of the air- 

 ship, it appears to be true that the British authori- 

 ties have never allowed it an opportunitv of justi. 

 fying itself, and the loss of R38 is not improbabl) 

 due to lack of a fair field for the designei 

 rather than to insuperable defects of the system o: 

 construction. 



Fuel Problems and Prol^pects. 



By Prof. John W. Cobb 



THE "James F'orrest " lecture which was 

 delivered before the Institution of Gas 

 Engineers by Sir George Beilby on June 28 was 

 g-iven the title " Fuel Problems of the Future," 

 and is one of the most comprehensive and interest- 

 ing surveys of that subject which the present 

 writer has had the pleasure of reading. Com- 

 mencing with the proposition that " civilisation 

 on its physical side is based on fuel," the lecturer 

 proceeded to show what he meant by some pic- 

 turesque and relevant illustrations, beginning with 

 " the kindling of the first fire of dried leaves and 

 branches by our prehistoric ancestors," which 

 established " a new dividing line between man 

 and the lower animals by mitigating the horrors 

 and dangers of the darkness of night, and arous- 

 ing social instincts." 



The more prosaic subject of the price of coal, 

 however, soon found its inevitable place in the 

 lecture, and it was indicated how every one of us 

 is being penalised not only by the dearness of the 

 coal supplied, but also by its inferior quality, 

 arising from the unwarrantable and unnecessary 

 introduction of useless stones and shale. This 

 brought on a reference to the new Gas Act, with 

 its new principle of paying for "therms," but 

 not for inert material, and an extension of the 

 principle involved to coal itself was suggested. 



If the gas undertaking is in future to be paid only 

 for the therms delivered to the consumer, it is en- 

 titled to throw at least a portion of the responsibility 

 on the coalowners and miners by paying only for 

 the potential therms received in the coal, and not for 

 the inert and inferior materials, which are not only 

 valueless and detrimental to economical working in 

 the retort-house, but lower the value of the coke 

 produced. 



Coal is, of course, the dominating fuel in these 

 islands, and Sir George Beilby's survey does not 

 leave that in doubt; but the fuel position of the 

 world as it is disclosed by the most recent figures 

 of production for all kinds of fuel is subjected to 

 comprehensive review. If an authoritative pro- 

 nouncement were made that a new fuel was 



NO. 2705, VOL. 108] 



available in these islands which could compet 

 effectively with coal, or was likely to be able to do' 

 so in the near future, it would arouse a natural 

 enthusiasm, but, so far as this country is con- 

 cerned, no comfort of that kind can be derived 

 from dispassionate consideration of the facts of 

 the case. The very interesting point is brought 

 out, however, that Germany is facing, and indeed 

 has already faced, the fuel problem of the im- 

 mediate future, so far as she herself is concerned, 

 by an extensive development of the lignite 

 industry. 



The glowing accounts of this development which 

 have appeared in the technical Press during the past 

 two years may have struck us as exaggerated, but 

 the solid fact remains that the output of lignite in 

 Germany last year was 111,000,000 tons. 



This brown coal, though it contains from 40 , 

 to 50 per cent, of water, is to-day by far the I 

 cheapest source of thermal units. The deposits i 

 are often of great thickness, which can be worked { 

 open-cast and excavated by machinery with I 

 relatively little manual labour and light capital ' 

 charges. Victoria (Australia) is also developing , 

 extensive deposits of brown coal, which are known | 

 to exist in Central Gippsland, and Canada is ex- j 

 perimenting on the briquetting and carbonisation j 

 of the brown coals of Manitoba and Saskatchew^an. j 



The other great source of fuel is oil, of which ■ 

 "the world's output for 1920 is estimated at about 

 97 million tons, of which 



The United States produced 



Mexico produced 



Russia produced ... ... 



Dutch East Indies produced 

 India produced 

 Rumania produced 

 Persia produced 



Countries producing less than 05 per cent, 

 produced 



Total 1000 



The amount seems large, but is only some 7 

 per cent, of the fuel output of the world reckoned 



Pe- cev ; 

 64-8 

 23-3 



35 

 2-5 



1-2 



I-I 

 10 



2-6 



