June 30, 192 1] 



NATURE 



569 



cost of production, allowing of an increasing trade 

 being done and the maintenance of a fair return on the 

 capital invested in the industry. Further improve- 

 ments are, to my mind, the only satisfactory solution 

 to our present economic difficulties. Let me repeat : 

 Lessen the cost of production by applying new 

 methods, the result of research, and by research dis- 

 cover extended and new uses for minerals. Let me 

 briefly indicate examples of possible research work in 

 the mineral industry. 



Coal — mineral fuel — naturally occurs at once to the 

 mind. I am one of those who believe that the cost 

 of production can be reduced by the wider application 

 of the most up-to-date methods of the "' getting " of 

 the coal, in the transp)ort and usage of the coal, but 

 I doubt very much, even if and when these methods 

 are applied to the fullest extent practicable, whether 

 it will be possible to reduce the price to quite the pre- 

 war level. 



In some of our largest industries coal, next to 

 wages, is the highest item of cost. The way of re- 

 search would, therefore, appear to lie along the lines 

 of the more efficient use of coal. 



We know in the smelting of Cleveland iron in 

 Yorkshire under present methods that about 74 per 

 cent, of the total available heat of the fuel used is 

 usefully applied, which for economy of smelting 

 large quantities of iron is a remarkable result 

 to have achieved. But is it beyond the bounds 

 of possibility to reduce the consumption of one ton 

 of coke to produce one ton of iron ? And, as was 

 pointed out by the Coal Conservation Committee in 

 their final report of 19 18, the economy of fuel which 

 would result from the combination in single units of 

 coke-ovens, blast furnaces, steel furnaces, and rolling 

 mills would be verv great indeed. The idea was fore- 

 shadowed in Belgium and Germany in the early years 

 of the present century, and in 19 10 Mr. T. C. Hutchin- 

 son, in his presidential address to the Cleveland In- 

 stitution of Engineers, expressed the view " that the 

 time • would shortly come when ironstone would be 

 brought in at one end of the works and finished steel 

 would be turned out at the other, only such coal 

 being used as was required for the coke-ovens to 

 make sufficient coke to smelt the ironstone." In 1913 

 Mr. Hutchinson repeated this belief at the Brussels 

 meeting of the Iron and Steel Institute, and in 1912, 

 in his presidential address to the Iron and Steel Insti- 

 tute, Mr. Arthur Cooper also expressed the belief 

 that the time was close at hand when the iron and 

 steel industries would be forced by the stress of com- 

 petition to adopt this reform. 



The economic utilisation of low-grade fuels is a 

 matter of great moment. There are in the United 

 Kingdom, as in all coal-producing countries, vast 

 quantities of coal which it does not pay to work owing 

 to the low price realisable thereon. Probably the use 

 of so-called colloidal fuel offers a solution, and will 

 render the use of these low-grade coals practicable 

 and profitable ; for verv fine coal mixed in about equal 

 quantities with fuel oil produces a fuel which can be 

 burnt in the same way as oil, and, bulk for bulk, 

 though not weight for weight, gives in thermal values 

 results equivalent to those of the fuel oil alone. 



The recoverv of coal and its more perfect cleaning 

 by the froth flotation process, for some years applied 

 to the recovery of metalliferous ores from their asso- 

 ciated gangue, presents features of interest and pvrob- 

 able profitable results. 



The low-temperature carbonisation of coal, too, is 

 at present occupying the minds of many investigators 

 and may lead to the more extensive use of low-grade 

 fuels. But to be commercially successful such a 

 process should be continuous, and the resultant fuel 

 capable of being sold at a price below that of coal. 



NO. 2696, VOL. 107] 



Oil Shale. — The stores of liquid mineral oil will not 

 last for ever ; indeed, it is probable that the next 

 fifty years will see, if not the exhaustion of this source 

 of oil, a great reduction in the supplies available. We 

 must turn, therefore, towards distillation of oil- 

 bearing mineral — oil shales and coal— to take the place 

 of our present petroleum supplies. Although there are 

 verv few retorts erected in the L'nited States for the 

 treatment of oil shale, and such as are are being 

 applied to experimental purposes only, yet even that 

 country of oil supplies is turning its attention to the 

 consideration of its oil-shale potentialities. Research 

 work would naturally be directed towards the economic 

 desulphurisation of the oil and the minimising of losses 

 in refining, so allowing of oil shales being worked 

 which at present cannot be made available. The loss 

 in refining oil from Scotch oil shale is about 23 per 

 cent, of the crude oil treated, as compared with a loss 

 of 35-4 per cent, only in the case of straight-run refin- 

 ing of American petroleum. The process of refining 

 is the process of getting rid of off^ensive substances, 

 but in those cases where refinement results in such 

 high losses, as in the case of shale oil, it is probable 

 that other than the objectionable substances are lost — 

 substances which might be retained with advantage in 

 the finished product. 



Iron. — I have alreadv alluded to the cheaper reduc- 

 tion of iron ores. The available reserves of high- 

 grade iron ores in Great Britain are vastly nearer 

 exhaustion than are the coal supplies. More and 

 more, too, the world will have to turn to the poorer 

 grade of ore — a wide field is here offered for research 

 work in devising economic methods for their reduc- 

 tion. The economic smelting of ferruginous sands, in 

 which connection may be mentioned those of Sweden 

 and New Zealand, has so far defeated the efforts of 

 metallurgists, rich in iron though these sands are. 



In connection with blast furnaces, two products, the 

 possible recovery of which is worth investigation, are 

 those contained in the dust in the gases, namely, 

 iron and potash ; these dusts contain a high percentage 

 of iron. 



The possible economic recovery of vanadium, a 

 mineral much in request in respect of the manufac- 

 ture of a certain class of steel, from ashes of car- 

 bonaceous substances has been mooted. 



Minerals Used to Harden Steel. — In respect of 

 several minerals which until of late years were un- 

 important, or comparatively so, an important use has 

 been found in connection with steel. One of these is 

 tungsten. Tungsten metal powder is, as all metal- 

 lurgists know, required for the manufacture of high- 

 speed tools. The position in respect of tungsten is 

 one which is at present exercising the minds of those 

 interested in its extraction from wolfram ; the busi- 

 ness is now practically unprofitable. During the war 

 high-speed steel was in great demand ; now the 

 demand has fallen away. Cannot new uses be found 

 for tungsten? I have heard that the metal can be 

 used for making piano-strings. The application of 

 tungsten to branches of industry other than to steel 

 offers a fruitful field for research. 



I incline to the belief that, giv^en a cheap and 

 abundant production of some of the minor metals, 

 uses will be found for them ; and, conversely, with 

 the discovery of uses enhanced production will be 

 forthcoming. A case in point is the recent develop- 

 ment in the production of stainless cutlery^ which 

 is made of chromium steel, and is in process of pro- 

 viding an important outlet for supplies of chromium 

 ore. 



Probably 95 per cent, of the wc«-ld's production of 

 manganese ores is used directly or indirectly in the 

 manufacture of iron and steel. Self-hardening steels, 

 made before the development of "high-speed tool 



