Character Sketch. 



363 



in.— OLD KING COAL. 



Old King Cole \va.s a merry old soul, and a merry old 

 soul was he. But old King Coal is no merry monarch. 

 He is a despot merciless and cruel, whose autocracy is 

 now drawing to an end. 



It may seem paradoxical to speak of Coal as a 

 dethroned sovereign in a year when he and his million 

 .satellites have afforded the nation so signal a demon- 

 stration of his authority. Hut, as is often the case, 

 Power, intoxicated by its own might, has ventured 

 at last on some exercise of authority which is the 

 signal for its own destruction. We are living in 

 the closing days of the sovereignty of King Coal. 

 He has presumed to hold 

 up the nation, and the 

 nation has already de- 

 creed his deposition. The 

 day of his monopoly is 

 drawing to its close. His 

 sun is setting. Never 

 again will he possess the 

 giajit's strengtii which he 

 has used after the tyran- 

 nous fashion of a giant. 

 Already Oil is on the steps 

 of the throne, and if King 

 Coal is to save any rem- 

 nant of his sovereignty 

 it will he by entering into 

 an alliance with his suc- 

 cessful rival. 



At present King Coal 

 is the pi)wer-|)r(Klucer of 

 the world. I'.idtricity is 

 only a method of dis- 

 tributing fone. It is itself 

 a manufactured article. 

 But it renders possible 

 the rise of a potent rival. 

 Xia^jara harnessed drives 

 the tramcars of a whole 

 countrysiflc. works the 

 machinerv of .1 thousand 

 actories. and lights the 

 streets of citirs hundreds 

 of miles from the Falls. 

 Niagara fs but the most 



outstanding a[)plication of the power of a com- 

 bination of water and electricity to depose King 

 Coal. All over the world " the costless drainage of 

 the wilderness," the melting ice of the glacier, 

 the rainfall on the mountain sitle is being utilised to 

 do the work whi> h King Coal in former times mono- 

 polised. We h.i\e not as yet learncfl how to yoke the 

 tide to our chariot. But a day will <()mc when the vast 

 illimitable energy of rising and falling tides will be 

 employed to i;incrate power for the use of man. Coal 

 is but bottled heat of the sun. as we are constantiv 

 reminded, but in the Iroplctl belt man is using sun- 

 jhine raw. <<< to >.(>e:ik. (onvertini^ the sunravs direct 



By ptrtiiission of the prof'riftnys of " ruucli."\ 



The Victim. 



into motive force. Sun-driven engines could not be 

 worked in these islands, but there are a couple of 

 hundred miles on either side of the Equator all round 

 the world where, when the sun-engine is perfected, it 

 will be as absurd to carrv coals as it is now to carrv 

 coals to Newcastle. 



Over two of his earliest rivals King Coal has scored 

 decisi\-e victories. Neither wood nor wind can challenge 

 his ascendency. Wood is still used to generate steam 

 in Russia, but the devouring maw of the hirnace cannot 

 be satisfied even with the spoils of the forest. Wind is 

 too capricious. Holland still has its windmills, but 

 until some better and more economical method of 



storing electricity can be 

 discovered, by which the 

 force of the hurricane and 

 the tornado can be bottled 

 up for future use in the 

 driving of machinery and 

 the smelting of metal-;, 

 the wind is too fitful and 

 capricious a servant to be 

 relied upon in the service 

 of man. 



The most formidable 

 rival of King Coal is Oil. 

 and if all that we hear be 

 true, it is only by con- 

 senting to be converted 

 into Oil that King Coal 

 can preserve any vestige 

 of his sway. 



Oil is as yet but in its 

 infancy. The combined 

 coal production of the 

 coal-mines of Great Bri- 

 tain and the United States 

 is over 700 million tons 

 per annum. The amount 

 of oil produced annually 

 is under fifty million tons. 

 But a ton of oil burnt as 

 fuel is said to have 80 

 per cent, more efTii.iency 

 than a ton of coal, so that 

 even when used as fuel the 

 fifty million tons of oil 

 may be reckoned as an equivalent to ninety million tons 

 of coal. If we reckon the saving in stoking this figure 

 should be largely increased. Although the British 

 Navv alreadv consumes 200,000 tons of oil* as fuel 

 every \ear, this is the most wasteful method of con- 

 verting oil into energy. When oil is used to drive 

 explosive motor-engines the value of a ton of oil is 

 nearlv five times as great as a ton of coal, and its use 

 enables the user to economise so enormously in labour 

 and in engine space as to convince most jShrewd 

 oi>s(rvers that the reisn of King Coal is at an end. 



At the opening of the Smoke .\batement Exhibition 

 Sir \\ . Rainsay suggested that in future c(nd vvouI(J 



