136 



NATURE 



[October i8, 1917 



With regard to the organisation which \vill ulti- 

 mately be required in the principal , coal-mining dis- 

 tricts for the collection and registration of samples, the 

 Board is glad to say that it has found every 

 disposition on the part of the representatives of the coal- 

 owners to co-operate in this work. It is not proposed 

 to start any extensive organisation for this purpose 

 until the preparations for the second line of inquiry 

 are further advanced. The accumulation of large num- 

 bers of samples would serve no useful purpose at pre- 

 sent, and would be decidedly inconvenient. It is cer- 

 tain that as soon as the arrangements for the exam- 

 ination and testing of samples are in working order 

 it will be an easy matter to maintain the necessary 

 supply of samples to keep the laboratories and the 

 research station fully occupied. 



In the first report the following statement with re- 

 gard to the second line of inquiry was made : — 



"The second of the proposed lines of inquiry has 

 been led up to by a variety of influences during the 

 past eight or ten years. Among these influences have 

 been the demands for cheaper and more ample supplies 

 of electrical energy, for home supplies of fuel oil for 

 the Navy, of motor spirit for the Transport and Air 

 Services, and last, though by no means least, for 

 smokeless domestic fuel. This last has been brought 

 about through the growth of public and municipal 

 opinion on the subject of smoke prevention in cities 

 and in industrial centres, 



"The only development which would satisfy all these 

 needs simultaneously would be the replacement of a 

 large proportion of the raw coal which is at present 

 'burned in boilers, furnaces, and domestic fires, by 

 manufactured fuels prepared from raw coal by submit- 

 ting it to distillation. 



"The greater part of the coal which is consumed 

 in Great Britain is burned in its natural state as it 

 comes from the mines. The question of the moment 

 then is : To what extent can and ought the present use 

 of raw coal to be replaced by the use of one or other 

 of the various forms of fuel manufactured from coal — 

 coke, briquettes, tar, oil, or gas? While there is 

 already in the possession of experts a certain amount 

 of knowledge and experience which might enable them 

 to organise and direct schemes for the replacement of 

 raw coal by manufactured fuel in particular directions 

 and on a fairly large scale, no really comprehensive 

 scheme can be formulated until certain perfectly definite 

 problems in coal distillation have been solved. 



"These problems can be solved only by carefully 

 organised experiments on a working scale carried out 

 under the conditions likely to arise in practice." 



The gas retort and the coke oven have become highly 

 developed appliances for the carbonisation of coal at 

 temperatures ranging from 900° to 1200° C. In the 

 former the primary object of the carbonisation is to 

 obtain the maximum yield of gas suitable for domestic 

 and industrial lighting and heating, while in the latter 

 colfie is regarded as the principal product. In both 

 cases the by-products of the operation are of economic 

 value, but are necessarily of secondary importance. In 

 considering the broad question of the replacement of 

 any considerable ' proportion of the coal which is at 

 present being burned in its raw or natural state by 

 manufactured forms of fuel, the part which may be 

 plaved by high-temperature methods of carbonisation 

 will need to be taken into account. For this purpose 

 a great amount of experience is available, and trust- 

 worthy data on which to base the calculation of the 

 economic possibilities are in existence. 



The distillation of oil shales at low temperatures 

 for the production of mineral oils, paraffin wax, and 

 ammonia is a highlv developed industry, but the oil 

 shales are totallv unlike coal in their nature and in the 

 products which they yield, so that the experience gained 

 NO. 2503, VOL. 100] 



in this industry, though undoubtedly valuable, is only 

 indirectly useful so far as coal is concerned. 



As regards the carbonisation of coal at low tem- 

 peratures, there is no corresponding body of experience 

 in existence, and there are very few properly accredited 

 data available. Some work has been done by indi- 

 vidual inventors and syndicates, and a certain amount 

 of experience has been gained. While only portions of 

 this experience have been disclosed, enough is known 

 to justify the conclusion that much still remains to be 

 done in devising the special forms of apparatus required 

 for the economical carrying out of this type of carbon- 

 isation. 



The way is clearly open for a serious attempt to 

 determine whether an economical and efficient appa- 

 ratus can be devised for the carbonisation of coal at 

 low temperatures, and whether, by the use of such an 

 apparatus, for the carbonisation of properly selected 

 coals, products will be obtained of a collective value 

 greater than that of the original coal ^lus the cost of 

 carbonisation and handling. Obviously the evolution 

 of an economical and efficient apparatus is at the root 

 of the whole matter, for only after a thoroughly prac- 

 tical apparatus is available can trustworthy tests of the 

 various classes of coal be made and the economic 

 possibilities of the method be fully weighed and con- 

 sidered. 



The solution of these fundamental problems will 

 supply a new base from which to attack questions like 

 the following : — 



(i) Can the thirty-five to forty million tons of raw- 

 coal which is used every year for domestic heating be 

 wholly or partially replaced by smokeless fuel, solid 

 and gaseous, prepared by the carbonisation of this 

 coal? 



(2) Can adequate supplies of fuel oil for the Navy 

 be obtained by carbonisation of the coal which is at 

 present used in its raw form for industrial and domestic 

 purposes? 



(3) Can supplies of town gas be obtained more 

 economically and conveniently by methods of carbonisa- 

 tion and gasification other than those at present in use 

 in gasworks? 



(4) Can electric power be obtained more cheaply if 

 the coal used for steam raising is first subjected to 

 processes of carbonisation and gasification? 



(5) Will the more scientific development of the pre- 

 paration and use of fuel, which would be implied in 

 the successful working out of the foregoing questions, 

 enable the peat deposits of the United Kingdom to 

 take a serious place as economic sources of fuel for 

 industrial purposes? 



(6) Can the use of gaseous fuel in industrial opera- 

 tions be forwarded by the development of more scien- 

 tific methods of combustion in furnaces, muffles, and 

 ovens used in metallurgical, ceramic, and chemical 

 operations ? 



The answers to these questions will be obtained only 

 by co-ordinated research carried out on the lines of a 

 broad and well-considered scheme. The subjects to 

 be dealt with are already attracting the attention of 

 serious workers in the industries, and it is to be ex- 

 pected that solutions of some of the problems will be 

 supplied by these workers. The Board sincerely hopes 

 that this will be the case. It would regard it as a 

 great misfortune if the establishment of a Government 

 organisation for fuel research were to result in the 

 discouragement or limitation in any way of the activi- 

 ties of outside workers or organisations. It ventures 

 to hope rather that many of these workers will be 

 disposed to welcome a national scheme of research, 

 the aims of which are broad and yet definite, and in 

 which the more specialised contributions from all sides 

 will naturally take their place. 



In considering new and extensive schemes of carbon- 



