November 29, 19 17] 



NATURE 



255 



i<raphical work is reported. The trigonometrical 

 branch has necessarily been curtailed in its activities, 

 the scientific work of that branch (astronomical, mag- 

 netic, and tidal) making ud its chief record, with but 

 little reference to the extension of geodetic triangula- 

 ion. In the department of map publication there has 

 M>en great activity, the total number of maps published 

 0^6,329) during the year being in excess^ of that of 

 the year previous. T. H. H. 



MODERX DEVELOPMENTS OF THE GAS 

 INDUSTRY. 



OWING to sudden illness, Mr. W. B. Worthington 

 asked at the end of October to be released 

 from the duties of the presidency of the Institution of 

 Civil Engineers. Mr. Harry Jones, who has been 

 elected to succeed him, delivered the presidential ad- 

 dress before the institution on November 6. Mr. 

 Jones is the chairman of the High Explosives Com- 

 mittee, of which Lord Moulton is president, and is the 

 tirst member of the gas engineering profession who 

 has occupied the chair at the Institution of Civil 

 Engineers. In his address he dealt with modern de- 

 velopments in gas practice, how far the practice has 

 been making itself useful during the war, the fresh 

 prospects it has in the coming time of peace, and, 

 finally, the special qualification of the gas engineer 

 and the work he has to do. Subjoined are extracts 

 from the address. 



There has come about in the work of the gas 

 engineer an entire revolution. We used to be called 

 "gas light companies," and the ancient Act of Parlia- 

 ment used to speak of " furnishing a luminous vapour." 

 The revolution that I speak of is in the fact that the 

 use of gas for direct lighting has become almost ex- 

 tinct, and there ha:^ been an enormous development 

 of gas as pure fuel, both for domestic and trade pur- 

 poses, as well as for motor-cars. So extensive has the 

 growth been that it is estimated that, allowing for the 

 use of incandescent mantle burners, not 5 per cent, of 

 the whole output is now used for direct illumination. 



The fuel and engine use varies as the towns are 

 more or less industrial, but evidence is not wanting 

 that that also is growing very rapidly. For instance, 

 in the East of London the Royal Mint melts the whole 

 of the coinage by gas furnaces, and Messrs. Roth- 

 schild's large refinery uses the same means of smelting. 

 It is remarkable that the gas company which furnishes 

 that supply, having made fuses for war purposes, was 

 found to have by its furnaces melted the metal with 

 such good effect as to produce an alloy so superior 

 that the company has been specially asked to sm^t 

 metals on a large scale for the Munitions Department, 

 and is now carrying out a considerable amount of 

 smelting for that department, and you may be in- 

 terested to learn that this is entirely done by women 

 operators. 



Sir Robert Hadfield has stated that in his Sheffield 

 works he uses as much as 500,000,000 cub. ft. of gas 

 per annum for smelting and metallurgical purposes, 

 which represents the output of 45,000 tons of coal. 

 Mr. Hanbury Thomas, the manager of the Sheffield 

 Gas Company, has stated that his company has no 

 fewer than 642 furnaces, consuming ^72,000,000 cub. ft. 

 of gas, at work in his district, while 15,116 h.p. gas 

 engines consume 789,000,000 cub. ft. From Birming- 

 ham, Manchester, Glasgow, and, indeed, from all the 

 manufacturing tow-ns, we hear similar statements. For 

 such purposes the cleanliness, flexibility, intensity of 

 heat, and control of gas fuel must be very great con- 

 siderations indeed. The effect of all these useS of gas 

 has been to level the load factor and to remove the 



NO. 2509, VOL. 100] 



maximum demand peak from night-time in midwinter, 

 which was formerly the time when people wanted 

 special light, and often some heat ; but to-day the mid- 

 day cooking hour on a summer Sunday forms the 

 peak in the industrial suburbs of London. There is 

 no hour which demands so much gas as that par- 

 ticular hour on a July Sunday. 



An important result of these extended uses ijf i^as 

 appliances has been their ready applicability to the 

 rapid furnishing of munitions on emergency. Acknow- 

 ledgment is due to makers of furnaces and stove 

 plants for the aptitude and energy shown by them in 

 forcing their output to meet the stress of war, in face 

 of scarcity of materials and labour. Moreover, they 

 have devised a great variety of useful and ingenious 

 plant for facilitating processes of all kinds and for 

 speeding up output, and these have been eagerly 

 accepted by those engaged on munition works. 



But, quite apart from general service of this kind, 

 a special direct supply of high explosive material was 

 effectively furnished at short notice in adequate quan- 

 tities to the War Department, and, although I must 

 not enlarge upon this, I have obtained Lord Moulton 's 

 permission to quote to you the full and generous recog- 

 nition he has given publicly to these services of the 

 gas industry. Among other complimentary and gener- 

 ous expressions he has stated : — "Without the direct 

 aid of the gas industry, and, further than that, the 

 assistance and the knowledge which have been 

 acquired by those who devote their lives to it, it would 

 have been perfectly impossible for this country to have 

 waged the campaign of the last three years, or even 

 for any but a trifling time resist the overwhelming 

 floods of enemies that were poured upon it. When I 

 first was asked to take charge of the manufacture and 

 production of explosives, it took me but a few days 

 to realise my absolute dependence on your great in- 

 dustry. My appeal to the leaders to assist me was 

 made immediately. . . . The response has been so 

 splendid that we have become, I might almost say, 

 affluent where I expected nothing but pauperism, and 

 gradually w^e have seen ourselves creeping up to an 

 equality with the supplies that our enemies have been 

 piling up year after year in anticipation of a war that 

 they intended to bring upon us, until now I think that 

 our anxiety in this department, which at first was 

 probably the keenest anxiety of all, has passed away 

 through your assistance." 



The explanation of this graceful acknowledgment is 

 that at the time the appeal was made there was in the 

 hands of the gas engineer neither a process nor plant 

 for the recoverv of one special requirement. For the 

 best process the plant foundations and housing wanted 

 months for execution. But Dr. Carpenter found that 

 by using our own tar as a solvent at a suitable tem- 

 perature and diverting part of our existing plant from 

 its normal use, the greater part of the recovery could 

 be effected at once, and that, too, by gasworks below 

 the scale justifyins^ the special plant being erected. 

 Lord Moulton sanctioned this departure, and within a 

 fortnight some of us got going on the Carpenter pro- 

 cess, and began to "deliver the goods," which were 

 at that time very vital. So much has been needed 

 since that we have mostly installed the more complete 

 plant on large-scale works, but no profit at all is got 

 out of this ; moreover, the service of the chiefs of the 

 staff for organising the co-operation of all the gas 

 undertakings in this w'ork has been furnished by the 

 gas companies without anv charge whatever to the 

 Government, and many other accommodations have 

 been gratuitously afforded. 



The extended number and varietv of processes aris- 

 ing in the prosecution of war service generally in the 

 furnishing of munitions inevitably lead us to the con- 

 sideration of how far these processes will help us in 



