July- 29, 1920]. 



NATURE 



695 



the large scale of its operations, offerfe the most pre- 

 mising field in the world for research in the domain 

 of education, which is the "key" to all original in- 

 vestigation, scientific or industrial, and in connection 

 with the national movement for reconstruction. It 

 includes the study of the mental development of the 

 individuals to be educated and the study of the 

 teaching methods most effective in securing that end. 

 It is therefore proposed to encourage and aid extended 

 educational research. The total estimated expenditure 

 of the Education Committee of the Council for 1920-21 is 

 estimated at 11,711,379/., being for elementary educa- 

 tion 9,351,294/. and for higher education 2,360,085/., of 

 which sum 5,514,206/. is raised from rates, or a rate of 

 25. 5d. in the pound. A forecast is given of the aidi- 

 tional expenditure in London arising out of the re- 

 quirements of the Education Act, 1918, which will in 

 1920-21 amount to 116,000/., and gradually increase until 

 in 1930-31 it is estimated that it will be 3,037,500/., of 

 which sum taxation will bear half the cost, the other 

 half being raised by an additional rate of Sd. in the 

 pound on the present assessment. The report extends 

 to 100 pages, and is abundantly illustrated by diagrams, 

 maps, tables, and illustrations, of buildings. 



The Society of Chemical Industry. 



THE Society of Chemical Industry held its thirty- 

 ninth annual general meeting at Newcastle-upon- 

 Tyne on July 13-16, this being the fourth occasion 

 upon which the society has selected Newcastle as its 

 meeting place. Appropriately enough, a series of 

 pajx'rs dealing with the manufacture of coke was 

 read and discussed at the first business meeting, 

 whilst the second was devoted to papers dealing mainly 

 with miscellaneous metallurgical questions. Simul- 

 taneously the Chemical Engineering Group of the 

 society held a conference devoted to problems con- 

 nected with filtration and allied methods of separating 

 liquids from solids. 



Among the first day's papers two dealt with coke- 

 oven construction. Mr. VV. A. Ward discussed 

 "Modern By-product Coke-oven Construction" from 

 the point of view both of the best type to be adopted 

 in different circumstances and of the details of 

 design of the oven itself. Mr. Ward pointed out that 

 the generally accepted view that the regenerative oven 

 is more efficient than the non-regenerative oven is not 

 strictly correct, and that in either case " the surplus 

 energy is the same, because the amount of heat neces- 

 l sary to coke the coal is the same. . . . The difference 

 I lies simply in the manner in which the surplus heat 

 is made use of." He showed that it is true that 

 the former type can generally produce a larger amount 

 of power available for use outside the coking plant, 

 but that this is due to the fact that the former uses 

 the more efficient form of power generation, namely, 

 I the gas engine as compared with the steam engine. 

 Mr. Ward remarked also that there is no reason 

 ; why any one of the various types of modern coke-oven 

 t should give better results than any other. He pro- 

 ceeded to give much useful information on details of 

 construction ; for example, he held strongly with the 

 advantages to be gained in most cases by compressing 

 the coal, but advocated th<? use of the modern elec- 

 trically driven top-charging machine instead of the 

 machine making a compressed cake of coal, which is 

 then pushed into the oven, and he gave short descrip- 

 tions of the modern methods for quenching, screening, 

 and loading th* coke. 



Mr. W. J. Rees contributed a paper on "The Cor- 

 rosion of Coke-oven Walls," which he attributed 

 mainly to the sodic chloride and sodic sulphate in the 

 NO. 2648, VOL. 105] 



coal, and pointed out that hot, moist air carrying salt 

 vapour has a highly corrosive action on fireclay bricks, 

 much mor€, in fact, than on other refractory bricks. 

 In the salt glazing of bricks the saline vapour is 

 allowed to come in contact with the brick only at a 

 temperature of about 1200° C, at which the chemical 

 action is rapid; in the coke-oven, on the contrary, 

 the walls of the oven never attain this temperature, 

 with the result that the salt vapour penetrates into 

 the interior of the brick and turns it into a weak, 

 spongy mass, easily broken away. It would appear 

 that the best brick for ovens carbonising salty coal 

 is a good silica brick. 



Mr. Harold E. Wright, in his paper " Coke-oven 

 Gas for Town Supply," showed that illuminating gas 

 can be produced more economically in the coke-oven 

 than in the gas retort, and that, wherever circurti- 

 stances permit of its adoption, the regenerative coke- 

 oven producing metallurgical coke can supply better 

 and cheaper gas to the town consumer than "can the 

 ordinary process of gas manufacture. 



Dr. E. W. Smith, in "By-products from Coke-oven 

 Gas," dealt with a similar subject from a somewhat 

 different point of view, but came to the same con- 

 clusion, stating that it is only necessary to remove 

 sulphuretted hydrogen from coke-oven gas in order 

 to make it suitable for town supply, and that experi- 

 ence at Birmingham has shown that the yields of by- 

 products from coke-ovens were jusi as good as from 

 horizontal gas retorts. 



Messrs. G. W. Henson and S. H. Fowles con- 

 tributed a paper on "The More Economical Utilisa- 

 tion of the Coke-oven and Blast-furnace Gases for 

 Heating and Power." They added numerous data 

 and calculations to support the view which has been 

 repeatedlv put forward w-ithin recent years, that with 

 regenerative coke-ovens built near the blast furnaces 

 and steelworks, and with proper cleaning of the blast- 

 furnace gases (for which they apparently prefer the 

 Halberg-Beth method), better' results are' obtained in 

 iron and steel manufacture and a large surplus of 

 power can be generated by means of gas engines, 

 which can supply all the power required bv a modern 

 iron and steel plant, whilst a considerable proportion 

 of the coke-oven gas can be utilised in the melting 

 furnace. They also suggest that a certain proportion 

 of the electricity generated can be applied to the 

 finishing of the steel manufacture in the electric fur- 

 nace, which they consider has no competitor as an, 

 appliance for refining steel. 



Amongst the metallurgical papers was one on. 

 (" Some Properties of 60-40 Brass " by Prof. C. H. 

 Desch. Such brass contains two constituents, the- 

 a solid solution containing 70 per cent, of copper and. 

 and ^ solid solution with 535 per cent, of copper; 

 this latter constituent is plastic at high temperatures', 

 and enables the metal to bo hot-rolled, worked, or 

 extruded. It was found in practice, however, that 

 such brass varied greatly in the ease with which it 

 could be machined, and the present paper deals with 

 the reasons for such variation, which was traced to. 

 differences of structure. A fine fibrous structure was 

 found to give the best results, and this can be obtained 

 by using brass containing as nearly as possible 40 per 

 cent, of zinc, extruded at a moderate temperature in 

 very powerful presses. 



Mr. D. W. Jones, in a paper on "Chemical Sheet- 

 Lead," showed the importance of using the purest 

 possible lead in connection with acid plant, but that 

 in case of need copper will to some extent counteract 

 the injurious effect of antimony and bismuth. 



Mr. D. F. Campbell described "Recent Develop, 

 ments of the Electric Furnace in Great Britain," and 

 showed the progress that had been made in this branch- 



