June 21, 1917] 



MATURE 



Ov5> 



tions, and the researches are assisted by a grant from 

 the Treasurj-. The income during the past year was 

 above 70,000!., an increase of nearly 2o,oooZ. over 

 that of the preceding year. The major part of this 

 total is received in payments for work done, and this 

 involves a serious financial liability. Much attention 

 has been given recently to the question of the future 

 of the laboratory, and in particular, to its relations 

 with the Department of Scientific and Industrial Re- 

 search, and a scheme will no doubt be arranged 

 whereby close relations with the department will be 

 established. 



PEAT AND ITS USES. 



CONSIDERABLE interest attaches to a recent 

 article in La Nature on "Peat," in view of the 

 increasing attention being paid to the use of this sub- 

 stance tQ replace coal in countries in which the latter 

 is absent or difficult to obtain. The author of the 

 article, M. Renie, discusses concisely the distribution 

 of peat-beds in the various countries, the treatment 

 (dr\-ing and pressing) of peat and its uses. He does 

 not pretend that it can compete successfully with coal, 

 except where freights for the transport of the latter are 

 excessive. The best solution, he suggests, is to transform 

 it on the spot into energy, and to recuperate the by- 

 products. The drying and mechanical treatment must 

 be carefully carried out so as to render the fuel as 

 homogeneous as possible. The pressing operation in* 

 creases the specific gravity of dried peat from 07 to 

 103. The cost of treating is not high. Ekenberg has 

 shown that peat heated for a short time at a ternpera- 

 ture above 150° C. loses its gelatinous consistency, 

 and thus allows of its being dried by compression. 

 The final product is usually converted into briquettes 

 without the addition of a "binder." 



Peat in the agglomerate form has not, however, 

 proved satisfactory in practical use, and to get over 

 the difficulty the use of peat in powdered form has 

 been proposed, a factory having been opened at Back 

 •(Sweden) to carrj-- out a process invented by Ekelund, 

 which is kept secret. Special grates have to be used 

 for burning powdered peat, and in steam-raising in 

 -boilers large grate areas and closely spaced bars, 

 together with modification of the furnace draught, are 

 necessary. 



In connection with the use of peat for steam-raising, 

 the following quantities of steam are raised from 

 I kilo of the following : — Compressed peat, 4-3 kg. ; 

 "half "-coke, 6-6 kg.; coal, 7-4 kg. Peat can be 

 carburised for the extraction of coke and volatile 

 products, a Ziegler ccntinuous-type furnace being 

 generally used in Germany and Russia. Peat coke 

 can be used for metallurgical purposes, and the 

 " half-coked " peat for steam-raising. Particulars of 

 the proces.s are given in the article. It is also possible 

 to extract ammonia water and tars, the latter giving, 

 on distillation, light and heavy oils and phenol. The 

 yield of methyl alcohol is about 37 kg. from a ton of 

 peat, and 3 kg. ammonia sulphate and 9 kg. of acetate 

 of lime. 



Peat is successfully used in Sweden, in combination 

 with a gas-producer, for working engines of the 

 "waste-jjas" type. From one ton of peat 2000 to 

 3000 cubic metres of gas, giving from 1200 to 1400 

 calories per cubic metre, are obtained. As the author 

 points out, special care is needed in purification. 



Peat is advantageously used as a litter, owing to its 

 deodorising properties, while- during the war the Ger- 

 mans have employed it extensively as a substitute for 

 absorbent cotton for bandages. Its antiseptic proper- 

 ties are well kno\Mn E. S. Hodgson. 

 NO. 2486, VOL. 99] 



SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.^ 

 "pOR the past three years war and the consequences 

 -*■ of war have dominated our thoughts and com- 

 pelled our actions. May we not hope now that the 

 time is coming when we shall reap the fruits of the 

 heroic efforts of those who have died that England 

 might live? How can we best learn the lessons of 

 this terrible time and turn the experience we have 

 gained to the future welfare of our country? The 

 question is much too wide and far-reaching to be dealt 

 with in a single lecture, and it is beyond my powers 

 to attempt to handle it in a general manner.' I wish 

 to deal only with one aspect. 



We realised at a very early date that science was 

 to be an important factor in success, and while against 

 the heroism of our men all that the science of our foes 

 could do proved unavailing, it was clear that braverv 

 and self-sacrifice without the aid which science could 

 bring would fail to give us victory. Let me remind 

 you of some few of the methods in which scientific 

 investigation has aided our cause; they are so obvious 

 as to need little more than a passing reference. 



Take flying, for example. Every part of a modern 

 aeroplane is the product of a highly specialised science. 

 In the machine itself, to combine strength with light- 

 ness, to select the right material for each part, ta 

 design the wings so that they may bear the greatest 

 weight and offer the least resistance to the motion, to 

 give the body ample strength to withstand the shocks 

 of alighting, and yet not weight the machine 

 unduly — all these points and many others have 

 been the subject of long and difficult scientific exam- 

 ination. 



At the National Physical Laboratory there are five 

 wind channels continually in use to test on models all 

 the various factors on which the aerodynamic efficiency 

 of a machine depends. Two of these channels are 

 7 ft. in diameter and nearly' 80 ft. in length ; in one 

 wind speeds up to sixty miles an hour can be obtained. 

 The model is attached to a specially designed balance, 

 or dynamometer, and the forces it experiences . in 

 various positions relative to the wind are measured; 

 from these data the behaviour of the machine in flight 

 is determined. Here Mr. Bairstow and his colleagues 

 have worked out the practical conditions of stabilitv 

 of motion and determined by many ingenious devices 

 the constants which occur in the theory. That theory 

 was first given in a general form by Bryan, the theory 

 of the disturbed motion of a body moving in three 

 dimensions, under gravity, the thrust of the propeller, 

 and the resistance of the air. The quadratic which 

 gives the energy in terms of the six co-ordinates arid 

 velocities corresponding to the six degrees of freedom 

 of the bodv contains twenty-one constants. Conditions 

 of symmetry- reduce these in number; the air channel 

 experiments afford the means for determining their 

 values, and thus predicting the properties of the 

 machine. The work at Teddington would have proved 

 of little value without the corresponding full^cale 

 experiments brilliantlv carried out at Farnborough by 

 two Cambridge men, E. H. Busk and Keith Lucas, 

 who gave their lives for the cause, and now continued 

 by two other Cambridge men, Farren and George 

 Paget Thomson. The name of Busk is, I trust, to be 

 commemorated in Cambridge by a scholarship founded 

 in his memory by friends who admired his powers and 

 loved the man. 



But it is' not only in the structure of the aeroplane 

 that science has done its part. The engine brought 

 problems of the highest complexity, which are being 



1 From the Rerie lecture, <?elivered at Cambridge on June q by Sir 

 Richard Gla^ebrook, C.B., F.R.S. 



