86 



NATURE 



[October 3. 19 18 



spite hi in t isolation, to provide herself with these 

 irii 

 1 i course, is needed lor motive power, for 

 iction ol coke for metallurgical purposes 

 the by-products of its distillation are required 

 for the manufacture of explosives. German}-, in 

 1912, produced 175,875,000 tons of coal, and im- 

 ported 10,480,000 tons, almost exclusively from 

 this country. As regards lignite, in the same year 

 her deposits furnished 80,934,800 tons; in addition 

 she imported 7,2711, 000 tons from Austria. During 

 the war she has seized large quantities of com- 

 bustibles in Belgium, the occupied provinces ol 

 France, and Luxemburg, some of which she has 

 been able to exchange with neighbouring neutral 

 countries for food and other necessaries. Her 

 main difficulties have been due, not to a shortage 

 of material, but to lack of transport and labour. 

 This last she has to some extent met by compelling 

 Belgian miners to work and by employing 

 prisoners of war. In addition she has rigorously 

 controlled consumption. Factories have been 

 limited in their stocks, and private consumers 

 restricted to 250 kilos, for each fireplace 

 per annum. The distribution is regulated by 

 a special commission, and the question of its 

 rational utilisation is entrusted to the Kaiser Wil- 

 helm Institut at Mulheim, under the direction of 

 Prof. Fischer. Great improvements are claimed 

 to have been made in coking and in the recovery 

 of by-products, which has been made compulsory. 

 Many central power stations have been installed, 

 using the large quantities of gas produced during 

 the coking process and from blast furnaces. There 

 can be little doubt that these measures will per- 

 manently benefit industry. It will be found that 

 we shall have much to learn from Germany con- 

 cerning the scientific use of coal, and we can only 

 hope to maintain our position by bettering her 

 example. 



As regards liquid combustibles she is much less 

 favourably situated. In 1913 she produced only 

 71,300 tons, and imported 745,000 tons, of which 

 the United States furnished 574,800 tons, and 

 Austria-Hungary 119,700 tons. The invasion of 

 Galicia by the Russians in 1915, of course, greatly 

 aggravated the situation, and the destruction 

 etle. ted by them on their retreat prevented the 

 Germans from immediately utilising the Galician 

 sources. They have now, to a large extent, re- 

 covered then,, as well as those of Rumania. The 

 consumption of petrol is severely restricted. So 

 serious was the deficiency at one period that from 

 May 1 to August 31, 1917, its sale by retailers 

 was absolutely forbidden. The institute at Mul- 

 heim studied the methods of extracting the hydro- 

 carbons from lignite tar, but with what success 

 does not appear. Germany even before the war 

 made use of mixtures of alcohol and benzol as 

 motor-fuel usually in the proportion of 75 per cent, 

 of alcohol and 25 per cent, of benzol. Such a 

 mixture cannot, however, be safely used for avia- 

 tion work, especially in winter. 



exploitation of the stores f <wtural gas 

 know:, to exist in Transylvania has ct actively 

 -553, vol. 102] 



pursued, aided by subsidies from the Deutsche 



Bank and the powerful Hungarian banks. The 



i gas is ahead) distributed to Budapest, and is 



used as a souk e of power at the 1 J .m. amide works 

 ol S/entmarlon. 



The provision of the various metals needed for 

 the purposes of war has, however, taxed 

 Germany's energies and her powers of organisa- 

 tion to the Utmost. 



As regards iron, in 1913 she raised 36 million 

 tons of ore, and imported nearly 12 million tons, 

 of which ne.iiK 7.I million tons came from France 

 and Spain, and 4I million tons from Sweden. She 

 lias, however, more than recouped herself for the 

 loss of the French and Spanish ore by her occupa- 

 tion of the Briey basin, which produced 15 million 

 tons in 1913. This ore is highly phosphatic, and 

 yields a basic slag of considerable value for agri- 

 cultural purposes. The production of cast-steel in 

 Germany has gone up by leaps and bounds during 

 the war. In September, 1914, she produced 

 663,000 tons, ( 100,000 tons in the following month, 

 and 1,650,000 tons at the same period two years 

 later. For a time she was able to barter her 

 manufactured iron with neutral countries in ex- 

 change for commodities of which she had more 

 urgent need. 



Germany possesses only very small deposits of 

 manganese ore ; in 1913 she imported 680,000 tons, 

 of which 447,000 tons came from Russia, and 

 178,000 tons from India. She had, however, con- 

 siderable stocks in hand on the outbreak of war, 

 which sufficed for her needs for some twenty 

 months of hostilities, thanks to the successful 

 efforts of her metallurgists to diminish the pro- 

 portion of ferro-manganese needed for the pro- 

 duction of steel. At the present time the greater 

 amount of manganese needed for German industry 

 comes from Siegerland. The limonites and braun- 

 ites of Nassau, as well as the deposits of Giessen, 

 Bingerbruck, and the Hartz, are also actively 

 worked. Manganiferous ores have been recently 

 discovered in Carniola and in the Elbogen district. 

 Thanks to the economies in the use of manganese 

 in the manufacture of steel, due mainly to the 

 action of the Mining and Industrial Society of 

 Germany and Luxemburg, and of the Hasper Com- 

 pany, which have gratuitously placed the results 

 of their investigations at the service of her steel- 

 makers, ( icrmany was able to reserve the Thu- 

 ringian and Hartz deposits exclusively for her 

 chemical industries. 



Of all the metals she needs, none has caused 

 her greater concern than the provision of copper. 

 In 1913 she imported 225,000 tons, of which 

 185,000 tons came from the United States, the 

 rest being furnished by England, Serbia, Sweden, 

 and Belgium. In this case she soon felt the influ- 

 ence of the blockade. As is well known, she has re- 

 morselessK requisitioned all articles ol copper and 

 brass, not only at home, but in Rclgium, Serbia, 

 Rumania, Russia, and wherever her armies have 

 penetrated or her submarines have been able to 



operate. Sin has substituted iron for copper when- 

 evet i 1 " ibl as in electric conductors and tele- 



