January 30, 19 19] 



NATURE 



435 



smelters to erect new works, and by the middle of 

 [917 tin price had come down to 50"! 



rin- need for war purposes was thus met, but it 

 was obviou-K dangerous to have to depend on outside 

 sources to so great an 1 utenl t « >i what was an essential 

 material fi>r war as well as for peace. The first step 

 taken was to diverl th< stream of zinc concentrates 

 which had flowed from Australia to Germany, and 

 make them flow from Australia to this country. That 



has I" 1 11 doni I h Si ■ ssrnlial raw materials have been 



diverted permanently, I believe to this country. The 

 raw material having been sei were taken 



to increase the plant available for smelting the ore 

 into metal and for the manufai tore of zinc sheets, 

 and the zinc smelters in this country were got togi thei 

 and arrangements made whereb; theii plan!-, were 

 doubled, and in some cases trebled. I'nfoi tunah-K , 

 before these extensions were completed the shipping 



position from Australia became so serious thai all 

 shipments of zinc ore from that quarter had to 



But that difficulty should soon disappear, and with 

 the ore coming in freely, and labour and coal avail- 

 able for working the increased plants, the home pro- 

 duction of spelter should reach 140,000 tons per 

 annum, as against 32,000 tons before the war. The 

 production of zinc oxide has also been encouraged, 

 and on a war basis we are self-supporting, and there 

 is no reason why we should not be self-supporting on 

 a peace basis. 



Potash. — Potash is essential for fertilisers and in 

 certain industries, particularly dyes, drugs, and glass 

 production. There are no known natural deposits in 

 this country. Germany possesses large natural de- 

 posits, and we depended for our pre-war supplies of 

 30,000 tons per annum entirely on potash brought in 

 from the Stassfurt mines. The war put an end to 

 this source of supply, and it became necessary to find 

 alternative sources. Investigation revealed the fact 

 that 50,000 tens of potash were going to waste every 

 year in the dust or fume from blast-furnace gases. 

 I hi problem of collecting these dusts was a difficult 

 one. The only known method was the Halberg-Beth 

 svstem — a German invention. This was complicated, 

 and required a large amount of steel and labour. 

 The design has been modified to ensure greater trust- 

 worthiness, lower capital cost, and a small quantity of 

 steel. Plants in hand and those in course of erection 

 without these modifications should produce 18,000 tons 

 of potash per annum. In addition, the Ministry has 

 initiated an entirely new method of gas-cleaning for 

 the collection of potash-bearing dust from blast-furnace 

 gases. Two large-sized plants are being erected at two 

 blast-furnace works which should produce about 

 1600 tons per annum. It is confidently hoped that, 

 when these are working, similar plants will be exten- 

 sively installed, and a considerable increase in potash 

 production obtained. 



Magnetos. — Modern warfare, and a great part of 

 modern transport and of modern industry, depend on 

 the magneto. In the air it is an 1 ssential source of 

 power and movement. The position of this country in 

 1 1 » t 4 in regard to the production of magnetos was ver 

 grave. Only one firm Messrs. Thomsori-Bennett Mag- 

 netos, Ltd., of Birmingham was producing magnetos. 

 Its output for 1913-14 was 1140 magnetos of a 

 simple type. The Admiralty and the War Office en- 



ments by importa- 

 tion, but by July, iot.^, it had become evident that 

 if we continued to depend on imported magnetos our 

 war effort would be terribh hampered. Tin Admiralty 

 then undertook to foster the supply of home-produced 



magnetos for all the fighting Services, and continued 



this work until it was taken 0V6I bj the Ministry of 

 Munitions in April, in'7. 



NO. 2570, VOL. 102] 



I he problems to be overcome were main and diffi- 

 cult. Suitable in , not obtainable in the 

 British Isles, r the necessarj hard rubber insulating 

 material, or line copper-i amelled wire, or oiled silk 

 01 paper for insulation. F01 thi besl qualitj enamelled 

 we have still to depend to some extent on the 

 U.S.A., and for oiled silk on Jaj nese fabric. But the 

 progress made in providing these four essential 

 materials at home has been wonderful. If we are 

 entirely self-supporting, we soon should be. 



Instead of one firm producing only 1140 magnetos 

 in a year, as was the case in 1014. Wi now have some 

 en firms producing 128,037 magnetos in a year. 

 The monthly output at the beginning of the war* was 

 100, the output for October last 18,000, that 

 being the largest figure yet reached. It is not only 

 that we are producing in quantity, which makes us 

 independent of outside sources; the quality of the 

 British magneto is also the highest in the world. It 

 is lighter in weight and more trustworthy in service 

 than the Bosch magnetos manufactured before the 

 war, or than the latest examples found in captured 

 German aeroplanes. 



Ignition Plugs. — The ignition plug ranks with the 

 magneto in importance, and it presented similar diffi- 

 culties. The pre-war output of this country was in- 

 significant. There were three firms manufacturing, 

 and their total output for all purposes during 1914 

 was not more than 5000. To-day five firms in the 

 country are producing mica plugs, and their output 

 for the year ending October 31 last was 2,148,726. The 

 October output was 303,449, as compared with a 

 monthly output of 420 in 1914. It is gratifying to be 

 able to state that the French, Italian, and American 

 Services endeavoured to obtain British plugs. But 

 there is room for further improvement in the design 

 of mica sparking plugs for aircraft work. I think we 

 can safely rely on our manufacturers not to rest and 

 be thankful, but to make the British plug not only the 

 best in the world — it is that already — but the best that 

 science and mechanical skill can make. 



Glass Industry. — This country very nearly lost the 

 war owing to the fact that it was almost entirely 

 dependent on Germany and Austria for scientific and 

 optical glass, and to the backwardness of our glass 

 industry taken as a whole. There were a few refresh- 

 ing exceptions — firms which had kept the flag flying — 

 but generally it is true to say that we were dependent 

 on Germany and Austria for supplies essential to 

 success in war and for a wide range of peace purposes. 

 Optical and Scientific Instruments. — Prior to the war 

 the optical and scientific instrument industry in this 

 country was in a lamentable condition, the trade hav- 

 ing practically degenerated into a collection of middle- 

 men who mainly sold instruments completely manufac- 

 [111 d in foreign countries or bought in foreign parts and 

 assembled them in this country. All that has been 

 swept away bv the bitter necessities of war. Our out- 

 put has increased at least twenty times, and we are 

 now self-supporting. Our pre-war output of optica! 

 glass amounted to about 10 per cent, of our peace 

 requirements, the balance coming principally as to 

 60 per cent, from Germany and Austria and 30 per 

 cent, from France. Our output has developed to such 

 an extent that it is now in excess of that which can 

 be absorbed by this country even under the most 

 favourable conditions in peace-time, and we must look 

 to the di vi lopment of foreign markets, which previoush 

 were the monopoly of Zeiss, of Jena, for disposing 

 of the balance of our home-produced supplies. 



Dial-sights. — It is a humilial ion to have 



to make, but it is a fact that at the outbreak of war 

 a considerable part of our artiller was equipped with 

 gun-sights exclusively manufactured in Germany. The 



