178 

will make it a source of inspiration to every worker in 
the field of which it treats. 
A word of tribute should be paid to the Sudan 
Government for its enlightened policy in guaranteeing 
the amount necessary to permit publication. 
C. G, SELIGMAN. 

The Utilisation of Coal. 
The University of Sheffield: Department of Fuel Tech- 
nology. Coal: a Series of Lectures on Coal and its 
Utilisation. By H. Chamberlain, J. W. Cobb, R. 
Lessing, F. S. Sinnatt, and M. C. Stopes. Pp. iii 
+41. (London: The Colliery Guardian Co., Ltd., 
1922.) 55. 
HIS publication in book form of the series of 
lectures on coal and its utilisation, delivered 
recently under the auspices of the Department of Fuel 
Technology of the University of Sheffield, renders the 
lectures available to a larger audience than that to 
which they were originally addressed. Each one is the 
work of an authority of acknowledged eminence in the 
particular branch of the subject treated, and, while of 
course containing nothing absolutely new, presents a 
clear and accurate picture of the present state of our 
knowledge brought thoroughly up-to-date. Perhaps 
the chief cause for regret is that the head of the Depart- 
ment of Fuel Technology, Prof. Wheeler, did not himself 
contribute to this series of lectures. 
The first lecture, by Dr. Marie Stopes, deals with the 
subject which she has made peculiarly her own—the 
constitution of coal and the identification of the four 
constituents which she has isolated. This classical 
piece of work, at first merely of scientific interest, is 
gradually assuming an aspect of economic importance 
owing to the widely different properties of the various 
constituents. Wheeler and Lessing have shown, for 
example, that the coking“property of coal appears to 
pertain almost wholly to the clarain and vitrain, fusain 
being quite and durain almost completely non-coking. 
At the same time, other researches would indicate that 
methods of separating these constituents on a com- 
mercial scale are at any rate possible of attainment, a 
measure of success having already been achieved in this 
direction by means of froth flotation. It is obvious 
that such a process may present great industrial possi- 
bilities and that it should be capable of greatly increas- 
ing the available supplies of coal suitable for the 
production of good metallurgical coke. Dr. Marie 
Stopes has not herself discussed this aspect of the 
question, although it is referred to in some of the later 
lectures ; it may, however, be admitted that it is 
scarcely ripe yet for anything more than the passing 
reference which it here receives. 
NO. 2780, VOL. 111] 
NATURE 









































[FEBRUARY 10, 1923 _ 
It is probably not the fault of Mr. F. S. Sinnatt, who 
deals with the preparation of coal for the market, that 
his subject is so wide that it is impossible to do anything 
like justice to it in so short a space ; hence the lecture 1 is 
necessarily of a sketchy chuntcien and gives but little 
indication of the more modern developments of this 
important branch of technology. Mr. Sinnatt devotes 
a paragraph to the method of froth flotation, but does 
not attempt any discussion of the theoretical principles 
upon which this process is based ; indeed, throughout 
his lecture he omits any explanation of the scientific 
principles upon which the various processes depend, 
though undoubtedly such discussions would have added 
very much to the value of his contribution. 
The third lecture, by Dr. R. Lessing, is on the car- 
bonisation of coal. The four main products of the 
decomposition of coal—the solid, the viscous, the liquid, 
and the gaseous—are dealt with, and the importance of 
each is pointed out, and the effect upon it of the differ- 
ent methods of conducting carbonisation. Dr. Lessing 
gives a full account of his own method of carrying out 
laboratory coking tests and indicates their practical 
application ; at the same time he shows clearly the 
difficulties of following in detail the course of the cokin 
operation on a large scale owing to its great complexity 
and to the number of varied changes that are taking 
place simultaneously. This is a very wide subject and 
one of very great importance ; it may be noted that 
almost simultaneously with the appearance of the work 
under review, the Society of Chemical Industry has 
published an important paper by Sir George Beilby on 
the structure of coke, its origin and development, which 
is wholly devoted to the minute study of a detail wh ich 
Dr. Lessing is perforce compelled to dismiss in a fey 
lines. Dr. Lessing’s lecture concludes with a review of 
the three types of industrial carbonisation, in gas works 
in coke ovens, and in low temperature plant, although it 
may well be held that the term “ industrial” is muc 
too flattering a term to attach to the last-named proces 
as it exists to-day. } 
- In the fourth lecture Mr. Horace Chamberlain deals 
with the purification of coal gas from the gas-maker’s 
point of view; his contribution is in every sense an 
admirable one, clear, concise, and yet setting out the 
principles of the various processes in sufficient detai 
Perhaps the only cause for regret is that he has passed 
over the Burkheiser process for the utilisation of the 
sulphur in coal gas in somewhat too summary a fashio ns 
It is true that this has not been a success up to _ 
present, but it is by no means impossible that th 
process may contain the germs of a highly success. ul 
practice in the future. 
The last lecture, by Prof. Cobb, is on ammonia na 
coal, in which the author shows clearly, as the result of 

