













June 9, 1923] 
em. Increased costs must be incurred in the 
NATURE 
779 
syst the action between equal volumes of carbon monoxide 
distribution of the gas compared with those incurred 
in the case of straight coal gas. 
On one matter to which public attention has recently 
been directed we would remark that the possibility 
of converting the comparatively large percentage of 
carbon monoxide in water gas into carbon dioxide or 
methane is by no means a novel proposition either 
from the scientific or industrial point of view. Sabatier 
and his co-workers showed, many years ago, that in 
the presence of nickel, cobalt, or palladium, carbon 
_ monoxide and hydrogen at 230-400° C. react to form 
methane and water, thus : CO+3H,=CH,+H,0. This 
hydrogenation is subject to the important objection 
from the technical point of view that ‘while hydrogen 
must be present in excess, an equal volume of hydrogen 
must be added to water gas to provide the mixture 
theoretically necessary. This hydrogen can be derived 
from water gas, and the net result is that the yield 
of methane is only about 15 per cent. of the total 
water gas employed. Sabatier pointed out that by 
passing water gas over nickel at 400-500° C. the following 
reaction occurred; 3CO0+3H,=CH,+H,O+C+CO,. 
The carbon deposited on the catalyst may, at the same 
temperature, be caused to react with steam to form a 
mixture of hydrogen, methane, and carbon dioxide, 
whereby the catalyst is regenerated for use in the first 
phase of the process. Sabatier further suggested that 
both phases might be combined by passing water-gas 
and steam over a nickel catalyst at 4o0-500° C., when 
the following reaction occurs: 5CO+5H,+H,O= 
2CH, + 2H, + 3CO,. 
These various reactions are summarised in a recent 
paper by Drs. E. F. Armstrong and T. P. Hilditch, 
read before the Royal Society (see NatureE, February 
3, Pp. 168), in which they direct attention to a reaction 
between carbon monoxide and hydrogen which has 
hitherto apparently escaped notice. They find that 
Tepresented by 2CO+2H,=CO,+CH,. 
and hydrogen in the presence of nickel or a similar 
catalyst at temperatures below 300° is in the main 
It will be 
noticed that the gases carbon monoxide and hydrogen 
participate in the reaction very approximately in the 
relative proportions in which they are present in blue 
water gas, (43 per cent. CO, 48 per cent. H,). The 
reaction, though never complete, proceeds to a very 
considerable extent, and the authors consider the 
process may be of value in gas practice as the proportion 
of methane is 25 per cent. of the water gas decomposed, 
whereas by any of the other processes referred to the 
‘maximum possible yield is only 20 per cent. 
The idea of the technical utilisation of the first 
reaction referred to above for the production of 
methane, and the application of the reversible reaction 
CO+H,O=CO,+H, for the production of hydrogen 
-has recently been'revived in connexion with the Tully 
plants. It must be realised that little if any actual 
large-scale operations of this nature have hitherto been 
carried out. Considerable experience is necessary for 
the successful operation of catalytic plants operated 
at relatively high temperatures and dealing with the 
huge volume constituting a day’s make of towns’ gas 
in the case of even one of the smaller gas companies. 
‘It is contemplated that the plant required would be 
‘of the same nature as that designed for the catalytic 
purification of gas from sulphur compounds which is 
in successful operation in the works of the South 
“Metropolitan Gas Company. Operating charges would 
possibly amount to about 4d. per therm. It is question- 
able whether it would be technically feasible to remove 
the carbon dioxide produced. A suitable catalyst has 
been prepared, and small-scale operations in a plant 
capable of treating 200 cubic feet of gas per hour have 
been carried out. Large-scale operations constitute a 
much more difficult proposition. 
Obituary. ¢ 
; Mr. F. W. Harmer. 
BY the death on April 24 of Mr. Frederic William 
Harmer, within a few days of the completion of 
his eighty-eighth year, the county of Norfolk loses one 
of its most distinguished sons and East Anglia the 
penultimate survivor of a band of amateur and pro- 
fessional geologists to whom science is under deep 
is obligations, not merely for the elucidation of local 
problems, but for the establishment of principles and 
of methods of research of European or even wider 
application. 
Mr. Harmer, descended from a stock the most ancient 
in Norfolk, was early imbued with a love of science, 
especially of geology, and the fortunate chance of a 
meeting in 1864 with Searles V. Wood the younger 
directed his enthusiasm and energy along lines of 
research that, with one significant break, he followed 
to the end of his long and useful life. The two friends 
embarked upon the study of the records of the Ice Age, 
and, in pursuance of Wood’s conviction that accurate 
mapping of the glacial deposits was essential to the 
decipherment of their story, the task—never before 
attempted—was undertaken, and in the course of a 
_ few years an area of 2000 square miles was mapped on 
NO. 2797, VOL. 111] 
the scale of one inch to the mile. Harmer’s share was 
the county of Norfolk and the northern parts of 
Suffolk. 
Wood told the present writer that the young officers 
of the Geological Survey with whom he was often in 
conflict ought to be grateful to him and his friend 
because their demonstration of the practicability of 
mapping drift deposits had compelled the Survey to 
increase its staff. Copies of the map, claimed by its 
authors to be the first of its kind ever produced, have 
been deposited in the library of the Geological Society 
and in the Museums at Norwich and Ipswich, and a 
lithographed reduction of the eastern portion was 
appended by Wood to one of the supplements to his 
father’s great monograph of the Crag Mollusca. 
The period of his association with Wood, of whom 
Mr. Harmer always spoke with touching reverence and 
affection, was brought to a premature close by the 
complete breakdown of Wood’s health ending with his 
death in the early eighties. The loss of his friend and 
master acted as an effective damper upon Mr. Harmer’s 
geological activities, and for more than a decade he 
threw his energies into business and the multifarious 
duties of municipal life. 
