382 TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION B. 



of which 189 million tons (or, say, 4 tons per head of population) were consumed 

 at home more or less wastefully, it is indeed surprising how little has been 

 done, or is being done, by the scientific community to impress upon the 

 Government and the public generally the importance of establishing some 

 systematic control or investigation of fuel consumptions in all large industrial 

 areas. Deputations have waited upon the Government about the question of 

 reviving our languishing coal-tar colour industry, so that in future we may be 

 independent of Germany for the supply of the two million pounds' worth of 

 dye-stuffs required by our textile industries, and already a State-aided organisa- 

 tion, with an advisory scientific committee, has sprung into existence to achieve 

 that desirable result. But no organised body of scientific men, so fat as I 

 know, has ever thought it important, or worth while, to take an active interest 

 in the vastly greater subject of fuel economy and the proper utilisation of coal, 

 upon which the dyeing industry depends for its raw materials. 



It is unnecessary for me to remind you that the contending armies in this 

 Armageddon of the nations depend upon certain distillation products of coal 

 for their supplies of high explosives, and there is little doubt in my mind 

 but that Germany's violation of the neutrality of Belgium, and her subsequent 

 seizure of that country and of a large tract of Northern France, had more than 

 a purely political or strategic significance. She doubtless wanted also to seize 

 for herself, and at the same time to deprive her enemies of, coal-fields lying 

 just beyond her own borders, which are capable of furnishing abundant supplies 

 of coal admirably adapted for yielding the raw materials for the manufacture 

 of high explosives. A country in which all metallurgical coke has for years past 

 been manufactured under chemical supervision in by-product coking ovens with 

 recovery of ammonia, tar, and benzol, and in which the wasteful beehive coking 

 ovens have long ago ceased to exist, was hardly likely to overlook the military 

 importance of tTie Belgian coal-field with its many by-product coking plants. 

 And, moreover, but for German commercial acumen and enterprise, during 

 many years past, our own by-product coking industry would not have attained 

 even to its present respectable dimensions. Certainly, it owes very little to 

 the interest or attentions of British chemists, most of whom are^ unfortunately, 

 but little aware of its circumstances and conditions, and seem to care even less 

 for its particular problems. And yet in proportion to the capital outlay upon 

 it, it is one of the most profitable of all our chemical industries, coal-tar colour- 

 making not excepted. 



Fuel economy, and the proper utilisation of coal, whether in connection with 

 manufacturing operations or with domestic heating, will become one of the most 

 important national questions during the trying years that will follow hard upon 

 this war, because, of all diirections in which national economy can be most health- 

 fully and advantageously exercised, this is perhaps the mo.st obvious and pro- 

 lific. For it is tolerably certain that with an efficient and systematic public 

 supervision of fuel consumptions we ought to be able, even with existing 

 appliances, to save many millions of pounds of our annual coal-bill, and with 

 improved appliances still more millions, a saving which would in the long run 

 redeem a considerable amount of the War-loan, which has been much more easily 

 raised than it will be repaid. 



Now, I fear that not only are chemis's for the most part lamentably igno- 

 rant of the nature of coal, and of modern fuel technology, but they have been 

 for many years past so indifferent about such questions as to leave them almo.st 

 entirely to engineers, who, as a body, are notoriously deficient in chemical sense 

 and experience. The engineer has indeed not usurped the place of the chemist, 

 but has had to do his best to fill the position long since abdicated by the chemist. 

 This, indeed, seems strange when we remember that the foundations oi 

 modern chemistry were deeply laid by investigators who were, above all things. 

 ' fire-worshipper.?.' But, judging from most chemical text-books, nearly all that 

 the modern student of chemistry is taught in our academies about combustion 

 was known to Lavoisier, and I question whether in the majority of our 

 university laboratories any investigation upon coal or combustion as ever 

 undertaken. And yet the subject is full of the most fascinating and funda- 

 mental theoretical problems, for the most part unsolved, and the nation con- 

 sumes eveiy week as much coal as could be exchanged for the whole quantity of 

 aniline dyes used by its textile industries in a year. 



