384 TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION B. 



In the natural course of events, tlie final disappearance of the wasteful bee- 

 hive coke-oven from this country is now only a matter of a few years; but I 

 venture to suggest that public interest would justify the Government fixing by 

 law a reasonable time-limit beyond which no beehive coke-oven installation 

 ■would be allowed to remain in operation, except by express sanction of the 

 State, and then only on special circumstances being proved. 



There is also much need of a better and more systematic chemdcal control, 

 in the public interest, of by-product coking plants. At present, in far too many 

 cases, the chemists employed in coke-oven laboratories are men who have 

 practically no chemical training other than that obtained in evening classes. 

 And, with few exceptions, the chemist, however competent he may be, is 

 entirely subordinated to the directing engineer, and regarded as a mere routine 

 analyst. I can say from personal knowledge that plants which are managed 

 and controlled by experienced chemists of broad training, combined with force 

 of character, yield much better results than those controlled by men without 

 such qualifications. 



And even dn this crisis, when so much depends on plants working, not only at 

 their maximum output capacities but also, chemically speaking, under con- 

 ditions calculated to ensure the highest yields of benzol and toluol, M'ith a 

 proper selection of coal, I doubt whether the measures which have been taken 

 to advise and supervise the coke-oven indu.s-try are really adequate from the 

 point of view of chemical control. I do know, for instance, that the experience 

 and resources of the majority of our University Departments of Applied 

 Chemistry, which specialise on Fuel Technology and cognate matters, have not 

 been as fully utilised as they might and ought to have been in this connection. 

 1 cannot for one moment imagine a similar state of things being permitted in 

 Germany, where we may be sure that nothing is being left undone in the way of 

 fully utilising all the available expert chemical and engineering knowledge 

 which can be brought to bear on this important aspect of war munitions, and I 

 will venture to say that, whatever may be the case in this country, in Germany 

 at least the staff and resources of no publicly maintained Department of Fuel 

 Technology w'ill not be fully employed on War problems. 



The coal-gas industry, which deals with some 20 million tons of coal per 

 annum, has, especially within recent years, shown a growing appreciation of 

 the aid of chemical science, in regard not only to the actual manufacture, but 

 also to the domestic and industrial uses of coal-gas. The endowment in 1910 

 by the industry of a special Chair at Leeds University in memory of the late 

 Sir George Livesey, of which I had the honour of being the first occupant, 

 was a sure sign of the faith of its leaders in the value of scientific research into 

 its special problems, and from personal knowledge and intercourse with gas 

 engineers I can assure my chemical colleagues that any serious interest taken 

 by scientific chemists in these problems, or in training men to tackle them, 

 will be welcomed by the industry, no matter from what quarter such help or 

 interest may come. For although the carbonisation of coal in gasworks is 

 efiiciently carried out, no one in the industry supposes that finality has been 

 reached, or that existing merthods and conditions cannot be improved under 

 better chemical control. 



And, moreover, the gas industry has just recently given a striking example 

 of the public benefit which may accrue from the wholehearted co-operation of 

 the chemist and engineer in the new nickel-catalytic process for the removal 

 of carbon bisulphide from coal-gas, which has been worked out and brought 

 to a successful issue by the combined skill and efforts of Dr. Charles Carisenter, 

 Mr. D. Gibb, and Mr. Evans, of the South Metropolitan Gas Company. They 

 have shown that the sulphur content (as CS^) of London coal-gas can be reduced 

 on a large scale, in regular day-to-day working, from nearly 40 drm. to about 

 8 grains per 100 cubic feet, without in any way deteriorating the quality of the 

 gas, at a cost (including interest and depreciation) of 0-299'-/. per 1000 cubic feet. 

 Such a striking success was, as Dr. Charles Carpenter acknowledge.s, only 

 achieved ' because of the unrestricted and unreserved collaboration of the 

 chemist and engineer.' Incidentally the gas industry is to be congratulated 

 on this tacit abandonment of the old contention that coal-gas was either none 

 the worse for the presence in it of a certain amount of sulphur impurity, or, 

 alternatively, if worse, that a minute amount of sulphur dioxide in the 



