146 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 
(5) The cost of transmission of electric power as compared with the 
carriage of the equivalent coal by rail or ship. 
(6) The effect of a substantial reduction in the cost of generation on 
the cost of distribution and the selling price of electric energy. 
The first question to be considered is whether pit-head production will 
so much limit the position of the sources of supply as to involve a great 
distance of transmission to a large part of the population. 
If a distance of forty miles be regarded as still in the neighbourhood 
of the coalfields, a map of the coalfields shows that most of Great Britain 
is within this distance. A line across Scotland from Montrose to 
Arrochar on Loch Long is the northern boundary, and a line from Hull 
to Bournemouth, and up to Taunton in Devon, marks the southern and 
eastern limits. A small part of Wales is also outside. ‘Two-thirds of 
the population live in the area, and if London be omitted as a special 
case, only one-fifth of the rest are outside. There is also a probable 
coalfield in Lincolnshire, which if it materialises will bring in a good 
part of this fifth. To a large extent, the population has gathered round 
the coal pits, and there are practically no large towns, except seaports, 
that do not lie within easy reach. A scheme depending on nearness to 
coal pits will have a large field for its operations, and it will in no way 
act prejudicially on parts which it may not be able to benefit. 
It is proposed to use the lowest grade and waste coal, and the proportion 
required may be up to 10 per cent. of the total coal raised. If the outputs 
of the different areas be examined, it is found that this proportion will 
in all cases be adequate for the population of the area. In some areas— 
Durham, S. Wales, and part of Yorkshire—where there is much less waste 
coal, the quantity of coal raised is so large that not more than 2 per cent. 
will be required, which is easily provided from waste. 
The belt of coalfields which lie about 120 miles from London can 
provide enough for their own people and still have an excess of some 
three million tons per annum of cheap coal, which will suffice for London 
at present, but is not enough for the future. Hence London and the 
south may require a proportion of sea-borne coal. There is ample 
Midlands coal, but its use will entail the consumption of qualities for 
which a good price can be obtained for other purposes, and it will be a 
question of relative cost of sea-borne coal and electrical transmission. 
The prospective Lincolnshire field may solve the question in favour of 
direct supply from the pits. 
Inside the area the pit-head station will be more economical than the 
present stations. There are seventy or eighty selected large stations within 
the area, some with no river, many with rivers that will not suffice for a 
largely increased station, so that the sites have little to recommend them 
except nearness to large towns. They were advantageous in early years, 
when their cooling water was adequate and distance of transmission was 
an important matter ; but their future will be without these advantages, 
and their huge consumption of coal will make them undesirable neighbours 
in cities. Railway and canal facilities for coal transport were also 
attractive factors, but these disappear if it is cheaper to convey power 
electrically than to carry the equivalent coal over the distance. 
Any wholesale sudden change of the existing state of things would 
