OCTOBEK 24, 1919] 



SCIENCE 



383 



any audible sound. This is, I believe, in ac- 

 cordance with the theory now held as to X- 

 rays. We now have some information as to 

 the mode of producing a local excitement so 

 intense as to cause not merely atomic disturb- 

 ance, but actual disruption of the atomic struc- 

 ture. Further developments of Sir Ernest 

 JRutherford's experiments and of his theory 

 of their explanation will be eagerly awaited. 



A. Gray 



ENGINEERING SCIENCE BEFORE, DUR- 

 ING AND AFTER THE WAR. Ill 



The nations which have exerted the 

 most influence in the war have been those 

 which have developed to the greatest ex- 

 tent their resources, their manufactures 

 and their commerce. As in the war, so in 

 the civilization of mankind. But, viewing 

 the present trend of developments in har- 

 nessing water-power and using up the fuel 

 resources of the world for the use and con- 

 venience of man, one can not but realize 

 that, failing new and unexpected discover- 

 ies in science, such as the harnessing of the 

 latent molecular and atomic energy in 

 matter, as foreshadowed by Clerk Maxwell, 

 Kelvin, Rutherford and others, the great 

 position of England can not be maintained 

 for an indefinite period. At some time 

 more or less remote — long before the ex- 

 haustion of our coal — the population will 

 gradually migrate to those countries where 

 the natural sources of energy are the most 

 abundant. 



Water-power and Coal. — The amount of 

 available water-power in the British Isles 

 is very small as compared with the total 

 in other countries. According to the latest 

 estimates, the total in the British Isles is 

 less than 1,500,000 h.p., whereas Canada 

 alone possesses more than 20,000,000 h.p., 

 of which more than 2,000,000 h.p. have al- 

 ready been harnessed. In the rest of the 

 British Empire there are upwards of 30,- 

 000,000 h.p., and in the remainder of the 



world at least 150,000,000 h.p., so that 

 England herself possesses less than 1 per 

 cent, of the water-power of the world. 

 Further, it has been estimated that she 

 only possesses 2^ per cent, of the whole 

 coal of the world. To this question I 

 would wish to direct our attention for a 

 few minutes. 



I have said that England owes her 

 modern greatness to the early development 

 of her coal. Upon it slie must continue to 

 depend almost exclusively for her heat and 

 source of power, including that required 

 for propelling her vast mercantile marine. 

 Nevertheless, she is using up her resources 

 in coal much more rapidly than most other 

 countries are consuming theirs, and long 

 before any near approach to exhaustion is 

 reached her richer seams will have become 

 impoverished, and the cost of mining so 

 much increased that, given cheap trans- 

 port, it might pay her better to import 

 coal from richer fields of almost limitless 

 extent belonging to foreign countries, and 

 workable at a much lower cost than her 

 o'mi. 



Let us endeavor to arrive at some ap- 

 proximate estimate of the economic value 

 of the principal sources of power. The 

 present average value of the royalties on 

 coal in England is about $6 per ton, but 

 to this must be added the profit derived 

 from mining operations after paying royal- 

 ties and providing for interest on the 

 capital expended and for its redemption as 

 wasting capital. After consultation with 

 several leading experts in these matters, I 

 have come to the conclusion that about 

 Is per ton represents the pre-war market 

 value of coal in the seams in England. 



It must, however, be remembered that, 

 in addition, coal has a considerable value 

 as a national asset, for on it depends the 

 prosperity of the great industrial interests 

 of the country, which contribute a large 



