September 8, 3911] 



SCIENCE 



301 



ply is being exhausted has been increasing 

 very steadily for the last forty years, as 

 any one can prove by mapping the data 

 given on page 27, table D, of the General 

 Report of the Royal Commission on Coal 

 Supplies (1906). In 1870 110 million tons 

 were mined in Great Britain, and ever 

 since the amount has increased by three 

 and a third million tons a year. The 

 available quantity of coal in the proved 

 coalfields is very nearly 100,000 million 

 tons; it is easy to calculate that if the rate 

 of working increases as it is doing our coal 

 will be completely exhausted in 175 years. 

 But, it will be replied, the rate of increase 

 will slow down. Why? It has shown no 

 sign whatever of slackening during the last 

 forty years. Later, of course, it must slow 

 down, when coal grows dearer owing to 

 approaching exhaustion. It may also be 

 said that 175 years is a long time; why, I 

 myself have seen a man whose father 

 fought in the '45 on the Pretender's side, 

 nearly 170 years ago! In the life of a 

 nation 175 years is a span. 



This consumption is still proceeding at 

 an accelerated rate. Between 1905 and 

 1907 the amount of coal raised in the 

 United Kingdom increased from 236 to 

 268 million tons, equal to six tons per head 

 of the population, against three and a half 

 tons in Belgium, two and a half tons in 

 Germany and one ton in France. Our 

 commercial supremacy and our power of 

 competing with other European nations 

 are obviously governed, so far as we can 

 see, by the relative price of coal ; and when 

 our prices rise, owing to the approaching 

 exhaustion of our supplies, we may look 

 forward to the near approach of famine 

 and misery. 



Having been struck some years ago with 

 the optimism of my non-scientific friends 

 as regards our future, I suggested that a 

 committee of the British Science Guild 



should be formed to investigate our avail- 

 able sources of energy. This guild is an 

 organization, founded by Sir Norman 

 Lockyer, after his tenure of the presidency 

 of this association, for the purpose of en- 

 deavoring to impress on our people and 

 their government the necessity of viewing 

 problems aff'ecting the race and the state 

 from the standpoint of science; and the 

 definition of science in this, as in other 

 connections, is simply the acquisition of 

 knowledge, and orderly reasoning on ex- 

 perience already gained and oil experi- 

 ments capable of being carried out, so as 

 to forecast and control the course of 

 events; and, if possible, to apply this 

 knowledge to the benefit of the human race. 



The Science Guild has enlisted the serv- 

 ices of a number of men, each eminent in 

 his own department, and each has now 

 reported on the particular source of energy 

 of which he has special knowledge. 



Besides considering the uses of coal and 

 its products, and how they may be more 

 economically employed, in which branches 

 the Hon. Sir Charles Parsons, Mr. Dugald 

 Clerk, Sir Boverton Redwood, Dr. Beilby, 

 Dr. Ilele-Shaw, Professor Vivian Lewes 

 and others have furnished reports, the fol- 

 lowing sources of energy have been brought 

 under review: The possibility of utilizing 

 the tides; the internal heat of the earth; 

 the winds; solar heat; water-power; the 

 extension of forests, and the use of wood 

 and peat as fuels; and lastly, the possi- 

 bility of controlling the undoubted but 

 almost infinitely slow disintegration of the 

 elements, with the view of utilizing their 

 stored-up energy. 



However interesting a detailed discus- 

 sion of these possible sources of energy 

 might be, time prevents my dwelling on 

 them. Suffice it to say that the Hon. R. J. 

 Strutt has shown that in this country at 

 least it would be impracticable to attempt 



