NATIONAL POWER AND COAL 167 
Williams recognised the difficulties and economic 
dangers of restricting exports, and suggested that 
Government encouragement should be given for the 
development of coal resources in other parts, Cape 
Breton, for instance. 
But to-day it will not help the world as a whole to 
waste coal outside as well as inside the United Kingdom ;- 
other counsels must prevail. I will not repeat the 
general suggestions for coal economy, much as I have 
some of them—the use of powdered fuel, for instance— 
at heart ; rather let me present an aspect of the subject 
generally neglected. 
The “ analyses ”’ of coal given by the chemist denote 
merely the proportions of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, 
nitrogen and ash in the sample. Sometimes the amount 
of sulphur is determined. Thus a typical coal analysis 
is as follows— 
(oF H. 0. N. s. Ash. 
7481 % 498% 4:99% 122% 0:96% 3:04% of 100 parts of coal. 
What indication is there here of the molecular com- 
plexity of the mummied plants of which it is composed ¢ 
What indication of the complexity which, out of 100 lb. 
of coal, yielded 23 02. of benzol, less of toluol, and + oz. 
of Perkin’s mauve?’ There is obviously no indication 
in such analyses of the true combinations of the elements 
into chemical compounds, nor of the type of compounds 
into which they may be converted. Mauve and toluol 
and countless other products obtained from coal are 
valuable and costly, but I know of no rational efforts to 
attempt to discover what it is in the coal which is their 
