CHINA'S PETRIFIED 

 SUN-RAYS x 



HERBERT CHATLEY, D.Sc. (London) 



The majority of people do not realize that the basis of 

 what is termed modern civilization is not so much Christianity 

 or the Keformation or Grseco-Eoman political ability or a 

 mysteriously omnipotent character in the European, but 

 simply and almost wholly the exploitation of coal or petro- 

 leum. England maintains effective union with a great 

 Empire because she has applied coal to navigation. (Nowa- 

 days one ton of coal will carry one ton of cargo 20,000 miles 

 in large ships). America, France, Japan (and until recently 

 Germany) owe their enormously rapid growth and world-wide 

 influence to the possession and use of large supplies of coal. 

 Japan, unless she can obtain Manchurian and Chinese coal, 

 will not rise greatly above her present degree of development, 

 and England herself is doomed to loss of preeminence as soon 

 as her coal supplies fail as they probably will do in the course 

 of very few centuries. This last pessimistic remark perhaps 

 needs a little explanation. The coal in England is already 

 difficult to get owing to depth and water, and the largest 

 estimates do not indicate that it will be worth while to mine 

 the mineral after some three or four hundred years. The 

 efficient electrical transmission of energy may enable Eng- 

 land's water-power to maintain her industries at the present 

 status but other countries such as the U.S.A. will by that 

 time have grown enormously. 



In order to explain very simply how this extraordinary 

 state of affairs comes about, perhaps you will allow the 

 speaker to state a few simple facts about coal. One pound 

 of coal used in a moderately efficient steam engine will pro- 

 duce about one-third of a horse-power for an hour, or since a 

 man working hard produces about one-tenth of a horse-power, 

 three pounds of coal are equivalent to the work of an un- 

 skilled labourer for a day. Taking Chinese conditions, it 

 follows that the real value of coal in terms of labour at even 

 as low a wage as $0.20 per man per day is at least one hundred 



1 Read before the Society, February 26th, 1920. 



