EDITORIAL. 
POWER-ALCOHOL FROM PEAT. 
Tt is reported that a new method of distilling alcohol from peat has 
been developed in Sweden. In that country peat is found over exten- 
sive areas to a depth of from 23 to 27 feet. It is stated that from 
100 kilos. (220 Ibs.) of dried peat about 6 litres (1.58 gallons) of 100 
per cent. alcohol can be obtained. This is about the same yield as that 
obtained from potatoes. The method of obtaining alcohol from peat 
is practically the same as that used in the treatment of the sulphite 
lyes from paper pulp. The peat is boiled under pressure with sulphuric 
acid, by which a sugar solution is obtained, together with certain 
residual products. After the acid has been utilized with lime, the 
sugar solution is formed and made into alcohol, the residue being 
collected and made into briquettes for fuel. It is reported that the 
experiments made with regard to this method of obtaining alcohol have 
been successful, and that the Swedish Government has agreed to the 
pbuilding of a distillery, on the understanding that the shareholders of 
the company shall have the right to produce and use the alcohol for 
motor cars, motor boats, &c., irrespective of Government prohibitions 
and price regulations. j 
INDUSTRIAL ART. 
A scheme for the establishment of a British Institute of Industrial 
Art has been prepared by the Board of Trade and the Board of Educa- 
tion, with the advice of the Royal Society of Arts and several well- 
known bodies of workers in Arts and Orafts. The aim of the promoters 
of this Institute is to “raise and maintain a standard of excellence 
in works of industrial art produced by British designers and manufac- 
turers, and in stimulating the demand” for achievement of the highest 
order. It is believed that one thing essential to permanent supremacy 
of British designers and craftsmen is the organization of some national 
intermediary between individual workers and the public, and it is hoped 
that the establishment of the proposed Institute will fill this need, and 
will stimulate the artist craftsman on the one hand, and on the other 
lead the general public to an appreciation of beauty of design and 
quality in workmanship. 
THE UNIVERSITY MAN IN INDUSTRY. 
The Universities of Great Britain have decided to co-operate with 
the Federation of British Industries in the formation of a Central 
Bureau to facilitate the entry of University-trained men into industry. 
Hor many years there has been a small, but constant stream of these 
men flowing into the industrial and commercial world, and it is stated 
that, when analyzed after a few years, this stream is found to contain 
an enormous proportion of really sound and successful men, with prac- 
tically no real failures. In the past, apart from the gradually dis- 
appearing distrust of the “theoretician,” there has been the feeling that 
a University Appointments Board cannot be really alive to the needs 
of the business man, and would recommend a student purely because 
he was a good student. This feeling will now obviously have no weight, 
since no one could accuse tle Federation of British Industry of having 
purely academic interests at stake. 
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