SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 
IMPORTATION OF EX-ENEMY PUBLICATIONS. 
The Institute of Science and Industry lately approached the Govern- 
ment with the request that the embargo at present placed on the impor- 
tation of scientific and technical publications of ex-enemy countries be 
removed. The Cabinet decided that scientific literature may be imported 
subject to a list of the publications desired being submitted to and 
approved by the Minister for Trade and Customs. This list was sent 
to the Department of Trade and Customs, and the Department has now 
replied permitting the importation of all publications in the list. The 
list comprises 164 periodicals and the publications of 132 societies and 
institutions. It includes all the periodicals which were known to have 
been received in the Commonwealth before the war. A copy of the list 
has been sent to the principal learned societies and institutions in 
Australia, with a request for suggestions and additions for a supple- 
mentary list for which it is proposed to seek unfettered importation. 
Jt has been found practically impossible to furnish a list of books, 
catalogues, and publications of international scientific congresses, the 
importation of which will only be permitted provided details are 
supplied in each case. ~ 
‘ 
ARTIFICIAL COAL. 
The Norwegian engineer Strehlenert has discovered a process by 
which coal can be and is now being produced from the waste waters ot 
cellulose factories. The manufacture of wood pulp is, as is well known, 
the staple industry in Norway, so that the manufacture of coal as a by- 
product, though it may sound incredible, promises to be a new and 
potent source of the world’s fuel supply. We have known for some 
time that these waste waters are of some fuel value, since aleohol has 
been manufactured from them during the shortage of petrol as motor 
spirit, for internal-combustion engines during the war. These waters, 
which at one time were allowed to pollute the rivers, contain valuable 
organic matter. The process of converting them into coal is as fol- 
lows:—The free sulphurous acid in these liquids can be oxidized into 
sulphuric acid, and under high pressure this acid will decompose the 
ligninsulpho-salts which are also contained in the waters, so that for 
every ton of wood pulp 540 to 900 kilos of coal can be produced, which, 
moreover, contain only 4 to 5 per cent. of ash, whereas ordinary steam 
coal frequently contains from 10 to 20 per cent. This artificial coal 
has a heating value of 6,800 units. A wood-pulp factory with an annual 
capacity of 25,000 tons can thus produce as a by-product an annual 
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