EDITORIAL. 
22,000 tons of coal. According to the information given by the inventor, 
the cost of the necessary plant for such an installation is about 600,000 
kroner (£33,375) ; and the cost of producing one ton of coal is estimated 
to be, in normal times, between 5 and 6 kroner (5s. 7d. and 6s. 9d.), - 
while at the present day it is about 10 kroner (11s. 14d.). The artificial 
' coal so produced may either be burned in its slightly moist state, as 
produced, or it may be dried and used as pulverized fuel. The first 
factory of this kind has recently been set to work in Greaker, near 
Frederikstad.—Hngineering and Industrial Management. 
RESEARCH WORK IN MINING INDUSTRY. 
The Federal Bureau of Mines in the United States of America is now 
conducting eleven mining experimental stations. One of these, 7.e., 
at Columbus, Ohio, situated at a clayworking centre, is employed mostly 
on ceramic problems. In America there are about 4,000 firms manufac- 
turing clay products, including brick, tile, sewer pipe, conduits, hollow 
blocks, architectural terra cotta, porcelain, earthenware, china and art 
pottery. The amount invested in these industries is approximately 
£75,000,000, and the value of the products exceeds £40,000,000 annually. 
The station at Bartlesville, Okla.,is investigating problems that arise 
in the proper utilization of oil and gas resources, such as elimination 
of waste of oil and natural gas, improvements in drilling and casing 
wells, prevention of water troubles at wells, and of waste in storing and 
refining petroleum, and the recovery of gasoline from uatural gas. 
What the Bureau of Mines has done for the great coal-mining industry, 
chiefly through investigations at the experiment station at Pittsburg, 
Pa., has been published in numerous reports issued by the Bureau. 
Some of the more important accomplishments have been the develop- 
ment and introduction of permissible explosives for use in gaseous 
mines, the training of thousands of coal miners in mine-rescue. and the 
first-aid work, and the conducting of combustion investigations, aimed at 
- inereased efficiency in the burning of coal, and the effective utilization of 
our vast deposits of lignite and. low-grade coal. The Salt Lake City 
station has devised novel methods of treating certain low-grade and 
complex ores of lead and zinc. These methods show a large saving of 
metal over methods hitherto employed, and have made available ores 
which other methods could not treat profitably. The Seattle station is 
busy with the treatment of the low-grade ores of the north-west, and 
the mining and utilization of the coals of the Pacific States; the Tucson 
station is working on the beneficiation of low-grade copper ores; and 
the Gerkeley station has shown how losses may be reduced ‘at quick- 
silver plants and how methods at those plants can be improved. In the 
conduct of these investigations the Bureau secks, and is obtaining, the 
co-operation of the mine operators. At more than a dozen mills m the 
west, engineers from the stations are working directly with the mill 
men on various problems, and the results they already have obtained 
more than warrant the existence of the stations. Success in solving 
one problem may easily be worth millions to the country. Mining men 
are using these stations more and more freely, as they realize that the 
Government maintains these stations to help them, and that the ~ 
difficulties of the operators, both large and small, receive sympathetic 
consideration and such aid as the stations can give. 
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