COAL ECONOMY. 
Coal Economy. 
By GERALD LIGHTFOOT, M.A. 
1, GENERAL. 
~ Jn his recent work on ‘‘ Coal and its Scientific Uses,’’ Professor W. A. 
Bone, F.R.S., the eminent British fuel technologist, quotes the following 
passage from Jevons :— f 
Coal in truth stands not beside, but entirely above, all other commodities. It is the 
material source of the energy of the country—the universal aid—the factor in everything 
we do. With coal almost any feat is possible or easy; without it we are thrown back 
into the laborious poverty of early times. . . . . The progress of science, and the 
improvement in the arts, will tend to increase the supremacy of steam and coal.—(W. 
Stanley Jevons, on “‘The Coal Question,” 1865.) 
More than 50 years ago, Jevons endeavoured to awaken public opinion 
in England to the vital importance of the coal question to the industrial 
future of the nation. ‘To-day it is generally accepted that one of the main 
sources of industrial prosperity of the leading nations of the world has been 
an abundant supply of good and cheap coal. It has not, however, been 
so generally recognised that the abundance and cheapness of these supplies 
have been the very causes which have led to the almost universal reckless 
extravagance in their use—in Australia no less than in any other country. 
It has been stated that Great Britain alone loses by-products from her coal 
to the value of £200,000,000 per annum, and that if the existing wasteful 
_ methods were replaced by the most, economic means of consumption, not 
only. would she be able to manufacture sufficient motor spirit to fill her own 
requirements, but would also obtain large quantities of sulphate of ammonia 
and other chemicals which form the basis for the manufacture of explosives, 
dyes, and a large number of chemicals and drugs. 
In Australia the annual consumption of coal is approximately 9 million 
tons. fforts have been made to obtain information asto the general purposes 
for which this coal is used, but particulars as to the quantities used for domestic 
purposes and in manufacturing industries are not available. The following 
statement, however, furnishes some interesting information on this point :— 
Consumption or Coan.1n AustTrata, 1917. 
Tons. 
1. Gas Works } Ay oP -. 900,000 
2. Electric Generating Stations .. .. 680,000 
8. Manufacture of coke ts .. 600,000 
4. Railways— 
. (a) Locomotives .. ak .. 2,210,000 2 
(b) Other purposes == .._~S=—— . ~—-260,000 
5. Other purposes* .. ” .. 4,370,000 
i ad 9,020,000 
* Including bunker coal for Inter-State and coastal vessels, manufacturing industries, domestic uses, 
and all other purposes. : , , 
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