SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 
of the potential energy of coal into forms of different availability and 
of different commercial value. (3) The more volatile forms, like benzol 
and light naphtha, are so relatively costly that they ought only to be 
used for air transport, or for the lighter and swifter forms of road 
transport; their use for the heavier forms of transport is wasteful 
and unnecessary. (4) Town gas and coke-oven gas are available in 
large quantities in most parts of the country, and might be extensively ~ 
used in omnibuses and passenger cars for quick traffic, if light and yet 
safe containers could be constructed, and if stations were established 
on the principal routes at which the containers could be. quickly and 
easily replenished. If carbonization of coal at temperatures about 600° 
©. becomes common, gas of twice the calorific value of town gas would 
be available for this purpose, so that twice the thermal units could 
be carried in the same containers. (5) The coke produced by the 
carbonization of coal at 600° ©. is a tarless smokeless fuel, easily 
lighted, and easily kept alight, and would be admirably adapted for 
use in suction-gas producers and engines. The cost of the thermal! 
-units produced in this way would not exceed 3s. per million, or one- 
seventh of the cost of petrol units with petrol at 3s. per gallon. 
The United States of America Bureau of Mines has completed 
arrangements for a co-operative research on the carbonization of lignite, - 
A sum of £40,000 is to be supplied by private interests for the erection 
of a research station at New Salem, North Dakota. The bureau will 
be in charge of the technical and experimental side of the investigation. 
The United States of America Congress has passed an Act providing 
a sum of £86,000 for salaries at the Bureau of Standards at 
Washington, together with many special research items, of which the 
following are examples :—Fire-resisting properties of building materials, 
£5,000; development of colour standards, £2,000; optical glass, £5,000; 
metallurgical research, £5,000; sugars and sugar-testing apparatus, 
£6,000; high temperature measurement and control, £2,000; total for 
the Bureau. £243,500. J 
