Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. MONDAY, JANUARY 30, 1928. OIL FROM COAL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 48, Issue 93, 30 January 1928, Page 4

Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. MONDAY, JANUARY 30, 1928. OIL FROM COAL.

The recent announcement that success has attended experiments in a process of the carbonisation of coal is of great importance in view of the present conditions and the prospects of the coalmining industry in Britain. By the Dyorkowitz system, it is claimed, bituminous coal produces a valuable yield of motor spirit, lamp oil, lubricating" oil, paraffin wax, phenol, pitch, ammonia, and sulphur. To take one by-product alone, lubricating 1 oil is essential to the running of ships, railways, motorcars and every industrial engine; and at present Great Britain produces only two per cent, of her requirements in this connection. In motor oil, also, Britain is largely dependent on foreign supplies. The development of the internal combustion engine has greatly increased the consumption of oil during the last quarter of a century, and oil has become a serious competitor with coal. The coal mining industry in Britain is in such a position that the invention of a method, by which the coal products that are actually wasted under the present system of treatment can be profitably utilised, will be of peculiar value. 'Reorganisation of the industry is required, and the most important, form such change could take would be one under which the waste that is associated with the present system of treatment would be avoided. A method under which the natural qualities of the fuel should be exploited would serve; a double purpose. It would enhance the value of the product of the mines and thus restore prosperity to the industry, and at the same time it would reduce the measure of the dependence of Great Britain on the importations of foreign oil., "If we could find a practical way of tourning our coal into oil and leaving a good and efficient form of coke for domestic and industrial purposes, the fate of this country might be wholly changed—changed quickly from one in which trade languishes and men cannot find work, into a prosperous and vitalised community," said the "Spectator" some time ago. "We should have in the glorified coke two .unrivalled materials for producing cheap power. We should have a bright burning- and heatmoducing coke, and large quantities of powerful gas. Finally, we should have enough motor spirit—benzol and allied products —to run not only the whole of our motor-cars, but all our motorships, which are the ships of the future. The scientific sideof the matter is either solved or in process of being solved. Nobody has now any right to say that the thing cannot be done. We havje got to the stage, a very important one, no doubt, in which we must ask: What will it cost; where is the money to come from; and is it worth while?"