WINNING COAL WITH ACID

Dominion, Volume 16, Issue 120, 6 February 1923, Page 5

WINNING COAL WITH ACID

q— Some remarkable experiments recently made bv a Briti-h professor in the treatment of coal with arid sngvest that we are on the eve of ofiite a new method of winning coal. Hitherto explosives and mechanical coal-catling machines have been the only auxiliary of the minor’s pick, but this professor’s researches stiff-’ gest a method of disintegrating n. coal seam bv injectirg into it an acid subr.tanee. The. action of acid on coal is not only to dissolve tho minerals which form file white partings in the seam of coal, but also to attach the coal itself to the extent of making it brittle end easily crushnblo between the fingers. Experiments have already b:en made in collieries with the inf induction of sulphur dioxide to bore boles in th? coal •' one or two days in advance of the work , Although these, experiments have not , been very conclusive thev have aroused the greatest interest among coal owners 1 in Great Britain.