SCIENCE AND COAL

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 147, 25 June 1927, Page 20

SCIENCE AND COAL

CHANGES IN PEOGEESS.

That the end of tho coal strike left the situation of the coal industry fundamentally unchanged is' tho contention of Mr. Lancelot Lawton in an article on "The Noiy Ago of Coal," in the "Fortnightly Keviow." . Tho elementary fact, he says,, is that British exports of coal fell by 20 per ceiit. between 1913 and .1925. Tho fall was duo to the vast exploitation of brown coal for electricity, especially in Germany, to development of hydro-electric energy, to the substitution of oil for coal at sea,,to the erection.'of plant for the more scientific, uso of coal, and, finally, to a substantial increase in the world's output. The purport of Mr. Lawton's article is to prove that prosperity can be restored to the industry by the scientific pretreatment of coal in such a way that its- by-products—oil, gas, and smokeless fuel—may be commercially available/. "As everyone knows," he says, "a large proportion of the raw coal produced in this country is consumed in a negligent and wasteful manner, and vast quantities of fine coal produced in the course of ordinary mining operations are put to no use whatever. This colossal waste of coal is a wanton limitation of our powers of production, and one of the chief causes of thepoverty which exists in our midst. In the past waste was unavoidable; to-day.it is inexcusable. It is inexcusable because we know that the scientific prjetreatment of coal now renders possible the'realisation of its full value, and that the products of this pretreatment will be commodities of great yalae in .the modern world—oil, gas, and smokeless fuel. There-is nothing to "be gained,, but,, oil the conirarv much to be lost from burning" coal in lump form. Complete combustion is obtainable from pulverised or powdered fueli and these fuels can be handled with not less facility than oil." '. . During the coal strike, Birmingham j was able to carry on ita industries with I powdered refuse coal. Pulverised fuel is in use at the city power stations. "The experience of Birmingham," continues Mr. Lawton, "proves that hundreds of thousands of tons of coal which have hitherto been mined, and put to no use whatever, can. be. profitably Consumed for the purpose of porrer-raisin^. This knowledge, if properly used, ought ;to go a long way toward restoring the British mining industry to prosperity.•" Mr. Lawton contends that by scientifically treating coal Britain could make herself independent, of the importation of oil. "/We know," he says, "that we can produce from our owfc coal resources all the oil that we need, or, alternatively, that'we can pulverise coal, or the smokeless fuel obtained from- the carbonisation of coal, and -put it to the same uses as we now pnt oil: Thus, by dispensing with the importation of oil we could abundantly: compensate ourselves for any sacrifice, of coal ex-; ports. What would happen, it may be asked, if rio. much oH, ',so much gas, andfbo much smokeless fuel were pro-! ducedt Abundant use 'would • no doubt be made of these- fuels. , The production of ."'electrical, energy would' be;, very largely .increased, "and its cost substantially cheapened; coal ' power, scientifically vised,, would be cheaper than water power. One result of' such' development would be a tremendous expansion of the f 'nitrogen fixation industry, which is already one of the most important activities of our times." Mr. Lawton explains that the drawing of nitrogen out o£ the ,air for the.;fertilisation of the soil mayj it is believed, treble food production.. "Here, then*; we have the picture," he says, *'the. wealth of the a,ir made, available for the enrichment of the soil, as a consequence of the rational use of the wealth below the earth; oil from coal manufactured in- quantities sufficient for our own needs; gas Vnd electrical energy distributed far and wide.; thus"rendering possible the industrialisation of agriculture, the' ruralisation of industry, and the appreciable diminuation of human.'toil in both spheres."