WAR-TIME COAL SECRET

Greymouth Evening Star, 8 January 1944, Page 2

WAR-TIME COAL SECRET

METHOD OF BURNING FUEL LONDON, October 17. The existence of a new method of burning coal was disclosed at Newcastle by Mr. J. G. Bennett, Director of the British Coal Utilisation Research Association. “In the 8.C.U.R.A.,” he said, “we have been studying combustion of solid fuel in a way that has certainly not been attempted in any other country. “Only in the last few months Dr. Schroeder, deputy director of the United States Bureau of Mines, a leading authority on combustion research in the United States, spent a day in the B.C.U.R.A. laboratories.

“When he saw what we were doing on solid fuel combustion research, he told us that we were years ahead of America. Unfortunately, this work is’ one of the investigations about which I am precluded from speaking for security reasons. When war restrictions on publication of this new system are removed I feel sure it will satisfy fuel technologists that we are very markedly ahead of any other part of the world.”

The value of a scientific approach to coal problems was also seen in smoke abatement. It had been possible to produce a new design of fireback and method of air control to deal with the problem. “Those of you who have seen the new fire in operation will be able to confirm the remarkable way in which the smoke turns into flame within a few minutes of the fire being refuelled even with slack and dusty coal which, in the old-fashioned fires, would have smouldered and smoked for 20 minutes or more. The fact that a temperature of 600 degrees centigrade is required to ignite the volatiles had been overlooked by designers of fireplaces and others who, for over 150 years, have tried to improve the coal fire.” Mr. Bennett also said that we might see a lessened coal production used to greater advantage, said at a higher price, and yielding better wages to the miners.