GAS MASKS

Hokitika Guardian, 19 January 1937, Page 2

GAS MASKS

carbon to be used. RESEARCH BOARD RESULTS. * LONDON, January 12. Cheaper carbon for gas masks and the conversion of tar into motor spirit and fuel oils are two interesting sections of the work of the Fuel Research Board, whose annual report lias just been issued. At the request of the War Office the hoard has produced from British coal an active carbon tor use in gas masks. This is considerably cheaper and nearly as good as the best obtainable from other sources, and would perform a valuable service in war time by absorbing noxious fumes and vapours.

“It was known,” says the report, “that a suitable blend of coals, when pulverised and briquetted under high pressure, in the absence of a hinder, would give, after, carbonisation and subsequent activation with steam, a high-grade carbon. It was desired to ascertain whether suitable carbon could be produced without briquetting, as this, would simplify the process. The knowledge which the Fuel Research Station possessed of the behaviour of different typos of coal on carbonisation suggested that the type of coal most suitable for the purpose was one which was low in caking power but which possessed just sufficient caking power to form a. bard coherent coke when carbonised in lump form. A suitable coal would be one which though possessing this property, did not pass through a plastic stage during coke formation.