BORON IN COAL ASH

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25241, 2 June 1943, Page 3

BORON IN COAL ASH

SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY (F.0.P.R.) WELLINGTON, June iT A discovery of great scientific interest and possible future commercial value was reported to-day by the Minister in charge of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, Mr D. G. Sullivan. He said the Dominion Laboratory had discovered that ash from Waikato coal contained 4 per cent, of combined boron trioxide, which would be equivalent to about 10 per cent, of crystallised borax. “While the discovery may be only of scientific interest,” Mr Sullivan said, “it is possible that we have here material from which boric acid and borax may be prepared. This aspect of the matter is being explored further. This discovery is of great interest to geologists, in view of the' fact that boron compounds are found in many of our thermal waters.” The Minister said that the discovery was due to the careful work- of Mr F. T. Seelye, the chief chemist of the Dominion Laboratory, who was one of the leading Empire workers on chemical analysis of rocks. Char from Waikato coal was giving trouble in a furnace at a railway workshop owing to the easily fusible nature of the ash. When the ash was subjected to the usual chemical analysis, the sum of the constituents was 4 per cent short, and a ' further examination for the missing constituent proved that this was boron.