BRITISH INDUSTRY

Waihi Daily Telegraph, Volume XVII, Issue 5607, 2 May 1919, Page 2

BRITISH INDUSTRY

.REMARKABLE STRIDES. TABLES TURNED OK GERMANY. A remarkable story of how British industries formerly dependent for their life-blood on Germany have, under the stress of war’s demands, risen to a state of complete independence was told by Sir Kelleway recently to the Industrial Reconstruction Council. We are now first in the world in. almost every sphere of industrial effort, he said. Beginning noth raw materials, Mr Kelleway showed that mica, absolutely essential to the electrical industry, was so controlled, by Germany, although haft the world’s supply came from India, that when the war began the world’s market was on the point of being transferred from Loudon ~to Hamburg. But Indian m:ca can now bo exported only to London, and the British vkctiy'cal industry has taken the place Germany once held and is now first in the world. Before the war the British Empire produced,4o per cent, of the wolfram ore, from which tungsten (essential for high-speed steel and in metallic Aliments)'is made, but so successfully had Germany captured the trade that no British manufacturer was able to os tab lish the industry in England. To this position Germany owed her great superiority in munitions production in the earlier stages of the war. AH that has been changed. We are now able to produce ail the high-speed steel we need and to export at a reasonable price to our allies. We used to depend entirely on Germany for potash, essential for fertills ei's, dyes, drugs, and glass production. Germany relied on her practical monopoly in Europe of natural deposits of petasb to enable her'to bargain for the recovery of her world markets. She will be disappointed. British enterprise and judicious Government assistance have taken that power from he*-. Machine-tool production looked like an almost irnsolvable probfem at tho beginning of the war, but so greatly has production increased that there is no reason why wo should not become entirely independent of outside supplies,

“SENSATIONAL” AIR ENGINES

The advance made in aircraft engines is “sensational.” Engines not only have become more powerful, but their weight for 1-horse power has decreased t) about one-third of what it was at the beginning of the war, and bo l oro long the power of the engine in horsepower will be the same as its weight : n lbs—i.o., 11b per horse power. Oar portion in 1914 in regard to the production of magnetos was very grave, but, instead of one firm producing 1140 magnetos a yean - , as in 1914, we now have 14 firms producing 128,637 a year, and the quality is the highest in the world. It - is lighter in weight and more reliable in service than the Bosch or the latest examples found in captured German aeroplanes. “It is not only on the field that we have beaterf the Boche.” GERMAN GUN-SIGHTS, We wry nearly lost the war because wc were almost entirei'y dependent on Germany and Austria for scientific and optical glass essential to success. It is humiliating, but it is the fact, that at the outbreak of the war a considerable part of our artillery was equipped with gun-sights exclusively manufactured in Germany. Two British films started making sights, but the position was exceedingly serious when, the Ministry of Munitions was formed. Recently these two firms wore producing i>6o per week. The sight is a' beautiful and delicate piece of work; simd its production in such numbers md in ,a perfection which Gormany aevor exceeded is a triumph for Britishkill. Before the war, three out of every our elective light bulbs in use in, this ■ountry came from Germany or Austria. iVe are now manufacturing sufficient o meet our essential needs.