610

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN.

September 20, 1918.

new Departments of State have been set up, viz., the
Ministry of Labour and the Ministry of Recon-
struction. The functions of these departments and the
activities of the various advisory committees which
they have established will necessarily include the con-
sideration of the relations between employers and
employed and of the problems connected therewith, and
the departments will no doubt be better able (through
and with the assistance of the industrial councils
which have been recommended) to offer such advice
and guidance as may be found necessary than the
present Committee.

It is clear, therefore, that if further enquiries were
to be undertaken there would be a considerable amount
of overlapping either with the work that is now being
carried on by the central departments or with the
duties and functions of the industrial councils.

Five of the seventeen members of the Committee—
Mr. Clynes, Mr. J. A. Hobson, Miss Susan Lawrence,
Mr. J. J. Mallon, and Miss Mona Wilson—while
approving of the general scheme, express their view
“ that a complete identity of interests between Capital
and Labour cannot be thus effected, and that such
machinery cannot be expected to furnish a settlement
for the more serious conflicts of interests involved in
the working of an economic system primarily governed
and directed by motives of private profit.”

It is noted that Mr. Smillie was unable to attend
any of the meetings at which this report was con-
sidered, and therefore does not sign it. Sir Allan M.
Smith signs subject to his note to the report on con-
ciliation and arbitration.

THE SCOTTISH COAL ORDER.

The Household Fuel and Lighting Order governing
the rations for Scotland has been signed. It comes into
effect on October 1—three months later than the
English Order.

The allowance for fuel in Scotland is four tons where
the number of rooms occupied is not more than three,
and an additional ton of coal for each additional occu-
pie i room up to 20 tons. Thereafter any additional
allowance not exceeding one ton per room shall be at
the discretion of the local fuel overseer. An extra ton
of coal is allowed where the number of habitual
residents is seven or more in houses of not more than
12 rooms.

Compared with the English rations this gives an
increased allowance on an average of one ton of coal
on account of the colder weather in the north.

The Scottish lighting allowance exceeds that of the
English by about 20 per cent., and is as follows:—

The lighting allowance f< r the year
shall not exceed—

Where the number of rooms occupied	r  Either cu. ft. of gas	~A or Board of Trade units of
is:—		electricity.
1, 2, or 3	9,000	150
4, 5, or 6	13,500	225
7, 8, or 9	18,000	300
10, 11, or 12	....	22,500	375
13, 14, or 15	27,000			450
16, 17, or 18	31,500	525
19, 2Q, or 21	36,000	600

Except for these addition d fuel, gas and electricity
allowances, the Scottish Order is practically identical
with the English Order.

OBITUARY.

Mr. John Wilson, who died at his residence at Gosforth,
near Newcastle, last Tuesday, had been, from its inception
m 1900, secretary of the Northumberland Aged Mine-
workers’ Homes Association, which has now built 20
groups of cottages, valued at £26,200 and accommodating
about 350 old people. Born 61 years ago, Mr. Wilson
commenced work in the mines at the age of eight.

Mr. D. J. Davies (traffic manager of the Ocean Com-
pany, Rhondda), who had been for over 40 years under
the company, and recently was presented by the directors
with gifts on completion of 40 years’ service, has just
died at his residence,. Cwmparc.

Mr. John Paterson, for many years blast furnace
manager at the Derwent Works at Workington, and later
iron and steel merchant, died suddenly in his office at
Carlisle last week.

Coal Grouping in Natal.—A recent change relating to
the coal industry consists in an agreement to group the
output of the Natal coal fields by qualities. Against a
contract for a specified coal, any other coal in the same
quality group can be tendered. Previously to this pool,
a steamer might be held up waiting for a specific coal for
which trucks could not be supplied owing to the con-
gestion of trucks in Durban waiting for steamers which
had not yet arrived. This difficulty has now been
obviated.

Official Economy.—A correspondent states that at the
Coal Controller’s Department (Holborn Viaduct Hotel)
severe economy is enforced in the use of fuel. There are
several hundred open grates, and these are all to have
firebricks in the sides and at the back, so that the open
fire space will be reduced by at least one-half. Where the
rooms are heated by a radiator, no coal is to be allowed.
A mixture of coal and coke is to be used, and all rooms
are to be rationed to 14 lb. per day. The proportion of
coke to be used is 2 lb. to every 1 lb. of coal.

Export Scheme.—At a largely attended meeting held
in Manchester, and representative of manufacturing
interests in all parts of Great Britain, it was unanimously
decided to form a British Manufacturers’ Corporation on
national lines with the object of extending British export
trade after the war. The main idea is to establish in foreign
countries agencies to represent associated manufacturers
and producers, and assist expertly in the development of
their trades. Each agency will have an agent in charge,
assisted by technical advisers and adequate staff. On
a basis of an annual subscription of £200, the association
will have an income of £200,000.

CURRENT SCIENCE

The Ekenberg Peat Process.

Experiments on the treatment of peat by a modified
Eken berg process are being conducted at Chateauneuf,
Bretagne, France. According to a paper in Comptes
Rendus of September 3, the peat is first compressed in
presses of the Mabille or’An rep types to reduce the
water in it from about 90 to 60 per cent. The peat is
then treated with superheated steam at 160 degs. C. for
25 minutes and then either compressed again or at once
dried, which is best done in special chambers, though
air drying may be applied. The product, which is called
“ turbon,” still contains 20 to 25 per cent, of moisture,
but doe^ not absorb as it would do if the cellulose in the
peat had not been destroyed by the steam heat. The
calorific, value is stated to be raised by 10 per cent, over
that, of dried peat; the turbon yields 61 per cent,
volatile matter, 36 per cent, fixed carbon, 3 per cent,
ash. With suitable arrangement of the batteries of
autoclaves and utilisation of exhaust steam, a heat
efficiency of from 85 to 91 per cent, is claimed to be
realised in this process, which can be worked through-
out the year. The turbon is fired directly or sent to
gas works (with ammonia recovery) or converted into
power gas for internal-combustion engines. This last
mentioned utilisation has so far proved the most satis-
factory.

American By-Product Coking.

The Gas World calls attention to some remarks made
by Mr. Wm. A. Fori es, chairman of the Benzol Com-
mittee of the United States Steel Corporation, on the
paper submitted by Mr. Wm. Hutton Blauvelt, to the
American Institute of Mining Engineers.

Mr. Forbes mentions that the Steel Corporation has
operating on its account 3.112 by-product ovens with an
aggregate capacity of 12,850,000 tons of furnace coke
per annum, which gives an average of over 4,000 tons
per oven. In operation and in course of construction
in the country there are altogether now 10,451 by-
product ovens. Most of those in construction are
expected to be completed this year, and he estimates
the output of the whole at 39,000,000 net tons.

He continues that the United States is now able to
maintain a commanding world position in the pro-
duction of aniline dyes, and it would appear that
aniline oils, which are the intermediate products for the-
dyes, and probably the dyes themselves, can advan-
tageously be manufactured at the by-product coke
plants where the principal essential raw materials
required for their manufactuie are available. The
development of piocesses whereby nitrogen, which is
the ultimate base of all high explosives, is being
extracted from the air is also of prime importance in
connection with the present war. Germany was the
first nation to ensure an adequate supply of nitrogen
by this means, and its present strong position can
properly be attributed more to its scientific and
commercial development of these processes than to any
other one cause.

The yield of benzol products depends greatly upon
the character of the coal used, the general rule being
that the higher the volatile matter in the coal the
greater the yield of by-products. It has been deter-
mined that the total yield of benzol light oils is not
materially affected by reducing the coking period, but
that in certain cases the proportion of toluol to benzol
in these light oils decreases as the coking time is
reduced, with a proportionate increase in benzol. The
practice inaugurated some years ago, which is now
followed at most by-product coke-oven plants, of
pushing the coke from the oven while still dark in
colour, has a beneficial effect on the recovery of by-
products.

The greater yield of by-products due to high-volatile
matter in the coal is, however, at the expense of coke
yield, and it is a matter of somewhat delicate calculation,
based on local conditions, source of coal supply, etc., to
determine to what extent hi uh-volatile coal should be
used. When all is said and done, coke is the prime
product required from most by-product coke-oven
plants, except in emergencies, and decrease in coke
capacity, due to lower coke yield following the use of a
larger proportion of high-volatile coal, results in
shortage of coke for use in pig iron and, consequently,
steel production.

In a reference to the comparative merits of by-
product and beehive ovens from the point of view of
coal conservation, Mr. Forbes remarks:—

As an instance, the coal thus saved in the year 1917
at United States Steel Corporation plants amounted to
3,200,000 net tons, or 64,000 carloads of 50 tons each,
movement of this number of railroad < ars thereby being
saved for employment in other directions. When we
consider last winter’s conditions of transportation, it is
easy to recognise that blast-furnace and steel-works
operation would have been still more severely curtailed
without by-product coke ovens.

The Catalytic Action of Carbon in Batteries.

M. Fery has recently contributed to the Societe
Internationale des Elect! iciens an interesting communi-
cation on the part played by carbon as a catalytic
agent in Leclanche cells. Depolarisati- n is effected
through the action of the air, but the part played by
the carbon in this action is somewhat obscure. At first
sight it would appear that the only factors of import-
ance in facilitating the catalytic action in carbon in
conveying oxygen from the air are the nature of its
surface, and its porosity. But experiments have shown
that the constitution of the carbon is also of importance.
Seeing that all catalytic agents are affected by the
presence of small impurities it is hardly surprising
that carbons apparently similar differ widely in their
behaviour. Moreover, certain qualities of sal-ammoniac,
containing traces of iron and lead also hinder the action
of catalysis. The presence in the pores of the carbon
of a gelatinous film of metallic hydroxide has a preju-
dicial effect. The purity of the carbon is therefore a
vital factor. Some results are given for batteries using
the special carbon manufactured by the Societe Gallot

AND TECHNOLOGY.

as a result of M. Fery’s researches. A battery con-
taining 100 grammes of sal-ammoniac, in volume about
1 litre of solution, with 77 grammes of zinc, and
supply ii g 20 8 miLiamperes (0’5 ampere-hour per day)
consumes 1*27 grammes of zinc per ampere-hour, as
compared with a theoretical consumption of 12186
grammes. The efficiency was thus near 95 per cent.
The consumption of sal-ammoniac was also much
reduced, being only 1 gramme per ampere-hour. If the
above current is maintained by adjusting the external
resistance the P. D. falls from 1 voit to 0'5 volt in four
months, and the cell will then continue in action if the
zinc is reversed.

Economy of Pulverised Coal.

In an article on pulverised coal, published in The
Coal Trade Bulletin, the writer states that all the
benefits of pulverised coal should be taken into account,
including 1 ibour saving, increased fuel efficiency,
ability lor < loser adjustment, absence of smoke, etc.
The efficiency of band firing depends upon the skill and
reliability of the fireman. With the best of attention,
a loss ol 20 per cent, heating valu * is frequent, and it
often naches as high as 40 per cent., taking into con-
sideration the analysis of the a^-h and of the flue gas.
Stoker firing is relative y more efficient and more
regular than hand firing, but the feeding of moist coal
wastes part of the heat in the most undesirable place.
Losses also occur in breaking and removing the clinker,
in the discharge of unburned fuel, and in the flue gas.

Producer-gas firing: Assuming that 131.280 cu. ft. of
gas are produced from 1 ton of coal, and contained
20,311,162 B.Th.U., or 155 B.Th.U. per cubic foot, or
2,270 B.Th.U. per pound of gas, the composition of the
coal from which this gas was made was as follows: Water,
1'26 per cent.; volatile matter, 3622 per cent.; fixed
carbon, 57'98 j er cent.; sulphur, 0 70 per cent.; ash,
3'78 per cent. One ton contains 1,159'6 lb. carbon and
724'4 lb. volatile combustible, the energy of which is
31,302,200 B.Th.U. Hence, in the process of gasification
and purification, there was a loss of 35'2 per cent, of
the energy of the coal. Produceis are built to-day
doing slightly letter than this.

Oil and natural-gas firing : Coal, properly pulverised
and burned, is on exacdy the same basis as far as
thermal capacity is concerned; ami the price of the
coal prepared and delivered into the furnace is directly
comparable, on the heat unit basis, with the cost of fuel
oil or gas delivered into the furnace, plus the slight
additional cost for ash removal.

Savings by the adoption of pulverised fuel in the
operation of various typ^s of furnaces have been
attained as follows: Heating and bushelling furnaces,
20 to 25 per cent.; puddling furnaces, 30 to 50 per
cent.; open-hearth furnaces, compared with gas pro-
ducers, 30 to 40 per cent.; copper reverberatory,
smelting ore, 30 to 45 per cent.

In other furnaces, the consumption has been reduced
to the following figures: Continuous billet heating,
1601b. of coal per ton of billets; desulphurising iron
ore in rotary kilns, 296 lb of coal per ton of ore;
drying and nodulising iron ore in rotary kilns, on basis
of 30 per cent, free moisture and 11 per cent, combined
moisture, 477 lb. of coal per gross ton of ore.

The above figures are from actual operations over
extended periods, and confirm the contention that coal
burned in true pulverised form is the only method by
which every heat unit in the fuel will develop its full
value.

Brake Performance with Heavy Trains.

A braking system, to be highly successful, must be
capable of keeping the train continuously, under control,
and thus not only provide against risk to life, but also
protect the vehicles themselves and their contents from
damage in the face of any situation which may reason-
ably be expected to arise. Only secondary to the
human aspect of safety is the limitation often imposed
on transportation arrangements by the inability to
control trains of maximum loading under all the con-
ditions which apply on a given section of line, so that
trains which can be safely handled on a part of the
division are prevented from running over the complete
length because there is one portion of more than
average steepness which tests the brakes too far.
According to the Railway Gazette one of the serious
difficulties encountered in working heavy trains down
long steep gradients is the ex- essive temperatures pro-
duced in the wheels and brake shoes. This is due to
two causes; first, the inequality of braking effort
obtained throughout the length of a long train,
resulting in the conversion into heat of an excessive
amount of energy at the wheels of the vehicles at the
front end of the train, and secondly, due to the com-
paratively short time available for the conversion and
dissipation of the beat generated with the ordinary
methods of brake app'ication. It is evident that, given
the same weight of train and average rate of speed, the
aggregate amount of energy which must be converted
into heat and dissipated remains the same, irrespective
of the method of brake manipulation.

American Miners’ Increased Output.—The Um ted States
Fuel Administration announces that the production of
bituminous coal during the week ended September 7,
which also includes Labour Day holiday, exceeded the
output of the week ended July 6 (which also included
the holiday, July 4) by more than 1,000,000 tons, making
11,249,000 tons. This is also over 1,000,000 tons in excess
of the production during the corresponding week of last
year.

Lantern Slides for Lectures.—Messrs. Ed. Bennis and
Company Limited, 28, Victoria-street, Westminster, inform
us that their Publicity Department has a large number
of lantern slides dealing with the development and
present practice in connection with automatic stokers,
coal elevators, and conveyors, etc., which the firm will
be pleased to lend to any responsible enquirer for lecture
purposes. Applications for slides should be sent to
28, Victoria-street.