October 18, 1918.

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN.

813

The Staffordshire Iron and Steel Institute will
hold the first meeting of the session in the institute,
Dudley, to-morrow (Saturday), commencing at
6.30 p.m* Mr. G. Carrington will deliver his
presidential address.

The “Peake” medal for eminent service to the
Midland Institute of Mining, Civil and Mechanical
Engineers, and to the mining industry generally, was
presented to Sir William E. Garforth yesterday
(Thursday), at a meeting of the institute.

A new scheme of registering small consumers in
the Metropolis is announced.

A system of stocktaking is a sine qua
War and non in the conduct of any well-
EconomiCS. managed business, and it is to be
expected that national stocktaking
—a tendency which had manifested itself in certain
directions before the war, where the economic
exhaustion of important natural products was
adumbrated—may, as the result of the war itself,
claim still more the earnest attention of Governments
in the future. Nor would it be unwise to anticipate
the conclusion of the war in laying these pre-
cautionary foundations of trade.

Especially is it necessary to consider to what
extent the war has altered values, and to what
extent this alteration may have an enduring effect.
It would be absurd, of course, to regard as
permanent the conditions of trade and industry
ruling in an actual state of war, but it would be
equally foolish to look upon these as merely the
moving incidents of an interregnum—to anticipate a
wholesale reversion to pre-war methods and points
of view. The great attrition of wealth resulting
from the war would alone inhibit such a process, and
it is to be hoped that the fierce light that has been
thrown upon the omissions and obscurantism of the
past may not have burned in vain.

Bestraining for the present the dangerous art of
prophecy, it is not inopportune to examine the
extent to which the war has abrogated the existing
standards of value in the case of raw materials,
and, in embarking upon this somewhat perilous
undertaking, a little thought will show that
geographical situation and utility are the two main
factors to be considered, since, under these two
headings may be included several other factors, such
as labour, demand, and means of transport.

It is possible, however, to lay down still more
succinctly certain directions in which war has
influenced the production of coal and other minerals.
Firstly, the occupation and partial destruction of
certain coalfields has rendered it necessary for the
markets hitherto depending upon these sources of
supply to bring in the products of other districts and
countries. Leaving Belgium out of the question, the
most fitting example that presents itself is that of the
Nord and Pas-de-Calais coalfields, and the Briey
iron basin in the north-east of France. The closing
of these sources of supply, even after rigid economy
has been exercised, has had two main results—
iiamely, the abnormal development of inferior basins,
such as the Loire, Gare, and Centre coal fields, and
the Normandy iron ore deposits, and the introduction
of larger quantities from Great Britain and the
United States.

A corollary is to be found in the case of markets
cut off from their accustomed supplies, by reason
either of military obstacles or transport deficiencies.
It may be a matter of some satisfaction to us to mark
that practically all of Germany’s customers, with
the exception of Switzerland and Holland, come
under the first category, but .the case of Turkey,
perhaps, is the most notable, the Sick Man having
been thrown back, to all intents and purposes, upon
the German-owned mines at Heraclea in the Black
Sea and such other surface deposits as may have
been dragged into use.

The second cause enumerated, however, is many
more times important. Amongst the progressive
tendencies of the age, the cheapening of transport
was playing an ever-increasing part in encouraging
the internationalisation of production—the convey-
ance of the best goods to the best markets. An
increase in freights which can only be measured in
such terms as two and three thousand per cent, has
inevitably interfered with this tendency, and driven
consumers to take raw materials from other less
distant ports where the freight has been relatively
less, even with a lower standard of quality. An
additional factor of no mean importance has been
the actual reduction in available tonnage, due partly
to loss at sea and partly to the control of shipping
by belligerents for military purposes. In normal
times, bulky minerals like coal have an advantage
in that they can be employed to provide a return
freight, being shipped, as it were, as ballast, in
default of more valuable cargo. In most civilised
countries, coal is virtually a necessity, and it is,
moreover, a valuable munition of war, but it is
certain that on the balance countries exporting
material have been able to barter them for coal to a
very much lessened extent.

Other influences at work must be outlined more
briefly. Thus, just as in our own country, the
establishment of war industries in unfrequented
spots has affected the internal distribution of fuel
supplies, so the concentration of military effort on

remote points d'appui has had its effect also;
for instance naval and military operations on the
Murman coast may have been responsible to
some extent for the development of Spitzbergen
coal. Then there is the special employment of
minerals and their by-products for the production
of munitions, which cannot be expected to endure in
time of peace; the removal of Governmental
restriction upon mineral production; per contra, the
State regulation of exports to neutrals; the reduction
of foreign investments and mortgaging of industrial
interests; the absorption of capital, and the difficulty
in obtaining new and replacing old plant.

This brings us to possibly the most important factor
of all—namely, the dislocation of labour. It must be
obvious that amongst belligerents the necessities of
the Armies have entailed a large depletion of the
virile labour that bears the mineral industries upon
its broad shoulders, and has completely obscured, for
the time being, the old relations between supply and
demand in the fixation of wages.

Any student of economy who has the facts at his
elbow can say to what extent some of the factors
that we have enumerated may be expected to endure
when the nations return their arms to the armouries;
but we fear that this last factor will lead him to
doubt the validity of many of his conclusions, for the
life of the world can never, when all the creeds and
racial prejudices have been put into the scale, be
ought else than a business proposition, and goods,
whether luxuries or necessaries, will be bought and
sold and have to be paid for in the old sweet way.
Notwithstanding the fact that the world has been
pauperised by the war, it is living at a greater pace
than ever, and it is inconceivable that the tide of
trade and progress will subserviently adapt itself to
all the ingenious barrages of profits, high wages,
and similar indulgences which the world, in its pre-
occupation, has allowed certain people to rear
unchecked. They will all go ; the only alternatives
are dry watercourses and devastated country sides.

Interesting results of experiments
Experiments on the heat treatment of coke were
in brought before the Paris Academy of
Coking. Sciences last year, by MM. Georges
Charpy and Marcel Godchot, and
they have now extended their researches by a new
set of experiments, the results of which have recently
been published in the Comptes rendus. The authors
started with the non-coking Brassac coal, containing
only about 11 per cent, of volatile matter, with the
object of ascertaining how far such a coal might be
made to yield a useful coke by judicious admixture
with another variety. The coal selected for mixing
was a Durham coal, containing 24 per cent, of
volatile matter and yielding alone a puffed and
friable coke. When these two coals were mixed in
various proportions it was found that the strength and
quality of the resulting coke depended upon the
proportions taken. There was a progressive increase
in the strength of the coke as the proportion of
added Durham coal increased from 20to51 percent.,
which gave a coke of maximum resistance of
80 kilogs. per sq. cm., or 1,140 lb. per sq. in. The
volatile constituents of this mixture amounted to
19*6 per cent. A further increase in the proportion
of Durham coal caused a rapid falling off in the
strength of the coke, which fell to zero when the
proportion reached 56 per cent.

Pursuing a similar course with mixtures of
Durham and Cardiff coals, a coke of maximum
strength of 995 lb. per sq. in. was obtained when the
aggregate volatile content of the mixture was 16
per cent., after which there was the same rapid
falling off, until the zero point was reached when
the total volatile content of the mixture reached
19 per cent.

These are very remarkable results, tending to show
how important it is, when mixing coals for coking
purposes, to ascertain the best proportions to produce
the strongest coke. The rapidity of the deterioration
when the optimum proportions are exceeded in the
direction of increased aggregate volatile content is
exceedingly difficult to explain, and it is to be
hoped that these experiments will not be allowed to
stop at the present stage.

Equally interesting are the results of the authors’
experiments on the effect of adding pitch or tar to
lean coals. * Thus the same Brassac coal as was used
above gave a coke of progressively increasing
strength as its volatile content was raised by the
addition of either of these substances. The
maximum strength was reached when the volatile
content of the mixture reached nearly 30 per cent.,
when the high figure of 1,850 lb. per sq. in. was
obtained. The two substances did not, however,
behave identically, and the relative effect seems to be
somewhat capricious, sometimes one and sometimes
the other giving the best results. The remarkable
fact appears to be that, in all the experiments, the
maximum strength of the coke does notappear to be
determined alone by the aggregate volatile content
of the mixture. The authors then turned their
attention to the examination of the influence of pre-
liminary heating upon a coal high in volatile content,
selecting for the purpose a Durham coal containing
28*1 per cent, of volatile matter. The coal was
first heated to a temperature of 450 degs. Cent, for

various periods, and was then coked at 700 degs.
Cent. The coke produced by the untreated coal was
puffed and friable. Preliminary heating at 450 degs.
Cent, for 30, 60 and 90 minutes respectively, pro-
duced little or no result. When the treatment was
extended to 105 minutes the gain in strength began
to be appreciable. After 120 minutes the strength
of the coke rose to a maximum between 1,310 and
1,510 lb. per sq. in. After this, there was a rapid
falling off, the strength declining to 400 lb. per sq. in.
after preliminary treatment for 150 minutes, and
becoming nil after 165 minutes. The inference from
these experiments seems to be that a high volatile
coal, useless for coking purposes, can be made to
yield a normal coke if a certain fixed proportion of
its volatile matter, in this case about one-third,
is removed by preliminary distillation at a low
temperature.

Obviously, we may require to have these remark-
able results further investigated. In their present
form they are totally unexpected, and are difficult to
reconcile with current theories as to the cause of the
coking qualities of coal. A degree of mystery has
long surrounded this question. As long ago as 1857
De Marsilly showed that all coking coals lose their
property of coke-forming after being heated for a short
time at 300 degs. Cent., and he ascribed this result
to the loss of some volatile coking “principle.” A
similar result, however, follows from the prolonged
exposure :of a coking coal to the yr, and this led
Anderson, in 1897, to regard it aS a question not
necessarily of loss, but possibly of oxidation. By
heating the coal out of contact with the air, however,
he observed that a diminution of coking power
always followed, and this result he ascribed to the
decomposition of some special constituent. Prelimi-
nary heating to 300 degs. Cent, for three hours was
found to impair the coking quality of all kinds of
coal, but the smallest loss was found to be associated
with the best coking varieties. He assumed, there-
fore, that coking coals contained some constituent,
oxidisable in air, but not volatile at 300 degs. Cent.
Anderson also found that true coking coals show
signs of melting at a definite temperature of 317 degs.
when heated in an atmosphere of carbon dioxide,
and active gasification does not begin below 330 degs.

The question whether the so-called coking con-
stituent of coal is connected with certain “resinous”
compounds has also been investigated at various
times, but no very satisfactory result appears yet to
have been obtained. In practice, it is customary
still to adhere approximately to the old principle,
adopted empirically by Gruner, which assigns certain
limits of volatile content to the so-called caking coals •
but there are too many important exceptions to this
rule to give it any scientific value. In the meantime
the experiments of MM. Charpy and Godchot give
a fresh interest to this subject, and we may hope for
further developments of the line of research which
they have initiated.

THE TIM-PLATE TRADE.

Liverpool.

There is a good enquiry for home trade requirements,
but it is very difficult to place orders now for early
delivery, all makers being fairly well booked up for the
rest of this year. For January to March several orders
have been placed at the official maximum price of 32s. 4^d.
per basis box for cokes, net cash, f.o.t. at works. There
is a steady demand for 28 x 20 and large-sized wasters,
which are becoming very scarce, but 14 x 18| and small
sizes can generally be picked up at slight concessions in
price. Terne plates are in moderate request. Works are
heavily booked up in this class of plate for many weeks
ahead.

At the “ Key ” Industries Exhibition the Coppee Com-
pany Limited are showing two large models representing
waste heat, and regenerative coke ovens are shown with
apparatus and accessories for making the ovens complete.
Coloured drawings illustrate the recovery and rectification
of benzol, and complete plants for tar distillation and
the manufacture of sulphuric acid, and samples of the
various products obtained are shown in their various
stages of production.

Coal for Schools.—Sir Albert Stanley states that all
schools of whatever kind are being rationed for fuel and
lighting in accordance with their requirements. The public
elementary schools are being maintained at a reasonable
standard of comfort and efficiency, and, as far as con-
ditions permit, the same arrangements will apply to all
other schools.

Coal Deposit Survey in Queensland.—The Queensland
Government Under-Secretary for Mines, in his report for
1917, says that the chief Government geologist investi-
gated the coal available in the Bowen coal field. As a
result of a previous geological examination there was
selected as a State mine reserve an area 1| square miles
in extent within which a number of bores were. sunk.
These bores disclosed seven seams of coal, varying in
thickness up to 13 ft., and of these seams five are con-
sidered to be of workable thickness and quality. A total
of coal content has been proved of 46,000,000 tons,
of which 22,000,000 would be actually available. The
Bowen seam is the principal one of the field, and from
the seam alone 12,000,000 tons are available within the
reserved State area. Outside the State reserve an adjoin-
ing leased area has since been proved by the same
methods as those adopted on the reserved land, the
boring being carried out on sites selected by the geologist;
and within these two areas it is estimated that the Bowen
seam alone would yield 50,000,000 tons of coal, irre-
spective of any other seams or any other portions of the
field outside those areas. As a result of this estimate of
coal quantities no hesitation was felt in strongly recom-
mending the construction of a railway to connect the field
with Bowen.