168

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN.

January 28, 1916.

that was practically unsaleable, coupled with the exten-
sive use of well-designed electrical plant, had chiefly
tended to .reduce the consumption at the collieries
referred -to. To-day, not only was small.coal not worth-
less, but it was worth very nearly as much as the large
coal; and where it was suitable for coking in by-product
ovens, it might be possible at new collieries so to arrange
a combination of coking plant and gas engines as to
produce practically the whole of the power required at
the colliery without the necessity of burning any coal
under boilers at all.

He did not know of any‘field where the student had
a greater opportunity of acquiring information than
through the medium of the publications of such an
institute as that. The Midland Institute in the past
had a very honourable and useful record. Through its
initiative the question of safety lamps was to a very
large extent placed upon a sound footing. In . con-
nection also with safety explosives—following on the
disastrous accidents which could be certainly directly’
traced to the use of gunpowder—the Midland Institute
was the pioneer of a movement which ultimately resulted
in the large-scale experiments which had been carried out
under the auspices of Sir William E. Garforth. Papers
had been read dealing with all sorts of expedients for
obviating the use of gunpowder. Lime cartridges, com-
pressed-air cartridges, hydraulic wedges, and all the
various ideas which were brought forward 25 years ago,
when the use of gunpowder was stopped in the fiery
mines of this country, were all discussed through the
medium of papers by that institute. Ho hoped that
the same interest would be displayed by the members
of the Midland Institute in the future as in the past;
that every source would bo tapped which might conduce
to the benefit of its members, and that papers on an
infinite variety of subjects would be read before them,
so ias to maintain the high position which their institute
■had attained.

Mr. W. IT. Chambers proposed a vote of thanks to
the president for his address. He said Mr. Ellison had
covered a very extensive field, particularly with regard
to coking, and they could congratulate him on his
address, and on the able assistance he had had with
regard to the value of by-products taken from coke ovens.
He thought the address would have been very successful
as a paper. It brought forward problems which would
have afforded material for discussion at several meetings,
and some of them would, perhaps, have had-a good
deal to say about certain of the matters he had men-
tioned. The president’s address, however, was not open
to discussion. They congratulated him upon a very
interesting address.

Maj. ,H. Rhodes seconded the resolution, which was
carried unanimously.

The President, in reply, appealed for the assistance
of the members in attending the meetings themselves
and in allowing their young men to attend.

Uses and Markets of Coke Oven By-Producis.

A paper on “ The Uses and Markets of By-Products
Obtained from Coke Ovens ” was read by a member, and
will be found on p. 181.

The President, in calling for discussion on the paper,
said that the author was very sorry that be could not be
present at the meeting, but he (Mr. Ellison) would ask
him to reply in writing to any questions or criticisms
that wore brought forward.

Maj. Rhodes referred to the author’s statement on
the subject of synthetic indigo. He said that when he
was in India about 10 or 11 years ago', he went round
what had been a large indigo plantation, and found that
the owner had given orders to have all the vats, in
which the indigo was steeped, pulled down. The
owner went to England soon after, but on returning
in the beginning of 1905, he said he was afraid he had
made a mistake, because he had been told that the
synthetic indigo had not turned out as good as was
expected, and he thought there would be another look-in
for the indigo industry of India. He should like the
author to tell them whether that prophecy was carried
out, and whether he thought the cutting-off of the pre-
sent German supply would do anything to' restore an
industry which was of great value to India itself. On
the subject of the recovery of ammonia from the air,
Maj. Rhodes said lie was interested in a company which
was going to recover by-products on a large scale in
South Africa. This was run by two gentlemen who
came from a firm with the high-sounding English name
of Brunner and Mond. Their representative told him
the other day, when speaking on the question of nitrogen
from the air, that there was nothing to fear about that.
He said, “ You can only get nitrogen from the air if you
have a supply of . extraordinarily cheap power, and the
only extraordinarily cheap power you can get is elec-
tricity.” He added that there was no possibility of
their ever being able to make sulphate of ammonia pro-
fitably out of the air at much under T8 10s. a ton. They
had been down to within a very measurable distance of
that figure, for ammonia prices, within the last five
years, and had not exactly lost money over it, so that
there was -still something to lock forward to even if they
got all the ammonia from the air.

Prof. Fearnsides (Sheffield University) said he had
nothing but congratulations for- the author on the very
excellent way in which he had put together his notes
on what was a very technical subject. He wished to
emphasise the fact that one of the most important by-
products of the coke industry was that of cheap power.
It seemed to him that the question of cheap power was
one which would determine, when the price of slack

had gone to where it was at present, whether coke ovens
were a commercial proposition or not. In times past,
so far -as ho could see, the question of the commercial
aspect of coke ovens had been very much put under a
disadvantage by reason of such things as statutory
requirements. The author had used the phrase “ regard-
less of statutory requirements.” In Sheffield, because
of statutory requirements, some people did not seem to
be able to get the advantage that they ought to out of
coke oven plants. He, as a scientific person, went to a
good many sorts of works, some people having coke
ovens, others steel works. Certainly the steel people
were not always very anxious to take the coke from the
coke makers. He supposed that was by reason of the
chemical analysis—at least they thought it was—partly
the texture and partly the chemical analysis. But many
of the steel makers would be exceedingly willing to take
another by-product, namely, the gas which came away;
and yet, by reason of vested interests—gas works and
such things—there was no means of bringing such pro-
ducers and users into the sort of commercial contact
which would bo for the good of the community. It
seemed to him that, in this time of war and thrift, it
would be of very great national use if they could be a
little more regardless of statutory requirements, and if
collieries could be enabled to do as they did in Germany
—provide either cheap gas or the products of cheap gas
in the form of gas-engine power, and supply it directly
to the manufactureis around. He thought that had a
great deal to do with what had been said about getting
nitrogen from the air. Its extraction might pay in this
country provided they had power cheap enough. It
might be that the coke or producer gas coming from the
collieries would give them the nitrogen from the air
as‘a colliery by-product. He thought the point was
quite worthy of being raised at the present time.

Mr. W. McD. Mackey (Leeds) said he took it that
Prof. Fearnsides was not a shareholder in a gas works.
In a proposition of the kind that he had made, he was
up against vested interests, although evidently it would
be a very good thing if cheap gas could be got from the
coke ovens, as was done in Germany. The paper was
read under the shadow of the war, and, dealing with the
coke industry, and the tar industry, they must consider
what would occur in times of peace, when no doubt sul-
phate of ammonia would come back to be the mainstay
of the coke oven. On the other hand, there might be
certain developments, such as that of using benzol
instead of motor spirit. That was a subject which he
thought would be tackled, and probably was being-
tackled before the war. He did not run a motor him-
self, but, from what he had heard, benzol could be used.
It could not be got in the same way as ordinary motor
spirit, and the consequence was that it was not used so
often. The only question seemed to be that of putting
the supply on the right basis, so that benzol could be
got all over the country, and all over the world, in fact,
as the ordinary motor spirit was got to-day. Touching
on the question of ammonia from the air, whether actu-
ally in the form of ammonia or in some form of nitrogen
that could be used in agriculture, Mr. Mackey said there
was no doubt that synthetic ammonia, or something of
the kind, was a thing that would have to be faced by
producers of ammonia. The making of synthetic
ammonia had been a sort of will-o’-th’-wisp before
chemists for a long time. Within the last 10 years, cer-
tainly, it had assumed such importance that it must
receive attention. But so far as they could see, there
was no likelihood of the price of ammonia going down,
the market being apparently unlimited. He should like
to say a word or two in .defence of the English chemist.
The reason why the dye industry went to Germany was,
largely, the trouble that there was in this country in
using alcohol. It was well known to anyone connected
with the industry that alcohol was very necessary, but
in this country they were up against all sorts of what
seemed to be rather frivolous regulations which pre-
vented its free use. He did not know whether it obtained
in the past, but the attitude of the Government seemed
to be that every man in the country wanted to get
drunk, and that if there was the slightest chance of his
getting a drink of alcohol in any form he would take it.
The Society of Chemical Industry had taken the matter
up, and was making representations to the Government.
He hoped that the Institution of Mining Engineers
would discuss the question. All such institutes ought
to assist in the matter of securing some way of getting
their alcohol not only cheaply, but easily available.

Mr. J. H. W. Laverick (Sheffield) said he had often
wondered why it was that they in this country had been
behind the Germans in the matter of coal tar dyes, and
it occurred to him that possibly the explanation lay in
the jaw-breaking names they had hoard that afternoon.
Ho thought there was a good deal in what Prof.
Fearnsides had said with regard to the question of
power. Flo thought himself that it was a great shame
to be burning valuable gas under boilers, as many of
them were doing at present. .Fie had not yet sufficient
confidence in gas engines to go in for them. He might
be wrong, but he was waiting for them to become more
reliable, and he hoped -to be able to use gas, which at
present was going under boilers, in gas engines. There
was no mistake about it, that they did not get the
heat out of the gas which they would like, for the simple
reason that before the gas got to the boilers they had
taken out the benzol, and that had a very great heating
property, which was used in other directions. He thought
it was very fortunate for us, just now, that that was
so, and very fortunate for this country that we had so
many by-product plants in work at the time of the
war. Ho was alwavs happy to think that, at his own
place, they had just managed, when war broke out, to
start up a new battery of 40 Gorman ovens, which were
giving very good results in the way of benzol, which

was so largely used at the' present time in the manu-
facture of explosives. Reference had been made to the
waste in using beehive coke in place of by-pioduct coke.
Fie should like the members to know—lest they should
go away under a wrong impression—that by-product
coke had been tried, and was being tried at the present
time, in the crucible steel trade of Sheffield. But the
crucible steel makers—who, it might be presumed, knew
their own business—preferred to pay from one and a-half
times to twice as much for beehive coke as for by-product
coke. The reason simply was that they got so much
more output of crucible steel from beehive coke. If they
did not use beehive coke, we should have less crucible
steel, and therefore the country would suffer, because
they were not getting enough crucible steel, to-day. Fie
had often heard the question of by-product coke for steel
melting referred to, and ho should like to remove any
wrong impression. Steel makers would have beehive
coke for crucible steel, because they got their heats
quicker and maintained them better.

The President, referring to the question of supplying
coke oven gas to towns for illuminating purposes, said
they had been sending a certain proportion from the coke
ovens of his firm for some 15 years. Of course, when
they had finished with it, the gas as a rule was not of
sufficient illuminating power to be very much good for
supply in large quantities, bat a certain proportion came
in very useful indeed. He thought, however, that, even
if the gas were good enough to be used alone, the diffi-
culty of carrying it a long way fiom tire coke ovens into
the centres of towns would be very great, to say nothing
of the opposition that would have to be faced. As to
the use of benzol for motors, all those who had made
benzol, and used it, know that it was purely a question
of distribution which prevented its more extended use.
Attempts had been made recently to place benzol on the
market. There had been great opposition on the part of
many of the dealers, who refused to- sell it except on
their own terms. Another difficulty was that chauffeurs
got commission, which they ought not to got, from
certain dealers. The chauffeurs had said that the benzol
was dirty, and they would not use it, but, when they
were forced into using it, even the most extravagant
found that it was a great deal more powerful than the
ordinary spirit, and that they were getting greater
mileage, greater pulling power, out of their cars. The
only difficulty was that it certainly did soot-up if the
mixture was not right, but, as he had always said, that
only meant that the man had to clean the plugs and
cylinders out a bit oftener. Since the price of petrol
went up, the way in which people had discovered what
wonderful stuff benzol was, and had asked if they could
have a little, had been extraordinary. The extent to
which benzol had been popularised, by the price of the
other spirit going up, was really quite amusing. No
doubt this had done a great deal of good, and, if the
benzol were properly washed and cleaned, and dealt
with in a very large way—by a central station for deal-
ing with the output of perhaps half-a-dozen plants—it
would' be a very big industry indeed. When he first
started to use benzol, it used to stink so that he never
allowed the car to be pulled up near the front door.
The house used to smell for hours afterwards, and ulti-
mately he gave up using benzol because it really was
so offensive. Then they managed to get it cleaned, and
now one very seldom noticed it at all.

Mr. Beach asked if the use of mantles in connection
with the gas that was of rather poor illuminating power
did not help it a great deal.

The President : Yes.

Maj. Rhodes said that at Rotherham Main, where
they used the same gas, they used to enrich it with
benzol. It did quite well in a mantle without enrich-
ing, but, of course, it would not do for general purposes.

Prof. Fearnsides said-he believed the city of Birming-
ham had an installation exactly similar to Mr.
Laverick’s.

Mr. W. FI. Chambers (Denaby Main) -thought the
paper -and the discussion would be very beneficial in
starting them thinking about the commercial value of
by-products. The collieries with, which lie was con-
nected used to make crucible-steel coke at one time, and
get a good price for it. They put down -the first washer
of the Gorman type in this country some forty years
ago. But they found that it did nob pay, and then they
put down some ovens for' getting by-products. They
were followed very quickly in the crucible-steel trade,
and it was so good that they had to begin to try and
make a foundry coke. They managed to do this, and
put down a by-product plant to recover the -residuals;
bub they were unfortunate, in the sense that they were
making the coke very much the by-product. It might-
bo said that the coke ought to be the by-product, but
the quality was very bad indeed, and the result was that,
ever since, they had got better results commercially from
selling the coke as it was. It seemed to him that the
commercial problem was this : that the large collieries
which had been, established, and which were working
very considerable areas, would have to concentrate their
coke ovens, pub down many big batteries in one place,
utilise the gas in gas engines at that place, then generate
electricity on the spot and take it in wires to the towns.
Thus they would solve the ligliting difficulty, and they
would be able to supply heat and motive power in the
towns. Probably that would come about when they began
to find that it was so profitable. Some of them had
managed to make a profit out of coke alone; now they
had added to that profit by taking by-products out, and
they were faced with a further scheme to make more
profits still out of gas. The way that this should be
brought about, he thought, was the one lie had men-
tioned : bv utilising the gas in gas engines, generating
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