276 THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN. February 9, 1917. quay in the Gran Dock, and bunker deliveries are gener- ally also effected alongside that quay from stock piles. uuenos Ayres. Buenos Ayres is doubtless the most prominent port in South America for coal, and cargoes are largely dealt with at the quay in the Darsena Sud. The coal depots have access to this quay by railway tracks, which extend across a public roadway at the back of the quay. Three locomotives are employed, in connection with two of the depots, for hauling the trucks, which are of the plat- form type, and carry eight skips at a time, with a total net load of about seven tons. Ten high-speed steam cranes are available on the- quay for these two depots only, and four colliers can be discharged alongside at one time. The coal is hauled to these depots, and is then transferred to covered stores, or stock piles in the open, by means of 10 steam cranes. Bunker deliveries are effected direct alongside the quay, or from lighters. Rosario. Fig. 3 shows the Sao Francisco depot at Rosario, where coal has to be discharged at an elevation of about 55 ft. above the average water level. The vessels come alongside the quay, where there is a depth of water averaging from 21 to 24 ft., and four cableways are available for discharging. Each cableway comprises two steel wire track cables, 34 in. in diameter, both of which carry skips holding about 12 cwt. These two .< 4 fl Fig. 3.—Discharging Coal at Sao Francisco Depot, Rosario. skips are connected by a wire hauling rope operated by a winch situated at the high level, so that while the loaded skip is being hauled up, the empty one descends. The cableways are rigged over the hatchways of the collier to be discharged, four holds being dealt with at a time, and 150 to 200 tons are discharged by each, or a total of 600 to 800 tons per day. A cargo of 6,000 tons is there- fore landed into storage in about 10 days. To rig the cableways oil the collier occupies 10 men about II to 2| hours at each of the four hatchways. There are two railway sidings and a tramway siding to this depot, for inland deliveries from storage, which is partly under cover and partly in open stacks. Bunker deliveries are effected in bulk from storage to railway wagons, or by the sack chute shown in the illustration, which can deliver direct to vessels or to lighters; and railway wagons on the quay can be similarly loaded. Exports and Imports of Coal Products. — The exports of coal products, not dyes, in January were valued at £244,771, as compared with £275,640 a year ago. The coal tar dye- stuffs, which are classified separately, amounted to 4,213 cwt. (2,690 cwt. a year ago), valued at £65,280. Exports and Imports of Mining Machinery.—Imports of mining machinery during January amounted to 122 tons, valued at £11,235, as compared with 107 tons, valued n.t £9,417, a year ago. According to destination, the values of exports were as under :— January. 1916. 1917. 1916. 1917' To- Tons. Tons. £ .Jr, Countries in Europe 205 . 149 .. 7,233 .. 6,250 United States of America... 18 . 2 296 242 Countries in S. America ... 36 . 80 .. 1,977 .. 3,589 British South Africa 744 . . 1,416 . 22,608 .. 51,765 ,. East Indies 249 . . 286 .. 9,536 .. 10.653 Australia 141 . 27 .. 4,763 .. 1.042 New Zealand 13 . 10 828 373 Other countries 509 . 141 .15,120 .. 7,152 Total 1,915 . 2,111 .62,361 .. 81,066 The following shows the value® of prime movers other than electrical :— December. 1916. 1917. £ £ Rail locomotives ....... 145,190 ... 74,390 Pumping ................. 20,681 12,364 Winding ................ 1,228 ... 2,108 CHEMICAL ASPECTS OF COKE OVEN PRACTICE. Prof. P. Phillips Bedson, of .the Chair of Chemistry, Armstrong College, Newcastle, addressed the members of the Northern section of the Coke Oven Managers' Association at their meeting in Newcastle on January 27, on " Some Thoughts Suggested by Coke Oven Prac- tice.” He stated that the chemical problems involved in the manufacture of coke were such as had interested him for many years. Further justification for his address might be found in the fact that the attitude of approach in their case and his was different, suggestive of the contrast between practice and theory, which were essential and complementary to each other. That very difference in point of view might bring with it a.mutual benefit. Speaking nearly 20 years ago to the members of the Midland Counties branch of the National Association of Colliery Managers, he had pointed out that: “ The pro- blem of producing coke from coal with the simultaneous recovery of the substances formed—in fact, the complete utilisation of coal—is by no means a question of to-day, but one which attracted attention even in the last cen- tury. ... It was not until between the ’fifties and ’sixties that we find the question assuming a practical form. . . . These advances which, in the hands of the industrial chemist, have shown coal tar to be a mine of wealth, have naturally directed the attention of engi- neers end chemists to the rationalisation of the manu- facture of coke, with the object of effecting as complete a utilisation of the coal as that already attained in the manufacture of coal gas, and, at the same time, pro- ducing a coke well suited for the manufacture of iron and for other metallurgical operations. Some 15 years ago, considerable interest was aroused in this country in the recovery of by-products in the manufacture of coke, but despite the financial gain which it was demonstrated would accrue from the adoption of methods more rational than the coking in the beehive oven, in few cases only do we find that these more rational methods have been adopted, and chiefly for the reason that the iron masters in this country expressed themselves in no unmeasured terms as to the merits of coke manufactured by these methods, as compared with coke produced in the bee- hive oven. Signs are not wanting to show that the experience gained by the exclusive adoption of systems of coking with recovery of by-products in Germany will bear fruit in this country. ... It must not be supposed that the coke makers in this country have been content to adopt a system of coking handed down from their pre- decessors without attempting to improve and economise, for there is no doubt that considerable thought has been exercised in developing and improving the old round beehive coke oven, and that the waste gases are carefully collected and utilised for a variety of purposes. As an example of such practice, I may quote Mr. A. L. Steavenson, who stated, at a recent discussion at the Institution of Mining and Mechanical Engineers in New- eastle-upon-Tyne, that at a colliery in Durham, out of a possible 68'74 per cent., at least 64 per cent, of beau- tiful coke was produced, and, in addition, the waste gases heated ad the boilers, pumped all the water, and drew 900 tons of coal per day from a depth of 600 ft. But despite the apparent complete utilisation of the coal here described, it must not be forgotten that the numerous valuable compounds which are produced in the conversion of the coal into coke are in this case burnt and converted into compounds of no value to man.” Since the date of that lecture, said Dr. Bedson, there had been a considerable development in the practice of coking with the recovery of by-products. Many factors had contributed to that change in practice, but there could be little doubt that one factor had been the demon- stration by German blast furnace workers that retort oven coke, despite its lack of brightness and lustre, was as serviceable in the blast furnace as that manufactured in the beehive oven. Amongst the first iron masters in this country to take advantage of the Germain experi- ence, a man whose action gave a decisive impetus, was Sir B. Samuelson, who erected batteries of coke ovens at the Middlesbrough works. The example had been followed by many others, but the speaker could not refrain from expressing regret that these methods had not been adopted earlier, and that the world should not have been taught this lesson by the enlightened practice of our own iron masters; for did we not recall with pride the part played in the development of iron and steel by our countrymen Colt, Darby, Nielson, Bessemer, Lowthian Bell, Thomas, and Gilchrist? It might be granted that a greater amount of by-prcduct oven coke was required to produce a ton of cast iron than when beehive oven coke was employed, but the by-product oven yielded a greater amount of coke per ton of coal, to say nothing of the value of the by-products and the convenient manner in which the gases produced might be utilised for a variety of purposes. Coal might be considered as the embodiment of poten- tial energy. The efficiency of the employment of that energy might be gauged from the form in which he stated his evidence before the Royal Commission on Coal Supplies, in 1903. At that time, he pointed out that the retort eqke oven with plant for the recovery of by-products was a great advance towards the complete utilisation of the coal, both thermally and materially. The treatment would yield : (1) A larger proportion of coke; (2) by-products in the form ci ammonia and tar; (3) gases which could be more readily controlled; (4| waste heat which could be utilised for steam raising; and (5) surplus gas available for steam production or for power or illuminating purposes. These were all obtain- able with a smaller expenditure of the heat value of the coal, than in the beehive oven. After quoting this evidence, Dr. Bedson mentioned the perfect utilisation of waste heat from coke ovens as practised by Messrs Priestman.* It was, however, when coal was considered as a sub- stance that coke oven practice aroused a special interest in the chemist, tor, in the ctperation to which coal, a mixture of complex compounds of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, and sulphur — to name only thote elements which constituted the combustible material of which co'al was in part composed—was submitted, the chemist saw the production of new substances, many of which had, as the outcome of research, purely academic or theoretical in aim, acquired special interest in ministering to man’s every-day requirements, supply- ing the ever-present demand for novelty and variety, a characteristic of what was generally regarded 8- advanced civilisation and culture.. Of the inter-dependence of science and industry, or industry and science, no better illustration could b ■ found than' was afforded by the history of the develop- ment of the coal tar industry; for was it not true, as remarked by Pelletier and Walther in 1838, that chemical operations conducted on the large scale offered opportunities for observing phenomena, investigating laws, and preparing new products which did not present themselves in laboratory experiments? Chemical industry, largely indebted to theory for its progress, repaid the chemist whose assistance she needed by pr< - seating him with new compounds for investigation, and thus science was widened and industry developed. In that way, the manufacture of coal gns and of coke had enriched organic chemistry with many new compounds, which investigation had proved to be of the greatest interest. But for coal gas, Faraday’s liquid hydrocar- bons, butylene and benzene, Kidd’s naphthalene, and Dumas and Laurent's paranaphthalene (anthracene) would still have to be discovered. It was in the light of the chemical changes and tin products resulting from the thermal treatment of coal that the by-product coke oven practice acquired a special interest in the eyes of the chemist, for not only did it afford an example of an almost complete utilisation of what to this country was a most valuable asset, but it supplied raw materials from which, as a result of patient investigation and research, the chemist had shewn that dyes, colours, perfumes, and drugs could be obtained vicing with Nature’s products. By but slight alteration in the treatment of these raw materials, certain of them could be transformed into explosives which served the purpose of assisting labour to wrest riches from the bowels of the earth, and also for use in engines of war. Dr. Bedson proceeded to trace, in considerable detail, the development, scientifically and commercially, of th by-products, the most important among which, he said, were those which chemists described as “ aromatic ” compounds, such as the hydrocarbons, benzene, toluene, xylene, naphthalene, anthracene, and the acidic bodie:- like phenol or carbolic acid. On the point of the suc- cessful manufacture of indigo derived from naphthalem , which was put on the market by the Badische Aniline and Soda Fabrik in 1898, he quoted Dr. Brumck as pointing out, in a lecture at Berlin in 1900, that “ this new industry is not an unexpected gift fallen from th. heavens, but, in order to complete the task, the labour and the industry of many men had to be eo-ordinated in an organised attempt to attain a definite object for ti number of years and throughout a considerable period when success could by no means be regarded as certain.” In conclusion, he said the thoughts he had expressed brought into prominence the inter-dependence of science and industry, and showed how the industrial treatment of coal acquired special importance when contemplated from the chemical point of view, and that, from that standpoint, as well as from the point of view of a source of energy, coal had an importance impossible to exag- gerate. The fortunate nations who possessed supplies should guard these, and use them with the most jealous care. In this connection, he quoted Dr. Somerville, who, writing in the January issue of Blackwood's Magazine, pointed out that an immediate and large increase in food production in this country could be effected by using on British land the whole of the ammonium sulphate produced in this country, instead of exporting, out of the annual production of 400,000 tons, 294,000 tons, as was done in 1915, and probably 250,000 tons in 1916. The amount exported in 1916 was equiva- * Colliery Guardian, January 19, 1916, p. 134.