BROWN COALS.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 18906, 22 January 1927, Page 20

BROWN COALS.

EMPIRE RESOURCES. PROPOSED USE. ' Vl'ltOU OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

LONDON, December 15. Before the Institution of Fuel Technology, in London, a paper was read by Dr M. W. Travers. The paper was prepared by Sir Richard Redmayn© (formerly Chief Inspector of Mines), who unfortunately corJd not attend. The subject was "Brown Coal and the Great Possibilities of its Exploitation in the British Empire." Dr Travers remarked that the available 'resources of this cheap fuel were' of a vastness undreamt of by the general public. Even under this building —the Institution of Mechanical Jingin- , cors—there is a layer of probably two feet of brown coal, which extends all over the London area, he said. "It is known only too well to builders, who describe it as an infernal nuisance. In the London soil it is a brown, squashy substance, and builders in preparing foundations have to go through two feet of it before getting to the clay. Sir .Richard's paper, said Dr. Travers, had been prepared following a report on the subject of the Dominions, where the utilisation of brown coal was becoming a question of great importance. The available resources of this cheap' fuel were of a vastness undreamt of by the general public. Brown coal, while of little importance to this country, • was of the greatest possible interest to the Empire. 'Australia, New Zealand, India, and Canada all possesed extensive supplies. Perhaps in point of thickness the deposits of the Latrobe Valley, Victoria (Australia), were the most remarkable in the world. An area of fifty miles in length in that district contained within a depth of one thousand feet from the surface at least 31,144,319,000 long tons, the thickness of the beds of coal in the aggregate being 781 feet, one bed alone being 265 feet thick. So far as proved up to the present, however, the moisture content there was high. Some of the brown coals of highest value which Sir Richard had investigated were in New Zealand, where no less than 513,000,000 long tons of proved brown coal existed and wherethe probable reserves were three times that quantity. In Canada the reserves of brown coal were enormous.

Progress in Germany. Sir Philip Dawson, M.P., commenting on the historic importance of Sir Richard Redmayne's paper, pointed out that 40 per cent, of the electric current generated in Germany to-day was generated direct by brown coal. The generating works were erected on the coalfields, and were producing current at a very low r>rice. This utilisation of an inferior fuel ought to be more largely applied to the vast dumps of very inferior coal now lying idle at the pit mouths in this country. During the recent coal stoppage that class of material previously thought to be valueless, was burnt in comparatively large quantities by Birmingham Corporation with extraordinary results. The calorific value of that stuff, although low, was certainly much higher than" that of the brown coal used in Germany, and did not contain the same nercentage of moisture. _ A large development in that direction was promised in this country.

Cannel Coal. Certain coals in this country were eminent v suitable for distillation, hayin" large quantities of oil. In Scothnd particularly there were qiiantitios if cannel coal, to-day more or less useof cannei uw , lys j s wni ch lie I GSS wbich from ny had made, contained ir thirty gallons of oil to tn dumps could.at P rejnt asking C^f'i° a -contained up to rect from the mine, co eigMv gallons of W which already .^ ra * r * ct 4^i se useless mar!l also gas of terml by P rCM ?" c "''- 1 ,.„ \ r rangements

Tliis would enable the gas companies to shut down their own producing plants in favour of the gas now to be produced at a far cheaper rale. Distillation plants of a similar kind were being put up in England. With the advantages which he thought would be • TOU ss °% the Posing of thaJElectriclty Bill, there was a bright future in this country in the better utilisation of coaL