BRITAIN'S COAL

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1221, 1 September 1911, Page 5

BRITAIN'S COAL

.—l> A SCIENTIST'S WARNING. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright (Rec. August 31, 9.25 p.m.) London, August 1)1. The meeting of the British Association in the 'Advancement of Scienco has opened at Portsmouth. Sir Wiliiam Ramsay, the eminent chemist, in his presidential address on the sources of energy, declared that the scientific advance of Great Britain was hindered by her defective technical education. The country- should cultivate tho application of trained intelligence to all forms of national activity.

Referring to the exhaustion of tho British. coal supplies, Sir William Ramsay said they might look forward to tho approach of famine and misery. The British. Science Guild had investigated the available sources of energy, and had found no practical substitute for coal.

They must look to a more economical use of coal to prolong the life of tho nation, and adopt legislative measures to prevent its waste. Ho computed that the British coal .measures at the present • rate of working would be exhausted ill 175 years. HARNESSING THE SUNBEAMS. Discussing tho future sources of supply for the world's commercial power, Sir. J. J. Tliomsan .said in his address to the British Association at Winnipeg in 1909: "We must remember that we on this earth aro not living on our resources; we are dependent from minute to minute upon what wc are getting from the sun, and the gifts of the sun aro conveyed to us by the ether. It is to tho sun that we V\re not merely night and day, springtime and harvest, but it is the energy of the sun, stored up ill coal, in waterfalls, in food, that practically does all the work of the world. "Row great is the supply the sun lavishes upon us becomes clear when we consider that the heat received under a high sun and a clear sky is equivalent, according to the measurements of'Langley, to about 7000 horse-power per acre. Though our engineers have not yet discovered how to utilise this enormous supply of power, they will, I' have not the slightest doubt, ultimately succeed in doing so, and when coal is exhausted and our water-power inadequate, ■ it may be that this is tho source from 'which wo shall derive tho energy necessary for the world's work. When that comes about our centres of industrial activity may perhaps he transferred to the burning deserts of the Sahara, and the valuo of land determined by its suitability for the reception of traps to catch sunbeams.