SOURCES OF POWER

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 20, 18 October 1919, Page 4

SOURCES OF POWER

■ LORD MOULTON ON COAL AND lIS AUXILIARIES OIL AS A LUXURY Wiat is the position of the world today with regard to power, and what are the prospects for the future? Those are the questions which everyone is asking just now, and asking with increasing urgency as the coal supply of our nation is threatened, if not with stoppages, at least- with the restrictions consequent upon rising prices and lowor production, 1 Was so fortunate (writes a representative of the London "Observer") as to ba able to put- the questions to Lord lloulton,' and to obtain from him a most-in-teresting summary of tho power position. 1 "We have no real alternative to coal as a source of power," he said. "That is, and, so far as <sno caii see, must remain our great source and the foundation on wfoich civilisation is based, "There nre„ it is true, subsidiary sources in water and wind and the tides. It is certain that we do not use theso aa fully as we might, and it is probable that' we shall have to make more use of' them in future. 'With regard' to the tides, Ihowever, the great difficulty is that no one has yet found out how to use their power in a fashion which would give an adequate return for the capital invested. You would require extensive and costly plant. It would bo neewsary to shut the water oif at the timo o£ Hiigll tide, and then let fit run out in tho form .of waterfalls. It would require attention at all hours of the day and'night, and the cost of'the labour would bo very heavy.

j ; "The one alternative to oonl which we . can got. from .the earth is oil. And oil .'- is a perfect-'fuel, but tho amount of.it " available is not comparablo with ' tb& amount of coal. Besides, oil is; of the greatest importance, beeause.of its. suitability for certain kinds ot'work which could never be done .with coal.. It would be impossible, for instance, to drive aeroplane. engines' with coal as fuel, and motor-cars, too, must mainly ou I. oil," .That being the case, it is very . necessary, to regard 'oil as tho greatest luxury in. the.eijape of fuel, and .to"re-' serve, it. carefully for those purposes for which it is specially suitable, •; : "But. we should certainly use tho sub- • eidiary sources of power aj Boon'as pos-' sible. There is a great deaf of/water-' power in the world, and it should' bo made to do as much work as possible. Much can also be done by means of .windmills. There was .the time, for instance, when. Holland was almost entire- ' Iy drained by-windrpower.. .. "We ' have boen neglecting those sub*. sidiary .sources because we have been .living in an age of'cheap fuel. Coal has., been plentiful. and cheap, and it was cheaper-to use it than to .'erect plant to make possible the employment of these ' other, sources. is there, and itj.is' available-for.'our use, within certain'limits; which vary with the couin-, try. In some places,-- for instance, water- • power is only available at certain seasons. In others, such as our own, there is not enough of it to be of any considerable service. But the® ' are countries _ like Canada where the water-power available is almost unlimited. "It is all a matter/' Lord Moulton continued, "of finding' a method of harnessing the energy which the sua is pouring down upon the earth every day everywhere. Perhaps there may come a tima when sometme will discover how to col- - lect that energy directly. It might be possible to go to some of the cloudless Spaces of the e,vth, such as the Sahara ' desert, -and there to erect apparatus which would enable the world to draw' its necessary supplies of power imrnedi-' ately from the sun, but it has not been done yet., Tho use of water-power to replace coal in the production of electricity is, of ' course, another way of tapping some of the energy which tho 6un poura down upon tho earth, but that, as I have said,. ha 6 its limitations. And in thp meantime,', coremains the embodiment- of-,power., " .... . . . ... ... ; : .VV;"Coal. Is. Ou'r'.Only Hope."!' '• ". : v"The whole- future of- the world d<K I>ends on its' coal., -There' is nothing which could replace it in the servioe of transport. Without coal our ships would be reduced to the use of sails again, and' the vait populations of the present would become impossible. Coal is our only hope, and it is useless to dream of discovering any alternative to it in tho\ strata of tho earth.

"That being • ■ tho • case, we ■ hare to economise, to U69. : it carefully as possible, and to be very careful in working the mines to get all the coal out, and not leave the seams which are not bo oasy to work. We havo to 6tudy, and va are studying, the proper methods of consuming coal so that (he fullest uso may be made of the powor which it contains."

"I suppose that means jjasp" I asked, and Lord Moulton assented. : ."Yes," he said. "It means gas. We must use gas to heat our boilarg, and -we must use ,the coke in .our houses. We must also extract'all the oil possible, all the benzol and paraffin from the coal, and use them very carefully where we must,, iii the. services for which oil is essential. Consider, for instance, the advantage!of having a.Navy burning oil fuel. 11l any Navy one-third of the ships must always be coaling. Substitute ;ll for coal, and the bunkers can be, filled.at sea, and you' have that-great immediate gain in the strength, of ..your.fleet. .But here there ,/is one thing remembered—if your oil for .the fleet most come from oversea, •then in time of war you are going to bo in a very dangerous position unless you can be sure of the command of the 6ea." . Tasked Lord Moulton whether, in his opinion, such. troubles as those of late. , have the effect of hastening ec'onomios. in the use of coal. "No," ho answered, "I do/not think they have that effect, for the simple reason, that tho pressure for, the economical use of coal ia already: so great that all possible steps are being taken in the ordinary course of :events. But the Labour troubles of the present do most seriously affect tho qv.estion of using coal to produce power ,'ou a large scale at central stations. They fcrco ono to ask if it is v.ise to estab- , lish sifth central production of power as wculd be. the case with the super-power stations whioh are now being discussed, ond' then to 'rely on the hope of being able to defend tho two or three hundred i miles of wire by which tho power would • tiavel to- tho plaCe_of consumption."Suppose you had all the power required for-London coming along cables which 1 would bo at the mercy of any individual or group of individuals who j wished to demonstrate their strength. I That wopld bo giving' Borne one neck, as Nero Said, and it would ba a gravely perilous position. "The powor for mischief of the individual or groups of individuals is so vastly increased l>r the advance of science, and by tho advance of' democracy. Do mocracy is always slow to interfere with the individual, oven when 1 it is fully aware that he is bent on mischief. Tho party of order is eo reluctant to act. Unless there oome9 a higher regard for law, thero : is danger ahead for all our civilisation. Freedom and disciplino must go together, or. freedom is impossible. "So measures of economy whioh would bo practicable in. a woll-diseipliiied comnvmity are not only impracticable, but in this highest degree dangerous in an unsettled community. It is. a most serious matter," and it will need to-bo very carefully considered before any stops aro taken to erect those super-power stations. ■■

"All this is very woll known," said Lord Moulton in conclusion, "but it Poems to ho necessary to say it and" insist on it again and agaiin., For one does occasionally licar individuals,-otherwise intelligent, declaring that for the future they will civo up coal and usa only oil or olccti'city. You cannot uive up coa]. Manufacture will always follow coal, and our 'civilisation:depends on coal, and on tho wiso use of it. And to uso it wifely we must' also VSinploy the subsidiary sources and power as spon and as fully as possible,"