INDUSTRIAL MIRACLE

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIV, Issue 10277, 12 May 1919, Page 9

INDUSTRIAL MIRACLE

AGE OF STEAM IS PASSING. The age of steam is passing. Its reign ts OTer. The handwriting has appeared --not on the wall, but in an official pamphlet, which may bo purchased tor threepence from any bookseller (writes John 'Chester in the "London Daily press")This important document is comouflaged under the long and dreary title, "Interim Keport on Electric Power Supplv in Great Britain." It was prepared by the Coal Conservation sub-Committee of the Reconstruction Committee. An'd now, having given credit to whom credit is due, let us pet down to the facte, pnd proposals, which are hidden in this leport. Our factories, using steam power, wnsuine 71b of coal per horse-power per hour. If we scrap all these inefficient old steam engines, and provide an up-to-date electric power supply, our factories will consume only 1.571 b of coal per horsepower—a direct saving of 78 per cent, in fuel. The total saving will be 55,000,000 tons of coal, and not less than ,£100,000,000 a year. These are the facts in a nutshell. How is this industrial miracle to te worked ? By erecting super. stations for | the production of eleotric power by. means of super dynamos, driven by super gas engines. These super stations will be erected in the coalfields; the coal will go direct from the pits' mouth into gas letorts. The retorts will extract from the coal aniline dyes, motor spirit, heavy Rubricating oil, sulphate of ammonia, and many other valuable by-products, and last gas. The gas will go on to drive the super gas engines, and so be transformed into electric power. From the power stations the power Till be carried by high-tension mains to the various railways, towns, and factories in the area. All the railways will be electrified. Lighting, heating, and cooking will be done entirely by electricity. The transport of ooal by rail and road will be a thing of the past. *Che supply or cheap power will mean higher wages and shorter hours for tie workers. . The wages paid increase witu the amount of power used. In the United States the amount of power employed per worker is double that employed in Great Britain, with the result that the American worker draws higher wages, lives under better conditions, and has more money to spend. The cure for low wages is more motive power.