Cheap Smokeless Fuel The recent decision of the Admiralty to
contract for a supply of fuel oil distilled from British coal encouraged the hope that low-temperature carbonization was at long last to justify the hopes which it had aroused. But even greater importance attaches to the Fuel Research Board's confident assertion that a cheaper method of producing smokeless fuel has now been devised. Hitherto coalite and similar fuels, however admirable in their way, have been expensive because the metal retorts used for treating the coal had a very short life. It has now been found that brick retorts, which are much cheaper and more durable, will yield a smokeless fuel that is 20 per cent. more efficient than coal. The South Metropolitan Gas Company finds a ready sale for such fuel in working- class districts. If the price can be kept down to a level with that of coal, the demand should increase rapidly, and with it the smoke nuisance, largely attributable to the domestic chimney, will be abated.
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