[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—The excellent article you
printed in your issue of the 80th May, by Mr. John Strachey, on the above subject, requires little comment, except on the economic side. The following, therefore, should be noted : (1) Low-temperature carbonization, or distillation, of coal is an adjunct, and must be worked either with a colliery or a gas or electricity under- taking, or with two or three of them. It is not an end in itself. (2) Research and invention costs a great deal of money, and generally much more than pioneers and inventors expect, consequently companies formed to exploit a process have not generally enough money, after perfecting their process, to put up large plants ; (3) Companies for developing processes are certainly not formed with sufficient capital to purchase collieries or gas undertakings, and if those two trades do not co-operate, a stalemate must result ; (4) Distillation of coal cannot be made profitable on a small scale, for instance, in one process a one-unit plant carries almost the same overhead charges as four units, but a one-unit plant will demonstrate recoveries and working costs ; (5) Certain processes have reached a commercial stage, and merely require sufficient money to build large enough plants to demonstrate in a most practical manner their economic success.
Mr. Strachey points out the advantages as so great and so obvious, and it is an extraordinary thing that with a coal industry in its present state a process that will supply a good deal of the oil needed in the country instead of the imported commodity ; which will increase its Export Trade , by pro- viding a product for which there is a large market (smokeless fuel), and that will give almost 'countless by-products, is not supported by a Government grant.
So far the assistance offered by the Government is : (1) An instruction to Government Offices to purchase smokeless fuel at the same price as coal of equal heat value ; (2) A grant of £40,000 for research on tar oils ; (3) A recommendation for the use of the Development Loans and Guarantees Act.
The first merely asks companies making smokeless fuel to sell below the market price ; the second will take months, perhaps years, to give definite results, and the third is quite useless as its terms involve giving usual Bankers' Security. Reputable public utility companies can borrow more expedi- tiously and probably on better terms from their own bankers.—
I am, Sir, &c., A. VAUCCHAN COWELL (Chairman, Sensible Heat Distillation Limited). York Mansion, Petty France, S.W.1.
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