A GREAT NATIONAL ECONOMY.
[To THE EDITOR OP THE " SPECTATOR."]
have already trespassed considerably upon your space, but I shall be grateful if you will allow me to offer a few comments on the letter from Mr. W. Newton Drew in your issue of the 29th ult. My letter did not in any way refer to shares or the financing of a company. The company who are building the works will attend to that themselves. It is right that commercial results should be shown over a reasonable period. The large German company referred to in my previous letter (viz., the Stettiner Company) tested for more than a year in Germany and in England the system referred to, and it was because they were duly satisfied that they guaranteed the results for the future on a royalty basis just before the outbreak of war. The experiments of the Germans showed that the low-temperature pitch was not inferior to pitch produced by the high-temperature processes. I am very pleased to see that, after all his experience, Mr. W. Newton Drew agrees that low-temperature carbonization is coming, and I am convinced it 'will come to stay. I also agree that the fittest process will survive, and what I plead for in the national interest is that the authorities should give a fair chance to all the systems. I do not agree with your correspondent that tables of results should not have been given, especially when they have been substantiated; and, in con- clusion, I would draw your attention to the following extract from an article in last Sunday's Weekly Dispatch by Lord Montagu of Beaulieu :- "Although benzol cannot be used at present owing to its use in the manufacture of high explosives, the Government should take steps to discourage the wasteful use of coal, and various systems for distilling benzol from coal should be encouraged."
Lord Montagu then points out that there should be no great difficulty about this, as he has heard from a reliable authority in Denmark that already in Germany the Stettiner Company have erected eleven to twelve large plants for distilling coal on a low-temperature basis in order to increase the supply of benzol, which he states is as useful as petrol for motor purposes.—I am, Sir, &o., J. R. F.
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