COAL CARBONIZATION.
[To ens .Easrese OF THE " SPECTATOR.") Ses,—Your "News of the Week" in the issue of July 26th contains a reference to some opinions expressed by a writer in the Times as to the relative merits of carbonization by the highand low-temperature methods, and quotes the "wastefulness of the high-temperature process by which coke is produced "—an opinion which receives your personal imprimatur. Coke is, of course, produced in both processes, and it is only possible to judge their relative efficiencies when the primary object of carbonization is known. The gas retort has reached an advanced stage of development and efficiency for carbonization at high temperatures, and when considering the question of coal conservation a vast amount of experience and reliable data are available on which to base the economic possibilities of this process. So slight is the experience and so meagre the data relating to low-temperature carbonization that the Government have appointed a Fuel Research Board which has had to erect and equip a special Fuel Research Station to determine whether an economical and efficient apparatus can be devised for the purpose, and if so, whether the products obtained are of a collective value greater than that of the original coal plus the cost of carbonization and handling. In the circumstances, to describe the one well-established system of carbonization as wasteful would appear to be, at least, premature.—I am, Sir, &c., W. J. Seem Secretary. National Gas Council of Great Britain and Ireland, 39 Victoria Street, S.W.1.
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