Abstract
SIR HAROLD HARTLEY, addressing the Institution of Chemical Engineers on October 20 on “Our Nation's Coal Resources”, surveyed the changes which, during the last twenty-five years, have so profoundly affected the prosperity of the British coal industry. He pointed out the need which has been disclosed for the National Coal Survey undertaken by the Fuel Research Board, and stated that the value of the work of the Survey is becoming more obvious as it progresses. He advocates extending the Survey to examine the suitability of coals for the different industrial purposes, so as to discover where need for conservation exists. Fuel economy in utilisation and other circumstances have reduced the production of coal; but methods of mining have made great progress, and both circumstances reduce the number of mine workers. Methods of transportation and distribution have not kept pace with the improvement with the methods of mining. Sir Harold condemned the widespread ownership of private waggons as a burden on cost of distribution and advocated a unification of interests at least up to the point at which coal is to be transferred to the consumer. A rational system of grading should replace trade practice of selling by description. Intensified research on the fundamental nature of coal was urged, and indeed the factors which seem to Sir Harold most promising are more research and better organisation. The latter may be unpalatable to some individualists, but seems to be inevitable.
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Organisation of the Coal Industry. Nature 136, 828 (1935). https://doi.org/10.1038/136828b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/136828b0