The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1901-01-02

plants; in the hold of the war cruiser and
the ocean greyhound, and in the iirebox
Of the most improved locomotive. Where
ever wheel turns by steam, SUCH is the
Importance Of the power problem that
fame and fortune await the man who can
reduce this enormous waste II fuel b. so
small a margin as 10 per cent.
Great Britain's Cea1 supply.
About forty years ago this fuel ques-
tioh was brought home to the minds of
England with startling disunctness. The
fact was somewhat suddenly revealed to
them that vast inroads were being made
upon the British coal supply. and that the
mines were doomed to gradual. but GER
tain exhaustion In 1860 the annual coal con-
sumption was about 6.5G0. eco tons; in 1915
1t had increased TO z7,O00 coo tons; in 1850,
TO 100000 tons. and in 1860, to what
seemed then the perilous aggregate Of
S4OCJ,co0 tons. The proposition, there
fore, was set forth that if Industry should
expand and the growing consumption of
coal should continue at the SAME rate, the
time could not be very remote when the
supply of domestic fuel would be exhaust
ed; when importsti0ns from foreign coun-
tries must begin, and finally, when every
wheel and loom in tho United Kingdom
would be forced to stop for lack of power
England never had such a scare. The
impending catastrophe formed the theme
of an imprisoned address by Sir William
Armstrong before the British Association,
1t called forth treatise from the pen OF
w. S. Jevons. and IL led to the creation
Of royal commission to investigate
the subject and report it 10 Parliament It
also afforded Mr.. Gladstone an argument
for the reduction OF the national debt. on
the plea that the industries OF the country
must soon enter upon a period of decline.
which would ultimately reduce Great Bri-
tain TO the condition of Spain or Holland
For time scholars. statesmen, manu-
facturers, and merchants were dazed at the
portent OF impending disaster. and with
the poet Byron. they locked forward to
what seemed the inevitable doom of the
globe, when every pound Of coal should
be consumed; when every tree should be
burned up.
But mems conceptions of the fuel prob
lem have been considerably enlarged since
that time. The report of the Royal Com
mission relieved the CONSERVATION of En-
glishmen by affording proof that domes-
tic fuel would last at least 500 years, and
that several more centuries would elapse
before the great factories of Birming CHAM
and Leeds would become silent. Like all
theories founded upon imperfect knowl-
edge, the exhaustion OF the coal supply
as figured out in the sixties did not fit
into the facts that have since been re-
vealed. II could not be foreseen that with
in the period of thirty years the improve
ment of machinery would be such that one
pound of coal would be doing the work
OF three. and that so great economies in
the application Of power would be worked
out that the engineers at the end of the
century would look upon the annual con-
sumption of 200.o00e coo tons of coal in
Great Britain and three times as much in
the rest Of the world with absolute com
posture.
The Concentration of Power.
There has been remarkable expansion
Of industry, greater. indeed. than the i'm
agination of a Gladstone could fathom,
but it has been learned that manufacture.
transportation. and other enterprises tend
toward the concentration Of processes; to-
ward the maximum limit OF production at
minimum cost, and ever toward increasing
economy of power and fuel. The diffusion
Of force by means of the electric current
is slowly working q revolution in mechan-
les, and if the direct transformation of
carbon into electrical vibration shall
some time cease to be n matter of pure
experiment in the laboratory, the present
enormous draft upon the coal measures
viii be perceptibly relieved. The utiliza
tiOn of water power, the employment of
compressed air and, possibly. the har-
Messing Of solar force and the power of
The tides to mechanics may complete the
full solution Of the coal problem.
1t must be apparent. however, that if
power can be produced only by the ex-
pansive energy of steam that the British
catastrophe may be delayed but not avoid
ed. The consumption of coal is ten times
greater today than in 1860. and de-
spite the diffusion OF force by electricity
and the concentration Of mechanical pro-
ces5es already effected, the doom of in
drstry is. relatively speaking, not far in
the future. when the coal is gone in Great
Britain there may be plenty elsewhere,
and ii may be that methods will be eyoly-
ed 10 run engines by the carbon dioxide
liberated from limestone rocks. but so
long as power Is dependent upon the con-
sumption of material engineers must face
the possibility Of the final failure of fuel
For this reason the power problem is in
vested with supreme interest. and the
consideration OF questions relating to the