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In England and on the Continent it is generally allowed that the greatest producers of smoke in the cities and towns are the domestic grates, but here it must be admitted that our mining and industrial works are the chief offenders, and it is with the keenest sympathy and hesitation that I venture to attack the system, not the works!

Let us now consider the cause of an abnormal production of smoke in furnaces.

Firstly, we must indite careless or ignorant stoking; secondly, the use of improper coal or fuel; thirdly, the use of obsolete or badly-designed fire-boxes; fourthly, defective draught, due to choked tubes or defective flues; fifthly, the want of scientific supervision of Furnaces and Boilers by the Managing Engineering Staff.

Then let us consider the effects of the same from a scientific point of view.

The merest engineering student knows, or ought to know, that bituminous coal can be completely consumed so as to emit no smoke, (a) by heating and regulating the supply of air to the furnace, (b) by securing and maintaining a proper temperature in the furnace, and (c) by properly controlling the gaseous products of combustion in their passage to and up the chimney.

It has been publicly reported that Messrs. Crossfield and Sons, of Warrington, have, by adopting a scientific treatment of their fuel and stoking, saved 1000 tons of coal per week, which means that they were saved the use of almost double the number of boilers, with all attendant expenses of depreciation, firing, upkeep, etc., which amounted in all to about £25,000 per annum, and the Cardiff Railway Company admit that their saving of fuel amounts to 25 per cent. The points observed by these consumers have been the proper construction of furnaces, flues and chimneys, the regulation of air supply, mechanical and careful stoking, the preparation, elevating, and conveying of fuel, the heating of feed matter, and careful supervision by their senior engineers.

The point I wish to bring home at this time, when the saving of working costs is our great problem, is, if a single coal consuming firm can effect the saving I have quoted, what would be the saving to our great gold industry and other industrial concerns if their example was followed?

Human nature is hard to drive but easy to lead, if met in a rational manner. There is a class of person, unfortunately too numerous, who resents anything like interference, and such is most difficult to deal with, because out of "pure cussedness" they will do all they know to evade restraint, and look upon advice as an impertinence. The conceit that is born of ignorance is the bugbear of progress, science, and economy, and probably justified the inception of the Public Health Act (England) 1891, which fathered that splendid fighting body known as the Smoke Abatement Society. If only for economic reasons, I submit that such a body should be

immediately formed at Johannesburg under the patronage and financial support of the Gold Mining Companies and Chamber of Mines. It should not be difficult in such a commonsense community as ours to prove that money can be saved and dividends increased by preventing the discharge of the thousands of tons of unconsumed carbon which, I submit, is anything but creditable to our engineers, though it may be profitable to the colliery owners, and save our firemen some trouble.

We all realise that legislation can be made obstructive and destructive of the very object it has in view, but it cannot be denied, I think, that without legislative power behind it, persuasion, argument and commonsense would be of little avail. After all, engineering science is little more than commonsense, backed up by education and experience, all of which we claim. Yet it seems to me that the practical application of those attributes to our interests, as a community, is sadly neglected.

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Last year the English Coal Smoke Abatement Society issued a series of questions to manufacturers and others, with a view to ascertaining the causes of waste and the best means of counteracting the same. The Society was, I believe, careful to select many facturers for their enquiries who had at one time or another been serious offenders against the Public Health Act. A typical reply to the circulars acknowledged that even when so-called smokeless coal is used, smokeless combustion cannot be secured unless both boiler and furnace are scientifically designed, and the stoking carried out with intelligence and care. Great circumspection was exercised in the selection of suitable stokers, and special attention had been given to the training of these men at their works, under the close inspection and instruction of their engineers. By way of encouragement, higher wages were paid to firemen who shewed exceptional ability, and it was acknowledged that such increased wages were more than saved by the economy in fuel and the extra power secured by the services of the more intelligent and conscientious stokers. It was further acknowledged that the better class of firemen fully appreciated the necessity of studying the elementary science of combustion and the different classes of fuels, so that it mattered little to him where he was located, as he was more or less conversant with the peculiarities of all classes of fuel, and soon ascertained the amount of coal per square foot of grate surface per hour that should be consumed. Such a man studied the manipulation of his dampers, the regulation of air to his furnaces, the cleaning of his fires, the working of his feed pumps and injectors, and had an intelligent idea of the proper character of his flue gases.

I have been informed that much of the smoke and consequent waste of fuel along our reef is due to the fact that the boiler power at many mines is inadequate, thus necessitating the forcing of combustion. It surely should not be a difficult matter to arrange a system by which firemen should receive a bonus upon the value of fuel saved by their care and intelligence. If such was done, the stoker would be careful to see that bad coal was not supplied to

his employer by interested colliery owners. But, better still, I submit that our Chamber of Mines or other interested body, should follow the example of the Prussian Government, who, in 1902, arranged for a course of instruction for stokers, and ear-marked £2000 per annum for the purpose. The far-seeing and scientific promoter of the measure declared that the Government was alive to the fact that to compete successfully with other nations in certain manufactures it was necessary to reduce the cost of production. He proved conclusively that serious waste was taking place through unscientific and careless stoking, and secured the sympathy, confidence, and assistance of the Government, as I have stated above.

The Hamburg Smoke Abatement Society is a voluntary association of steam-users, and has been in existence about three years. The Society is controlled by a committee, and the technical work is managed by a permanent expert staff. The working expenses are obtained, firstly, from its members' subscriptions; secondly, from payment for special work done for its members; and, thirdly. from payments by outsiders for research work or advice. The membership at present is about 150, with 420 Boilers under their supervision.

The declared objects of the Society, as set forth in its rules, are the attainment of the highest possible efficiency from heating and boiler plants with the least possible smoke. With this end in view, regular examinations are made of the plants of members and their methods of working. The education and control of firemen is undertaken, and tests are made of fuel and appliances. Reports and results are then circulated amongst members. With a view to carrying out some special steam-raising trials, a central Model Boiler installation was installed in Hamburg in 1904, and the results of the research trials are circulated among members in due course. Manufacturers and fuel users generally have been taught that proper combustion of fuel produces economy, and they were advised that the first step was to provide a body of trained stokers. To do that they must be selected and taught in a uniform, practical, and scientific manner by competent engineer instructors. Now, here is an opportunity for us, as the leading scientific Society of South Africa, to justify our existence by promoting this branch of science. I am sure a ready and liberal response would be made by our Chamber of Mines, to any reasonable proposal that may be made to them. Itinerant courses of instruction could be arranged at different centres along the reef, and firemen instructors could be appointed to give the necessary lessons at some fixed centre.

A few furnaces of modern design might be provided to demonstrate their capabilities, and competitions might be arranged between boiler-makers and between firemen, which should place the directors of companies in possession of statistics that should tend to reduce the working costs of our mining, milling, and reduction generally, as well as check a danger to the comfort and health of our community that, in my opinion, is already being felt by those who think of

other things besides the mercenary side of life. In the course of time, employers would naturally give the preference to stokers who could show certificates of having been trained by the body I suggest, and, having secured a reliable body of men, could generate a healthy emulation by offering bonuses to working staffs according to the reduction of the annual coal bill.

Having attended the annual congress of the Royal Sanitary Institute at Glasgow in 1905, the Lord Provost, Sir John Ure Primrose, was good enough to enlighten me upon the work he and other enthusiasts were doing in Glasgow to reduce the smoke nuisance and costs of working, and at the same time he assured me that his researches had proved so successful that he was having his whole installations and staff re-modelled, thus affording the public a practical proof of what can be done in justifying a firm insistence on the part of the authorities of his example being followed.

CO-OPERATION.

BY W. L. STRANGE, M. INST.C.E., DIRECTOR OF IRRIGATION, TRANSVAAL.

1. INTRODUCTORY.

It may be taken for granted that most persons who have lived in South Africa, and that all who have made their homes in the sub-continent, desire her prosperity. The far-seeing leaders of men, who have been and who are still with us, have ever held that that prosperity can best be assured by co-operation which will weld her Colonies into one united whole, and fit her to take a prominent place in that still greater combination of varied countries with diverse races, but with one common centre, to which we give the proud title of Empire. The engineer, who, of all professional men, has had the leading share in making the Empire possible-by improving communications, by developing even its most distant possessions, and by increasing the facilities for civilisation-may well feel that he can help forward the good work in South Africa. Each branch of engineering has its sphere of usefulness, and can aid its numerous other branches, so that a bare enumeration of the important matters in which the profession as a whole has played, and will play, a part in ensuring the progress of the Empire, would take up much space. The author would therefore confine himself to that branch of engineering-irrigation-with which he has been connected throughout his professional career. He proposes shortly to describe the necessity that exists for irrigation; how irrigation has been developed in other countries; the material advantages which can be secured by it in South Africa; the objections raised to it and the answers to them; and how it will serve to weld together the dominant races in the sub-continent. Thereafter, he will discuss briefly the special utility of each of the main classes of irrigation works, and, finally, will deal with the way in which irrigation can best be developed by inter-colonial co-operation, to the mutual advantage of the different Colonies. His experience of South. Africa has been limited to three years' service in the Transvaal, but he thinks that the conditions in the other Colonies are sufficiently similar to those which obtain in it, as to make general observations applicable to all. He feels that his remarks could not be addressed more fitly to any other Association than that which has for its object the advancement of science in South Africa, nor in any other place than Kimberley, where the three principal Colonies of the subcontinent may be said to meet.

2. THE NECESSITY FOR IRRIGATION.

In all tropical and sub-tropical countries where the rains are not regular and seasonable, irrigation is found to be a necessity. There is no reason why the case should be different in South Africa, where the rainfall on most of the area suitable for occupation by

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