How Hot Does Wood Burn

 How Hot Does Wood Burn?

 Many private houses are equipped with a fireplace.

But it is not enough just to put any wood in it and wait for maximum heat. In order to heat your home properly, you must have complete information about how hot does wood burn, as well as the best wood that will be used.

Different wood species have different burning temperatures. Under medium density and at equilibrium humidity with that of the surrounding air, the wood ignites at a temperature of about 300 degrees Celsius (572 degrees Fahrenheit). The wood does burn hot, averaging temperatures ranges from 800 to 950 degrees Celsius (1472 to 1742 degrees Fahrenheit). The firewood is initially heated in the peripheral part, after which the heat propagates inside.

To light a piece of wood, a source of heat is needed to heat part of that wood to a favorable temperature. Under normal humidity, the wood ignites up to 300 degrees Celsius (572 degrees Fahrenheit) .

The temperature during burning ranges from 840 to 900 degrees. When it is necessary to make an open fire, to light the logs in the barbecue, it is advisable to use the pine. It is also often used to heat a home by placing it in a stove.

The burning temperature of the wood is about 610-630 degrees Celsius. But for this reason you will need to use about half of the wood than using birch or oak.

Wood burning temperature threshold of different types of wood

Depending on the structure and density of the wood, as well as the quantity and characteristics of the resins, they depend on the firing temperature of the wood, on the calorific value and on the properties of the flame.

If the tree is porous, then it burns very intense, but will not give high burning temperatures – the maximum value is 500 degrees ℃.

But denser wood, such as hornbeam wood, ash or beech wood, burns at a temperature of about 1000 degrees ℃.

Just below the firing temperature near birch (about 800 ℃), as well as oak and larch (900 ℃).

If it comes to such woods as spruce and pine, they light up at about 620-630 degrees ℃.

As a result of the total combustion, at maximum yield, water, carbon dioxide and ash result. Ash represents between 0.5 and 1% of the volume of dry wood.

If the firewood is too wet and too thick or the air insufficient (the draft is not good, the wood has been arranged so as not to allow air flow), the burning is incomplete and dangerous gases (carbon monoxide, nitrogen monoxide) result and smoke.

The smoke is carbon (charcoal) driven by air or water vapor before it is completely burned and converted to carbon dioxide.

In the table below you will find how hot does different type of wood burn:

Wood Type	Wood Burning Temperature [degrees Celsius/Fahrenheit]
Western Red Cedar	354 °C /669.2 °F
Redwood	364 °C /687.2 °F
Radiata pine	349 °C /660.2 °F
Douglas fir	350 °C /662 °F
Oak	900 °C /1652 °F
Victorian ash	311 °C /591.8 °F
Birch	816 °C /1500.8 °F
Spruce	620 °C /1148 °F
Beech	950 °C /1742 °F

At what temperature does the wood ignites?

Pyrolysis – the process of decomposition of wood at high CO2 temperatures and combustion residues – takes place in three phases.

The initial process of wood burning is at 160-260 degrees Celsius (320 degrees Fahrenheit). Irreversible changes begin to appear in the wood, ending with fire. The ignition temperature of the wood varies between 200-250 degrees Celsius (392-482 degrees Fahrenheit).

The second phase of wood burning is 270-430 degrees Celsius. Start the wood decomposition under the action of high temperature.

The third phase is characteristic of a camp fire or a burning furnace. The firing temperature of the wood in the third phase is 440-610 degrees Celsius.

Under these conditions, the wood will ignite in almost any state and leave behind coal.

Different wood species have different ignition temperatures. The firing temperature of the pine – the tree is not the fuel itself, is 250 degrees.

The different stages of wood burning process

This is a complex burning process that is carried out in several stages:

EVAPORATION OF WATER.

Water is about half the weight of a freshly cut log. After one season drying, the water supply is reduced to 20%. When the water is heated in the combustion chamber, it evaporates by absorbing some of the caloric energy released by combustion.

The wetter the wood, the more energy is wasted. That is why wet woods crackle and burst, while dry woods light up and burn lightly.

WOOD IS SMOKING

Smoke is a cloud of flammable gases. Their ignition occurs at elevated temperatures and in the presence of oxygen that sustains this combustion. The gases burn with bright flames.

When their ignition does not occur, the smoke either condenses on the pipes and the chimney in the form of a tar or removes them into the atmosphere, thus polluting the environment.

SIGNS FOR A CORRECT BURN

The combustion must occur in the presence of flames, until the wood turns into charcoal. The purpose is a fiery, smoke-free burning.

Chimney bricks in the combustion chamber (if any) should be colored yellow-brown, not black. Dry wood should light up immediately if sufficient air is available.

The glass of the combustion chamber (if any) must remain clean. The gases coming out of the basket must be transparent or white. Gray smoke indicates wrong combustion.

How does wood burn

The isothermal reaction, in which a certain amount of thermal energy is released is called combustion. This reaction occurs in several successive stages. In the first stage, the wood is heated by an external source of fire to the point of ignition.  

As the temperature reaches 120-150 degrees ℃, the wood turns into coals capable of self-ignition. When the wood temperature reaches 250-350 degrees ° C, combustible gases begin to release – this process is called pyrolysis.

At the same time, the burning of the top layer of wood, which is accompanied by white or brown smoke, is mixed with pyrolysis gases with water vapor.

In the second stage, as a result of how hot wood burn, the pyrolysis gases light up with a light yellow flame. It gradually spreads over the entire surface of the wood, continuing to heat the wood.

The next stage is characterized by inflammation of the wood. As a rule, for this purpose it should be heated to 450-620 ℃.

In order for the firewood to ignite, an external source of heat is required, which will be sufficiently intense to strongly heat the wood and accelerate the reaction.

Factors affecting how hot does wood burn

There are several factors that contribute to how hot can wood burn:

·       The grade of wood used for burning.

·       Material moisture.

·       The volume of air entering the furnace.

 

These are the main indicators that require special attention, because they depend on the efficiency of the wood burning and the temperature that can increase during the combustion process.

1.    Air

The wood burns in the best way and the flames are intense if the air inlet of the furnace is open. This will also reduce pollution, because the gas particles are burned and produce heat.

2.    Humidity level

The moisture content of wood plays a key role in firing, so this important point requires a separate analysis. Every tree that has just been cut has a certain moisture content. In most cases, this figure is 50%.

But in some cases, it increases to 65%. And this suggests that such material will be dry for a long time under the influence of high temperature before it ignites.

Some of the heat will work just to remove excess moisture through evaporation.

For this reason, the temperature will not reach the maximum value. The heat transfer under such conditions will decrease.

For maximum benefits, several basic options should be used:

·       The best option is drying wood. To do this, the tree is cut into small pieces, then bent into a dry place in a warehouse or canopy.

Under natural conditions, the drying process will take approximately 1 year. And if the wood is stored longer and spread over two summers, then the humidity will be 20%. This is the optimal indicator.

·       The second option is less preferable – to burn what is, without paying attention to humidity. But in this situation, you have to spend twice as much wood to form the desired temperature. In addition, you should be ready to clean the chimney.

The better dry the wood, the higher the burning temperature can be achieved. And in this sense the allocation of heat also depends. The heat does not work with a wet tree.

Wood Type and Caloric Power of Wood

When choosing the right wood, you should know some shades. For example, if you use ash or beech, you can raise the temperature to a high level, but if you use it for a sauna or oven, it is very expensive and unprofitable – the wood burns fast.

For this reason, people have started to use other types of birch. The birch firewood has a burning temperature of 800 degrees Celsius (1472 degrees Fahrenheit).

In the table below, we have a series of wood species that have the same humidity of 12%. This moisture is the default moisture of the wood left outside to dry.

Without artificial forced drying, the wood never reaches 0% humidity. I want you to understand that it is not necessarily a good thing to remove all the water. For burning at normal stove the wood must be as dry as possible because there is only combustion.

Wood Type	Caloric Power [  Kcal/kg ]
Fir Wood	3710 Kcal/kg
Spruce Wood	3700 Kcal/kg
Birch Wood	3610 Kcal/kg
Maple tree	3610 Kcal/kg
Acacia Wood	3600 Kcal/kg
Beech Wood	3600 Kcal/kg
Apple Wood	3590 Kcal/kg
Cherry Wood	3560 Kcal/kg
Oak Wood	3460 Kcal/kg

Hardwoods emit more heat than softwoods with the same volume, but per kilogram, different types of wood will give the same heat.

Softwoods are cheaper than hardwoods and we recommend using them at the beginning and end of winter, when it is less cold. They offer a clean burning, without turning the house into a sauna.

They will burn faster but the fire can be extended by supplementing with hardwood.

If you are interested to see how hot does each wood burn or the heat value of each type of wood, check this Combustion of Wood – Heat Values

Why not use wet wood? Wood moisture decreases caloric power. Most of the calorific power is used for the evaporation of water, the rest being insufficient to ensure the heating.

Water vapor lowers the temperature of the combustion and contributes to the formation of soot, which accumulates and hardens in a thick layer on the walls of the combustion chamber, ceramics, pipes, chimney, etc.

Atmospheric pollution increases due to the fact that the gases leave the combustion chamber unburned.

Quality of firewood and the way of choosing firewood

Birch firewood has a better ratio of thermal efficiency and cost – it is not economically profitable to heat more expensive breeds with high temperatures of combustion temperature.

Spruce, fir and pine are suitable for fires – these conifers provide relatively moderate heat. But in a solid fuel boiler, stove or fireplace, firewood is not recommended for use – it does not emit enough heat to efficiently heat the home and cook food, burn to form large quantities of soot.

Low quality firewood is considered to be fuel from aspen, linden, poplar, willow and alder – porous wood emits little heat when burned.

Alder and other types of wood “fire” with coal in the burning process, which can lead to a fire, if the wood is used to burn an open fireplace.

When choosing, you should also pay attention to the moisture content of the wood – raw wood burns worse and leaves more ash.

Conclusion

As you noticed different wood species have different ignition temperatures. In this article we’ve shown how hot wood burns, having ignite ranges from 200 to 300 Celsius degrees (392 to 572 Fahrenheit degrees) and burning ranges reach from 840 to 950 Celsius degrees (1544 to 1742 Fahrenheit degrees).

The higher the burning temperature (800-1000° Celsius), the more complete the disintegration of the wood, the amount of energy released is higher, the efficiency of the installation is higher and the degree of pollution is lower.

Based on the wood burning ranges we can understand the various factors that affect the wood burning process. This factors will help you decide how you can make a great fire and what type of wood you need to choose based on your needs.

Leonid Solovyov -Russian/Syrian author

 Leonid Solovyov - 1906-1962

Leonid Soloviev - author of "The Tale of Khoja Nasreddin"

Originally from:

https://eng.mainstreetartisans.com/3936687-leonid-soloviev-author-of-quotthe-tale-of-khoja-nasreddinquot

For the reading man, Leonid Soloviev is first and foremost the author of two stories about Khoja Nasreddin. This hero came from the oral folklore of the peoples of the East and Central Asia and taught to do good, to treat life with wisdom and optimism.

Only the writer himself had the opportunity to live in a country that did not appreciate the uniqueness of an individual, at a time when blind faith was needed more than intelligence and talent.

 

Born in Syria, grew up in Central Asia

He was born in 1906 in a family of Russian intellectuals, but in distant and hot Syria, in the city of Tripoli (today Lebanon). Parents worked in the Middle East through the missionary Orthodox Palestinian Society, and when they returned to Russia, they began to teach in schools in the Volga region. After the revolution, Leonid Soloviev, whose biography and work turned out to be closely connected with the culture of the East, with his family found himself in Central Asia, in Kokand.

Children’s susceptibility allowed the future writer to absorb the true values of oral folk art of the Central Asian peoples, imbued with its beauty and color. After graduating from school in 1922, impressions of traveling around Turkestan, demanding an exit from studying folklore, and Leonid Soloviev tried himself in journalism - in the newspaper "Turkestan Pravda".

The first literary experience

In 1927, he participated in the literary contest, announced by the magazine "World of Adventures", and receives a second prize. Belief in the correctness of the chosen path is growing stronger - in 1930, Leonid Soloviev entered the Institute of Cinematography at the scriptwriting department and after two years graduated from it.

The ease of writing and the innate optimism of Solovyiev can be seen in the case of a funny hoax. For the collection of folk songs and legends about V. I. Lenin, he presented texts written by him himself, presenting them as collected in the course of folklore studies. Fortunately, this did not entail serious consequences, and expeditions specifically sent to Turkestan were able to discover the “originals” of these creations.

The first tale of Hodja Nasreddin

According to Solovyov’s script, the film is put on, his works are noticed by critics and venerable masters, among whom was a living classic - Maxim Gorky, and the publication in 1940 of the book “Distressor”, makes him very popular among readers. This surprisingly workshop in form and fascinating in content is a story about a legendary joker and sage, the public protector became a vivid expression of the experience and memories that Leonid Solovyov amassed during the years he lived in the East.

 

The beginning of the war did not allow him to continue working on "Khoja Nasreddin", the writer leaves to serve as the war correspondent for the newspaper "Red Fleet". There are collections of his military stories, according to the story “Ivan Nikulin - Russian Sailor”, a film is shot. The film is being screened and his main book, but when the film about the adventures of the merry sage-dervish was played around the country, the scriptwriter was already in the camp on charges of plotting an assassination attempt on top leaders of the country.

"Enchanted Prince"

It is said that Leonid Soloviev, a writer who created one of the most optimistic literary images, in life was a little like his hero. The hard character, exposure to a certain weakness that accompanies a Russian person both in grief and glory, brought a lot of suffering to him and to his relatives.

 

Against adversity, he knew one remedy - creativity, and the second part of the dilogy about Hodja Nasreddin he wrote in the camp. Among the administration of the GULAG there were fans of his story about the merry hodge. He was not sent to the distant stage and was allowed to write in his spare time. But the situation could not but tell: in the second part of Nasreddin's adventures, a slightly different intonation appears - pensive and elusively sad.

The “Enchanted Prince” was received very well, the “Tale of Khoja Nasreddin” was eventually translated into many languages and was often reprinted in the country. But the time spent in custody, failures in his personal life did not pass without a trace. Psychological condition and physical health were irretrievably undermined. After his release and rehabilitation in 1954, the writer lived only 8 years. In 1962 he died in Leningrad.

In the history of Soviet literature there are quite a few people who lived in peace and prosperity, accepted official awards and recognition, published ideologically adjusted volumes and considered themselves writers. But there were few such as Leonid Solovyov - those who left the books, which are interesting only by the talent and imagination of the author, who will read after a very long time.

Leonid Soloviev. Bibliography

Peru Solovyov belong such works:

·         1932 - "The Nomadic";

·         1934 - "Campaign" Winner "";

·         1935 - "The end of the station" (script);

·         1938 - “Sad and funny events in the life of Mikhail Ozerov” (“High Pressure”);

·         1940 - "Troublemaker";

·         1943 - “The Great Exam”, “Nasreddin in Bukhara” (script);

·         1943 - “Ivan Nikulin is a Russian sailor” (story and script);

·         1944 - “Sevastopol Stone”, “I am the Black Sea Champion” (script), “The Adventures of Nasreddin” (script);

·         1954 - The Enchanted Prince;

·         1959 - The Overcoat (script based on the novel by N. Gogol);

·         1960 - “Anathema” (scenario based on the story by A. Kuprin of the same name);

·         1963 - From the Book of Youth.

  

In English translation, we know that the following are available:

Black Sea Sailor – to become a Stillwoods Edition because of rarity.

The Beggar in the Harem – book 1 in Khoja Nasreddin series

The Enchanted Prince– book 2 in Khoja Nasreddin series; to become a Stillwoods Edition because of rarity.

 

Various spellings of the family name exist in English web pages:

Solovyev

Solovyov

Solov’ev

Soloviev

/drf

The Lost Gold of Kejimkujik

 

The Lost Gold at Kejimkujik

(the story of Jim Charles)

(excerpts from Footsteps on Old Floors. Thomas Raddall 1988, Pottersfield Press)

https://docslib.org/the-lost-gold-at-kejimkujik

 

This man’s name was Jim, and because his father’s name was Charles the white folk naturally called the son Jim Charles. He lived in the backwoods of western Nova Scotia by the shore of a lake called Kejimkujik. In medical English it means “the strictured passage”. The Indians called it that because their fish weirs in the outlet partly blocked the stream, and so backed up the water and caused the lake to swell.

Jim Charles was born in a wigwam somewhere in the Nova Scotia forest about the year 1830. He had got a grant of government land on a point in Kejimkujik, where the Mersey River entered the lake on its way toward the sea. The region of Kejimkujik was famous for fish and game, and visiting sportsmen found Jim the best of guides. Jim also would spend the fall fishing for eels at the lake outlet. Whenever September came, Jim and the others in the little Indian group about Kejimkujik set up their weir in the outlet of the lake.

So Jim Charles lived the happiest life possible for an Indian.. From April till November he fished, hunted, or merely roved the forest as he pleased. Then came the comfort of the snug cabin by the shore of Kejimkujik, screened from north winds by tall pine woods; with Lizzie’s bins full of potatoes, turnips and corn, with barrels of smoked eels, and always a haunch or two of venison hanging in the woodshed.

The best of Jim Charle’s sportsmen friends was Judge Ritchie of Annapolis Royal, who liked to fish the streamsabout “Keji” in spring and early summer, and to do a bit of shooting in the fall. One spring in the early 1870’s Judge Ritchie came to “Keji” for a fishing trip and found his usually stolid guide twitching with excitement. Jim declared that he had found the “brown silver” that all the white men were talking about. The Indian opened a small leather pouch and showed him a small handful of nuggets and dust. He had found these, he said, while paddling along a stream. Ritchie was still doubtful but he cautioned Jim to keep mum about his find. Ritchie arranged for Jim to send his gold to him in Annapolis Royal for processing. He told him to hide it in Lizzie’s butter firkins. Ritchie kept Jim’s proceeds from the gold in the bank in Annapolis Royal.

However, Jim was not satisfied with the small amount he could spend from his find so gradually started traveling to Halifax to by fine clothes for himself and his wife. He began to ‘show off’ his newfound wealth.

By this time everyone knew that Jim Charles had found gold somewhere about “Keji” and furtive strangers had appeared in the district, watching every move he made. Jim was smart enough to lead them on false trails through the woods so none ever discovered Jim’s mother lode. One guy by the name of Hamilton followed him one time and got lost. He suffered a long, hard and hungry time before he found his way out again. One day, hot with rum, Hamilton thrust his way into Jim’s cabin and demanded to know where the gold was. They had a physical struggle and Jim grabbed one of his guns, swung it by the barrel and hit Hamilton with the butt. He had no wish to kill the man but the blow killed Hamilton.

The nearest magistrate was a man named Harlow who ran a store in Caledonia, about twenty miles away. Jim ran there and declared, “Mister Harlow! Save me! Save me! I killed Hamilton!” Harlow called together a coroner’s jury, and they traveled in a little procession of buggies and riding wagons to Kejimkujik. There they examined Hamilton’s body and heard the testimony of Lizzie and Madeleine, Jim’s daughter. When all was said and done, the verdict was “death by misadventure.’

Jim, not knowing how far a coroner’s verdict could protect him, decided not to take a chance. Instead he took to the woods with a light bark canoe, his familiar traveling equipment, and a gun and ammunition. He headed off into the wilderness, beyond the present-day border of Kejimkujik National Park to a small lake. Here he hid in a cave under a large granite boulder. Jim remained in hiding here for three years, a fugitive of his own fears, because no one came searching for him. At last, however, Jim realized that the affair had blown over, and he came back to stay openly in his home on the “kej” shore. There are other parts to the legend (or true story!) but to be brief....

After that one brief glitter of prosperity in his life, poor Jim had nothing but hard luck. While still a young woman, Madeleine died, probably of tuberculosis, like Lizzie before her, and she lies in the long-abandoned Indian burial ground on the eastern shore of Kejimkujik, just across the little bay from what is still called Jim Charle’s Point. In old age Jim became a rheumatic cripple, badly stooped, hobbling a few steps painfully with the aid of two sticks. He was crazy in the head as well. An Indian family named Francis took pity on him and brought him to live with them. He died about the year 1905.

His cabin and little barn on the point in Kejimkujik tumbled down in a few years. Sportsmen liked to camp on “Jim Charle’s Point” and about the year 1907 some sportsmen from Annapolis Royal formed what they called “The Kedgemakooge Rod and Gun Club” and built a wooden lodge near the site of Jim’s cabin. It was a popular resort for many years, and some American visitors had cottages built on the point. The spot where Jim Charles hid out is still known to local woodsmen as “Jim Charles’s Rock” or “Jim Charles’s Cave.” As for his gold, some folk still believe it remains hidden in the forest about “Kej.”

The real site of Jim’s discovery, the Reeves mine on the Tusket, yielded high grade ore for three years, but the gold content continued to dwindle and the mine ceased operations about 1928.

See Lulu.Com and search on 'John Paul's Rock' for the novel by Frank Parker Day, for one story of Jim Charles.

Convict Dress Explained

 

From ‘Lloyd’s Weekly News’ dated 12 Jan. 1908. Convict dress explained.

 

The above drawings show the distinctive dress of various classes of convicts. All the clothing up to number 6 is yellow. Reading from left to right the clothing indicates: (1) First stage (first twelve months) : (2) second stage (two years), black strip on cuffs : (3) third stage (three years), yellow stripes on cuffs : (4) fourth stage, intermediate man, blue stripes on cuff, chevron on cap and arms : (5) star man, blue stripes on cuffs, star on each arm and on cap: (6) grey dress worn by long sentence men who earn 2s. 6d, a month and spend 1s. 3d. on comforts : (7) blue dress for good character; (8) black parti-coloured dress worn as punishment for striking an officer : (3) yellow parti-coloured dress, the penalty for running away : (10) canvas dress for those who destroy the ordinary clothing of their class.

The Coming World War (1913)

 THE COMING WORLD WAR.

How the Yellow Races are preparing for the great struggle for the future with the White Nations.

By Shaw Desmond

 

This capture is from the Union Jack magazine, 19 July 1913. It is so interesting, the parallels with what we see today. The fears of foreign nations, and other races still exists in the twenty-first century. Have we learned nothing from history?   /drf

[Is the Yellow Man about to challenge the White Man’s world supremacy? If he does, who will win? If the Yellow Man is victor, what will it mean to the White Race? These are the questions which, with the awakening of China and Japan, are quickly becoming the vital questions of the twentieth century. Unless certain concessions are made by the White Powers, it seems assured, for reasons given below, that ultimately the Yellow Man will be forced to pit his 600,000,000 against the White Races in a world-war, the scene of which will be the Pacific, and the prize the domination of the world.]

Spread the map of the world before you, and look at the Yellow Empire which to-day is knitting itself together for the coming struggle. This Empire has every type of climate, from icy cold to torrid heat, stretching from the Amur River in latitude 50 deg. north, to Cochin-China, in latitude 10 deg.; and longitude 90 deg. east to 160 deg. east, nearly two and a half million square miles of territory.

Vast as it is, and although its peoples —including the Chinese, Japanese, Siamese, Koreans, &c.—greatly outnumber those of the white races, the latter not only occupy a much bigger area, but possess more than twice as much land as all the coloured races of the world together, though the latter outnumber them two to one.

China, with its 407,331,000 people, is, of course, the predominant partner of the Yellow Federation which is maturing, though Japan is the moving spirit. Without China, a Yellow Empire would remain in the land of dreams; with her, it will materialise into the most formidable combination of the human race that has ever been engineered; and it is because of this that we must see what is happening in the Celestial Empire.

What is known as “the awakening of China” is due, first, to her successive humiliations by the hated White Powers in her last five wars with them, and to their continued harping upon “the breaking up of China,” and their forcing of “concessions”; and, secondly, to the first defeat of a white race by a yellow, in the Russo-Japanese war, which, incidentally, has made its rumblings felt not only amongst the yellow but amongst the brown skinned races.

Here it should be remembered that the Yellow Races have for the first time learned the gospel of “Force,” for their history shows that throughout the centuries they have been pacifists.

Recognising that in arms alone can their destinies be worked out, the Chinese are now reorganising their army and navy, placing the former in the hands of skilled Germans, who are modelling it upon the German military system, replacing dummy guns by the most modern Krupp artillery, and installing wireless telegraphy and an aerial navigation corps. Three great arsenals, with numerous smaller ones, are working at full pressure, turning out artillery and small arms for the National Army. A Navy Board has been established, and the nucleus of a formidable navy created.

What a reorganised Chinese Army may mean to Europe is shown by a German military estimate issued in 1910, which, upon the basis of the Fatherland’s army of 4,400,000 soldiers drawn from a population of sixty millions, would give China eventually an army of 30,000,000 out of their 400,000,000 of people. These experts stated that “such an army would be nothing less than a menace to white civilisation the world over.”

In the opinion of men like General Mackay Herlot and the late General Gordon, who have fought by the side of and against Chinese troops, when properly led they have no superiors, and no equals in endurance upon a standard of living impossible to the white soldier.

The spirit which is likely to animate this army is shown by the following translation of the marching song of the army of Chang, the Viceroy of Hukwang, and one of the most brilliant, as he is one of the most modern, of the Chinaman of to-day:

“Foreigners laugh at our impotence.

And talk of dividing our country like a water-melon;

But are we not four hundred million strong?

If we of the Yellow Race only stand together,

What Foreign Power will dare to molest us?

Just look at India, great in extent.

But sunk in hopeless bondage. . . .

Then look at Japan, with her three small islands.

Think how she got the better of a great nation. . . .”

 

Side by side with this military preparation we have the dispatch, in ever-increasing numbers of men and women students to Europe and to Japan to learn Western methods. Oxford has had its Chinese students; whilst according to Dr. W. A. P. Martin, D.D., LL D., formerly President of the Chinese Imperial University, who has spent fifty years in China there were, so far back as 1907, eight thousand young men and, what is more significant, two hundred young women, drawn from the most aristocratic families, inhaling Western ideas in Japan.

How far China has gone it shown by the establishment of a Republic, the printing of some scores of daily papers giving foreign news, the adoption of Trade Unionism, the strike, and the boycott; the steps taken to sweep away polygamy, foot-binding, and pigtails, and head-shaving —the last being badges of servitude of the Chinese to the Manchurians or Tartars —the forming of a corps of women soldiers wearing men’s uniforms, and the recent storming of the Chinese Parliament by Chinese Suffragettes. The new China is thorough.

The unique part of educational reform has been the invention of an alphabet of fifty letters to replace the “picture-writing” of the Chinese language.

Further, as an attempt to overcome the splitting of China by the babel of dialects into which it is divided (people of one village sometimes do not understand those of the next), it was decreed in 1910 that English should be the official language for scientific and technical education, and the study of that language was made compulsory in all provincial scientific and technical high schools.

When these evidences of vitality awaken surprise, it should be remembered that the civilisation which invented the pen, paper, printing and powder, has never been a dying civilisation, but only a stationary one.

China has already taken her first step in her bid for the world’s commercial supremacy. She has the men —she only lacks the machines. To get the machines, she needs the metal, and, to obtain this, has abolished the ridiculous “Fungshui,” a sort of false science which held the minerals of China sealed for fear of bringing ill-luck “through boring on the pulse of the Dragon.” Now, huge Chinese companies are being formed to exploit her mineral wealth. According to the report of a distinguished firm of London mining engineers, China is probably the richest mineral and coal country in the world.

Ironworks, cotton and silk mills, glass-works, powder-works, etc., are to-day springing up through China like mushrooms, of which the giant manufactories at Hanyang and the projected Shanshi ironworks may be taken as examples. “For miles outside Wuchang the banks of the river are lined with these vast establishments,” according to D. Martin who adds that these works are “all designed to wage an industrial war with the Powers of Christendom.”

The nature of her industrial challenge is shown by the fact that between 1867 and 1911, the imports of China increased by 670 per cent., (including Western machinery); and her exports by 650 per cent., and they are increasing at an even greater rate. The new Chinese Republic has grasped the fact that to render the vast Empire effective by knitting it together, a network of communications —railway, telegraphic, telephonic, &c.—must be established.

The first grand trunk railway of the Chinese Empire, most of which is open, runs straight down from Peking to Canton like a vertebral column, whilst, according to Dr. Sun Yat Sen, the Chinese Republican leader, the Government have planned the building, within ten years, of 70,000 miles of ribs from the main line, to bind together the whole Empire.

The capitals of all the provinces will soon be railway centres, from which lines will radiate in every direction until each capital will have eight or nine railways leading from it, rendering the mobilisation of her future giant army an easy matter. It is interesting to note that although the contract for half of the railway from Hankow to Canton, was given to an American company, the whole enterprise was ultimately taken out of their hands by the Chinese to build the railway themselves.

So far as the telegraph is concerned the provinces are covered with wires. The wireless telegraph is firmly established and a manual explaining its properties to the people has been issued.

Day and night this work of organisation —military, educational, and commercial —is proceeding with the pertinacity of the yellow man, which knows no rest.

This setting of her house in order must ultimately lead to the expulsion of the White Powers from China, in which view I have the support of the late Captain Mortimer O’Sullivan, himself a friend and adviser of the late Dowager Empress and a mandarin of the Chinese Empire, who told me that the Chinese leaders, including the Dowager Empress, cherished an ineffacable hatred for the “arrogance” of the foreigner, and were only waiting their chance to regain the “concessions” wrested from them at the gun-muzzle.

This does not mean that commercial intercourse with the white races will be barred or that the white business man will be forbidden entry into the Empire as is so often ignorantly supposed. For good or ill, China is committed to the stress and strain of International commerce and the fight for the markets, and she has nothing to fear from white competition, as will be shown.

But the expulsion of the Powers will obviously be followed up by a demand for the admittance of the Yellow Man to Europe, Australia, and the United States, without the present rigid racial restrictions, and in any case by the prohibition of opium importation —a very sore point with the Chinese, who have deeply resented European efforts to force the drug upon them.

(The second part of this wonderful article will be published next week.—The Skipper.)