The Sun.
London, England, 1841-02-01 00:00:00

STEAM-COAL.

The development which Steam Navigation l-
it-lily receiving gives a public• interest to any the:
relative to fuel, and especially if it tends to faci-
iitate the extension of steam to voyages one.
:hought too long to permit such a mode of com-
munication.

The Royal Mail Steam Packets for the West
Indies will soon dispel the few doubts which ma`
remain as to the practicability of so long a voyage,
though the invariable success which has attended
the New York steamers leaves little to be desired
on the point of experience. The British Queen
steamer between London and New York has
been supplied with the Llangennech coal since
her first voyage, and its value as a steam-coal is
thus finally set at rest. Its peculiar property for
long voyages,—that of greater durability than
any other coal—was brought forward publicly
before the House of Commons Committee on
Steam Navigation in July 1824, and Dr. Lardner,
in examining this question in his work on the
Steam Engine, points attention to the importance
of this coal, and cites the parliamentary evidence
on the subject.
An interesting trial at the Blackwall Railway
within the last few days has again proved it
superiority. It was used for one whole day
competion with a north country coal of high re-
pute, on a preceding day. The duty of the sta-
tionary engines is to convey the trains backwards
and forwards by means of an endless rope, and
this offers a measure of work of greater equability
than any other except pumping ;—its result must
therefore be free from error and conclusive.
The quantity used of the north country coal
was 6 tons 18 cwt., and of the Llangennech coal
only 5 tons 6 cwt., being a saving of upwards of
30 per cent. ; now, putting on one side the gain,
here is a coal proved by continuous experience
to be better than any other hitherto known for
long voyages, since an equal quantity in bulk and
weight will permit a steamer to run a greater
number of days without a fresh supply, and the
importance of this peculiar power would in many
situations make price altogether subordinate.
Its action upon boilers" has been proved by
twelve years' experience "at Messrs. Meux and
Co.'s extensive brewery' to- be less than any
other fuel, and chemical analysis has confirmed
this result by establishing the comparative ab-
sence of that very destructive admixture, sulphur.
The coal burns almost wholly free from smoke,
a quality hitherto slightly appreciated, but which
will one day—and perhaps not far distant—be
considered the prime requisite in fuel for steamers,
or at least for those employed on naval service.
By the ascent of the smoke above the horizon
the motions of the steamers in Calais Harbour
are at all times observable at Ramsgate with an
ordinary glass from first lighting the fires to put-
ting out to sea, and this is equally so at double
the range, when there are no currents of air to
depress the column of smoke.
This combination of qualities so advantageous
seems to make this coal all that can be desired as
a fuel for steamers on long voyages, and its cer-
tain safety from spontaneous ignition, by reason
of the total absence of pyrites, gives a special
character to this coal in circumstances of distress
and danger at sea, large quantities thereof having.:
been sent tothe Persian Gulph, Red Sea, and the
East and West Indies.