The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-03-31

of the coal has been worn away and
washed off to the sea in the form of
sediment 1t is estimated by Professor
Leslie that not more than 1 per cent
of the original deposit remained in the
Pennsylvania beds when man first
came to them.
1t would seem as if man had striven
to rival nature in his lavish waste. for
/ there is no stage of the process of coal
handling, from mine to furnace in
which there is not the most reckless
disregard of economy. We are told that
through bad engineering and careless
working of shafts fully 20 per cent of
the coal in any region worked remains
in the mine, or in the form of useless
culm banks or slack; in other words,
| that only 80 per cent reaches the con-
sumner. Expressed in tangible figures
this means that whereas about 6OO.-
100000 of tons represented the worlds
available output of coal in 1895, some
think like 1,40O millions of tons were
wasted in securing the rest.
AS if this were not enough, il is we'll
known that when the coal that reaches
the consumer is finally burned, only
from 5 to 10 per cent of its stored ener-
gy is made available. Se, only per
cent of the energy which nature has
left stored in the most valuable form
is finally utilized by man.
Having thus lost 81 per cent of the
energy placed at his disposal (partly.
it must be confessed, unavoidably), the
consumer of coal shows his further dis
regard of economy by utterly wasting
the valuable by-products which might
be extracted from the coal without in
terfering with it's value as fuel These
consist of such various products as gas,
ammonia. valuable. in the form of a
sulphate, as a fertilizer, cyanide of po-
gold from the ore; coal tar. with it's
multifarious derivatives. such as ana
line dyes, benzole, petroleum and such
drugs as phenacetine and anti-pyrine.
Altogether. the by-products of ton
of bituminouS coal are worth not less
than 80 cents. while the average selling
value of the coal itself at the mines is
only 81 cents We hear of people who
have money to burn" Prominent
among the ranks of such are the COR
sumers OF bituminous coal. for they
literally burn, without any return. the
value of about $4,000 900 worth of by
products. along with their coal, in the
United States alone each year We
should think it an extravaganza were
we TO hear of someone sitting by the
fire and tossing greenbacks into the
flames, yet the wasted by-products of
coal. as at present consumed, should !
be classed in the same category.
In short, the entire question OF the |
handling of coal is admitted by engi-
neers to be a standing reproach to their |
profession. Not only is there most /
reckless waste in the mining of the |
coal and in it's ultimate consumption
but equally so in the intermediate
stage of transportation. The cost of
represents to the con-
sumner from 80 to 40 per cent of the to-
al cost of the coal. Yet every engineer
that under an economical
system the coal would not be trans
ported at all. or but a mere fraction of
is present distance. The coal should
,e made into gas and by-products at
he mines or at a few central stations,
Ind the gas sent in pipes to the con-
umer. A vastly larger proportion of
he theoretical energy of the coal
would thus be made available, in addi-
ion to the ultimate saving in cost of
tructed which are claimed to make
valuable some so per cent of the the
retical heat of the fuel Add to this
he gain in convenience were gas the
uel used instead of coal, and it will be
lear that were it not for the conserva-
i've tendencies of our people and the
Interested motives of transportation
and similar corporations, we
hould long since have given over the
rude method of heating to which we
ow cling.
One hears much of Yankee thrift"
nd we are all of us prone to prate of
ne progressiveness of ourselves and
UT countrymen. Yet in this matter of
he use of coal we are far behind some
Their nations. Consider, for example,