Catoctin clarion., 1898-12-01
RICE AND PEA COAL. y !.
To Use the Material in Dirt Heaps OF the
Coal Regions.

TO Use the Material in Dirt Heaps Of the
Coal Regions.
Quite a large quantity Of rice coal
is now going to market. 1t costs at
the mines Is cents ton. It is the
cheapest fuel in the world Of it's kind.
but the railroad companies charge $1.35
a ton to haul 1t fifty or one hundred
miles.
Rice coal is the product Of the dirt
banks. Mountains of coal dirt OBJ
struct the anthracite regions near the
collieries, and men have set up big
washeries where the water supply IS
adequate, and wash out and screen
out the fine particles of coal until the
pure fuel, as small as rice, clean and
FURNISHED, comes to the surface on big
platforms, and Is dried for the market.
The washers can produce this rice coal
at about Is cents ton, and their profit
is 10 cents a ton. The washers are
satisfied with the profit, but they are
hampered by high freight rates.
Rice coal is a modern size entirely.
So Is buckwheat, the next size to rice.
These two sizes were not known in the
commercial market until men began to
wash out the mountains Of coal dirt,
supposed to be so much dead waste.
Commercial sizes of coal are: Rlce'
buckwheat, pea, chestnut, stove, pro-
ken, steamboat and lump. The uses
of lump and steamboat coal, large sizes
for ships, are we'll understood. Stove
and egg, or broken, are used for cellar
heaters, and chestnut for kitchen
ranges. Many people do not under
stand the uses of pea coal, and at this
time when winter buying is thought OF
the study of pea coal is interesting.
A few years ago very little pea was
sold. People said it was dirt. Now
they have small pea and large pea.
Both sizes have sprung into a very
large demand and the sales are in
creasing as the subject is understood.
There are hundreds Of families in this
country who burn pea coal in their Gel
lar heaters. Some who understand fir
Ing a heater use pea coal exclusively.
Others mix pea and stove or egg to-
gether and use 1t in that way. Fire.
quently pea coal is spread out on top
of the large coal to keep the combus-
ton we'll confined and to preserve the
heat where 1t belongs-in the house.
Very few families within a radius OF
thirty-five miles from the anthracite
coal regions burn the old-time chest
nut coal in their kitchen ranges. They
save 50 a ton and buy pea coal, which
goes further than chestnut, because
pea packs more compactly, and does
not burn away so fast. There are coal
dealers who say this is not so, but
successful and experienced housewives
say it is fact. Pea coal for keeping
a fire all night in the kitchen is just
the thing.
Bituminous coal is not used for do
mestic purposes generally, but the peo-
pie are turning attention to it, right
in the anthracite coal country here,
because soft coal can be bought at $2
a ton, delivered, and there Is more heat
in a ton of soft coal than in two tons
of buckwheat, or one and half tons OF
good pea, which costs $3.50 ton.
Were it not for the smoke nuisance
housekeepers would surely follow the
manufacturers, stop using hard coal
entirely and take up soft coal for the
kitchen range and cellar heater. Those
manufacturers who are using rice and
buckWheat mix it with bituminous coal