The evening herald. [volume] (Shenandoah, Pa.) 1891-1966, 1899-03-30
COAL FOR
THE NAVY !
official Report on the Reladye Value Of
Anthracite and BituminOus.
NOT IN FAVOR OF ANTHRACITE
Report Upon the Spontaneous Ignition OF
Coal in the Bunkers Of vessels-Naval
Officers Delegated to Make Invest-
cations Along These Lines
Submit Their Report.

Lieut.. Thomas d. Griffin, Passed Assistant
Engineer W. NJ Mcfarland and Chemist
Joseph Westesson, were appointed by Secre-
tary Long to investigate the subject Of the
spontaneous ignition Of coal particularly in
the coal bunkers Of ships, and is prevention,
also the relative value of anthracite and BIZ
luminous, question which recently had so
thoroughly agitated the people of this vicinity
and which was so earnestly taken up by
Congressman and various organizations. The
report Of the navy officers mentioned is in
part as follows
In former days. when ships we're under
steam only a part of the time. when steam
pressures were lower when there were no
protective decks and bunkers over the boilers,
and there was ample circulation of air around
the boilers cases of spontaneous ignition
were almost unknown in buukers but
modern war vessels have all these conditions
changed. and for some bunkers there is sure
to be when adjacent boilers are in use, a
sufficiently high external temperature to
cause the spontaneous ignition of any coal
at all liable to that phenomenon.
1T should not be inferred, however, that
spontaneous ignition is a frequent occurrc nee,
| even under the more favorable modern con-
dtions. The total number of fires due to
this cause in the last three and half
years, counting the fire i'm each bunker as a
| separate fire, is only twenty ON ten ships.
/ While it is desirable if possible 10 eliminate
buDker fires altogether, yet if the precautions
necessary to this end require great expense
| or are undesirable for other reasons, we must
adopt such reasonable eNpedIents as commend
themselves to practical considerations and to
the need of each particular case.
The practice of the navy department in
using bituminous coal exclusively for the
| past fifteen years, after previous extended
use of anthracite, is sufficient to show that
there are good reasons for preferring bitumi.
nous coal aud we give some of them: One
the slower rate of combustion OF anthracite
with natural draft, thus involving greater
weight and space of boilers to give same
power. TwO-greater cost Of anthracite
than bitumiuous Three-practical impOs-
sibility of procuring anthracite except on
our own Atlantic coast, so that bituminou:
coal would have to be used everywhere else
Four-greater difficulty in firing anthracite
than bituminous
1T thus appears shat anthracite is, on tn,
whole, distinctly inferior TO bituminous fol
naval use except in the freedom from spOn
taueous ignition, and the comparative rarity
! of this phenomenon ON our ships shows thai
we could not for a moment allow this ad
vantage to outweigh the numerous and i'm
portant disadvantages.
''Iu choosing Goals, the coal efficiency re
porte will indicate the relative values of thos,
that have been used at home and abroad, ant
the admiralty list will also aid in the selection
on foreign stations. In any case, Goals o
established reputation should be chosen, ever
at higher price. standard coal is apt t,
be freer from slack and pyrites than coal o
poor quality, and not only less liable t
spontaneous ignition, but also cheaper in tn,
end. The reports show that the Philadelphi,
can steam 7.170 6 knots, using Albion Cardiff
coal, at total cost of 7,2s2.s and that i
would cost S7,433.7 using ComOx coal al
though the former costs S7.14 ton anC
Comox So 65 a ton. The coal should be a
least month from the mine"