Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1900-10-04
POWER IN A POUND OF COAL.
The Wonderful Energy which 1t is Capa-
BILE of Producing.

Inc WOhuertul ENERGY "blcH ~ 10 Saph-
BILE of Producing.
Baltimore American
"a pound of coal can produce power
sufficient to pull a large express train
distance of one.sixth of a mile, going at
the rate of 30 miles an hour" said an ex-
perienced locomotive engineer.
"You would be surprised" The continued,
sat the wonderful amount of work which
the energy from this small quantity of
coal can do. For the purpose of explain
ing, take, for instance, pound Of what
might be called average coal, containing
about 10000 heat units. This would be
somewhat smaller in size than mans
fist If this pound of coal could he
burned completely and entirely under
water and all of its heat should go into
the water, a temperature Of 625 pounds
of water could be raised to the height of
one foot.
eff this pound of coal could be com.
pletely burned in water one foot deep,
with temperature of "a degrees, and all
the heat from this coal be impaired in the
water, this water would become 16 degrees
| hotter, thus being suitable for comfort
able bath. If adapted to mechanical work
the 10000 heat units in the one pound Of
coal would be equivalent to 1856 horse
power. The 1856 horsepower potential
energy contained in the pound Of coal is
enough to haul train of eight cars for q
| period of one.fifth of minute, or dis
lance of one.slxth Of mile, gong at the
rate of so miles an hour. 1t has also been
found to be able to draw cable train, in
Guiding the grip car and trailer, for dis
lance of two miles at the rate of nine
miles an hour. 1t would also be of suf-
ficient power to pull Oh electric car, well
filled with passengers, for two miles and
half, at rate CT 10 miles an hour
'lf the power in this pound of coal is
compared with the work of strong man
used to hard labor, it would be found that
there is more than sufficient power in the
pound of coal to do in one minute the
days work Of eight hours of five strong
men. This is accounted for in this way
The work of strong man, used TO hard
work is estimated as being equal to one
tenth of horsepower. The eight hours
he works is equivalent to 4s0 minutes
Naturally, while working man makes ,
number of stops, either to rest or chang,
the monotony of his position. Thes,
stops, then, would, without difficulty
take up one-tcnth of the mans time. Thu
this would reduce the time of actual worl
down to 432 minutes. This time, at one
tenth of the horsepower, makes the tota
of his days labor amount to 43.2 horse
! power. - :
"At this rate 1t is shown that it woull
. take 1900 strong men working constantly
to do jointly the same amount of work il
= one minute as can be done by the singl
: pound of coal. Ut.
1 Smother line of work in which th
superiority of pound of coal is show
Q beside labor of man is that Of sawin
: wood. A man may consider himself
* swift sa xyer, by making go strokes
9 minute, each stroke of the blade havin
!, progressed five feet a minute, but circr
J, lar saw, driven by machinery, may b
Z put through 10 times that distance an
. saw 10 times as much wood. Still, TIL
little ponnd Of coal has the power |
keep in operation 1870 such saws"