The times., 1901-05-18
THE COAL OF FINE QUALITY
An Investigation of the Fuel Fur
nished the Schools.
Auditor Petty's Report on the Ale
cations of the Board of Education
The Contractors and Dealers
Fully Exonerated From All Blame.

J. T Petty the District Auditor, has
forwarded a statement to the Commits
sioners relative to the coal furnished to
the public schools by various contractors
1t will be recalled in this connection that
the Committee on Ways and Means of
the Board of Education recently submit
ted a statement upon the subject The
committee set forth that much dirt and
coal dust had been found in some Of the
bins. Certain allegations were also made
as to supposed collusion between dealers
and ianitors of schools to cover the de-
livery of poor coal on the District con-
tracts.
When the matter was placed before the
Commissioners they referred it for inves-
tigation and consideration to a special
committee composed of the Auditor, j. T.
Petty. and w. J. Douglass, of the Engi-
neer Department. Mr.. Douglass being an
expert in coal mining, made the investi-
cation, and Mr.. Petty prepared the report
to the Commissioners.
The investigation covered twenty-eight
schools and the coal was subjected to rec
ognized tests and it was rated by Mr..
Douglass as a good quality. A table ac-
companies the report giving in detail the
results of the examination of the coal
The report in part follows:
The coal In the Madison school vault,
which was the first screened. yielded 1,02O
pounds of coal dust and fine coal, the con-
tractor voluntarily providing the screener
and replacing the screenings with an
equal amount of egg coal; but he refused
to cooperate in the work at any other of
the buildings named. When the task was
completed / informed him of the result
and asked if he were willing to furnish
coal equal in weight to the dirt or refuse
which hJd accumulated as the outcome
of the screening, but he declined for the
following reasons:
That the coal had been examined and
passed by a District inspector. that com
plaint of the dirt was not made at the
time of delivery; that all the bins were
not clean when he commenced delivery.
and that as the refuse amounted TO but
l per cent of the coal furnished it was not
excessive, that being considered, in com
mercial usage, a fair average allowance.
Two complaints of the quality of the
coal last furnished were made by the jan
itors. respectively, of lexington and Hill
ton schools. Upon investigation the for
mer proved to be due to a misunderstand-
ing of the construction of the furnace and
the latter In great part to the Indulgence
aptIy characterized as 'hypeTbole.'
Questioning the janitor upon this
showing, as to the occasion of his COM
plant. he admitted attempting mistaken
ly to use hard coal in a furnace built for
the soft ft-burning variety. necessarily
meeting with failure, and in a manly
fashion censured himself and acquitted
the contractor of blame, thus closing the
incident.
Il visited the Hilton School and upon
entering the building | found a pleasant
temperature prevailing. Looking into the
furnace | saw normal coal fire with no
indication of wood as an aid to combus-
tion. Next entering the vault | observed
about five tons remaining of the ten tons
referred to in the janitor's complaint, and
while there was a quantity of coal dust
in portion of the bin, much the larger
part of the contents was coal which En-
gineer Douglass, after thorough testing
pronounced 'merchaLtable and good
asking the janitor TO explain why the
conditions which were apparent differed