The Savannah morning news., 1902-10-24
POWER IN POUND OF COAL.
Marvellous Energy That May BE OBJ
tanned From 1t.

rom
From the Baltimore American.
IA pound of coal can produce power
sufficient to pull large express train
a distance of one-sixth Of a mile, go
! ing at the rate of fifty miles an hour"
| said an experienced locomotive engin-
eer.
You would be surprised" he contin-
ued, lat the wonderful amount of work
which the energy from this small
quantity of coal can do. For the pur-
pose of explaining take, for instance,
a pound of what might be called av-
erage coal, containing about 10000 heat
units. This would be somewhat smaller
In size than a mans fist. If this pound
of coal should be 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 hight of one
foot.
IF this pound of coal could be COM
pletely burned in water one foot deep,
with a temperature of Ga degrees, and
| all the heat from this coal be impaired
in the water this water would become
16 degrees hotter, thus being suitable
for a comfortable bath If adapted to
AitSieAhlId4 WOIh the lU,UUU neat UNITS
( in the one pound of coal would be
equivalent to 236 horse power. The
2S6 horse power of potential energy
contained in the pound of coal is
enough to haul a train of eight cars
for period of one-fifth of a minute.
or distance of one-sixth of a mile,
going at the rate of fifty miles an
hour. 1t has also been found to be
able to draw a cable train, including
the grip car and trailer, for a distance
OF two miles at the rate Of nine miles
an hour. 1t would also be of suffi-
Gent power to pull an electric car well
filled with passengers for two miles
and half at the rate of ten miles an
hour.
IF the power in this pound OF coal
Is compared with the work of a strong
man used to hard labor 1t 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 a strong
man, used to hard work, is estimated
as being equal to one-tenth of a horse
power. The eight hours he works Is
equivalent to 4S0 minutes. Naturally.
while working, man makes a num-
her of stops, either to rest or change
the monotony of his position. These
stops, then, would without difficulty.
take up one-tenth of the mans time.
Thus this would reduce the time OF
actual work down to 1872 minutes. This
time, at one-tenth of the horse power.
makes the total of his days labor
amount to 1872 horse power At this
rate it is shown that it would take o.
500 strong men, working constantly. to
DO Jointly the same amount of work
IN one minute as can be done by the
single pound of coal
Another line Of work in which the
superiority Of a pound of coal is shown
beside the labor of man is that OF
saving wood. A man may consider
himself a swift sawyer by making sixty
strokes minute, each stroke of the
blade having progressed five feet a
minute, but circular saw, driven by
machinery, may be put through severn
ty times that distance and saw seventy
times as much wood. Still, this little
pound of coal has the power to keep In
operation $50 such saws