The Washington bee., 1907-07-27
COAL IS GIVING OUT
ANTHRACITE GOING FAST, SAYS
GOVERNMENT EXPERT.
At Present Rate of Consumption Sup
ply Will Last Only SeVenty-FiVe
Years-The Smoke Evil
Problem.

Washington.-"A our present rate
of consumption there viii be no an
,hcacite coal lest in 70 years" says
dward w. Parker, the coal expert
OF the United States geological sur
vey. Hard coal viii never be cheap
er TO consumers than it is now. The
production of anthracite in 1906 was
63,645, ,0l0 tons. According to one coal
expert the anthracite available for
mining in 1901 was 765,216, $50 tons.
From these figures evidently there
is not enough anthracite coal in the
country for power purposes in the
large cities of the east" said Dwight
T. Dandall, engineer in charge Of
smoke abatement, geological survey.
In 1905 New York city burned 9,0O0,-
600 tons of anthracite coal and $780,
900 tons of bituminous This ratio
has already changed, and will con-
tinue until bituminous coal is in the
ascendency. 1t is estimated that
New York and Philadelphia are now
using one-ifth of the total yearly pro-
ductiOn of anthracite. Thus it is seen
that we must conserve the hard coal
if we wish it TO last any length of
time"
The insistence of eastern cities that
manufacturers and others shall con-
tinue the use of anthracite coal in
stead of bituminous, in order to lessen
the smoke nuisance, is a losing game,
according to government experts. In
spite of themselves, the large mu-
inequalities that have heretofore so
largely used anthracite coal will soon
have to come to the almost universal
use Of bituminous, for the United
States has already reached the maxi
mum of its yearly hard coal output,
and from this time on the amount of
anthracite mined will decrease year
by year, and the price naturally will
soar until this fund becomes an abso-
lutte luxury.
I'VE have found it entirely feas-
ible, said Mr. Randall ito abate
smoke in power plants, but it is next
to impossible TO stop it among resi-
dences burning soft coal Therefore
it would seem that the logical thing
TO do would be TO utilize the rapidly
waning supply of hard coal for the
homes and use the soft coal in the
factories and power houses.
The real problem before the east
is the abatement of smoke from soft
coal. New York is now showing that
this can be done in the experiments
conducted by the New York Edison
company.
THE burning of soft coal by i'm
proved methods in large central heat
ing stations, in place of many small
poorly conducted plants, is one of the
promised solutions. In several cities
these mammoth plants have been in
stalled and are doing good work
Another method is to convert the
fuel into gas and coke at big
plant, selling the gas and coke (both
of which are smOkeless) to the con-
sumer
Still another method is the es-
tablishment of great gas producers,
gas engines and electric generators
at the coal mines, the gas producers
operating the engines and the latter
in turn the generators, sending the
electricity into the cities for power.
light and heating purposes. Elec-
trtcity can be sent in this manner $50
miles. 1t is also hoped that in the
near future the railroads will use
such power in operating their lines.
This would do away with a big part
of the smoke nuisance"