The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1907-08-19
COAL Testing WORK
BY The Government
Government Experts Max
ing Interesting Tests
and Analyses.
PERMANENT FOOTING
Fuel = Producing Districts
Where There is Much
Waste.
PERMANENT FOOTING

crued from the governments coal
testing work, begun experimentally in
st. Louis, that it has now been plac-
ed by congress upon a practically per-
manent footing, with $25O,0O0 a year
provided for its maintenance-the en-
tire plant being transferred Temporal
rily to the jamestown exposition, in
order that multitudes of people may
have an opportunity to see it in oper-
alton.
The object of the work is to deter
mine the qualities of the Goals de-
rived from extensive deposits in va
| rious parts of the United States-in-
/ formation Of this kind being of such
great industrial value that manufac-
tuners Of engines, boilers and other
such apparatus have gladly furnished
a good deal of the outfit required for
the equipment of the testing plant
Inasmuch as the mine-owners supply
carloads of their coal as free samples
/ for, examination, the government is at
no expense for labor and the hire of
scientific experts
! All of the work is under charge of
the United States geological survey.
which, for the purpose in view, has
divided the whole country into dis
tricts, making tests of the coal in each
locality where the fossil fuel is found.
The business is thus carried on sys-
Dramatically But any mine owner
may secure an official test Of his pro-
duct by addressing an application to
the director of the geological survey,
agreeing incidentally to deliver a car
load of coal free of cost at the plant.
1t is further required that the mine
owner shall allow the coal to be dug
and shipped under the eye Of gov
eminent agent, who will see that it
is fair sample, representing the
average run of coal from the mine.
precaution is taken in every instance,
insuring the absolute correctness of
the test, which, beginning with a
chemical analysis extends to the cook
ing quality and fuel efficiency of the
coal-the most important point being
to ascertain how 1t behaves when APP
piled to the steam boiler or the gas
produced.
In return for his free carload
the nine-owner, few weeks later,
receives a typewriter statement in
regard to his coal, telling its compo-
sition Gas determined by analysis),
and giving information in some detail
respecting its fuel efficiency and other
Qualities Among the latter may be
discussed the availability Of the
slack or mine dust for briquettes,
Naturally such data are of much USE
ffulness to the minced owner, who is not
permitted to publish them, however,
until the geological survey has embod-
led them in its own printed reports.
Experiments Of special Importance
have been made recently with slack"
from the coal mines of Illinois. In
diana and Iowa, which is commonly
so fine that it can hardly be burned.
But, when the material Is mixed with
suitable "binder," and nodded into
brlquettes it becomes a valuable fuel.
Hitherto regarded as so much waste,
1t has been ascertained by the govern
, flDClll va IGI - w I1oDNf9G' III iAlV lOt III
of briquettes, q fuel efficiency 5 per
cent. greater than that of solid Jumps
. of coal derived from the same beds
a fact definitely proved by trials with
, locomotives on the Rock Island and
, other railroads.
, To illustrate the value Of this dis
: covery, the case may be mentioned oil
J one mine owner in Illinois who, fol
r years past, has been taking out eight.
, cen hundred tons of coal day. O
: this quantity he has been shipping
+ about two thirds, the remaining si2
, hundred tons going to the dump be
f cause it was mere dust and supposed
: to be worthless. OF course, the min
: ers had to be paid for getting thi
t waste stuff out Of the ground, at tn,
4 rate of seventy-five or eighty cents
a ton-which cost, necessarily, had t,
0 be added to the selling price of TIL
/ good coal.
This operator has now learned tina
: the heaps of refuse accumulated a
f his dump are worth fortune and h
: is proceeding to convert them int
t briquettes, the demand for which a
v fuel by railroads and in various man
ufacturing industries is rapidly in
creasing. A few years from now tn
consumption of coal in this form vii
be enormous-an expectation whicl
o has furnished the geological surve
with a motive for an exhaustive inves
tigation of binding materials.
e The problem is to find a sticky sub
e stance of some sort that will serve t
y hold the particles of coal dust togeth
3, er. 1t must be cheap 1t must not lea
d out and briquettes made with it mus
0 endure both time and weather, resist
It ing wet and temperature, high or low
It One might think it easy to satisf
g these requirements but as a matter O
: fact, it has proved exceedingly diff
e cult-among the many things trie
n being refuse molasses, quicklime, aci
: sludge (refuse from petroleum rein
It ing) and rosin.
y Up to date, however, the most sat
r sfactory binders found have bee
n coal tar pitch and asphaltic pitch. TIL
d former is a by-product obtained fror
p the distillation of coal tar, while tn
/. latter is derived by similar process
It from heavy oasphaltie oils. But as we
6 the whole business of coal-briquettin
is in an experimental stage the shape
in which the briquettes are molde
}. being as various as the binders" EN-
a Iployed in their manufacture.
: When it comes to the matter of COX
:, ing it may be said, to begin with tina
o not one educated person in fifty ha