The evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1907-1908, 1907-08-12
SEEKS TO END
WASTE OF
COAL
Government Plant to Deter
mine Maximum Of Power
With Minimum Of Heat.

VA
WASHINGTON, Aug. 1.-THE fuel
testing plant of the United States Geo
logical Survey, which was moved from
st. Louis. Mo-, several months ago to
Norfolk, Va, will begin on August is,
a series of experiments on eastern and
southern Goals, that may be of far
reaching Importance to the govern
ment and to the people in general.
For two years the plant was in oper-
alton at st. Louis, Mo-, and so aston
shing were the results owards pre-
venting the waste of the fuel source
of the country that Congress ordered
the work continued at Norfolk. AL
READY the government experts connect-
ed with the plant have indicated the
possibility of saving 10 per cent. OF
the country's coal bill each year-the
sum of $3.50, 600, 000-through increased
efficiency in burning coal. Now h
fuels of the East and South are to be
tested under the steam boiler. in h
gas producer and gas engines and by
briquetting, in the hope that this la
ing may be further demonstrated
The plant is located not far from the
main entrance gate of the jamestown
Exposition, and already has attracted
thousands of visitors, many of whom
were manufacturers interested in the
economy of fuel.
The law under which the fuel-testing
plant is to be operated contemplates
two classes of work-increasing eff
cheney and preventing waste in the
utilization of the fuel resources of the
country, n testing Goals that are
used by the government.
Perhaps the most important tests will
be those comparing the amount of
power obtained from a certain amount
of coal under the steam boiler and in
the gas producer. The gas engine has
demonstrated in former tests Its ability
to do from two to nearly three times as
much work with a pound of coal as the
| steam engine. Professor Robert Fl.
Fernald, of ST. Louis, Mo-, engineer in
charge of the g~as-producer tests, will
CO ntinue the experiments of the 235-
horsepower gas engine which has been
installed in the plant. This engine VIII
be supplied with gas made in two large
/ producers and from the same fuels that
will be used under boilers. In this way
the comparative utility of slack Goals,
culm, Ignite, and even peat will be
determined, for the tests made VIII
show just what all these poorer fuels
can do.
Professor L. p breckenridge, engineer
in charge of the steam engineering dlvl-
sion Of the survey, will endeavor to in
crease the efficiency of the steam boiler.
His division now has practically succeeded
in isolating the performance OF the noier
from that of the combined performance OF
boiler and furnace. Further tests VIII DC
made with the object of still further de-
termining the efficiencies Of the furnace
alone.
A series of important experiments, with
fuel under boilers recently completed, in
dictate that stationary boilers ought TO do
ten to twenty times as much work per
unit of heating surface as they now do.
These tests are to. be continued on three
modern boilers which have just been In
stalled at the plant. Two of these boilers
are of the water-tube type, of 210-horse-
power each, and the third is 250-horse-
power and of the marine type.
Forced. induced and natural draft Will be
used on these boilers. and the furnaces will
be of three distinct types, one hand-fired
with special friedrich combustion chamber
and automatic air admission, the second
a mechanical stoker of the underfeed type,
and the third a mechanical stoker Of the
o~verfeed tyne. so that each fuel may be
tested in every mode of combustion. in
order to get the highest efficiency pos
sible out Of them.
There will also be a series Of experiments
tending to show just what is necessary TO
burn these Goals without smoke. The re-
suits will be important not only to the
government. but to every city in the coun-
try that is fighting the exasperating smoke
evil.
A considerable portion Of the fuel-test-
ing plant is to be given over for testing
fuels for the navy, and the entire briqueS-
ting plant will be at its service. Three
briouetting machines are almost ready for
work. One received recently from Ger
many is for b~riouetting lignites of Texas
and the Northwest. This machine is of
great power, and is the only one of its
kind in the United States. A second ma
chine is of English make. and has been
used for some time at the plant in st.
Louis. The third is an American-mnde
machine. of which much is expected. The
experts hope to show that the briquettes
have more efficiency than lump coal from
the same mine, and that they are practi-
cally smokeless, the latter condition being
as big a factor to the navy as the first.
The results already obtained from bri-
quotes prove that on boilers, requiring
forced draft, like locomotive boilers, the
briquette SO increases efficiency as to more
than equal the increased cost of making.
These briquettes are made by taking the
waste or slack coal, culm, Ignite, or peat.
and mixing il with sufficient tar or other
binding material to hold the coal together.
the whole being pressed into blocks by
machinery.
Five 15-horsepower gasoline engines have
been erected at the plant, and on these
engines important tests will be made OF
the relative efficiency Of gasoline for pro-
ducing power and light, as compared with
| kprOgQna and 0fhor 1ruid F,.oIo II ic