Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-04-14
NEW DIVISION FORMED
In the Geological Survey
Bureau.
THE TECHNOLOGIC BRANCH
Valuation of Government Coal Lands
Its Real Duty.
AN EXHIBIT AT JAMESTOWN
Where Tests Will Be Made in Public
With All the Apparatus Used
in St. Louis.
n EXHIBIT AT JAMESTOWN

Investigation has already been set afoot
largely through the instrumentality of the
President for the valuation of the poverp
ment coal lands of the west This ia On
immense work that will take several wears
out that Will put the land office in a posi-
tlon TO sell the remaining government coal
iands at something like their real value. in
stead OF at the nominal price of SIPS an
acre. Inc work that has been done al
ready indicates that there are hundreds Of
thousands of acres of coal land all over The
public domain in the west that will rank
with the best West Virginia steam coal as
power producer, though it will have to be
used through the medium of gas engine
But the mere fact that what has hitherto
been considered worthless land is thus en-
HANGED in value will add hundreds of mil
lions of dollars to the resource wealth of
the country.
The work of investigation is bound up
In the establishment of a branch Of
the geological survey. Heretofore there has
been a geologic branch. a topographic
branch and a photographic branch. The
new section will be known the techno-
logic branch, not a very encouraging name
for the layman, but it will have to do with
number of problems of very practical in
terest. There will be the fuel investiga-
ton alluded to, the testing of structural
material. the valuation of mine samples and
smoke abatement.
rests In Last Two Years.
There have been fuel tests carried on by
the survey for a couple of years past at
st. Louis. and some of the results have
been of great practical value. Something
has been done in the way of testing struc-
tural material and work has also been
done on the smoke abatement question.
But now there has been organized regu-
lar branch of the survey to deal with these
subjects, and there will be more effective
Work done. because 1t will he Thoroughly
organized and the scope of the work en-
larged. The chief of the technologic
branch will be DIR. ]. A. Holmes vino has
been in charge of the fuel Investigations in
st. Louis. Under him will be H. M. Will
son, the chief engineer Of the branch and
D. T. Randall the engineer in charge of the
esting exhibit of the work of the division at
Jamestown. Here the authorities have de-
voted big building to the work. 1t will
be $50 by 125 feet in area and will con-
tain nearly an of the apparatus used in
the st. Louis tests. In addition there will
be an immense briQuetting machine that
has just been received from Germany for
utilizing slack coal and a section devoted
entirely to engines using denatured alcohol
as fuel
All coal is eventually used for the gen.
Grafton of heat. light or power. Some of it
can be burned to advantage making either
heat or power through the agency of steam.
Some of it is converted into gas and used
for illumination and some of the coal so
far has been of such low grade that 1T was
not thought worth mining for any purpose.
1t was found in the fuel tests SO far car
ried on, however, that some of the low
grade coal, the lignites of North Dakota
and the very low-grade deposits of northern
Arkansas and Missouri, of which there are
thousands of square miles, be convert
into power through the medium of gas
engine and do more work for the same
amount Of money than the best steam coal
from the Elkhorn and Pocahontas region
in West Virginia.
An Immense Discovery.
This was immense discovery. for it
made the heretofore worthless Ignite beds
practically as valuable as the best bitumi-
nous coal deposits. The fact that the Jig
mite a Superior gas producer might
have been guessed. but was not, and it bids
fair on account of its low price to supplant
much of the higher grade of coal that here
tofore has been used in making gas. There
are some immense gas generators being put
in place at jamestown, and the gas-produc-
ing qualities of the Ignite will be fully
demonstrated in public.
Something has already been done in the
way of briquetting experiments. but there
has been good deal of difficulty encoun-
tered both with coal slack and dump coal,
of which there millions of tons waiting
to be used. The technologic branch has just
got a big briquetting machine from Ger
many. where they are further ahead with
that sort of work than We are here, and
this machine promises to solve the problem.
1t eXerts pressure of 10000 pounds to the
square inch and makes a briquette that
neither Stacks in the air nor breaks down
in the furnace. Experiments have been
made in the practical use of this fuel on the
Missouri Pacific road and the officials have
been so pleased with the results that they
have converted several locomotives for the
use of this fuel and the survey now has q
number of men going on trial runs with
the engines and making a record Of their
performances. 1t appears from what has
pany get this sort of fuel for about
$1.5O ton, against IS or So for coal that
they had to bring from the east.
Field Force Being Organized
The field force Of the technology branch
of the survey is being organized now and
will be sent out to work in earnest this
summer 1t is expected that 1t will be
able to make practical tests of the fuel on
about 10000 square miles of government
land. Most of the testing work will be
done at jamestown this summer. There will |
be car load samples of coal and Ignite |
brought in and each lot will be tested for
it's direct steam making value under the |
boiler, for Its value as gas producer and |
from that it's power production in a gas en- !
CINE. Charges of each sample will also be |
used for coking and the resulting gas will be |
several different types of boilers that have |
been contributed by manufacturers. inter- |
ested in the tests and a lot of different types |
of engines. There will be a number of |
steam turbines directly connected to electric |!
dynamos and every possible way will be |
tried of utilizing all sorts of fuel for light, |
heat and power.