The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-05-03
FUEL PROBLEM IS
 CLOSELY STUDIED
Great Waste in Coal Per Year
 Is Astonishing
MINING METHODS ARE BAD
Tests Are Being Made By Geological Survey Looking To Better Utiliza- tion of Coal and the Pre-
 vention of Waste.

Washington, May 2.-CSpecial )-Officiais of the United States geological survey, who are studying the fuel problem, make the statement that 2O0,000O GOO tons of coal, enough to supply the needs of the eoun- try for six months, are being wasted every year in the United States through improper mining smethods. This waste represents a loss of more than Sl00000,O ,O01, for the coal is worth at least $l a ton.
 Tn our investigations we find that in the mining operations of this country nearly one-half of the total coal supply $ left under ground" said J A Holmes, chief of the technologic branch. This coal is left as pillars to support the roof of the mine or because it is of inferior quality, only the best part of the coal being removed from many beds. The waste is also due to the fact that the working out of the lower beds of coal first in some cases breaks and renders impracticable the subsequent mining of the adjacent higher coal beds.
 We are sNmming the cream of the natural resources of the country. We are using the best and cheapest of our sup plies. Each of the succeeding generations will obtain it's needed general supply, but each will pay higher prices for the req son that owing to the increasing depth mining will be continually more eXpen- sve and more dangerous.
 PreventabIe Waste.
 Tt is believed that an increasingly large part of this waste is preventable. In most European coal producing countries coal waste has been reduced to a mini mum by the introduction of improved methods of mining. In ancouver, British Columbia. l am told, sS per cent of the coal is mined.''
 The technologic branch of the geological survey is now engaged in investigations looking toward a reduction of the waste i'll mining operations and also to better utilization of the coal that is mined. The success of the government in the latter field is told in a bulletin just issued by the United States geological survey on the work of the United States fuel testing plant, which until the early part of 1907 operated at St. Louis, Mo. Goals from all over the country were tesred Tn the steam engine and gas engine in order to determine their efficiency. The results with the gas engine were extremely gratify- ing. Fifty-six different bituminous coals were tested in the steam boiler and engine and gas producer and engine, and the fig ures' show fhat on an average 1t took nearly threyt times as much coal to pro duce a horsepower in the steam engine as in the gas engine. The actual figures for the average for all coals were 1.57 pounds of coal burned to produce one horsepower for an hour in the gas engine and i. D pounds in the steam engine. The best coal used produced a horsepower per hour in the gas engine for less than one pound of coal, while the steam engine used 2.41 pounds or ,. 43 times as much $ the gas engine.
 In five tests of lignites Gan inferior qlal- ity of coal found in the vest the gas en- zine required 237 pounds of coal to pro duce horsepower for an hour and 6.25 pounds of coal for the steam engine. lhe result was LA pounds for the gas engine and 3.9 pounds for the steam engine.
 Two remarkable tests were made on what is termed Bone Coal a coal that is so high in impurities that it is now being thrown away by the mine operators is worthless. In one test on the gas en- zine 1t took 2.15 pounds of this supposed worthless coal to produce a horsepower for an hour This coal had fl per cent ash and would be considered valueless as producer of power in steam engine Another sample of this coal produced a horsepower for 1.6S pounds. This coal contained g per cent ash Perhaps the most encouraging feature of these tests is that the low grade fuels such as lignite and bone coal produced more power in the gas engine, ton for ton, than did the best bituminous coal in the steam engine. This would indicate vast com mercial possibilities for the western part of the country where the supply of high grade coal is inadequate and where there is a superabundance of the low grade fuel.