Daily Kennebec journal., 1911-02-24
COAL SCIENCE.
The Economical Use Of Coal From
Which tho Greater Benefit Is Derived

| cent. of the latent power in the coal
burned in your basement furnace or in
| the distant power-house
| Ninety-nine and one-half per cent Of
| that power is wasted. 1t leaks away
| somewhere between the coal pile and
| Your incandescent globe.
| Were every bit OF energy in the coal
| used, when You turned on the little but
! ton over your desk 20 lamps would have
i sprung into life.
! Go to Your elevator and pull the start
| ing rope. or into your factory and throw
the lever that starts the lathe. If your
| steam plant is the average. only per
cent. OF the energy originally i'll Your coal
| has got as far as the lathe.
| Where does the other 81 per cent. go?
| Fifty-five per cent is lost in the firebox
| and boiler: 10 per cent. disappears in the
| engine; . per cent. is used up in trans
mission a sickly 8 per cent finally creeps
out to drive the machine. This waste of
| from . to 99i. per cent. of coal is a drain
| on the pocketbookS of everyone of US.
| Coal is compound consisting roughly
| OF four elements: carbon, volatile mat
| ter or gas, moisture and ash The com
bustiblcs are the carbon and the gas;
| the rest is refuse; it will not burn. The
] carbon and the gas burn under different
| conditions. The problem is to make them
burn Simultaneously. but mainly to make
the gas burn at all; that last is the hard
knot
Now anthracite coal and coke are al
most all earbon-92 per cent plus-and
will burn anywhere. Smokeless coal has
10 per cent gas and will burn easily.
Generally speaking, the farther west You
so in coal fields the more gas you en-
counter. In Illinois you find coal Iii
which of the combustbie matter 45 per
cent. is gas and % carbon. Illinois coal
gives less power only because 1t con-
tains a greater percentage of impurities
But even at that the average furnace
gets less energy than it might from the
combustibies in Illinois coal because the
preponderance of gas makes combustion
more difficult.
The buyers location usually determines
what coal he must buy, for II Is not the
| mining cost OF coal but cost plus freight
that makes the price. So 1t Is character
of coal plus location plus cost that makes
the buyers decision.
The character of coal, its location and
cost determine where and when it should
be used. In eastern Pennsylvania Is an
thracite-almost pure carbon, hence
burning in the least space, suited TO mar
row quarters and giving under the least
favorable conditions 60 to 60 per cent.
efficiency To the lazy or Indifferent
man it is ideal, but the freight charges
make it TO expensive for steam making
| for any except eastern Pennsylvania and
| New York.
| In western Pennsylvania Is fouShio-
| ghcny, a gas coal purely. reasonably high
| in carbon, GO to e. per cent. very rich III
heavy gases and burned completely with
| difficulty because of the trouble with that
| gas. 1t requires a quick, hot fire from
| the start plenty Of draft and big COM
! bustion chamber.
| Because of the demand in Pittsbur9
and for special uses. as we'll as because
| of diminishing supply. the increasing
price makes it prohibitive to those who
| can burn other gaseous Goals. Naturally
it burns under average conditions at As to
30 per cent. of efficiency. loss of 25 per
| cent from anthracite
| Between anthracite and Youghogheny
! geographically is smokeless. ranging
from 10 to S. per cent in carbons. having
l
| nations most economical coal, burning
| anywhere at s. TO 30 per cent efficiency
| The whole nation cannot burn this coal
| on account of its location-in West Nir-
ginia. Because q. its high percentage OF
carbon it is especially desired in coke
ovens, fiat buildings and homes. This
works against it as u cheap steam maker,
| kanawha coal fringes smokeless to the
| west. Rich in gas only, ii is demanded
| for glass and brick works and annealing
| furnaces. Being also a domestic coal its
| selling price puts it beyond reach OF
| many steam users.
Ohio and Mississippi Valley Goals
those from Ohio, Indiana, Illinois. Ken
| lucky, Alabama and Tenessee-are with
| some exceptions of kind. They vary
| in carbon from 10 to 80 per cent. ana IN
| gas from - to 40 per cent. They burn
| with a natural efficiency in average
plants from NJ to 30 per cent and are SO
| copiously spread about they are almost
| at the factory door, for surrounding
| them is the big general manufacturing
| centre of the nation. Usually they are
| cheap and are as easily handled. when
| used right. as any other coal
Southwest lies a section complete unto
| itself with Goals ranging from anthacite
| in Arkansas through smokeless to the
lignites of Texas. New Mexico Is nat
| ural industrial centre with coking and
good bituninous coal at its door.
Colorado has its lignites on the north
and it's bituminous on the south. The
bituminous ranges little below Ken
tcky and Illinois-therefore not very
good-while the lignites pulverize on ex-
posure the gases escape easily. leaving
only the carbon and the ash
Then YOU must be sure you get the
coal you contracted for. You have select
ed the coal from which your furnace gets
the most energy per dollar of cost This
| means that that coal has a certain per-
centage of combustible matter. carbon
| and gas.
Now be sure that the coal delivered
you from week to week contains this per-
centage. The b. t. u. test will do It for
| YOU
| The b. t. u.-British thermal units
the yardsticf in coal buying. 1t repre-
| sents the amount of heat energy neces-