The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1918-02-10

cleaning the boilers, Some of the losses
went into dry chimney gases which were
caused largely by letting too much dry
air into the furnaces. and much of the
heat was lost by incomplete combustion
and radiation.
Every factory should have an eff
cheney coal sheet, and cut down the
amount of its fuel consumption. II pos
sible the heat and power should be
brought from a specialized plant and
wherever hydro-electric power can be
had it should be employed. To save
transportation, coal should be bought
from the nearest mine and every boiler
should be run to its capacity and only
as many as needed be used We are
now getting about one-third or one
fourth of one horsepower per hour for
each pound of coal. This is so notwith-
standing q pound of coal per hour has
yielded a horsepower per hour. This
means that we are losing from two-thirds
to three-fourths of our power.
The loss in slate, stone and ashes is
another item that ought to be watched.
The rush for coal is causing more poor
ccal to be shipped and this is added to
BY the government regulation Of the
sale of coal under the term run Of the
mine" Run of the mine" coal is un-
coai kind, FROM dust to Jumps, and ii
is strange thing II lot of stone
does not get in. The loss in ashes Is
always considerable, but during the
past year there have been, so it Is said.
something like 5000 tons more ash
in the weight of the coal than in the
product of the year preceding. This
means that we have had to have at
least $4,000 more cars to carry that
nGaI m oil ha pf
coal which the ashes represent and in
ordinary times it would mean very
bar business on the part of the pur-
chasers.
Most of our large Industrial estab-
lishments do not buy their coal as 1t
comes from the mines. They analyze 1t
and purchase only according to speci-
fications. 1t must have just so much
heating value and so little ash. 1t is
| like buying milk according to the but
ter fat in 1t. Uncle Sam has labora-
tory here at the bureau of mines where
| our Goals are tested and analysed. In
ordinary times the coal used by the
government costs more than $1,000
| 0e0 per yeas and half of this is pur-
chased under Specifications Many of
the postoffices scattered over the coun-
| try get coal of that kind
! This government laboratory is all
ways busy. 1t has tested more than
| loo samples in one month and sam
| pies from more than $500 mines scat
tered here and there over the United
States have been carefully analysed so
that the purchaser can know some
| thlng about the value of the coal in
them upon application He can also
1 send his coal here to be tested and
the government will tell him Just what
ashes it has in it as we'll as its heat
ing value and something as TO what
1t will do for the use for which it
/, is to be put
have watched them testing coal in
! the laboratory. The machinery is az
fino as that in the Philadelphia mint
! where they assay the bullion for maxi
ing gold eagles. Among the scales are
/ some which will weigh a lead pencil
mark on a sheet of white paper / re-
member putting one of my eyelashes
upon the balance; 1t weighed Just one
one-hundred thousandth of an ounce
The weights were bits of platinum and
platinum wire.
I The samples of coal when they come
in are ground to a dust as fine as face
powder, and a thimbleful OF this. &,
one gram, is enough for test Thi:
amount is first examined for moisture
1t is put in a little cup of bone ash
and then left in a furnace which reg,
listers just the amount of moisture tina
comes out Of the coal. After this TIL.
thimbleful of coal is put into anoth a
furnace. which is exceedingly hot
burns it to ashes, and the ashes lef
IN the cup show proportionately TIL
amount of ash in the coal
Ine next thing is to ascertain tn