The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-01-31

to the coal industry. and especially to the consumers of coal under the present extraordinary conditions, than that or MT. Van H. Manning, director of the bu- reau of mines. appearing in the Coal Age of December 29, 1917. MT. Manning's conclusions may be summarized in the statement that analyses show an in- crease of per cent of ash in the present coal mined and that the presence of such an additional percentage Of ash results in a decreased efficiency of 71s per cent. making a total loss of B. T. U. in the coal equivalent to 12h per cent. This means that 600000 car loads of increased esh are added to the present burden or railroad traffic and in part explains the terrible coal famine we are suffering under.
 In other words. an apparent increase in production in 1917 of 5o,OOoooo tons IS converted into an actual decrease of ef- fective coal of about S0,000,0OO tons. tne fierce competition of the consumer 10 purchase coal has naturally resulted Tn a lack of proper coal preparation Ihis trouble with our fuel supply is empha- sled by Mir. Francis s. Peabody, chalr- man of the coal production committee and one of the ablest and most conserva- tive of the big business men who are giving their time and brains to the gov ernment in this great emergency.
 MIR. PEABODY'S VIEW
 I quote from the Coal Age of January 19, 1918, to show MT. Peabooy's views:
 .'The necessity of clean coal was em- phasied strongly by MT. Peabody. Next to the zoning of the country. he regarded 1t as being most important. statement complied by the bureau of mines was .n- troduced into the record which showed that in some cases coal now being shipped contains as much as 37 per cent ash large list of anlyases brought out clearly that there had been a very large increase in the amount of refuse being shipped in coal. MT. Peabody called attention to the tens of thousands of cars which are being used in this time of stress to transport entirely worthless material, to say nothing of the losses to the consumers. So great is the quantity of refuse that is being shipped with coal that MT. Peabody be- lieves 1t will more than offset any in- creased tonnage which may have been shown since September.
 It may therefore be assumed that a large percentage of slate is being loaded at the mines, which the overburdened railroads are attempting to haul to the country's famshed plants and homes where much trouble Is had with such in ferior coal.
 The Washington National Coal asso- citation has a committe on clean coal which met on November 13. 1917, at Pittsburg, with coal operators from the various parts of the country to consider this important matter of getting cleaner coal. The association is now sending out broadcast it's Clean Coar' litera- ture in an effort to relieve the situation.
 The old methods of having inspectors visit the miners working places or of hand picking occasional chance mine cars and penalizing the miner for cx. cess slate found in such hit and miss plan are practically impossible of appli- cation, especially under present war labor conditions. Labor. as Is we'll known, Is restive the competitive de. mand for miners being so great that when penalizedd under the present inef. fective and unfair system of determining the quality of coal they send out they feel they are not treated right and often refuse to submit To MT. Erskine Ram say, vice president and chief engineer of the Pratt Consolidated Coal company of Birmingham, and a member of the coal production committee, credit must be given for having offered and sufYi- ciently demonstrated what is the only practicable solution so far to this vital and pressing problem. This solution is based upon fundamentally novel Ideas. He takes a large number of small sam ples daily; he provides by mechanical means to insure the accuracy and fair ness of the small samples, and he ex- hibits the results of the sampling so as to appeal to the psychology of the min CTS themselves to improve their prac- tice
 
 ACCURATE SAMPLING
 MT. Ramsay has designed. put in oper- ation, and patented a number of me- chanical samplers so constructed and ar ranged that they take from each mine car samples of a true average and weigh ing approximately 100 pounds, and the apparatus is capable of taking and keep ing separate the full number of samples that would be received from each car Of the ordinary mine trip and of holding them with their identifying miners check numbers in readiness to be reated between the trips. The treating of the samples Is continuous.
 The labor involved in taking niclx,ng handling and recording samples from say 20 cars Is. under this plan. much less. owing to the fine slack heinz screened out, thus leaving the slate in full view. than that actually consumed in the old style hand picking of one one-ton car. One man daily takes, picks and handles samples from 100 cars while under the old plan he only hand picks say five one-ton cars. This old plan tests the miners car so seldom that many pay little or no attention to the usual sampling. Moreover. the average of the samples thus obtained are more nearly an average of what the miner loads than is the case under the old plan.
 foe manner of taking the samples does not retard or interfere with the speed of customary dumping coal from mine cars Tn the ordlnary horn. cross-over. or rotary dumps, onto screens or into bins and pockets. and is so flexible that the sample is taken at will from any desired part of the mine car. thus leaving no part where slate can be loaded and not