The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1923-05-21
COAL COST RISE
BILLION LAST
YEAR
TAX" Denounced by Henry /.
Doherty, Expert, Who Pre-
diets Smokeless Age.


Ss41ners last year nearly billion
dollars higher than 1t aUGs the year
before.
His constantly Increasing assess
meNts affect eVery home IN Amer
icG. abroad, a battle 0Ver his rich.
est domain, that located IN the Rttlts
valley, sSassettles the economic life
of q continent, and eGefts direct
and istdtrect tGc upon four hatndysd
million persons.
TU0 of Americas most eminent
engineers forecast the end Of the
reign Of King Coal. Each has q
different soL4tioss, presented IN
tao interviews, the first Of which
is published herewith.
By EARLE C. REEVES.
Copyright, 1923, by Cosmopolitan
News Service.)
NEW YORK, May 21.--"Gas can
be substituted for coal In all the
homes In the United states and In
most Of our industries Henry L.
Doherty said today.
''When?"
''Now-any time that they win
let US do It."
This is large order, but Doherty
is in position to speak with very
great authority. The firm OF Henry
L Doherty q Co. controls public
utility corporations in 300 cities and
towns in the United States. Doherty
himself Is . banker and an en-
gtneer. He IL . practical man.
and leader in such diversified pro.
fessions as banking, gas manufac-
ture, mining, electric power produc-
ton, street railway operation, oil
production, and commercial chem
istry.
Calls Transportation Waste.
mot a ton OF coal should be
transported to our cities" he said.
mot q single carload should be
hauled through our streets and
dumped into our ccllarD. 1t IL sheer
waste. Our coal should be piped
to us, as water is piped to us. the
burning Of raw coal for heat and
for many Industrial purposes il az
outsof-date and as useless as the
family well and pump from which
we formerly drew our water supply.
III the public will but get the
point, and public utilities commits
sions approve and cooperate, we
can substitute gas for coal Just as
rapidly as heating and power equip
ment can be adapted TO burn gas
instead Of coal. No new processes
OF manufacture, no new discoveries
by science are necessary"
/ But artificial gas Is $1.25 a
thousand cubic feet--in some places
more"
YES" he replied, because we
/ =
cooking be made exactly as the
first gas was made. That 10 to say,
rich enough in content to burn with
q bright yellow flame in an old
fashioned gas jet. We no longer
burn open gas jets, but we demand
gas that will give light, instead Of
. gas that will merely give heat.
Analysis of Gas.
1--WE say that q cubic foot Of gas
must contain 900 heat units. In
order to make this kind OF gas we
must gasify coal, then gasify the
remaining coke and finally easily
oil in order to enrich the whole.
into our gas mains we pump mil.
lions OF dollars worth Of valuable
chemicals and by.products, simply
because we demand old-fashioned
Illuminating gas for modern heat.
ing, cooking and lighting purposes.
u In the gas business we figure
costs Of production in units OF mil.
lions-BTU-or British thermal
units, the hypothetical bundle Of
energy that cooks for us. A mil.
lion units Of energy cost S2.20 as
gas IL made today. II gas manu-.
facturers were permitted to make
gas that contained half as many
L - ~ IA
cubic foot a million units OF energy
could be sold at prices ranging
from 60 cents to ST."
"You mean that would cut the
gas bill by two-thirds?"
Yes, the housewife would burn
about twice as many cubic feet OF
gas as she did before the change,
but the rate would be one.fifth or
one-sixth what it was, so the net
saving would be nearly two.thirds."
Then why isn't this done at
once?" he was asked
Puts Blame on Folks.
Doherty, who learned about
folks" as a newsboy, smiled as he
replied:
ut isn't done because It takes
years to educate people to the fact
that it can be done and that they
would gain by the change. Until
the public understands, public serV-
Ice commissions will not approve
changes.
1.-THE present method of manu-
featuring gas lie very expensive.
BY the new method which I pro-
pose, immense quantities of by
products would be extracted in the
initial Justification of coal. The
coke that remained would then be
gasified without being enriched
with oil. The gas companies would
retain chemical products from which
dyestuffs, paints, oils, varnishes,
building materials, and many other
valuable commodities could be
made.
ITO name one of the cheapest
by-products: Our 600, 900, 0O0.ton
annual coal pile contains 5000, 900
tons of raw sulphur. At present
this goes up in smoke as sulphur
Gus acid, which eats up our paint
and iron work and dwarfs or kills
vegetation in our cities"
Visions SmOkeIess Age.
Doherty visions a smokeless age
that will come through cheaper
manufacture of gas and the turn
ing to mans use Of all the wealth