Coal measures

“ And again we have shown little willingness to dignify coal by seeking to draw out by improved mechanical processes all the stored content of heat in this lump of carbon. Instead we content ourselves by giving it a mere pauper touch, driving off the greater volume of its value into the air. ”

“ Moreover, wherever heat rather than light or power is desired, gas, in the present state of technical development, is even more economical than electricity. Under the by-product system the present annual coal output can be made to more than double its service in driving machinery and in addition it can be made to contribute heavily to our supply of fertilizers, motor fuel, and chemical [Pg 98] products. It is estimated that the aggregate loss resulting from the present wasteful utilization of coal is over ten dollars a year for each inhabitant of the United States. ”

“ We do this as to wheat and meat; it is just as necessary to avoid injustice in the case of coal, and it is thoroughly practicable. The public should know the kind of coal it is buying, because it should buy the coal it needs. There need be no prohibition against the mining or selling of any coal, [4] but coal should sell in terms of its capacity to deliver heat. Some coal that is only a pint bottle is selling as a quart bottle. And the quart is hurt by the competition of the pint. A bill to effect such fuel inspection has been drafted and will be presented to Congress. ”

“ The loss occasioned by this rapid diminution of the means employed, is serious in every point of view, in regard as well to the quantity of fuel used and time wasted, but it is unavoidable in the operation of decomposing coal in masses or layers from 5 to 10 inches in thickness, and must be a great drawback on the value of the gas-light discovery. ”

“ The loss of motion resulting from lack of co-ordination in the use of coal is just as great in other directions as in that of coke making, and the advantages of integral usage may confidently be expected to assert themselves. Already projects of the kind are coming under serious contemplation in proposals such as those for furnishing gas to cities, for employing by-product operations located at the mine in support of the waning natural-gas supply, and for integrated heat, light, and power projects operating on coal with by-product recovery. ”

“ Natural gas cannot last much longer and peat bogs are estimated at about half of one per cent of the coal supplies. Where shall we turn for heat and power when all these stores of energy are gone?
It has been estimated that the water powers of the earth, if fully developed, would probably supply about half of the energy that we now get out of coal. This is a never-failing supply of energy, and no doubt before we have begun to scrape the bottom of our coal magazines every river on earth that is capable of turning a wheel will be doing so to the limit of its capacity. ”

“ It must not be thought that in this huge area the coal is all uniformly good. It varies greatly in quality, and in some districts it occurs in such thin seams as to be worthless, except as fuel for consumption by the actual coal-getters. There are, too, areas of many square miles in extent, where there are now no coals at all, the formation having been denuded right down to the palaeozoic back-bone of the country. ”

“ The elimination of smoke means more complete combustion of the fuel, and consequently less waste and higher efficiency.
The investigations into the waste of coal in mining have shown the enormous extent of this waste, aggregating probably from 300,000,000 to 400,000,000 tons yearly, of which at least one-half might be saved. It is being demonstrated that the low-grade coals, high in sulphur and ash, now left underground, can be used economically in the gas producer for power and light, and, therefore, should be mined at the same time that the high-grade coal is being removed. ”

“ At the beginning of the present century the anthracite or stone coal was in general use, in all the districts where it was found, as a fuel for the blacksmith’s fire and the iron worker’s forge. This, however, was the limit of its utility. It was thought to be necessary to force a strong artificial air current up through it to make it burn, and since this could not well be done in grates, stoves, or furnaces, there was no demand for coal for domestic use, or for the great manufacturing industries. ”

“ The price of coals can however have but little effect upon the cost of the gas-lights; because the very refuse, or small coal, which pass through the screen at the pit’s mouth, and which cannot be brought into the market, nay, even the sweepings of the pit, which are thrown away, may be employed for the production of coal-gas. It makes no difference in what form the coal is used. ”

“ There is perhaps no subject in the art of manufacturing coal gas, on which practical men are less agreed, than they are on the temperature most economically to be employed for the production of coal gas in the large way. It must be sufficiently evident, that cast-iron retorts, when worked at a low temperature, will last longer, than when exposed to higher degrees of heat. ”

“ One of the greatest single causes of waste and increased prices is our antiquated system of distributing the energy contained in coal. It is estimated that every hundred tons of coal shipped involves the burning of ten tons in railroad locomotives. There is no longer any technical justification for transporting power in the enormously bulky form of coal when it could be much more efficiently distributed by pipe and wire in the form of gas and electricity. ”

“ In a time of stress it is not enough to be able to say that the United States contains more than one-half of the known world supply of coal; that we, while only 8 per cent of the world's population, produce annually 46 per cent of all coal that is taken from the ground; that 35 per cent of the railroad traffic is coal; that in less than 100 years we have grown in production from 100,000 tons to 700,000,000 tons per annum ”

“ The heating value of a billion feet of gas is equal to a million bushels of coal. If some great conflagration were sweeping away our coal fields steadily every day in the year, and destroying our best coal at the rate of a million bushels per day, how quickly we should all arise to aid in checking it! And yet this imaginary case is actually true in regard to the best fuel in this country, which is burning uselessly an equal value in coal, and our coal must some day be used to supply the loss. ”

“ The investigations include the possibility of making satisfactory commercial fuels from lignite or low-grade coals which do not stand shipment well, the benefiting of culm or slack coals which are wasted or sold at unremunerative prices, and the possibility of improving the efficiency of good coals. Some of the various forms of commercial briquettes, American and foreign, are shown in Fig. 2, Plate XX. After undergoing chemical analysis, the coal is elevated and fed to a storage bin, whence it is drawn through a chute to a hopper on the weighing scales. ”

“ This is the richest of all the coal deposits in gases that are set free by heat, and for this reason is extensively [Pg 24] used in the manufacture of what is commonly called coal gas. England produces a large amount of cannel coal, as well as another variety of bituminous coal, which latter, however, does not burn with such a black smoke as the coal found in the Ohio valley and the Western States of America. ”

“ To the poor people who live in the vicinity of the breakers these heaps of refuse coal are an unmixed blessing. Pieces of good coal are always being thrown out inadvertently with the waste, and the bony coal that is discarded is not by any means without value as a fuel; indeed it makes a very respectable fire. So, too, one can obtain, with a screen, from the culm heap quite a little percentage of material that will burn. ”

“ A greater number of retorts and more workmen must likewise be employed, in order to produce the requisite quantity of gas daily, which the manufacturer is called upon to supply; more space of ground is required, and more dead capital must be sunk in the establishment. The more frequent and sudden alterations of temperature which the retorts necessarily suffer, by the more frequent introduction of cold coal, renders them extremely liable to become injured ”

“ Much power will always be needed where no stream for power is available. But the lesson is plain that where water can be used it should be, both in order to save the coal and because it can be produced more cheaply. The 30,000,000 horse-power now available, if produced in our most modern electric plants, would require the burning of nearly 225,000,000 tons of coal, and if in the average plant run by steam-engines, more than 650,000,000 tons of coal, which is fifty per cent. more than all the coal that is now produced in this country. ”

“ Central heating and power plants that can burn coal efficiently will no doubt be more popular and numerous in a few years. Government control and legislation may be expected to hasten the changes. In Europe the technique of coal mining, except in undercutting machinery, is further advanced than in the United States, as regards mining all the coal and in supporting the surface. ”

“ For more than two years the Government has been conducting a series of experiments in a very thorough manner, endeavoring to ascertain the gas values of the great lignite coal fields between Boulder and Denver. It has been discovered that the converting of the coal into gas gives it double the efficiency for use as a motor power for engine or for fuel than can be gained from the coal in its natural state. ”

“ Industries, especially those which generate electric power, have made similar effort to gain from their fuel its greatest potentiality, and with varying success. We can overlook the stoking of the domestic furnace as a national concern, for the amount of coal used in this way amounts to not more than 17 per cent of the national coal bill, and this whole charge could be saved, it is estimated, by giving care to the 75 per cent of our coal which is burned under boilers to make steam. ”

“ The decomposition of the latter, will be fully effected when the distillatory vessel exhibits to the eye a dull cherry redness, and the evolution of the gas at such a temperature will take place in torrents from beginning to end. In order, on the other hand, to complete the decomposition of Newcastle and Sunderland coal, the heat must be increased as the process proceeds, and the production of the gas will be extended far beyond the time required for decomposing a like quantity of Scotch, or Lancashire Wiggan coal, when exposed to the same degree of heat. ”

“ It would clearly appear that the coal business may be stabilized, not wholly, but in a very large measure, in some of the western fields, [3] if the public does not regard its supply of coal as it does its supply of domestic water, which requires only that the faucet shall be opened to bring forth a gushing supply. ”

“ If I am right in the above estimates of working possibilities, our coal resources may be increased by about forty thousand millions of tons beyond the estimate of the Commissioners. To obtain such an additional quantity will certainly be worth an effort, and unless we suffer a far worse calamity than the loss of all our minerals, viz., a deterioration of British energy, the effort will assuredly be made. ”

“ Hard coal of good quality has 90 per cent or more of carbon, and burns with little flame. Soft coal contains as much as 18 per cent of flame-making substances, and gives off a heavy smoke. Hard coal is therefore cleaner, but it is more costly than soft coal, because the supply is smaller. The most important anthracite mines are found in the eastern United States, and hard coal is used more in this section than elsewhere. Good hard coal may be recognized by its glossy black color and bright surfaces. It is sold under different names taken often from the locality where it is mined. ”

“ The first cause is probably the most important, and this is particularly true of anthracite coals where a sliding scale of prices is used according to the season of the year. While market conditions serve as one of the principal reasons for coal storage, most power plants and manufacturing plants feel compelled to protect their coal supply from the danger of strikes, car shortages and the like, and it is customary for large power plants, railroads and coal companies themselves, to store bituminous coal. ”

“ And if we give credit to the assertion of those workmen, whose business it is to manufacture a given quantity of gas by means of a certain quantity of coal delivered to them, it would appear that coal which affords gas abounding in sulphuretted hydrogen, is the kind of coal most easily to be decomposed. This, as far as it regards the decomposition of Scotch Splent or cannel coal, is certainly true. No species of coal affords gas at a lower temperature, and of none is the gaseous product more loaded with sulphuretted hydrogen gas. ”

“ In the making of coke from coal, enormous quantities of coal tar and gas have been lost. Most engines consume a far greater amount of coal than they should in doing a given amount of work. Most of us do not know how to use coal economically in our homes, and thus aid not only in wasting the coal supplies but in making the cost of living higher than it should be. All together, in the handling of coal we lose fully half of it. The coal supply of the earth is disappearing very fast, and at the rate at which its use is now increasing it may not last more than one hundred years. ”