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50 THE COAL TRADE BULLETIN.
REPORT OF COAL TESTS MADE
AT THE ST. LOUIS EXPOSITION.
The fact that coals and other mineral fuels
used in the United States during 1904 cost the con­
sumers approximately $1,500,000,000 indicates the
magnitude and importance of the problems which
the United States Geological Survey had under
investigation in connection with its coal-testing
plant at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. It
will interest many people to know that a preliminary
report on the operations of that plant has re­
cently been published. It is the work of E. W.
Parker, .1. A. Holmes, and M. R. Campbell, who
were appointed by the Directors of the United
States Geological Survey as a committee to install
a coal-testing plant on the World's Fair Grounds
at St. Louis, and to conduct therein a series of
tests on the best methods of utilizing coal and
lignite. The report contains a brief statement
of the results obtained from September 1, 1904,
when the plant was put in operation, to December
24. 1904. A more detailed report, which will be
fully illustrated by photographs and graphic charts,
and which will describe the methods employed in
making the coal tests and discuss the results ob­
tained, is in preparation and will be published.
The total sum appropriated for this work was
$60,000. Under the law authorizing the work all
of the testing machinery and all of the coals to be
tested had to be furnished to the government free
of charge. These conditions made it impossible
to provide an ideal testing plant in the time allot­
ted for the work, and there was considerable delay
in assembling the equipment. The conimittee
feels, nevertheless, that through the hearty and
patriotic co-operation of a large number of manufacturers
of apparatus and machinery, it was able
to collect and install, within a notably short time,
a testing plant that was well suited for such
pioneer work. The buildings erected for the work
consisted of a boiler and engine house, a storage
and washery building, and two buildings for bri­
quetting machines and equipment. A part of the
metal pavilion was utilized for a chemical laboratory,
in which all of the chemical work connected
with the tests was performed.
The various portions of the plant were put under
the direction of men thoroughly equipped in their
special lines. The steam-test division was under
the direction of Prof. L. P. Breckenridge. of the
University of Illinois. The producer gas tests
were under the direction of Prof. Robert H. Fer­
nald, of Washington University, St. Louis. The
washing operations were under the superintendence
of John D. Wick, of Chicago, general fore­
man of the plant. The coking plant was in charge
of Fred. \V. Stammler, of Johnstown. Pa. The
briquetting tests were directed by Dr. Joseph Hyde
Pratt, of the University of North Carolina and
the North Carolina Geological Survey. The plans
for the chemical laboratory, its equipment and
operations, were made under the direction of Prof.
N. W. Lord, of the Ohio State University.
The field work was placed in charge of Mr. M. R.
Campbell, one of the committee appointed by the
director of the survey for the prosecution of these
tests. All of the coal shipped to the plant for
testing, with the exception of a few carloads was
collected under the supervision of a survey official.
This was done to avoid any possibility of the criti­
cism that selected coals had been subjected to
these tests.
Among the results already clearly indicated by
these preliminary tests the following may be
stated as worthy of special consideration: (1) The
tests in the steam-boiler plant of 65 carload sam­
ples of coal from 17 states indicate that the steamproducing
capacity of American coals is high and
that the quality of many of these coals may be
improved by washing. (2) The producer-gas tests
show the most striking results, and they indicate
a revolution in the economical use of coal for the
production of power. The results clearly demon­
strate the following points: (a) that most of the
American bituminous coals and lignites can be
used successfully in the manufacture of producer
gas. and that this gas can be utilized in an explo­
sive gas engine; (b) that this method of using
fuel is much more economical than the present
mode of generating steam. (31 Some of the lignites
from partially developed but extensive deposits in
North Dakota and Texas, when tested in the gas
producer and gas engine, have shown unexpectedly
high power-producing qualities, such as promise
large future developments in those and other
states. (4) Some of the American coals, and the
"slack" produced in mining these coals, can he
briquetted on a commercial basis.
This report is listed as Bulletin No. 261 among
the survey's publications. It is intended for general
distribution and may be obtained on applica­
tion to the director of the United States geological
survey. Washington, D. C.
The United States census report on coal produc­
tion shows that while in 1830 the production of
coal per unit of population was hut one-fortieth
of a ton, it is at the present time on a basis of
four tons per capita, a hundredfold increase, or
10,000 per cent. In 1840 the per capita tonnage
was .105; 1850, .278: 1860, .514: and not until
1870 did it approach one ton per capita, the exact
figures then being .955. Since then rapid strides
have been made. For 1880 the tonnage was 1.518;
1890, 2.255; 1900, 3.534; 1902, 3.838; and at present,
it is safe to say, at least four tons per capita.