peat for combustion, by drying or briquetting, to render it useful as a local substitute for coal;
Investigations into the character of the various petroleums found throughout the United States, with a view to determining their calorific value, chemical composition, and the various methods whereby they may be made most economically available for more efficient use as power producers, through the various methods of combustion;
Investigations and tests into the relative efficiency, as power producers in internal-combustion engines, of the heavier distillates of petroleum, as well as of kerosene and gasoline, in order to ascertain the commercial value and relative efficiency of each product in the various types of engines;
Investigations into the most efficient methods of utilizing the various coals available throughout the United States for heating small public buildings, army posts, etc., in order that these coals may be used more economically than at present;
Investigative studies into the processes of combustion within boiler furnaces and gas producers to ascertain the temperatures at which the most complete combustion of the gases takes place, and the means whereby such temperatures may be produced and maintained, thus diminishing the loss of values up the smokestack and the amount of smoke produced;
Investigations and tests into the possibilities of coking coals which have hitherto been classed as non-coking, and the making of comparative tests of all coals found in the United States, especially those from the public lands of the West;
Investigations, by means of washing in suitable machines, to determine the possibility of improving the quality of American coals for various methods of combustion, and with a view to making them more available for the production of coke of high-grade metallurgical value, as free as possible from sulphur and other injurious substances.
At each stage of the process of testing, samples of the coal have been forwarded to the chemical laboratory for analyses; combustion temperatures have been measured; and samples of gas collected from various parts of the combustion chambers of the gas producers and boiler furnaces have been analyzed, in order that a study of these data may throw such light on the processes of combustion and indicate such necessary changes in the apparatus, as might result in larger economies in the use of coal.
The second line of investigation concerns the methods of mining and preparing coal for the market, and the collection of mine samples of coal, oil, etc., for analysis and testing. It is well known that, under present methods of mining, from 10 to 75% of any given deposit of coal is left underground as props and supports, or as low-grade material, or in overlying beds broken up through mining the lower bed first. An average of 50% of the coal is thus wasted or rendered valueless, as it cannot be removed subsequently because of the caving or falling in of the roofs of abandoned galleries and the breaking up of the adjoining overlying beds, including coal, floor, and roof.
The investigations into waste in mining and the testing of the waste, bone, and slack coal in gas producers, as briquettes, etc., have, for their purpose, the prevention of this form of waste by demonstrating that these materials, now wasted, may be used profitably, by means of gas producers and engines, for power purposes.