When these facts become thoroughly appreciated and digested by the average citizen, these gentlemen and their able assistants will have no further cause to fear the withdrawal of financial or moral support for their work.
[Mr.
Wilson.] Herbert M. Wilson, M. Am. Soc. C. E. (by letter).—The Fuel Division of the United States Geological Survey has given considerable attention to the use of peat as a fuel for combustion under boiler furnaces, in gas producers, and for other purposes. It is doubtless to this material that Mr. Allen refers in speaking of utilizing “marsh mud for fuel,” since he refers to an address by Mr. Edward Atkinson on the subject of “Bog Fuel” in which he characterized peat by the more popular term “marsh mud.”
In Europe, where fuel is expensive, 10,000,000 tons of peat are used annually for fuel purposes. A preliminary and incomplete examination, made by Mr. C. A. Davis, of the Fuel Division of the Geological Survey, indicates that the peat beds of the United States extend throughout an area of more than 11,000 sq. miles. The larger part of this is in New England, New York, Minnesota, Wisconsin, New Jersey, Virginia, and other Coastal States which contain little or no coal. It has been estimated that this area will produce 13,000,000,000 tons of air-dried peat.
At present peat production is in its infancy in the United States, though there are in operation several commercial plants which find a ready market for their product and are being operated at a profit. A test was made at the Pittsburg plant on North Carolina peat operated in a gas producer—the resulting producer gas being used to run a gas engine of 150 h.p.—the load on which was measured on a switch-board. Peat containing nearly 30% of ash and 15% of water gave 1 commercial horse-power-hour for each 4 lb. of peat fired in the producer. Had the peat cost $2 per ton to dig and prepare for the producer, each horse-power-hour developed would have cost 0.4 of a cent. The fuel cost of running an electric plant properly equipped for using peat fuel, of even this low grade, in the gas producer would be about $4 per 100 h.p. developed per 10-hour day.
Equally good results were procured in tests of Florida and Michigan peat operated in the gas producer. The investigations of peat under Mr. Davis include studies of simple commercial methods of drying, the chemical and fuel value, analyses of the peat, studies of the
mechanical methods of digging and disintegrating the peat, and physical tests to determine the strength of air-dried peat to support a load.
The calorific value of peat, as shown by numerous analyses made by the United States Geological Survey, runs from about 7,500 to nearly 11,000 B.t.u., moisture free, including the ash, which varies from less than 2% to 20%, the latter being considered in Europe the limit of commercial use for fuel. Analyses of 25 samples of peat from Florida, within these limits as to ash, show a range of from 8,269 to 10,865 B.t.u., only four of the series being below 9,000 B.t.u., and four exceeding 10,500 B.t.u., moisture free. Such fuel in Florida is likely to be utilized soon, since it only needs to be dug and dried in order to render it fit for the furnace or gas producer. Many bituminous coals now used commercially have fuel value as low as 11,000 B.t.u., moisture free, and with maximum ash content of 20%; buckwheat anthracite averages near the same figures, often running as high as 24% ash.
One bulletin concerning the peats of Maine has been published, and another, concerning the peat industries of the United States, is in course of publication.
Mr. Bartoccini asks whether it would not be possible for the United States Geological Survey to enforce rules which would prevent the existence of conditions such as occurred at the mine disaster of Cherry, Ill.
The United States Government has no police power within the States, and it is not within its province to enact or enforce rules or laws, or even to make police inspection regarding the methods of operating mining properties. The province of the mine accidents investigations and that of its successor, the Bureau of Mines, is, within the States, like that of other and similar Government bureaus in the Interior Department, the Department of Agriculture, and other Federal departments, merely to investigate and disseminate information. It remains for the States to enact laws and rules applying the remedies which may be indicated as a result of Federal investigation.