The preparation of these samples is carried on in a room in the basement
of the building, where special machinery has been installed for this
work. Fig. 10 shows a plan of this room and the arrangement of the
sampling and crushing machinery.
The crushing of the coal produces great quantities of objectionable
dust, and to prevent this dust from giving trouble outside the sampling
room, the wooden partitions on three sides of the room (the fourth side
being a masonry wall) are completely covered on the outside with
galvanized sheet iron. The only openings to the room are two doors,
which are likewise covered with sheet iron, and provided with broad
flanges of the same material, in order to seal effectually the openings
when the doors are shut. Fresh air is drawn into the room by a fan,
through a pipe leading to the outer air. A dust-collecting system which
carries the coal dust and spent air from the room, consists of an
arrangement of 8-in. and 12-in. pipes leading from hoods, placed over
the crushing machines, to the main furnace stack of the building. The
draft in this stack draws all the dust from the crushers directly
through the hoods to the main pipe, where most of it is deposited.
The equipment of the sampling room consists of one motor-driven, baby
hammer crusher, which has a capacity of about 1 ton per hour and crushes
to a fineness of ¼-in. mesh; one adjustable chipmunk jaw crusher, for 5-
and 10-lb. samples; one set of 4½ by 7½-in. rolls, crushing to 60 mesh,
for small samples; one large bucking board, and several different sizes
of riffle samplers for reducing samples to small quantities. The small
crushers are belted to a shaft driven by a separate motor from that
driving the baby crusher.
In conducting the inspection of departmental purchases of coal in
Washington, the office is notified whenever a delivery of coal is to be
made at one of the buildings, and an inspector is sent, who remains
during the unloading of the coal. He is provided with galvanized-iron
buckets having lids and locks; each bucket holds about 60 lb. of coal.
In these buckets he puts small quantities of the coal taken from every
portion of the delivery, and when the delivery has been completed, he
locks the buckets and notifies the office to send a wagon for them. The
buckets are numbered consecutively, and the inspector makes a record of
these numbers, the date, point of delivery, quality of coal delivered,
etc. The buckets are also tagged to prevent error. He then reports to
the office in person, or by telephone, for assignment to another point
in the city. All the samples are delivered to the crushing room in the
basement of the Survey Building, to be prepared for analysis.[11]
Samples taken from coal delivered to points outside of Washington are
taken by representatives of the department for which the coal is being
purchased, according to instructions furnished them, and, from time to
time, the regular inspectors are sent to see that these instructions are
being complied with. These samples are crushed by hand, reduced to about
2 lb. at the point where they are taken, and sent to Washington, in
proper air-tight containers, by mail or express, accompanied by
appropriate descriptions.
Each sample is entered in the sample record book when received, and is
given a serial number. For each contract a card is provided giving
information relative to the contract. On this card is also entered the
serial number of each sample of coal delivered under that contract.
After the samples are recorded, they are sent to the crushing room,
where they are reduced to the proper bulk and fineness for analysis.
They are then sent, in rubber-stoppered bottles, accompanied by blank
analysis report cards and card receipts, one for each sample, showing
the serial numbers, to the fuel laboratory for analysis. The receipt
card for each sample is signed and returned to the inspection office,
and when the analysis has been made, the analysis report card showing
the result is returned. This result is entered at once on the contract
card, and when all analyses have been received, covering the entire
delivery of coal, the average quality is calculated, and the results are
reported to the proper department.
The matter of supplying the Pittsburg plant with fuel for test purposes
is also carried on from the Washington office. Preliminary to a series
of investigations, the kinds and amounts of coal required are decided
on, and the localities from which these coals are to be obtained are
determined. Negotiations are then opened with the mine owners, who, in
most cases, generously donate the coal. When the preliminaries have been
arranged, an inspector is sent to the mine to supervise the loading and
shipment of the coal. This inspector enters the mine and takes, for
chemical analysis, small mine samples which are sent to the laboratory
at Pittsburg in metal cans by mail, accompanied by proper identification
cards. The results of the analysis are furnished to the experts in
charge at the testing plant, for their information and guidance in the
investigations for which the coal was shipped.
All samples for testing purposes are designated consecutively in the
order of shipment, “Pittsburg No. 1,” “Pittsburg No. 2,” etc. A complete
record of all shipments is kept on card forms at the Pittsburg plant,
and a duplicate set of these is on file in the inspection office at
Washington.
_Analysis of Fuels._--The routine analyses of fuel used in the
combustion tests at Pittsburg, and of the gases resulting from
combustion or from explosions in the testing galleries, or sampled in
the mines, are made in Building No. 21.[12] A small laboratory is also
maintained on the second floor of the south end of Building No. 13, for
analyses of gases resulting from combustion in the producer-gas plant,
and from explosions in Galleries Nos. 1 and 2, etc. From four to six
chemists are continually employed in this laboratory (in 8-hour shifts),
during prolonged gas-producer tests, and three chemists are also
employed in analyzing gases relating to mine explosions.
In addition to these gas analyses, there are also made in the main
laboratory, analyses and calorific tests of all coal samples collected
by the Geological Survey in connection with its land-classification work
on the coal lands of the Western States. Routine analyses of mine, car,
and furnace samples of fuels for testing, before and after washing and
briquetting, before coking and the resultant coke, and extraction
analyses of binders for briquettes, etc., are also made in this
laboratory.
The fuel-testing laboratory at Washington is equipped with three Mahler
bomb calorimeters and the necessary balances and chemical equipment
required in the proximate analysis of coal. More than 650 deliveries of
coal are sampled each month for tests, representing 50,000 tons
purchased per month, besides daily deliveries, on ship-board, of 550,000
tons of coal for the Panama Railroad. The data obtained by these tests
furnish the basis for payment. The tests cover deliveries of coal to the
forty odd bureaus, and to the District Municipal buildings in
Washington; to the arsenals at Watertown, Mass., Frankford, Pa., and
Rock Island, Ill.; and to a number of navy yards, through the Bureau of
Yards and Docks; to military posts in various parts of the country; for
the Quartermaster-General’s Department; to the Reclamation Service; to
Indian Agencies and Soldiers’ Homes; to several lighthouse districts;
and to the superintendents of the various public buildings throughout
the United States, through the Treasury Department; etc. During 1909,
the average rate of reporting fuel samples was 540 per month, requiring,
on an average, six determinations per sample, or about 3,240
determinations per month.
_Fuel-Research Laboratories._--Smaller laboratories, occupying, on the
average, three rooms each, are located in Building No. 21. One is used
for chemical investigations and calorific tests of petroleum collected
from the various oil fields of the United States; another is used for
investigations relative to the extraction of coal and the rapidity of
oxidization of coals by standard solutions of oxidizing agents; and
another is occupied with investigations into the destructive
distillation of coal. The researches under way show the wide variation
in chemical composition and calorific value of the various crude oils,
indicate the possibility of the extraction of coal constituents by
solvents, and point to important results relative to the equilibrium of
gases at high temperatures in furnaces and gas producers. The
investigations also bear directly on the coking processes, especially
the by-product process, as showing the varying proportion of each of the
volatile products derivable from types of coals occurring in the various
coal fields of the United States, the time and temperature at which
these distillates are given off, the variation in quality and quantity
of the products, according to the conditions of temperature, and, in
addition, explain the deterioration of coals in storage, etc.
[Illustration: Fig. 11.