Show preventable waste of coal with the hope of quickening the campaign for the conservation of fuel during tho the war and in order to get the problem generally before those who are immediately interested the bureau of mines department of the interior is pleased to reproduce an article by david moffat myers member of the american society of mechanical engineers gi on preventable waste of coal in the united states with a consideration of alternative methods of its elimination this article was presented at the annual meeting of the society in new york december ath to ath and is as follows As a means of far reaching economy the government of the united states should at this time apply intelligent and direct act ing efforts to the conservation of fuel at the industrial plants which are responsible for its greatest consumption it is unnecessary before a body of engineers to show proof that coal is wasted in vast quantities in the boiler furnaces of 0 many plants to feed which it is mined and distributed at a high and ever increasing cost of labor and material 0 the mining and distribution of coal have been placed under the supervision of a war coal board in order more nearly to meet the crying needs in these directions to use the railroad facilities more efficiently so that the present car shortage may be minimized to the greatest possible extent and to apportion the coal in quantity and to uses deemed most expedient while this organized effort to bring about efficiency in the production and distribution trib ution of coal is being made no parallel measures have been adopted to bring about a normal and practicable efficiency in its use the hundreds of large plants which are consuming fuel wastefully in many cases more wastefully and carelessly than ever before are directly and needlessly causing a large fraction of the existing car shortage they are overloading the already strained capacity of the railroads they are rendering slower and more difficult the transportation of food and other vital commodities modi ties and in short they are simply counteracting ter acting the measures of efficiency in production and distribution which have elsec else where been established preventable waste of fuel the preventable waste of fuel in the boiler furnace of one steel mill amounted to tons per year which at 5 a ton would cost this was a comparatively modern modem plant the efficiency of boilers and furnaces in a fourteen day test was 55 per cent the load factor was unusually favorable to high efficiency and could readily be raised to 70 per cent or over this is only one example and there are many more extreme cases in one hand fired plant the evaporation was raised from six to nine pounds in a few days of instruction and continuously kept close to this higher mark with the help of coal and water measurements which were inaugurated the saving was due exclusively to instruction and consequent better operation the saving or wasting of one fourth of the coal consumption of any industrial plant depends entirely upon the efficiency of its operating management let me emphasize that this fraction of the consumption relates exclusively to the boiler plants i e the production of steam and does not include the large economies possible in connection with its distribution and use for well known reasons the boiler plant offers the more lucrative field for producing economies and these with a minimum of alteration in physical equipment under present conditions a plant which carelessly operates at an efficiency of 40 to 50 per cent receives from the government the same consideration in the delivery of coal as the one whose efficiency is 70 to 75 per cent this obviously is unfair as well as wasteful I 1 the government hands over say tons of coal a year to a plant owner but asks for no account as re regards ards its consumption nor any questions as to the amount of steam it is made to produce there is nevertheless an equivalent amount of steam this fuel is capable of generating and it can and should be made to produce that quantity conservation methods the object of this paper is to open discussion which it is hoped will ultimately lead to the formulation of definite recommendation men dation of means for the reduction of the present great preventable waste of fuel in our industries to direct such means principally toward the elimination of that portion of the present waste which is due to faulty careless and uninformed operation of plants to forward these recommendations to the proper governmental authorities as an official communication of this society and to offer to the government the services of the society for the organization furthering in and as far as possible the execution of the plan which may as a consequence be adopted I 1 in general there are two plans of operation worthy at least of consideration one might be termed the autocratic method this would involve the use of authority to compel coal consumers to execute such measures of economy as the proper authorities might prescribe for t any given case limits t to 0 be set as to expense to the user such limits might be in terms of a percentage of their present yearly coal bill alterations to be directed chiefly as previously implied 1 to purely operating improvements many objections would probably be made by consumers again against st this plan but once in effect the majority would no doubt realize its pecuniary advantage to themselves but its tendency may be too strongly opposed to democratic principles the other plan would be largely an educational cat ional one in which patriotism and an d efficiency e f fici ency would furnish the motive forces required the teaching must be accomplished with the utmost simplicity and directness above all it must be in such form as to be readily comprehended and applied this is a big task but with the technical and executive ability represented in this society these things should be and can be accomplished the requisite information must reach the owners and managers of industries and there must be simple instruction sheets for the engineers and firemen the vital importance of daily accurate records of coal and water must be taught and information given regarding practical 0 6 appliances for automatic measurements of both blank forms might be sent in advance to plant owners in order to be advised by them first whether they would be willing to operate cooperate co with a governmental organization offering to assist them in reducing their coal consumption and second to obtain such data as to size type equipment operation and fuel consumption of the plants as would enable a classification which would permit a government board of experts to send such instructions as would include the information needed for any one class of plants this work would be greatly aided by a staff of experts ready to visit plants when so requested by owners and make investigations and recommendations and keep in touch with the progress of economies included in such a staff should be men intimately familiar with practical operating economies whose duties would be the delivering of lectures or talks which should be planned so as to reach directly not only managers and owners of the industries but also the chief engineers and firemen of the boiler plants this feature of the plan by itself would undoubtedly result in great savings the united states bureau of mines has for a number of years en engaged aged in obtaining and disseminating scientific information regarding the mining and consumption of coal and the results of the work have been of great value to technical engineers who are able to use and apply it it is evident that we now require an extension of the idea of education but in such form as directly to affect the men who run the boiler plants of our country for in their hands is the saving or wasting of one fourth of our fuel supply auppl Y six hundred million tons of coal were mined in the united states in 1916 if we 1 assume only one half of this to have been aused used for our industrial boiler plants then la a quarter of the coal used under boilers X amounts to tons per year it is worth while to save this fuel by preventing I 1 its waste this quantity of coal represents the use of fifty ton freight cars |