OCR Text |
Show Invisible Treasures of Coal to be Utilized by Iron County Coal Co. Test coke ovens oi various cou-btiuction cou-btiuction to be erected to ascertain which is best adapted for the handling hand-ling of their coal, and when this is determined, a string of them will be erected in the valley, and a large proportion of the coal converted into coke and by-products before being shipped. Few people are aware that coal is (he ancestor of more, useful products than any other element of nature available to man. From the time we rise until the day is done we maintain main-tain an intimate association with some by-product of coal. The leavening leaven-ing agent in our bread and the gas we bake it with are from coal; so are the agents that tan our shoes and that vulcanize the rubber in our automobile au-tomobile tires. We also have to thank our black benefactor for the various forms of ammonia that go into fertilizing, refrigerating, electric batteries, high explosives and household house-hold uses; for aspirin, salicylic acid and many cures for common colds; for elements used in manufacturing insulating coatings, phonograph records rec-ords and pipe stems: for heiiy.nl. the best available fuel for automobiles and internal-combustion engines; for food preservatives, moth balls and disinfectants; for Prussian blue and aniline black the fundamental colors col-ors in the dye industry. Not everyone every-one knows Hint though the coal in our cellar bins contains picric acid and trinitrotoluol the highest explosives ex-plosives known and the basic products pro-ducts that at present go into shell manufacture it also carries locked in itself oil of winlergreen and I he mosfc delicate flovorings and perfumes. per-fumes. The most barbaric practice in our industrial life is our custom of burning burn-ing raw coal. Let mo briefly shoV the loss we at present sustain: Of our annual bituminous coal production produc-tion 40 per cent, is used for steam or industrial purposes, 27 per cent Is burned by the railroads, 15 per cent is domestic coal, and the remaining 18 per cent goes for coking, exports, smithing, gas houses and bunkering. Assuming that it is possible to obtain the by-products from only 25 per cent, of the, induslrial coal and 5n per cent of the railroad fuel through establishing central stations and electrifying: elec-trifying: also that all of the domestic coal can be coked first -we then find . that 195,000,000 tons or bituminous that is now burned raw should be coked. If but, two-thirds of this total to-tal tonnage can be successfully subjected sub-jected to by-product practice the saving, sav-ing, based on pre-war prices, would be $238,000,000 annually. In other words, more than $200,0111.1,000 worth of values go up in smoke each year. |