DEPARTMENT OV MHTALHIiiGY AND ECONOMIC GEOLOGY. 247 



for the Navy by I'rof. W. 11. Johnson, fioni IS 11 to 1844, was the first at- 

 tempt to systematically in\esti!;ate American coals. 



During the years 187!>, 1880, 1881, and 1882 a series of experiments 

 to determine the fuel vahie of various materials furnished to the U. S. 

 Army w^is carried on by the (iuartermaster-(Jeneral of the Army, Gen 

 eral ]\r. (/. IVIeigs, which included matiy Am(Mi<;an (;oals. 



liesides these two systematic investigations a- few exajninations of 

 coals from restrict(Ml areas have been made from time to time by the 

 Government, especially by enginiM^-s in the Navy. Many of these 

 tests, however, were undertaken to determine tlie eiliciency of boilers, 

 and are only incidentally tests of (;oal. 



Aside from these investigations by the Government scarcely any- 

 thing hiis been done in this line, although occasionally boiler tests have 

 been made by private parties. While, these results are interesting aiul 

 of use, yet the conditions of tlui tests were so variable that the results 

 can not possibly be connected so as to give relative results of any ac- 

 curacy, and therefore can not be use(l to determine the relative fuel 

 value of the coals tested. 



The experinu'uts by I'lolessor Johnson end)ra<;ed very careful and 

 elaborate tests of the steaming power of the (;oals, together with chem- 

 ical analyses and some Jew other tests. (Jonsidering the time when it 

 was made and the condition ofe\[>e!imcntal sciem;e at that period, this 

 examination was a remarkably thorougli and comi)let(! one, and the re- 

 sults obtained were of great Aalue to the Navy. 



The experiments by (Jeneral Meigs were restricted to the determina- 

 tion of the fuel value of the. materials tested as com[)ared with the 

 standard of the Army — a cord of oak wood — and can not be consid- 

 ered as a systematic investigation of coal, so that. r(>a.lly the only com- 

 jdete examination of American coals is that of Ti-ofessor' Johnson, ami 

 for want of better a.nd more recent (Igiires it is still tlnr standard of 

 reference. 



The number of coals upon the market at that tiim^ was very small, 

 and his series em bra,ced oidy forty one mines, of which six were foreign. 

 The thirty-five Americ;in coals were about e<pially divided between the 

 Pennsylvania anthiacite, the Pennsylvania and Maryland bituminous, 

 and the Richmond, Va., coals, only two Western coals being available. 

 Since that time the vast area of coal country, extending from Titts- 

 burgh, Pa , to Birmingham, Ala., through the States of Pennsylva,nia, 

 Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, Kxuitucky, Tennessee, Georgia, and 

 Alabama, the middle basin of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, and a con- 

 siderable number of coals west of the Mississippi lliver have been de- 

 veloped and are activc^ly worked, so that 10(),lM)(),'J!ir> gross tons of coal 

 were mined in this country in 1881, as against less than 2,000,000 gross 

 tons in 1810. 



Aside from this lai'ge mass of new material requiiing investigation 

 the ujethods of experimental scienci^ have greatly adva,iu;ed sin(;e 1811, 



