CHARCOAL 245 



cut from coppice forests twenty to twenty-five years of age. About 90 

 kgm. (198 lb.) of charcoal was secured per stere l of wood. The basis 

 is the time required per man per stere of wood. 



DIVISION OF TIME REQUIRED OX CHARCOAL OPERATIONS 



Operation. 



Hours per Man 

 per Stere ' of wood. 



Cutting trees 



Cutting wood to size 



Preparation of the ground 



Hauling wood 



Arranging the wood in pit 



Covering the pit with dirt, etc 



Burning 



Extinction of fire, removal of cover and measuring charcoal. . . . 



Total . . 



S.6o 

 5-6o 

 -50 

 4.80 

 i.oo 



1. 00 



8.00 

 i 50 



28.00 



; One stere = .276 cord or I cord (128 stacked cubic feet) =3.63 steres. 



Therefore, for a pit of 40 steres (about 1 1 cords) it would require one 

 man 1120 hours or 2 men 560 hours for the complete operation. On a 

 pit containing 200 steres (about 55 cords), it would require a crew of 

 10 men (28X200-^10) 560 working hours, or 23! days of twenty-four 

 hours each for the complete operation. 



UTILIZATION AND PRICES 



One of the most important uses of charcoal during the past few 

 years was in the manufacture of gunpowder and explosives. It is also 

 extensively used in metallurgical operations as a reducing agent. Its 

 principal use from twenty to fifty years ago was for the production of 

 charcoal or Swedish iron, but the introduction and wide use of coke and 

 improvements in the methods of reducing iron ores have seriously dimin- 

 ished the demand for charcoal. It is widely used as a filtrant, for 

 medicinal purposes, and for fuel. 



In the copper smelters of Montana and Arizona charcoal is used in 

 the smelters for testing the ore and for treating some ores. 



Some of the larger iron furnaces use as much as 750,000 to 1,000,000 

 bu. or more annually. It requires from 50 to 65 bu. of charcoal to reduce 

 a ton of ore. This is equivalent to about 1 26 to 144 bu. to the ton of iron. 

 These figures were obtained in New York and New England blast fur- 

 naces. 



