CALORIFIC POWER OF FUELS 



CHAPTER I. 

 INTRODUCTORY. 



FUELS. 



FUELS are those substances containing carbon, or carbon 

 and hydrogen, which are utilized for the heat they produce 

 upon union with oxygen. The products of this union, called 

 combustion, are carbonic acid or carbonic acid and water. 

 Many fuels, such as wood, peat, crude petroleum, etc., exist 

 naturally; others, such as coke, charcoal, coal-gas, etc., are 

 formed artificially. 



The fuel par excellence to-day is coal. Improvements in 

 transportation allow deliveries at points more and more 

 remote from the mines, and the increasing demand, aided by 

 new and improved machinery, tends to lower the cost. New 

 locations are still being discovered, and the old ones are being 

 worked more thoroughly and completely. A large portion of 

 this book will be devoted to coal, other fuels being treated 

 incidentally; and such treatment is fitting, since it is the study 

 of coal to which the energies of physicists and engineers are 

 still principally devoted in their researches on the calorific 

 power of fuel. 



For convenience of discussion the fuels will be divided 

 into three general heads: 



Solid fuels coal, lignite, peat, coke, charcoal, and wood. 



