PREFACE. 



THE books on fuels hitherto published in English, contain 

 only a few scattered facts regarding their calorific powers, how 

 they are obtained, and the practical use made of them. Quite 

 frequently these books are consulted for these facts, and the 

 information they do contain is utilized to its fullest extent. 

 It was thought that a book especially devoted to this subject 

 containing all the reliable data might be of interest, and in 

 furtherance of that idea this book is published. 



The work commenced as a translation of M. Scheurer-Kest- 

 ner's "Pouvoir Calorifique des Combustibles "/ but changes be- 

 came necessary to adapt it to American methods and data, 

 and it was deemed advisable to simply use the skeleton of the 

 work and fill it in, as considered best. Even this skeleton has 

 hardly been preserved intact, as the arrangement of much of 

 the material has been changed, many portions omitted, many 

 new ones supplied, and in some of the original discussions the 

 argument has been so changed as to point nearly opposite to 

 that advocated by M. Scheurer-Kestner. 



The work embraces only that portion of calorimetric de- 

 terminations having a bearing on fuel values. A concise 

 description is given of the leading calorimeters, those most 

 commonly used being described more fully than the others, and 

 some examples of working and calculations are added. 



Coal being the principal fuel naturally receives more space 

 than any of the others, and most of the examples and calcula- 

 tions are based on results from this fuel. The other fuels are 



