ALCOHOL 



37 



of the apparatus, its insurance, etc., usu- 

 ally called the "fixed chargts." To these 

 should be added the costs of fuel, of labor 

 for attendance, and of repairs, as the 

 principal items, and the cost of lubri- 

 cants, material for cleaning, and a great 

 many other small miscellaneous items, all 

 going to form what are commonly called 

 "operating charges." In all cases where 

 fuel is used its cost is, if not the most 

 important, certainly a very important 

 item. In the case of water power, where 

 the fuel element is zero, the advantage is 

 offset by an interest charge on the cost 

 of installation for dams, pipes, tunnels, 

 shafts, etc. Assuming that power from 

 all of these different sources is equally 

 well adapted to the particular work to 

 be done and equally available, then that 

 system will be selected for any particular 

 case for which the cost of power is least. 

 Leaving out of consideration water power, 

 it is found that the labor costs do not 

 differ nearly so widely for the different 

 systems, nor are they so large, as the 

 fuel cost. Therefore, the great question 

 today in power production as regards im- 

 mediate cost of power and maintenance is 

 this lowering of the fuel cost. 



The cost of fuel per unit of power de- 

 veloped depends, first, on the market price 

 of that fuel at the point where it is to be 

 used, and next, but by no means least, on 

 the ability of the machinery to transform 

 the fuel energy into useful work. If all 

 the different kinds of machinery used for 

 power generation could turn into useful 

 work the same proportion of the energ>- 

 in the fuel, coal would be almost univers- 

 ally used, because of the present low cost 

 of energy in this form. 



f onijiaratiTe Cost of Energy in Different 

 Fnels 



The different kinds of fuel contain dif- 

 ferent amounts of energj' per pound — 

 that is to say, they have different heat- 

 ing powers. Heat energy is measured in 

 terms of a technical unit called by Eng- 

 lish-speaking people the "British thermal 

 unit" (B. T. U.). This unit is the amount 

 of heat that will raise the temperature 

 of one pound of water one degree on the 

 Fahrenheit thermometer. In comparing. 



therefore, the value of fuels for power 

 purposes there must be taken into consid- 

 eration two facts — the market price of 

 the fuel and the amount of heat which 

 will be liberated when it is burned. An- 

 thracite coal in the neighborhood of New 

 York can be bought in small sizes in 

 large quantities for power purposes at 

 about $2. .50 per ton. This coal will con- 

 tain about 12,.500 B. T. U. per pound. This 

 is equivalent to about 10,000,000 heat units 

 per dollar. Large sizes, such as egg coal, 

 containing about 14,000 B. T. U. per 

 pound, can be bought in large quantities 

 for about $6.25 per ton, which is equiva- 

 lent to 4,500,000 B. T. U. per dollar. 

 Other grades of anthracite coal and the 

 various grades and qualities of bitumin- 

 ous coal will lie between these two limits 

 of cost. Illuminating gas in New York 

 costs $1 per 1,000 cubic feet, which is 

 equivalent to about 500,000 heat units per 

 dollar. Natural gas in the Middle States 

 is sold for 10 cents per 1,000 cubic feet 

 and upward. This fuel at the minimum 

 price will furnish about 10.000,000 heat 

 units for a dollar. Crude oil sells in the 

 East at a minimum price of 4 cents per 

 gallon, which is equivalent to about 4.000,- 

 000 heat units per dollar. Gasoline sells 

 at a minimum price of 10 cents per gallon, 

 which is equivalent to about 1,200,000 heat 

 units per dollar. Kerosene sells from 10 

 to 30 cents per gallon, which is equivalent 

 to 1,200,000 and 400,000 heat units per dol- 

 lar, respectively. Grain alcohol, such as 

 will De freed from tax under the recent 

 legislation, will sell for an unknown price; 

 but for the purpose of comparison assum- 

 ing 30 cents per gallon as a minimum, 

 it will give 270,000 heat units per dollar. 

 Gasoline, kerosene, crude oils, and. in fact, 

 all of the distillates have about the same 

 amount of heat per dollar, whereas at 

 the same price per gallon, ignoring the 

 slight difference in density, they would 

 deliver to the consumer about the same 

 amount of heat per dollar, whereas the 

 other liquid fuel, alcohol, if sold at an 

 equal price, would give the consumer only 

 about three-fifths the amount of heat for 

 the same money. From the figures above 

 given it appears that the cost of heat en- 

 ergj' contained in the above fuels, at the 



