12 BULLETIN 102, VOL. 1, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



of economics than of technology. When the need for artificial anthra- 

 cite is generally appreciated, a suitable process for its manufacture 

 will be forthcoming.^ 



Granted the necessity for a smokeless fuel other than anthracite 

 and recognizing that it is chemically feasible to make such a product 

 from bituminous coal, we may examine the existing economic prac- 

 tice that bears on this matter, with a view to ascertaining at what 

 place, if any, a process as outlined above may be introduced and 

 placed on a working commercial basis. 



THE COKE INDUSTRY AND ITS BEARING ON DOMESTIC FUEL. 



We naturally turn first to the coke industry, for here the greatest 

 progress in coal utilization has been attained, and besides coke has 

 akeady been used to a limited extent for domestic heating. The 

 coke industry consumes nearly one-sixth of our bituminous coal, 

 and has as its immediate purpose the production of coke, a substance 

 required by the iron industry, which absorbs most of the output.^ 



Coke is made by heating certain classes of bituminous coal at high 

 temperatures, with the production of a hard, porous residue, com- 

 posed essentially of carbon.^ Two methods of manufacture are in 

 general commercial use. One employs beehive ovens, so called from 

 the shape of early types ; the other makes use of retort ovens, which 

 are usually long and narrow and assembled in batteries. The latter 

 are appropriately termed by-product ovens. 



The beehive oven delivers a product well suited to metallurgical 

 use, but the process is objectionable because of the waste involved. 

 It not only fails to yield the maximum of coke, but it efiects no re- 

 covei}" of other valuable constituents. The products lost represent 

 a measurable waste in terms of dollars, but they carry greater sig- 

 nificance as being the raw materials upon which could be built an 

 adequate manufacture of fertilizers, dyes, drugs, and explosives. It 

 is a strange anomaly that the beehive oven has been made necessary 

 by American economic policy. 



The by-product oven receives raw bituminous coal and subjects 

 it to destructive distillation. This process consumes none of the coal, 

 but breaks it up into five components — coke,, gas, ammonia, benzol, 

 and tar — of which coke is the main product, while the other four 

 constitute by-products. About haK of the gas produced is used to 

 supply the heat essential to the operation ; the by-products are partly 



1 When a specific industry is in need of a process to attain a certain end, it goes ahead and perfects the 

 process. No individual industry is in need of artificial- anthracite, hut puhlic interest demands it. The 

 responsihility is obvious; it falls upon the pubUc. 



a From 1 to 1} tons of coke go into the production of 1 ton of iron, so that the coke industry is essential to 

 the iron industry. Coke also enters iato a number of other metallurgical processes. 



» Much of the bituminous coal in the United States is not suited for the manufacture of coke because it 

 yields a product not physically adapted to metallurgical use. 



