DOMESTIC FUEL. 15 



plishment waits upon a constructive economic policy which recog- 

 nizes in true perspective the pivotal importance of coal products. 



The significance of the coal-products field and the need for its 

 adequate expansion has been dwelt upon at length, because this 

 matter concerns not merely the portion of bituminous coal made into 

 coke, but bears with peculiar meaning upon the utilization of the 

 much larger portion consumed as fuel. 



Having examined the coke industry and observed its main pur- 

 pose, the production of metallurgical coke, and the incidental recovery 

 of by-products on the part of about half of the activity, we may ask 

 if this industry can not extend its scope so as to produce a surplus 

 of coke which may be applied to fuel use. The answer is in the 

 negative. Coke, being designed for another purpose, is not a satis- 

 factory fuel. While smokeless in combustion, its cellular structure 

 gives it an intensity of combustion and susceptibility to chiU that 

 renders its control troublesome. Even a radical change in furnace 

 design can not be expected to overcome this difficulty. Moreover, 

 the coke industry is centralized, subject to marked fluctuations 

 according to the demand for iron, and has not yet succeeded in mod- 

 ernizing more than half of its practice. Besides, its by-product 

 manufacture is complicated and costly. Metallurgical coke, then, 

 must be dismissed as an impracticable general-service fuel. The 

 by-product coking practice, however, illustrates the principle of full 

 coal-value utilization and therefore points the way toward progress 

 in respect to fuel coal. Modified by-product plants, simpler than 

 by-product coke ovens, producing a non-cellular carbonized residue 

 and located near the points of utilization, represent the lesson to be 

 drawn from the coke industry. 



THE GAS INDUSTRY AND MUNICIPAL BY-PRODUCT FUEL PLANTS. 



We may turn next to the gas industry to ascertain if this activity 

 is capable of adaptation so as to contribute an adequate smokeless 

 fuel for domestic and power consumption. This industry consists 

 of a great number of separate plants, distributed, one or more each, 

 among the cities of the country.^ In the aggregate these plants con- 

 sume about 1 per cent of the annual coal production of the country. 

 Their prime purpose is to manufacture gas, and this they do without 

 adequate regard to the complete recovery of by-products, although 

 many plants effect a partial recovery of ammonia and tar, and some 

 gas-house coke is put upon the market. Apart from the oil-gas 

 plants on the Pacific coast, in which petroleum is used because of its 

 relative cheapness in that region, the artificial gas industry of the 

 country employs coal as its raw material. 



1 There are over 900 artificial gas plants in the United States, exclusive of by-product coke ovens. 



