APPENDIX I 
The following extract taken from a communication made by 
Dr. Gabriel Osorio de Almeida to the Engineering Club of Rio de Janeiro 
at a meeting held November 29th, 1904, concerning the application 
of national coal to railway traction, is of especial interest as giving 
the results of actual experiment with the raw, or unpurified Brazilian 
coal: 
National Coal 
It having been the Engineering Club that initiated the investigation of 
the coal reefs cxisting in Santa Catharina and Rio Grande do Sul, that body 
is intitled to be informed of the results of the experiments made with those 
combustibles and carried out not only on our principal railway but also at 
the most important locomotive factory in the United States of North America, 
belonging to the Baldwin Locomotive Works Company. 
Several meetings have been held here, at which the question of the utilization 
of this coal by our industries has been considered, various members taking part 
in the discussion, the opinions expressed being based upon the conclusions of the 
tho distinguished members of the Conselho Director who were charged to present 
the analyses committed to their care. 
But, as is always the caso with products intended for purely industrial 
purposes, and especially as regards combustibles, laboratory analyses do not form 
the best means of arriving at conclusions which impress the mind by their 
safety and certainty. 
The reasons are plain and begin with the care which, in obedience to the 
desire of obtaining the best results, is generally exercised by those interested in 
selecting the samples and finish with the consideratiou of the interpendence which 
invariably exists between the combustion apparatus, results varying in accor- 
dance with the better or worse adaptation of the latter to the nature of the 
former. 
Notwithstanding these considerations I had occasion to point out to my fellow 
members that cven from the point of view of the results obtained in the analyses 
presented for discussion, the native coal was not inferior to that of many qualities 
which were and are employed in other countries, 
A coal of good quality was not, of course, in question for one thing because 
the samples, especially those from Santa Catharina, were taken from the first 
beds, found almost at the surface of the soil—but that was no reason for discoura- 
gement nor for neglecting the study and exploration of the reefs, in view of the 
very important advantages that would accrue to the country from the possession 
of this fuel, even thoughit be of quality inferior to that we are now using, 
which, as every one knows is the best in the world. 
5569 32 
