ALCOHOL 
of the apparatus, its insurance, etc. usu- 
ally called the ‘‘fixed charges.” To these 
should be added the costs of fuel, of labor 
tor 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 energy 
in the fuel, coal would be almost univers- 
ally used, because of the present low cost 
of energy in this form. 
Comparative Cost of Energy in Different 
Fuels 
The different kinds of fuel contain dif- 
ferent amounts of energy 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, 
ce 
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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. WU. 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 4,009,- 
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 pe 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- 
ergy contained in the above fuels, at the 
