AN IDEAL FUEL 



1071 



only 12.5 pounds of briquets. With bri- 

 quets employed as fuel on all the rail- 

 roads of the United States, this would 

 mean a saving of at least 30,000,000 tons 

 of coal annually. The most impressive 

 showing for the briquets, however, lay in 

 the fact that it was possible to secure 

 from them a much hotter fire and conse- 

 quently greater speed than with coal, 

 and, in these particular practical tests, to 

 make up much lost time. This showing 

 of increased speed is significant in these 

 days when entire railroad routes are 

 being retracked to cut out curves and 

 shorten distances in order to establish 

 faster schedules. 



Further U. S. Geological Survey tests, 

 made on Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad 

 engines, showed that the briquet ignited 

 more freely than coal, and therefore got 

 up steam quicker. It made an abnor- 

 mally hot fire, and, with the engine run- 

 ning at high speed, emitted practically no 

 smoke. A heavy fire could be maintained 

 without danger of clinkering, few ashes 

 resulted in the fire-box, and the cinder 

 deposit was very small, thus indicating 

 almost complete combustion. Incident- 

 ally, this would suggest that if railroads 

 burned briquets, fewer if any live coals 

 and cinders would be belched from the 

 engine's smokestacks to start forest fires 

 and cause the destruction of thousands 

 of acres of timber lands every year. 



IN EVERY RESPECT SUPERIOR TO COAE 



In still further government tests, made 

 in cooperation with the Missouri Pacific, 

 the Michigan Central, the Rock Island, 

 the Burlington, and the Chicago & East- 

 ern Illinois railroads — aggregating 100 

 locomotive tests — briquets, in almost 

 every instance, showed greater efficiency 

 than natural coal. Certain Oklahoma 

 coal, for instance, gave a boiler efficiency 

 of 59 per cent, but briquets made from 

 the same coal gave an efficiency of from 

 65 to 67 per cent. Decreased smoke 

 density, the elimination of clinkers, and 

 the apparent decrease in quantity of cin- 

 ders and sparks are cited as the chief 

 reasons for this higher efficiency — fac- 

 tors which should be interesting to the 



public as well as to the railroad compa- 

 nies' exchequers. 



Other interesting tests were carried 

 on by the Survey with a locomotive 

 mounted at the testing plant of the 

 Pennsylvania Railway Company at Al- 

 toona, Pennsylvania, resulting in the 

 same story — favorable to the briquet. In. 

 the report on these experiments the fol- 

 lowing conclusions have been published 

 by the government : 



"The briquets made on the govern- 

 ment machines have well withstood ex- 

 posure to the weather and have suffered 

 but little deterioration from handling. 

 In all classes of service involved by the 

 experiments the use of briquets in the 

 place of natural coal appears to have in- 

 creased the evaporative efficiency of the 

 boilers tested. The use of briquets in- 

 creases the facility with which an even 

 fire over the whole area of the grate 

 may be maintained. In locomotive serv- 

 ice the substitution of briquets for coal 

 has resulted in a marked increase in- 

 efficiency, in an increase in boiler ca- 

 pacity, and in a decrease in the produc- 

 tion of smoke." 



It is especially noted that the briquet^ 

 on account of its lack of smoke, may be 

 used to advantage in running in and out 

 of cities. In certain of the tests, for in- 

 stance, the figures show an average den- 

 sity of smoke for coal stated at 1.7, as. 

 against but .62 for briquets. 



Similar tests were carried out on the 

 torpedo boat destroyer Biddle, with a 

 very great increase in boiler capacity re- 

 sulting from the use of briquets, which 

 made a much hotter fire than had ever 

 been possible with coal. Never before 

 had the Biddle run so fast as during^ 

 these briquet tests. 



BRIQUETS EXTENSIVELY USED ABROAD 



In a personal investigation of the 

 briquet industry in European countries. 

 Dr. J. A. Holmes, the present Director 

 of the Bureau of Mines, found this form 

 of fuel in high favor. In Belgium he 

 found that the state railroads used bri- 

 quets exclusively for passenger service. 

 In Germany the briquet constitutes a 



