42 
BALL AND SIMPSON: COALFIELDS OF INDIA. 
development has taken place. The principal mine operators in the 
field are the East Indian Railway Company, and the Bengal Coal 
Company, the former company raising by far the largest amount of 
coal. 
In this field scientific methods of mining and management have 
probably reached a higher pitch of development than in any other 
Indian coalfield. The most improved modern machinery is employed. 
Coal cutting by machinery, mechanical screening, briquetting, coke- 
making in closed ovens have been practised for some years, and 
appliances for the conservation of the valuable bye-products,'^ 
formerly lost in the process of manufacture, are now in suc- 
cessful operation. The following are analyses ^ of Giridih coal 
made by the Simon Carves Company, a well-known firm of coke-oven 
builders : — 
No. ] Sample (wet coal). 
No. 2 Sample (wet coal). 
Volat i le 
matter. -{ 
Coke 
Ammonia 
water. 
Tar . 
Gas and 
Loss. 
Fixed car- 
bon 
Ash 
1-01 
. 3-44 -j 
! 
1 1-91 
23-28 
0-90 
5-89 
7-54 
13-95 , 
14'11 
01-86 1 
64-37 
76-72 
14-86 i 
12-07 
} 
23-56 
76-44 
In both cases the coke was good and without breeze ; the assay in 
the crucible on the dry coals gave respectively 76'21 per cent, and 
74-6 per cent, of coke. 
Gas (in volume) 
Ammonia (by weight) 
Equivalent inNSulphate of 
ammonia. 
Benzole (at 150'') . 
Ferro-cyanido of sodium 
No. 1 sample 
(wet coal), 
per ton 9,764 c. ft. 
„ „ 6-77 lbs. 
,, 26'33 ,, 
„ „ 8-4 „ 
„ „ M4 
( = •935 
gals.). 
No. 2 sample 
(wet coal). 
10,124 c. ft. 
6-98 lbs. 
271 „ 
7 lbs. ( = -7 
•083 „ 
1 Ward, T. H., Tmns., Min. Geol. Inst, of India, IV, pp. 351-359 (1910). 
a Eec, Q. S. I., XXXI, 102 (1904). 
