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FIRST GOAL-WASHING PLANT IN IOWA 
THE FIRST COAL-WASHING PLANT IN IOWA. 
GEORGE F. KAY. 
For more than fifty years in Europe, coals have been sub- 
jected to washing to improve their quality. Between 1870 ajad 
1880, coal-washing plants began to be erected in America, and 
today coal-washing plants are being operated in many of the 
coal-producing states of the United States. In Iowa there is but 
one plant, and this has been completed within the past three 
years, actual washing having been begun in July, 1912. This 
plant is located at Lakonta, about twelve miles west of Oskaloosa, 
in Mahaska county, which is one of the leading coal-producing 
counties of the state. The plapt is owned by the Iowa Coal 
Washing Company, which has a capitalization of $40,000. The 
president of the company is F. C. Lofland, Oskaloosa, and the 
secretary, J. M. Timbrell, Lakonta. 
In all coal washing a mechanical principle is applied, and 
water is the main material used in separating the impurities 
of the coal from the good coal. The chief impurities that it is 
possible to remove from coal are sulphur and ash. But not in 
all cases is it possible to remove these constituents from the 
coal. To insure success the impurities must be present in the 
proper relation to the coal. If the sulphur is present as organic 
sulphur or as finely disseminated pyrite in the coal, it can not 
be successfully removed by washing. On the other hand, if the 
sulphur is present in the coal chiefly as pyrite in flakes and 
lumps of appreciable size, it is possible by washing to separate 
a considerable part of the sulphur from the coal. The same 
statements may be made regarding the ash. If much of the ash 
is disseminated uniformly through the coal, washing will im- 
prove the coal but little. But if a considerable part of the ash 
is present as shale, slate, or bony coal the ash content can be 
decreased appreciably by washing. The successful separation of 
impurities from coal depends upon the difference in specific 
gravity between the coal and the impurities in the coal. Any- 
thing that is heavier than pure coal and is detached from the 
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