COKING TESTS. 
By A. W. Belden. 
EQUIPMENT. 
The ovens in which the tests of the coking qualities of coals have been made are of the 
regular beehive pattern. Of the battery of three ovens, two are of standard size, 12 feet 
in diameter and 7 feet high; the third is 12 feet in diameter and 6 feet 4 inches high. 
This change was made by raising the bottom of one of the standard ovens 8 inches with 
well-tamped loam and bottom tile of the usual size. The object of this was to bring the 
charge nearer the dome of the oven and effect a more rapid penetration of heat. 
For the first 19 tests only the small oven was used. In the twentieth charge one of 
the 7-foot ovens was blown in, and both have been used continuously during the remainder 
of the work. Owing to the limited supply of coal it has not been possible to use more than 
two ovens. Both of these ovens may therefore be considered as end ovens, which by some 
are supposed to yield results less favorable than those from ovens located between other 
heated ovens; though, were this supposition correct, the difference would be fully balanced 
by the greater care bestowed on these experimental ovens as compared with ovens operated 
under normal conditions. Since both of the oven9 used are, in the sense indicated, end 
ovens, the results obtained in each are comparable one with the other. 
In charging the ovens for the first nineteen tests the larry used held less than 1 ton. This 
necessitated the filling and emptying of the larry six to eight times before the charge was 
completed. Each portion thus became hot and began to gas, invariably, and often to 
blaze, before the next portion of the charge was added. This unfortunate state of affairs 
is believed to be responsible, at least in some measure, for cross lamination and cross break- 
age of the coke, in many of these tests layers of coal as charged showing plainly in each 
oven drawn. The average time of charging with this device was about one hour; the whole 
charge should be put in at once and as rapidly as possible. 
After the nineteenth charge a standard-size larry, kindly loaned by the H. C. Frick Coke 
Company, was installed and this lamination and cross breakage disappeared, while the time 
of charging was reduced to an average of seven minutes. 
PERSONNEL. 
The writer took charge of this work in May, succeeding Mr. Fred. W. Stammler, of Johns- 
town, Pa. He was assisted by Mr. W. E. Vickers, of Pocahontas, Va., to whom in large 
measure is due whatever success has been accomplished during these investigations. 
PROCEDURE OF TESTS. 
All coal was finely crushed through a Williams mill unless otherwise requested and these 
exceptions are noted in the subjoined detailed report (pp. 53-233). The coals marked " not 
crushed" were, when unloaded from the cars, put through rolls having an aperture of 1^ 
inches. The coals put through the Williams mill will practically all pass through a 10-mesh 
sieve. 
38 
