EXPERIMENTAL WORK CONDUCTED IN THE CHEMICAL 
LABORATORY OF THE UNITED STATES FUEL-TESTING 
PLANT, ST. LOUIS, JANUARY i, 1905, TO JULY 31, 1906. 
By N. W. Lord. 
INTRODUCTION. 
The experimental work reported upon herein was performed at the 
laboratory of the United States fuel-testing- plant on the grounds of 
the Louisiana Purchase Exposition at St. Louis, Mo., between Janu- 
&ry 1, 1905, and July 31, 1906, and was undertaken for the purpose of 
checking the results obtained in the routine work of the laboratory, 
improving the methods of working, and investigating the chemical and 
physical properties of coal. The laboratory having been designed 
primarily for the analysis of the coal samples sent to the fuel-testing 
plant, as well as those taken in connection with the regular testing 
operations of the boiler, gas-producer, and other divisions of the plant, 
only a very small proportion of the time of the force was available for 
experimental work outside of the regular routine. 
From the nature of such work it was not possible to separate the 
results obtained in 1905 from those obtained in 1906, especially as 
many of the experiments, such as those on the alteration of coal, 
involved a long time and were started in 1905 and continued to the 
middle of 1906. This report therefore covers all such work up to 
its completion in July, 1906. 
The complete history of the coals used in these experiments is not 
given, the samples being usually referred to by their laboratory num- 
bers only, as such information is generally not necessary and does not 
affect the interpretation of the results obtained in the experiments. 
Fuller information as to any particular sample may be found in the 
published reports of the fuel-testing plant for 1905 and 1906. 
In the following pages the results of each line of experimental 
work are given under a special heading indicating the object of the 
investigation. 
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