WASHING AND COKING TESTS OF COAL AND CUPOLA 
TESTS OF COKE CONDUCTED BY THE UNITED 
STATES FUEL-TESTING PLANT AT ST. LOUIS, 
JANUARY 1, 1905, TO JUNE 30, 1907. 
By Richard Moldenke, A. W. Belden, and G. K. Delamater. 
INTRODUCTION. 
By Joseph A. Holmes. 
The tests of washing and coking coals and of the behavior of the 
resulting coke in cupola practice, as reported herein, were made 
during the fiscal years 1905 and 1906 at the St. Louis fuel-testing 
laboratory of the United States Geological Survey. These tests 
were carried on in connection with similar investigations of the 
steaming and gas-producing qualities of the same coals and of the 
possibility of improving such coals by briquetting. This work was a 
part of the general inquiry concerning the most economical manner 
of utilizing each type of coal tested. 
Many coals as received from the mine were found to be too high in 
ash, in sulphur, or in phosphorus to make satisfactory metallurgical 
coke without prior treatment, and some coals possessed better coking 
qualities than others. It was found that the washing of some coals 
so reduced the percentage of ash and sulphur as to make available 
for the production of coke a coal which otherwise would have had no 
value for this purpose. In the following pages are reported the 
details of the washing of coal, the production of coke therefrom, and 
the behavior of the coke in the cupola when utilized for the 
production of castings, the results of each test being tabulated in 
fii 11. A study of these tables indicates many important lads as i<» 
the behavior and treatment of the coals mined in the various portions 
of the United States when prepared as metallurgical coke. 
The washing tests of 1905 were not as satisfactory as the later tests 
because of inadequate storage facilities and the lack of ceil a in equip- 
ment, but the latter was added in lime for the tests of L906. An 
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