6 THE PUKCHASE OF COAL UNDER SPECIFICATIONS. 
ADVANTAGES OF DEFINITE SPECIFICATIONS IN THE 
PURCHASE OF COAT,. 
Under the old plan of purchasing coal, when the consumer had 
cause or thought he had cause to find fault with the quality of the 
fuel he received, he was in many cases assured that it must be good 
because, like all the other coal sent him., it came from a mine with an 
established reputation. Such a state of affairs made it difficult to 
take advantage of the competition which usually results when a con- 
siderable number of bidders are asked to submit prices. The pur- 
chaser was afraid to buy from any but such dealers as he knew and 
trusted, because, although each dealer claimed that his coal was equal 
in quality to that of the others, yet- if it did not prove to be satisfac- 
tory there was no standard for settlement or for cancellation of the 
contract. Many thousands of dollars' worth of coal are bought each 
year in this manner, but the purchasers would consider it ridiculous 
if they were asked to contract for a building with no specifications 
and simply on the agreement that it should be of a certain size and 
well constructed. Neither \vould they buy gold, silver, or even cop- 
per and iron ores on the mere information that they were mined at 
certain localities. All products of mines are now purchased to a 
great extent on the basis of their value as shown by chemical analysis. 
This is true of coal in only a small degree, but the number of con- 
tracts made on this basis is increasing every year. 
The purchase of coal on a specification is as advantageous as a 
definite understanding regarding the quality and other features of 
any other product, or of a building operation or engineering project. 
The man who buys under a specification gets what he pays for and 
pays for what he gets. 
When the bidder is allowed to specify the quality of the coal he 
proposes to furnish as determined by a chemical analysis., he is placed 
on a strictly competitive basis with other bidders. Such a procedure 
broadens the field for both the bidder and the purchaser. It makes 
the bidder's proposal, when accepted, a contract that specifies an 
established standard of quality. This furnishes a basis for settling 
disputes regarding the quality of the coal delivered and the price to 
be paid if the fuel is either better or poorer than has been guaran- 
teed. If other coal must be substituted, as often happens, there is a 
standard for settlement. If the coal is uniformly poorer than the 
standard as specified there is a basis for cancellation of the contract. 
The quality of coal from a given mine may vary from time to time 
through the failure of the miners to reject impurities. Sometimes 
different beds of coal are mined at the same time and the output is 
mixed. When there is need of further preparation, such as picking 
