Fuel Testing

Abstract

INDUSTRY in general has not given adequate attention in the past to thrift in the use of fuel. In Great Britain coal has been abundant, good and relatively cheap. Fuel has usually been a minor item in cost of production. War conditions have brought a change measured by the scarcity and cost of fuel. Moreover, it is unlikely that pre-war conditions will ever return. Present conditions have caught many with plant inadequate to handle lower-grade fuels and operated by staffs lacking in technical knowledge to cope with new difficulties. One result has been the issue by the Ministry of Fuel and Power of much literature in pamphlet form full of practical advice on most of the problems facing the operational staffs of fuel consumers. Last year the British Standards Institution issued two new specifications on (a) “The Sampling of Coal and Coke”, No. 1017, 1942, and (b) “The Analysis and Testing of Coal and Coke”, No. 1016, 1942. These collect and codify what has previously been scattered in several specifications, representing the combined experience of many years. They give the general impression of an increase in the elaboration and refinement which is necessary in research and critical work. Anyone familiar with the conditions under which coal is bought, sampled and handled in ordinary industrial practice will doubt whether all this refinement is necessary. The book by G. W. Himus is a timely production, for not only does it incorporate the essentials of the British Standards Institution specifications, but also it goes much further, with chapters on liquid and gaseous fuels, technical pyrometry and other matters of interest to the fuel technologist. It is the most recent and comprehensive work of its kind available to those chemists and engineers who are compelled by circumstance to interest themselves in industrial fuel economy, and of these to-day there are many.