The table shows, first, the tonnage (2,000 pounds) of coal used in 1899 in coke making. Second-The coke produced therefrom. Third-The number of ovens, in operation December 31st, 1899. Fourth-The number of ovens building in the same year. From which it will be seen that in the whole of the United States in 1899 there were upwards of thirty millions tons (30,219,343 tons) of coal converted into coke by coke oven processes, and nearly twenty millions tons (19,668,569 tons) of coke produced therefrom. The relative consumption of coal and output of coke in each State will be seen by reference to Mr. Parker's table. Probably about 95 per cent. of this vast quantity of coal is carbonized in ovens from which coke is the only product and consideration, and 5 per cent. only carbonized in by-product ovens. The gas, the tar and the ammonia from the old-style ovens go absolutely to waste. Let us glance at what this colossal waste amounts to. Assuming that with by-product or retort ovens, after deducting the necessary gas used to heat the ovens, 4,000 feet per ton of coal can be recovered, and that this can be done is beyond question; it is being done on a large scale in a number of places day in and day out the year round, and has been so carried on for a number of years. It means that the gas wasted from the manufacture of coke, as at present generally carried on in the United States is about as follows: And take first the State of Pennsylvania alone, in which the coke business is about 65 per cent. of that of the entire United States. (But it should here be noted that Mr. Parker's figures for Pennsylvania include Massachusetts and New York State, but inasmuch as the make of coke in these two States is small in comparison, it does not materially affect the calculations). The coal consumed in coke-making in 1899 in Pennsylvania. alone, according to Mr. Parker's figures, was nearly twenty million net tons (19,930,419), and the coke produced therefrom thirteen and a half million tons (13,577,870). Assuming the recovery of 4,000 feet of gas per net ton (at present wasted from old style ovens) it would equal 79,721,676,000 cubic feet per annum, equal to 12,649 feet per capita of the entire population of Pennsylvania (as given by Rand & McNally at 6,302,155) which is about double the per capita consumption in our largest cities, and four or five times the average per capita consumption in all the cities of the United States, outside the five largest ones. It is equal to the supply of ten cities the size of Philadelphia, with its population of 1,294,000 and allowing for the consumption of 6,000 feet per capita of its population per annum. It is equal to the supply of 40 cities of the size of Pittsburg, with its 325,000 population, assuming a consumption of 6,000 feet per capita of population. It is equal to the supply of nearly 4 (actually 3.8) cities the size of Greater New York, with its 3,437,000 inhabitants, on a basis of 6,000 feet per capita per annum. It would equal the output, nearly seventeen times over, of 25 of the largest gas companies in Massachusetts, as per the following list the figures of which are taken from the valuable Report of the Massachusetts Gas Commission. These twenty-five places average an actual consumption per capita of the populations of the districts supplied, of 2,245 cubic feet per annum. As proof of this assertion, the figures in the Report of the Massachusetts Gas Commissioners, published in 1901, show that in twenty-five of the largest gas companies in that State, the output (gas sold and used) was equal to 2,245 feet per capita of the population of the districts supplied; and ranged from the Boston Gas Light Company 6,573 cubic feet per capita, down to some of the smaller cities with less than 1,000 cubic feet per capita per annum. It is equal to more than double the combined output of the three great gas companies of London, England, viz., The Gas Light and Coke Company, The South Metropolitan Gas Company, and the Commercial Gas Company; and this, bear in mind, from the State of Pennsylvania alone. And a safe estimate of the value of this gas, and other products now being wasted, would be about as follows: 66 Gas at 1oc. per thousand feet only, the value would be $7,972,167 Tar, say 8 gallons per ton, at 2c. per gallon, 3,189,867 Ammonia, at 16 pounds per ton only, at 21⁄2c. per pound 7.972, 167 Or a total result, in products wasted, of.... . $19,133,201 And taking the whole of the coke ovens in the United States, on the same basis of calculation, viz., 4,000 feet only of gas recovered from 2,000 pounds coal; then, with a consumption of coal, as shown by Mr. Parker in the annexed table-of 30,219,343 tons, the gas wasted is 120,877,372,000 feet per annum. Sufficient to supply the whole demand, of the forty largest cities in the United States, allowing a consumption, per capita, of 8400 feet per annum, for the combined populations, aggregating upwards of fourteen millions of inhabitants (14,373,828) as per the accompanying list of cities with their populations, as taken from the World Almanac for 1901, and this allowance of 8,400 feet per capita, is certainly more than double the actual average consumption in the whole of the forty cities, so that the gas which might be saved, in the manufacture of coke, in the whole of the United States, by the use of retort ovens, would be more than sufficient to supply such a list of cities as given, twice over. And as the increase in coke making goes on in the United States at the rate of about 1,200 ovens, or about one million tons of coal per annum this represents 4,000 millions cubic feet further waste; nearly equal to the supply of the twenty-five largest cities in Massachusetts, with their aggregate population of 2,102,000. would furnish them with 2,000 feet per capita per annum out of 2,245. And this is simply the annual increase in the waste. |