March 1, 1913





RECORD   AND   GUIDE





457





i





The raw material is the mixture of rock,
slate and coal brought from the mine,
and from this is picked the rock and slate
with varying degrees of care. A certain
amount of incombustible material can¬
not be removed by any process, but
down to this point the quality of the
delivered coal is dependent on the care
used in preparing it for market. Anthra¬
cite coal delivered every month in New
York City varies from about 10 per cent,
ash to 25 per cent., and sometimes
reaches 30 per cent, and higher. This
means a great variation in value which
the buyer, without any systematic check
on the quality of the coal delivered, has
to stand for. Hasn't the buyer of coal
the same right to demand careful prepa¬
ration of the coal sold to him that he has
in the case of leather or steel? Hasn't
he the right to protect his own interests
against careless preparation at the
mines?

Furthermore, the dealer who consist¬
ently prepares his coal with care should
be able to get a higher price for his
coal than the man who occasionally or
regularly ships poorly prepared coal to
market. A properly drawn B. T. U. con¬
tract provides for payments adjusteu in
direct proportion to the variations in
heat value of the coal delivered (deter¬
mined by analysis), above or below an
agreed upon standard. The B. T. U.
contract was not devised as a means of
"beating the coal man," but simply to
safeguard the buyer who has no control
over the preparation of the coal, and to
furnish an incentive to the dealer to de¬
liver as good coal as possible. A buyer
who pays premiums for coal above
standard on such a contract is better off
than if he had to exact penalties, be¬
cause as the quality becomes poorer
there is a loss in boiler and furnace effi¬
ciency. In other words, as the percent¬
age of ash increases, a smaller propor¬
tion of the heat producing elements can
be utilized.

Coal Analysis.

Coal, of all products, requires such a
method of adjusting the price paid in
accordance with a definite standard. Coal
cannot be tried in small quantites with
any assurance that future deliveries will
be the same. A lot of coal 20 per cent,
poorer than the sample lot would not
be detected by the eye. It would only
be discovered after the coal is burned
up, if at all. What definite claim has the
buyer against the seller? He has noth¬
ing that he can put his finger on, and if
he changes dealers, what is to prevent
the same thing happening again?

This matter of testing" merits some
consideration here. There are hundreds
of chemists who will claim, and most of
them sincerely, that they know all about
coal analyses. It does look simple, on
the face of it, if one reads the directions
in a chemical text-book for making coal
analyses, but nine hundred and ninety-
nine chemists out of every thousand
have not made enough coal tests to even
know whether their results are right or
not, for coal analysis is a tricky propo¬
sition at best, unless handled by special¬
ists of wide experience, and then only
when every safeguard is thrown about
their work. To quote a prominent en¬
gineer with very wide experience with
combustion problems:

"We still have a lot to learn about
coal analysis, and there are probably
not to exceed a dozen laboratories in
the United States at the present time
that can be relied upon to report the
B. T. U. of a coal with reasonable ac¬
curacy. Coal analysis is entirely out¬
side the province of the amateur. The
B. T. U. contract received a bad send-
off in the start because, among other
things, there were too many amateurs
making  coal  analyses."





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I     NEW  THINGS

I         Uninfluenced by advertising considerations,

j        this  information   is offered on its merits

I        for the benefit of  building ■ma,nagers.





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A   Binder   for   Reinforcement.

Clifford L. Miller & Co., of 110 East
23d street, are introducing into the mar¬
ket what is called the Curry Tyer for
binding reinforcement, rods and mesh
in concrete building construction. The
device is a simple one, consisting of a
cylindrical tool with a spiral worm-gear
piston, at the end of which are two lugs
cnsa^ing  loops   in   special  designed   ty¬







ing wire.,. The lugi engaging the loops
revolve when the cylinder is pulled, thus
incidentally binding it over to make it
fast whether it is to be reinforcing
bar, a bag, lumber packages, or anything







requiring firm binding. The accompany¬
ing illustrations give a clear idea of the
device in operation. It is claimed for
this implement that it saves a great deal
of time and labor and makes an abso¬
lutely secure and uniform tie.

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I                                       I

I   QUESTIONS                I

i           and ANSWERS   I





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Frost on Fresh Paint.

Does freezing weather or heavy frosts
have a harmful effect on freshly coated
steel girders on which red lead and oil
paint  have  been  used?

Answer.—We should say that any lin¬
seed oil paint, when the temperature is
at freezing point or below that, is apt
to dry very slowly unless more drier
than usual is added besides some volatile
thinner, such  as  turpentine or  benzine,





in order to make it flow evenly and
freely. Even then it is liable to creep or
crawl, due to the partial congealing of
the oil from the cold atmosphere. It is
evident that when the paint creeps or
crawls the surface is not covered uni¬
formly and therefore that paint does not
give the protection it otherwise would.

On the other hand, if sufficient drier
and volatile thinners are added to an
oil plant to prevent crawling in cold
weather the life of the paint will suffer
to some extent. This applies to paint
in general, especially on metal surfaces,
where there is no pentration as is the
case with wood. As to your special case
of coating steel girders with red lead, it
depends a great deal upon the condition
of the metal at the time of applying the
coating, and also whether the red lead is
pure and mi.xed with raw linseed oil
shortly before application, so that there
was no oxidizing action. If the metal
is dry when the red lead is applied and
the material mixed as stated above, the
heavy frosts at night will not seriously
affect the lasting and protective quality
of the coating, but as a matter of course
will considerably delay its drying. Red
lead, because of its heavy specific grav¬
ity, will, when pure, lie close to the
metal, thus keeping out moisture and
air.





Weight  of a  Flywheel.

Can you advise me liow to calculate
the weight of a fly wheel?

Answer.—First find the cubical con¬
tents of the metal of which the wheel is
composed. If this is cast iron, multiply
the total by 356 pounds, which repre¬
sents the weight of one cubic foot of
cast iron, and divide the result by 2,240
to arrive at the number of long tons
contained in the wheel.

Testing Electric Meters.

I am desirous of ascertaining how to
test electric service meters supplying
different tenants from an isloated plant
in an office building.

Answer.—,\ simple method, and one
frequently employed, is to connect
another meter which is correct in the
same circuit with the one to be tested.





Kalsomine.

Will you please answer llie following
questions? Are kalsomines supposed to
be used on exterior works such as cel¬
lars, air lofts, and outside concrete work?
Are cold water kalsomines identical with
cold water paints? What alkaline or
other injurious substance affecting ceil¬
ing varnish are found in cold water kal¬
somines?

Answer.—The term kalsomine or cal¬
cimine is used for a glue, whiting and
water paint that is applied cold, similar
to, but less expensive, than distemper.
Whiting, being carbonate of lime, and
calcium being the chemical term for lime,
has furnished the name for the material.
Kalsomine, as prepared by the painter,
is for interior work only and will not
stand exterior exposure. The cold water
paints are made up on a different for¬
mula, the binder being casein in place of
glue, and usually a certain percentage
of oil is added to insure additional wear.
They also contain more or less white
pigment, such as zinc oxide or lithopone
in addition to calcium carbonate or cal¬
cium sulphate. If kalsomine is made up
as it should be, from the whiting known
as English Cliffstone Paris white (which
is pure chalk) and good sheet glue, there
can be nothing in its composition that
would injure or affect ceiling varnish,
although enough alkali might be pres¬
ent to affect Chinese or Prussian blue. In
such case a select grade of bolted En¬
glish china clay js §ub§tituted for the
whiting.