Coal, Oil, and Water Power as Fuels

to oil and water power, coal is abundant in most important industrial areas in the world, in part, because great industrial areas grew up on the coal fields, and, in part while geographical inertia might have caused them to remain there, more positive attractions have not been lacking. Two are of outstanding importance: (a) We may safely conclude that where coal continues to be widely used as fuel, it is cheapest and most suitable. (b) Reserves in the most important fields are still considerable. Though in some areas, the most accessible coal has already been worked, and individual pits may have to close, in very few have whole fields been worked out. Thus in County Durham, one of the most urgent problems of British town planning has been set by decay of mining in the western part of the field, leaving some towns and villages derelict. Yet mining on the Durham coast has been an expanding industry. In most cases, however, oil or water power could replace coal as fuel if it became cheaper or more efficient to do so. The chief factor affecting cheapness is usually transport. Calorific values of coals vary, being least with lignite and most with anthracite, and calorific value is some measure of how well particular coals can stand cost of transport. Thus there are vast reserves of lignite in the world, but they are exploited in very few areas, as it is generally cheaper to import other fuels. An exception to the rule was in the artificially protected economy of Germany, but even here, power stations were located on the actual fields to

Coal · Petroleum engineering · Waste management · Engineering · Environmental Science · Geology · Metal Extraction and Bioleaching