DATA FOR CHARGES. The matter of the best method of collecting data to serve as a basis for the charges made against clients, is an important one. We suggest the use of a specially ruled sheet for this purpose (See Form G). The most convenient manner of filing these while in use, and also for future reference, is in a vertical cabinet, using a separate folder for each client. When the dimensions of the safe do not allow of the cabinet being protected against fire, however, we think the loose-leaf binder should be used, the information being of too valuable a character to warrant the taking of any risk. A copy should be kept of all bills, either by the use of the impression book or carbon paper. A reference upon the cash journal to this copy does away with the necessity of elaborating the charges upon the books of entry. Whenever disbursements are made for clients, they should be charged up to the account. In this connection we would suggest a specially ruled ledger, with double columns on the debit side, for disbursements and professional charges respectively. The "Cases in Progress" and "Cases Closed" files will be arranged numerically, all the papers in each case being filed under their respective numbers in separate files. In connection with the "Miscellaneous Clients" file, we suggest, when feasible, the use of manila envelopes as a means of keeping the papers that relate to each other together. The contents of the envelopes may be endorsed upon the outside. In this way the papers relative to the several interests of each client may be segregated while yet only using one folder for each party. The handling of collections is a branch of the law business which calls for separate treatment and the use of special forms. It will be outside the scope of the present article to deal with that subject. Centralized Consumption of Anthracite Coal.* BY HOWARD MCNAYR JEFFERSON, M. C. S. PART II. CENTRALIZATION OF POWER PRODUCTION. The first time one visits the anthracite region he is impressed with the immense banks of small coal and refuse stacked all over the fields which are valuable as producers of heat. Some idea of the immense quantities of this material so heaped up and apparently useless, may be gathered from an estimate made by Dr. Chance in 1883. He said that there was a sufficient quantity of matter in the banks then standing to cover an area of ten square miles, forty feet deep. If one of these banks is seen on fire the question arises in a very forceful way-why not utilize these banks, and how can it be done without moving the factories to the coal fields? The natural answer is: generate electricity and transmit it to the markets instead of the coal. With this idea in mind let us look a little into the value of these banks. From 1820 to 1870 only 27 per cent. of the seams worked was sent to market. From 1870 to 1882 about 46 per cent., and in 1901, about 75 per cent. The balance went to the bank. In the very early years the demand was for the largest sizes and even as late as 1870 all below chestnut was thrown aside. Mr. Heber S. Thompson, engineer of the Girard Estate, which is an extensive owner of coal lands, says that in the leases of that estate prior to the year 1869 the smallest marketable coal was chestnut or such as would pass over a screen of one-inch square. In the leases of 1869, peanut or such as would pass through a screen of five-eighths inch square was first recognized. Buckwheat appeared separately in the railroad reports in 1878 for the first time. In 1893 still smaller sizes were screened. From 1870 to 1895 four or five sizes of coal were prepared for market which were not previously known to the trade. There are three classes of banks: Ist. Those which contain only culm; i. e., coal too small to be sold at the time the bank was made. This article was accepted by the University School of Commerce, Accounts and Finance, in fulfillment of the thesis requirements for the degree of Master of Commercial Science. 2d. Those which are composed exclusively of rock and slate. 3d. Ordinary slate banks, consisting of various sizes of slate, coal, bony coal, and slate coal mixed. The last class of bank may be very rich. Slate coal is that which has pieces of slate of greater or less size attached to it, which can be separated by breaking the coal into smaller pieces and subjecting it to preparation. Bony coal is coal in which the impurities are so intermingled that it is impossible to break the coal into such small pieces as to extract the impurities. Sometimes bony coal is merely coal with such a high percentage of ash as to interfere seriously with its burning. Bony coal is not so detrimental in the small as in the large sizes. In large pieces the lump becomes coated with ashes and does not burn on the inside, leaving large masses of partially consumed material which goes. out and eventually deadens the fire. The oldest banks are naturally the richest. One reworked in 1900 yielded 75 per cent. of coal. One of the largest washeries in the Northern field has reclaimed six tons of coal from nine tons of stuff from the bank; all below that which passed over a three-thirty-seconds inch mesh being disregarded. Many banks contain from 40 to 50 per cent of marketable fuel. * * * It can be Not only The Anthracite Waste Commission, previously referred to, called the attention of the people to the great importance of the banks. They said, "This coal is a very valuable fuel for several reasons. In the first place, it will not, under ordinary circumstances, take fire, and therefore can be stacked cheaply. It is a smokeless fuel and makes a very clean fire. purchased for a very low price at the mines. is the culm available, but a very large percentage of the slate banks, if roughly sized, could be used with economy and profit for making steam; provided they are burnt where they exist and do not have to bear much expense of transportation. The capacity of any fuel to bear transportation decreases very rapidly as the percentage of ash increases." A very careful test made at the Coal-Testing Plant of the United States Geological Survey at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, St. Louis, 1904, is conclusive evidence of the comparative value of the culm banks. Among other specimens submitted for test were three from the State of Pennsylvania. Two samples of bright, run-of-mine bituminous coal were sent from the Eureka mine No. 31, of the Berwind-White Coal Mining Company, Windber, Pa., one of which was labeled Pennsylvania No. I and the other Pennsylvania No. 2. There was also sent a sample of anthracite culm by the Pennsylvania Coal Company at Scranton, Pa. The culm was briquetted in order to test its briquetting possibilities and its value as a producer of steam. The results of these tests which have a bearing on this paper are shown in the following table: ...... pounds. 15.70 16.60 212° F. per pound of dry coal ..pounds. Dry coal per indicated horse-power hour, pounds. Dry coal per electric horse-power hour..pounds. 9.04 9.79 8.26 This table shows that the culm is very much inferior in its chemical composition, but it compares very favorably with these high-grade bituminous specimens submitted, in the horse power developed by the boiler. It is not necessary to briquette the coal in the banks in order to make use of it. With properly constructed furnaces it may be burned like any other coal. Let us return to the proposition to generate electricity at the mines and ship it to the large markets and see whether or not the scheme is possible. To begin with this phase of the subject, let us see how far New York and Philadelphia are from the anthracite mining centers: Since all of these roads are compelled to cross the mountains to get to the fields, these distances could be materially shortened for electric transmission by acquiring rights of way over the mountains for short distances, thus taking air lines instead of the circuitous routes now necessarily traveled by the roads. Taking the Lehigh Valley as an example, its trains cover 177 miles of track in getting from Wilkes-Barre to New York. By an inexpensive purchase of right of way for electric transmission from Fairview into Wilkes-Barre, it could reduce the distance about twelve miles; and again between Glen Summit and Fairview, a mile or two; and between Glen Summit and White Haven Junction, several miles. It is safe to assert that the Lehigh Valley could establish an electric transmission line from Wilkes-Barre to New York less than 150 miles long. Its time table distance to Hazelton in the heart of the Lehigh region is but 146 miles, which could also be cut down materially for electric transmission. Other roads have had to face the same difficulties in reaching the mining centers and their lines might be shortened in the same way. The transmission of electric energy has made very rapid strides in the last ten years. In 1895, Mr. Herman Haupt, the consulting engineer of the General Compressed Air Company, doubted if the power generated at Niagara Falls could be used in Buffalo. He evidently had not much faith in electricity as a motive power, as is evidenced by the following: "The trolley craze is most extraordinary, and the inevitable crash. cannot be far distant. City and suburban lines, to the extent of hundreds, have not paid operating expenses, etc. The trolley has its field of usefulness in small units at short intervals for city and suburban service, but it can never compete with steam for heavy trains at long intervals." In 1905, Mr. Ralph D. Mershon made the following statement before the American Institute of Electrical Engineers: "For the present outlook, the limiting distance (for transmission of electricity) may be taken as about five hundred miles." The California Gas and Electric Corporation has lines extending from the Sierra Nevada Mountains to the Bay of San Francisco. The longest distance covered is two hundred miles. The General Electric Company has established a plant at Logan, Utah, to distribute electricity one hundred and fifty miles; another at Plainwill, Mich., to distribute power seventy-five miles; and one at Midway, |