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October, 1913 It is well known that an increasing proportion of the coal consumed in the power stations and larger manufacturing plants of the country is now being purchased under specifications based on chemical an- alysis and calorimetric determinations of heat units. In the purchase of fuels many matters formerly left to chance are now carefully investigated. It is the aim of mechanical engineers to construct furnaces and to arrange the heat absorbing surfaces in a fur- nace with reference to the peculiar character of the fuel which is to be burned. Noting the composition of the fuel and constructing the furnace with reference to it, he can assure efficient and smokeless combustion. Moreover, in any par- ticular market, the choice of coal generally is limited by its quality and by freight rates to one or two fields in which the character of the coal bed is compara- tively uniform. Having on hand a representative an- alysis of the coal from a given bed in any particular district, the engineer can determine whether the coal he receives comes from the bed and the district stated, and whether it is being prepared for market as care- fully as it should be. Wide variations in the composi- tion and heating value of the coals from different districts and from different beds make analyses that are comparable, because of the care taken in sampling and analyzing the coal, almost indispensible to en- _gineers having to install boiler or gas-producer plants in different cities, and also to railroads and steam- boat companies, and to the engineers and purchasing agents of the various departments of the United States government. The report just issued by the bureau of mines is in two parts, one giving the methods used in collecting and analyzing the samples, and the results of the an- alyses, and the other giving the exact location from which each sample of coal was taken, together with a description of the characteristic features of the coal bed at the point of sampling, the nominal capacity of the mine, and such notes on the preparation of the coal as might be useful to consumers. The data con- tained in these two volumes is not equaled in scope and detail and in value for comparative purposes by the figures that have been published by any other coal-producing country in the world. The govern- ments of some of these countries have published analyses of coals from different mines and from dif- ferent districts, but, with few exceptions, the samples of coal were not collected and analyzed under a unt- form system that would make the results comparable in all respects, and no country has attempted to pub- lish such a large number of analyses that would be comparable because of the care taken in collecting and analyzing the samples. Abandoning Queenstown The White Star liner Olympic sailed from Queens- town on Sept. 25 without taking on board 200 se gers and 1,500 sacks of mail waiting to be shippe THE MARINE REVIEW 371 to New York. Of course the passengers immediately held an indignation meeting and were loud in their denunciation of the treatment meted out to them and telegrams full of fire were sent to the White Star company. Now, if, these passengers would stop and think for a moment, the last thing in the world the White Star Line or any other steamship company would do would be to discommode its passengers, and especially such a distinguished lot of passengers as were waiting at Queenstown. The fact of the matter is that the harbor of Queenstown is no safe place for the giant liners which have been created during the past few years and it would be a mighty foolish undertaking for the steamship company to risk so valuable a piece of property as the Olympic in such a dangerous waterway. The company did all that it could in the premises. The Olympic anchored in the roadstead outside of the harbor, but the masters of the tenders conveying the passengers considered the heavy swell too dangerous to attempt to put them the smoother water inside of Roches Point. The captain of the Olympic declined to follow them into aboard the steamer and turned around and made for the harbor but he waited outside until the tenders: had returned to Queenstown and disembarked their passengers. : 2 SS _ The White Star Line, in doing what. it did, did only what was prudent and the passengers suffered no material delay as the Adriatic was sent for them the next day. In this policy the White Star Line is simply fol- lowing the lead of the Cunard Steamship Co., which has definitely abandoned Queenstown as a port of call for its express steamers Lusitania and Mauretania, notwithstanding the fact that it had a contract with the British postal service to call there regularly for the mails. The matter was gone into pretty thorough- ly by the Board of Trade and the nautical adviser of the post office department, and it was the conclusiom that it was hazardous even in fine weather for these steamers to proceed into the harbor at any time near low water and that it was almost impossible to select a spot in which they could swing clear of shallow water at single anchor. Obviously, the gravity of the situation would be greatly enhanced in heavy weather. The circumstances that caused the Cunard Co. to realize that they were taking an unwarrantable risk occurred to the Mauretania last spring when she entered Queenstown harbor about one and one-half hours after high tide, that is to say on the ebb, and she anchored with her bow pointing up harbor. The violence of the gale overcame the influence of the tide and she was swung athwartship of the harbor with her stern very close to the shoals. In this position she was practically fixed and could not use her screws for turning around to proceed to sea but had to wait the flood tide to swing her. It is no wonder, there- fore, that the Cunard Co. has definitely abandoned Queenstown and the wisdom of the White Star Line in declining to send the Olympic into the harbor during heavy weather cannot be disputed.