28

REMARKS:

1. Australian Agricultural Company.—This is good coal; the evaporative power being rather above the average; but the quantity of clinker and ash is rather above the average.

2. Tomago Coal Company.—The water evaporated per lb. of coal below the average of north country coal, and the rate of evaporation per hour is equal to the average of north country coal. The clinker and ash are large and spread, and stick to the bars, and their per-centage is high.

3. Four Mile Creek Coal Company.—This coal is about equal to the average of north country coal in evaporative power, and per-centage of ash is rather above that of north country coal.

4. Coal and Copper Company.—The rate of evaporation is below that of north country coal. A large quantity of clinker and ash; the clinker forms quickly, causing much trouble in stoking.

5. Wallsend Coal Company.—Very good in every respect.

6. Bellambi Coal Company.—Very inferior coal; the rate of evaporation being very low, and the quantity of ash being great.

7. Mount Keira Coal Company.—Very inferior coal; the evaporative power being very low, and the trial giving a large quantity of ash.

8. Minmi Coal Company.—About coal, about equal to the average of north country coal. The per-centage of ash is rather high.

9. Australian Agricultural Company.—Good coal, about equal to the average of north country coal. The per-centage of clinker and ash is rather high.

10. Tomago Coal Company.—This coal is rather below the average, and the quantity of clinker and ash is great.

11. Tomago Coal Company.—The evaporative power of this coal is very high, but the quantity of clinker and ash is great.

C. H. PENNELL, Chief Clerk.

Admiralty, 19th June, 1862.

The Examiner of Coal-fields took this complicated table, and reduced the experiments to an average, thus expressing the result in the most simple form as below, viz.:—

"Average result of the trials of Australian coals, compared with the average of English north country coals.

"1st. The Woolwich apparatus or boiler, which, with average English north country coal evaporated at the rate of 47 cubic feet of water per hour, with average Australian coal evaporated 46½ cubic-feet, or a hundred and eighty-eighth part less in the same time of one hour.

"2nd. One pound of English north country coal evaporated 8·25 lbs. or 8¼ lbs. of water; and 1 lb. of Australian coal evaporated 8·255 lbs., being a small fraction more than a pound of English coal.

"3rd. The average of English coal gives one per cent. of clinker; the Australian, 2·11 per cent., or rather more than double.

"4th. Of ash, the average English coal is 4 per cent., against 7·15 per cent. of Australian; and of ash and clinker together, the English coal is stated to give 5 per cent., while our own leaves 9½ per cent.

"5. We thus see that average Australian coal excels average English north country coal in power of evaporation; for one pound of our coal evaporates more water than a pound of English coal; and in one hour, the evaporation per hour, the difference against us is so insignificant as not to be worth attention.

"6. The quantity of residue or ash to be thrown away is of little consequence when the evaporative power of the coal is so equal.

"We may fairly assume that the English coal as supplied to Woolwich has attained its highest average, while the coal of Australia is an improving average.

"Mr. Keene shows that according to the Admiralty Report itself, Australian coal excels average English north country coal in power of evaporation; for one pound of our coal evaporates more water than a pound of English coal; and the result is that the Lords of the Admiralty have given orders that our coal shall be used in Her Majesty's ships on the station here; so that we see before us a large amount of prosperous occupation and investment for capital in working our coal-fields."

It will be seen from the foregoing table and remarks, there is a great difference in the quality of New South Wales coal, that from the Newcastle district, viz.: Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11 is generally speaking superior to that of the south part of the field in the neighborhood of Wollongong, viz.: 6 and 7, Bellambi and Mount Keira; and this is borne out by my own observation.

It will be interesting here to compare the above remarks on the Australian coal, with the report of Dr. Percy on a small sample from the River Grey, sent to England by Messrs. Curtis, of Nelson. It must be remembered that this coal was taken from the very outside long before the seam had been worked into at all.

"Metallurgical Laboratory,
Government School of Mines,
May 14th, 1861.

"SIR,—

"I have now the pleasure of enclosing the analysis of the coal ex Cresswell, from the West Coast of the Middle Island of New Zealand.

"In composition, this coal is nearly identical with coal occurring in some of the coal measures of this country. The coal from New Zealand is a coking coal, that is, when powdered and heated in a close vessel, it affords a coherent coke, the original bulk of the coal being considerably increased during the operation. The gas which was disengaged appeared to possess a highly illuminating power as far as could be ascertained from the small quantity of coal experimented on, the residual coke amounting to 64·32 per cent.; the quantity of coke, however, obtained on so small a scale must not be taken as an exact indication of the yield by the ordinary processes. The ash of this coal is more than usually white, which shows that the sulphur does not exist in the form of iron pyrites.