Conservation Through Engineering: Extract from the Annual Report of the Secretary of the Interior — John Shaqi
Conservation Through Engineering: Extract from the Annual Report of the Secretary of the InteriorLane, Franklin K.
History
Conservation Through Engineering: Extract from the Annual Report of the Secretary of the Interior
Lane, Franklin K.
Natural resources -- United States
It is not essential for the plant manager to be a fuel expert, but he
should be familiar with the instruments that give a check on the daily
operations. It is a mistake not to provide proper instruments, for they
guide the firemen and show the management what has taken place daily.
Instruments provided for the boiler room manifest the interest taken by
the management toward conserving fuel. It indicates cooperation and
encourages the firemen to work harder to increase the efficiency.
A second factor effecting fuel economy is the selection of fuel for the
particular plant. It is not expected of a plant manager that he should
be thoroughly informed as to the character of all fuels; but he can
enlist the services of a man who is thoroughly trained In this field.
The Bureau of Mines has compiled valuable information on the character
and analyses of coal from almost every field in the United States.
Information concerning the character and chemical constituents of the
coal, together with knowledge pertaining to the equipment of the plant,
makes it possible to select a fuel adapted to the equipment, thereby
insuring better combustion. Hundreds of boiler plants operate at no
greater than 60 per cent efficiency, and it would be a comparatively
simple matter to bring them up to 70 per cent efficiency. The saving in
tonnage would be more than the combined yearly coal-carrying capacity of
the Baltimore & Ohio and the Southern Railway systems. The direct saving
to our industries at $5 per ton would amount to $200,000,000 worth of
coal per year.
[5] Assistant Secretary Herbert Kaufman before the Senate Committee on
Education presented facts and figures which accentuate the seriousness
of the national situation. Among other things he said:
"The South leads in illiteracy, but the North leads in non-English
speaking. Over 17 per cent of the persons in the east-south Central
States have never been to school. Approximately 16 per cent of the
people of Passaic, N.J., must deal with their fellow workers and
employers through interpreters. And 13 per cent of the folk in Lawrence
and Fall River, Mass., are utter strangers in a strange land.
"The extent to which our industries are dependent upon this labor is
perilous to all standards of efficiency. Their ignorance not only
retards production and confuses administration, but constantly piles up
a junk heap of broken humans and damaged machines which cost the Nation
incalculably.
"It is our duty to interpret America to all potential Americans in terms
of protection as well as of opportunity; and neither the opportunities
of this continent nor that humanity which is the genius of American
democracy can be rendered intelligible to these 8,000,000 until they can
talk and read and write our language.
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