Sparking coal

There were several studies of hydraulic transport in the 1950s, sparked off particularly by an interest in the economic possibilities of transportation of coal and other minerals over long distances. Newitt et al.p2) working with solids of a range of particle sizes (up to 5 fim) and densities (1180-4600 kg/m3) in a 25 mm diameter pipe, suggested separate correlations for flow with a bed deposit and tor conditions where the particles were predominantly in heterogeneous suspension. 

It was fun to think about how I should dress, speak, move, and touch, to talk of type-foundries and colophons, watermarks and printers patrons, and all the time watch a mans hands, the tilt of his head, the way his mouth moved as he spoke, the way his fingers brushed mine as he put more drinks on the table. It was fun that could fill my head and then my body, that bright, dumb spark in a man s eye that made my skin shiver in response. And we were away from home, after all, it was only a week, and the sun was shining on the Venice canals, or the moon was rising from behind the Rockies, or the coal fire in my rooms was so glowing that it shut out the gray cold and the Lancashire rain, and wrapped us in warmth. 

In the 16th Century an energy crisis sparked off by an 800% increase in the price of wood saw the beginning of the use of coal as a source of energy (2). A 20th-Century energy crisis involving a modest 300% increase in the price of oil has rekindled interest in coal, has focused... 

DCL DDGS DEFC DICI DISI DME DMFC DOE DP DPF Direct coal liquefaction Distillers dried grains with solubles Direct ethanol fuel cell Direct-injection compression ignition Direct-injection spark ignition Dimethylether Direct methanol fuel cell Department of Energy (USA) Dynamic programming Diesel particulate filter... 

The public discourse about hydropower in Switzerland went through a number of quite clearly demarcated phases. In the first phase, which started between 1880 and 1914, the electrical utopia based on white coal sparked a national consensus to develop alpine hydropower plants [10]. However, due to technical limitations, the majority of currently running large-scale hydropower plants in the Swiss Alps was constructed in the 1950s and 1960s. As a result of this rapid expansion, almost all major streams in the Alpine region are now impacted by hydropower plants and their operation [6]. 

Most of us have never seen the inside of a coal-fired boiler, but the sparks rising from a campfire are very similar to the second stage of a coal-burning process. When a campfire is stirred, small particles of charcoal are broken off the log, and buoyancy carries them upward. They glow brightly by the heat released by heterogeneous carbon oxidation for several seconds until the carbon is aU consumed. 

Modern coal-mining practice tends towards the use of mechanical devices, such as Cardox, Hydrox Mechanical Miners rather than explosives. This will not necessarily reduce the number of coal mine explosions because these may be, and indeed are known to be, initiated by other means such as faulty electrical equipment, breakage of electrical cables or other means of producing a hot spark or arc... 

The minor and trace elements in coals are currently determined by several techniques, the most popular of which are optical emission and atomic absorption spectroscopy. Neutron activation analysis is also an excellent technique for determining many elements, but it requires a neutron source, usually an atomic reactor. In addition, x-ray fluorescence spectroscopy, electron spectroscopy for chemical analyses (ESCA), and spark source mass spectroscopy have been successfully applied to the analyses of some minor and trace elements in coal. 

I wish to acknowledge the aid of James R. Jones of Peabody Coal Co. in writing the introductory comments to this paper. I also wish to acknowledge the use of the spark source mass spectrometry data obtained from Richard J. Guidoboni of Kennecott Copper Corp., Ledge-mont Laboratory. 

Trace Elements in Coal Dust by Spark-Source Mass Spectrometry... 

Previous work has shown that the 3.3-5.5 /xm coal fraction has a particle size distribution similar to that of respirable mine dust collected on personal samplers during mining operations (13). This fraction was used for the spark-source analyses. The coals used in this investigation are identified in Table I. The respirable dusts were obtained from personal sampler filters submitted to the Dust Group, Pittsburgh Technical Support Center, Federal Bureau of Mines. The samples were collected during actual mining operations. 

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