Abstract
IN an age of so much and such abstruse research, it is common to find that no exact answer can be given to some of the most everyday problems. The Canadian Department of Mines found this to apply to the relative value of wood as domestic fuel as compared with coals. In Canada, this question has an importance which has long since disappeared in Great Britain. The Fuel Division of the Department has published tests by E. S. Malloch and C. E. Baltzer (Report No. 761, Ottawa, 10 cents) on the efficiency of wood as fuel for heating water in a furnace of the type normal in North America, and previously used for tests on coal and coke. Tests with an American anthracite showed a thermal efficiency of 66 per cent. Under comparable conditions, the efficiency of hardwood (maple) varied from 50 per cent (green) to 57 per cent (seasoned wood). Corresponding figures for soft wood (pine) were 42 per cent and 49 per cent. By placing a perforated plate over the firebars, the efficiency could be slightly increased, and in all cases the loss in unburnt fuel was negligible. These figures are quite good, but the wood compared unfavourably with coals in output and in the weight and volume of fuel to be handled
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Efficiency of Wood as Fuel. Nature 137, 428 (1936). https://doi.org/10.1038/137428c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/137428c0