connected with that service will carry on jointly for that service and for the Bureau of Mines investigations looking to the improvement of mine conditions. These inquiries and investigations have already shown the prevalence of tuberculosis and hookworm as miners' diseases in a number of different localities in the United States. It is important that this work should be extended more rapidly, because of the fact that the health conditions, as well as the risk of accidents, may be influenced by conditions susceptible of easy improvement. Furthermore, the large and continuous influx of foreigners into the mining regions of the United States will bring to an increasing extent the hookworm and other diseases that abound in mines in parts of certain European countries.

Various questions that concern the health of workers in mines, quarries, and metallurgical plants can not be answered finally without investigations and inquiries that are national in scope. Among such questions are the most efficient methods of preventing the diseases peculiar to certain industries, the most effective sanitary precautions to be observed in and about coal mines and metal mines, and the relative healthfulness of occupations pertaining to mining and metallurgical industries. The investigations and inquiries that are essential to the gathering of reliable information on these questions can be undertaken by the Bureau of Mines, in connection with its collection of accident statistics, in a prompt and efficient manner and at minimum expense.

THE NEED OF MORE RELIABLE AND MORE COMPLETE STATISTICS OF ACCIDENTS.

Statistical information concerning the mine accidents, more especially accidents in metal mines, in the United States has been in the past far from complete. In many States no such statistics are collected.

The funds at the disposal of the Bureau of Mines during the past year have not been sufficient to enable it to carry out any definite plans for more extensive and rapid collection of statistics of accidents at metal mines, but it is hoped that during another year the bureau may be able to bring together and publish promptly full and reliable data concerning accidents in mines, quarries, and metallurgical plants. Such statistics are essential to the development of intelligent and workable plans for greater safety in all mineral industries.

THE NEED OF INVESTIGATIONS LOOKING TO THE PREVENTION OF MINERAL WASTE.

The enlargement of the inquiries and investigations of the bureau relative to increasing efficiency and lessening waste in the mining, quarrying, metallurgical, and miscellaneous mineral industries of the country is urgently needed. With an annual loss of 200,000,000 tons of soft coal, 80,000,000 tons of anthracite, and 480,000,000,000 cubic feet of natural gas, besides large losses in the mining and treatment of other mineral substances, no one familiar with these industries can fail to realize the need for such investigations, nor the fact that investigations concerning the loss of life and waste of resourcessafety and efficiency-must go hand in hand because of their intimate

relations. The Nation has only one supply of mineral resources. It is the duty of both the State and the Nation to see that these resources are used efficiently-that is, without unnecessary wasteand yet, in many cases, the temporary profits, as well as the personal, are increased by the practice of highly wasteful methods. What the Bureau of Mines can do is to procure the facts, find out the possible improvements, and state them clearly to the public for such action as may be deemed practicable.

ENLARGEMENT OF FUEL INVESTIGATIONS.

There is serious need of enlarging the fuel investigations. The demands from the various branches of the Government service in connection with the purchase of coal and oil by the Government and the efficient use of these fuels have been too great for the bureau to meet. The work required, and its financial importance to the Government, is nearly three times now what it was three years ago when the appropriation for it was fixed at about $100,000.

Over 8,000 samples of coal, lignite, and fuel oil, intended for the use of the Government, were analyzed by the bureau in the past fiscal year. These samples represented 1,091,400 tons of coal, valued at approximately $3,084,800, whereas in the fiscal year ended June 30, 1909, only 3,299 samples, representing 611,362 tons, valued at $1,858,750, were examined. During the fiscal year ending June 30, 1912, the bureau will be called on to analyze samples representing 1,524,400 tons of coal, valued at $4,809,200.

The various inquiries pertaining to the fuels belonging to the Government need to be enlarged to include more extended study of the characteristics of crude petroleums and fuel oils and their suitability for use under steam boilers or in internal-combustion engines. The studies of the characteristics of the different coals and lignites likewise need to be carried on more actively than has been possible with the appropriations made for the work.

Some inquiries that could not be followed out as they deserve to be are: The practicability of increasing the fuel value of lignites and low-grade coals by briquetting, the suitability of different coals for the manufacture of coke, the processes by which the highest yield of coke and by-products can be obtained from these coals, the relative value of the cokes for different metallurgical purposes, the steaming power of coals and lignites from different fields, and the possibility of utilizing the same coals and lignites to greater advantage in gas producers.

Some of the equipment on hand for fuel investigations is now out of date, having been obtained in 1904. There is, therefore, need of much new equipment and the resetting of the boilers, producers, etc. Since 1908 little new equipment has been purchased for this work.

THE NEED OF EXTENDING THE MINE-ACCIDENTS WORK TO THE METAL-MINING INDUSTRIES OF THE WESTERN STATES.

The work transferred from the United States Geological Survey to the Bureau of Mines related almost entirely to the mining and utilization of coal and the accidents connected therewith. The ap

propriations given to the Bureau of Mines for its work during the first year following its establishment were so worded as to be necessarily applicable to coal-mining inquiries. Therefore it has not been possible as yet to extend the investigations of the bureau with a view to their aiding in the upbuilding of the metal-mining industries. Meanwhile, however, the ratio of accidents to the number of men employed has been in many cases as large or larger in the metal mines of the country than it has been in many of the coal mines. The need for the extension of the mine-accident work into the metal-mining field is a serious one.

However, the loss of life in connection with metallurgical operations in different parts of the country is worthy of serious consideration. A limited inquiry indicated that 11 deaths have been caused from poisonous gases at a single metallurgical plant during one year. The serious need of inquiries and investigations looking to the improvement of such conditions has become more and more apparent as inquiries have been made in connection with a number of the larger plants.

Furthermore, during the past several years the mining industries in the Western States have fallen far short of the agricultural development. In some of the States there has been a retreat rather than an advance in mining development. It is believed that thorough inquiries and investigations concerning the metal-mining conditions in the Western States would do much toward improving the safety and health conditions, as well as toward generally advancing and upbuilding these industries.

SCOPE OF THE FIRST YEAR'S WORK.

The investigation into the causes of mine explosions and the analyzing and testing of mineral fuels which from 1908 and 1904, respectively, had been conducted under the Geological Survey were, on July 1, 1910, transferred to the Bureau of Mines, then created, without any increases in the appropriations for such work. There was added another appropriation of $160,000, and it was understood that all or the larger part of this adition would be used for the development and maintenance of mine-rescue work in the United States.

In establishing the Bureau of Mines it is evident, therefore, that the scope of the work to be done was greatly extended by Congress, but that the appropriations for this work were made in such form and under such conditions as have much restricted the scope of the work itself. Consequently the bureau has not been able to enter on new fields, as it has been urged to do from many sources. The scope of its work has been limited largely to the subjects transferred to it from the Geological Survey. It is hoped that future appropriations will permit the extension of this work to include a number of technologic investigations pertinent to different branches of the mining, metallurgical, and quarrying industries.

FINANCIAL STATEMENT.

A condensed statement of the financial operations of the bureau for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1911, is presented in the following table:

Amounts appropriated for and expended by the Bureau of Mines for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1911.

The primary aim of the fuel-testing investigations under the Geological Survey was the more efficient use by the Government of fuels purchased under its supervision; subsequently the questions of waste in the mining and handling of fuels belonging to the Government and the more appropriate use of each fuel for any particular purpose were placed in the investigations, with a view to ascertaining how waste in mining and storage might be reduced and economy and efficiency in use might be increased. By the terms of the acts making appropriations for the work the fuel investigations conducted by the technologic branch of the Geological Survey during the year immediately preceding the creation of the Bureau of Mines were limited to the analyzing and testing of fuels belonging to or for the use of the United States. In consequence of this limitation the fuel investigations transferred to the Bureau of Mines and the various. technologic researches and the routine work relating to the examination of fuels under this bureau embody two general lines of inquiry, as follows:

1. The inspection and analysis of coals, lignite, and other mineral fuels purchased under specifications for the use of the Government, to ascertain whether or not these fuels conform to the stipulations of the contract under which they are purchased; also, the ascertaining of the most efficient equipment and method of using these fuels.

2. The investigation of coals, lignite, and other mineral fuels belonging to the Government.

ANALYZING AND TESTING OF FUELS FOR THE USE OF THE UNITED STATES.

A large part of the coal used by the Government for its power plants, public buildings, and naval stations is purchased under contracts that specify the ash and moisture content and the heating

value of the coal. The price paid the contractors who supply the coal thus purchased is determined by the analysis of samples taken from deliveries made under each contract. The collection of the samples is done by or under instructions from the Bureau of Mines, and the analysis and testing of these samples is an important part of the work of the bureau in determining whether the quality of the coal is up to the fixed standard, and if it is not, in fixng the reduction in price to be paid in proportion to the lower value of the coal.

The samples are collected wherever coal purchased under contract is being delivered to the Government. They represent deliveries made at public buildings in the District of Columbia, or at public buildings, naval stations, and Army posts in many parts of the United States, and also the deliveries made at the great coal-shipping ports, as New York and Norfolk, where coal is being delivered for the use of the Navy or of the Panama Railway Co.

In the fiscal year 1910-11 the purchases of coal by the Government under specifications providing for payment according to the quality of coal delivered amounted to approximately 1,091,400 tons, costing $3,084,800, notwithstanding the fact that the general plan is to apply this method of purchasing coal only to contracts of such size as warrant sampling, analysis, and heating-value tests.

The specifications applying to the purchase of coal for use on the battleships and naval vessels are somewhat different. The mines from which it is proposed to procure coal are visited, samples are taken in the mines, and these samples are analyzed. In making contracts the coal from a mine or mines is specified. On delivery the coal is sampled and tested. These tests show whether the contractor has shipped coal from the specified mine or mines. If the samples of coal as delivered indicate coal inferior in quality to that expected, shipments from the mines specified are no longer accepted. Coal purchased under specifications of this nature and used on naval vessels amounted in round numbers to 750,000 tons during the fiscal year 1910-11.

In the collection of samples a definite scheme of procedure is followed. The number of samples taken from any given delivery of coal is dependent on the size of that delivery, and every practicable precaution is observed to insure that the samples fairly represent the coal delivered. The gross samples taken are reduced by crushing, mixing, and quartering to samples that weigh about 2 pounds. These are sealed in air-tight containers and are sent by mail to the laboratory of the Bureau of Mines in Washington.

Most of the samples analyzed and tested for heating values at the Washington laboratory represent coal purchased under specifications that provide for payment according to the quality of the delivered coal. Analyses of mine samples are generally made in the bureau's laboratory at Pittsburgh. The methods used in the bureau's laboratories are substantially those that were adopted at the Government fuel-testing plant at St. Louis in 1904, with such modifications and changes as experience has shown advisable, and are believed to embody the essential details of the methods generally recognized as best. During the fiscal year ended June 30, 1911, 8,230 samples