Value of Different Kinds of Fuel

Join Our Community of Science Lovers!


On supporting science journalism

If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.


The following table of the comparative value of different kinds of fuel we have collected from various sources, and it embraces the principal results obtained by numerous experimenters, from Count Rumford down to Dana and Johnson. For convenience of comparison we have reduced the several tables all to one common measure, the number of pounds of water heated from the freezing to the boiling point by one pound of the fuel: KtMDB or Fuit. Pounds of water raised One pound, when burnt, will lieat: from 33 to 212. Lime tree, dry wood, 4 years old............................ 34 slirttly dried................................... 38 " strongly dried................................ 40 Beech, dried 4 or 5 year .................................... 33 " stronply dried..............................,----,... 36 Oak, common firewood, in small shavings ............,,.... 26 " the same in thick shavings ............................ 24 Ash, common dry wood..................................... 30 Svcnmore, strongly dried..............,..........,........ 36 Bird cherry, common dry wood ...,......................... 33 Firwood ................................................... 30 Poplar .................................................... 34 Horn beam ................................................. 31 Charcoal.........................................,.......... 68 Peat, French ......................,......................... 18 " Irish.................................................. m Coke, aas coke, from Paris ................................. 60 ** from coal of St. ltienne ............................ 65 Coal, Hpnite fj-om Meiszner ................................ 43 " brown coal from Meiszner............................ 58 " Newcastle............................................. 70 ** cannel cnal, from Glasgow............,............... fifi *v anthracite, from Pennsylvania...................... 69 " anthracite, from Laval......................,......... 74 Rock oil.................................................... 40 Alcohol ..................................,................... 38 Hydrogen................................................... 246 Johnson, by his experiments at Washington, in 1844, found that the amount of water evaporated from 212, by one cubic foot of coal, varied from 440 to 556, with different specimens of anthracite ; from 350 to 478, with bituminous coking coal ; and from 355, with Scotch, to 459, with English bituminous coal. In the English experiments of De la Beche and Playfair, the Newcastle coal varies from 825 to 559 ; and Scotch coals, from 352 to 4G0. OUR review of the patent coal oil suit, noticed in our last number, ia necessarily delayed until our next issue.

Scientific American Magazine Vol 3 Issue 25newThis article was published with the title “Value of Different Kinds of Fuel” in Scientific American Magazine Vol. 3 No. 25new (), p. 395
doi:10.1038/scientificamerican12151860-395

It’s Time to Stand Up for Science

If you enjoyed this article, I’d like to ask for your support. Scientific American has served as an advocate for science and industry for 180 years, and right now may be the most critical moment in that two-century history.

I’ve been a Scientific American subscriber since I was 12 years old, and it helped shape the way I look at the world. SciAm always educates and delights me, and inspires a sense of awe for our vast, beautiful universe. I hope it does that for you, too.

If you subscribe to Scientific American, you help ensure that our coverage is centered on meaningful research and discovery; that we have the resources to report on the decisions that threaten labs across the U.S.; and that we support both budding and working scientists at a time when the value of science itself too often goes unrecognized.

In return, you get essential news, captivating podcasts, brilliant infographics, can't-miss newsletters, must-watch videos, challenging games, and the science world's best writing and reporting. You can even gift someone a subscription.

There has never been a more important time for us to stand up and show why science matters. I hope you’ll support us in that mission.

Thank you,

David M. Ewalt, Editor in Chief, Scientific American

Subscribe