The large operators and chain stores are banking on a freedom from foreign butter. If the present duty of six cents a pound remains it will be a very great barrier to all importations, and if the duty is increased to eight cents, which is provided in the Fordney tariff bill, I do not see other than a high butter market this coming fall and winter.

The stewards of our hospitals contracted for their fall and winter supply of butter and cheese at attractive prices and I predict a great saving to the State will result.

I wish to call particular attention to sweet cream butter for storage purposes. June 22, 1922, the United States Department of Agriculture had 1,000,000 pounds of sweet cream butter, which had been packed for the navy the previous year, scored by experts, and the scoring showed higher than the highest score butter quoted on the New York market. The butter was made from a perfectly sweet cream with a comparatively high salt content and low moisture. For storage purposes such a butter is far superior to ordinary butter, which usually loses in quality during the storage period.

Respectfully submitted,
JOHN T. NORTON,

Inspector of Dairy Products.

Butter, cheese and eggs purchased under contract, inspected and accepted at the place of business of the lowest bidder during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1922

Comparative statement of monthly average June quotations for a period of years on butter graded as "Fresh Creamery Extras", and monthly average quotations on "Fresh Creamery Firsts", the following November to March inclusive

REPORT OF THE PURCHASING COMMITTEE FOR STATE HOSPITALS

Submitted by T. E. McGarr, Executive

To the State Hospital Commission:

This, the final report of the Joint Purchasing Committee for State hospitals, is respectfully submitted.

The wisdom of the framers of chapter 768 of the Laws of 1911 has been demonstrated on innumerable occasions during the eleven years of the Committee's existence. Largely through the knowledge and foresight of Superintendent Pilgrim of the Hudson River State Hospital (afterwards chairman of the State Hospital Commission), who acted as principal adviser of the legislative committee, our personnel was made to consist of three hospital superintendents and two stewards with a small but experienced office staff (occasionally supplemented by the assistance of experts in technical subjects). Very excellent results have been secured from the system of joint purchases thus finally perfected. Especially was this true during the years in which our country was engaged in war activities when commodity prices soared to unconscionable heights. Frequently, through wide competition, the Committee secured prices surprisingly reasonable for foodstuffs and numerous other materials whose quality was maintained at a most excellent grade. Furthermore, cash discounts were secured in many instances, the total of which more than met the annual cost of maintaining the Committee.

Price fluctuations during the past year have not been especially significant; advances in one group of food supplies being offset by declines in another.

Chapter 128 of the Laws of 1922 creates an entirely new plan of joint purchases, including in its scope every department and institution of the State. The newly appointed Superintendent of Purchase, Hon. Frank R. Utter, who has had a successful official career of five years as Fiscal Supervisor of State Charities, enters upon his duties on July 1, succeeding to our Committee's functions and to certain other purchasing activities heretofore exercised by our hospital stewards.

An interesting section of the new law is that creating a bureau to standardize all supplies and materials to be contracted for by the newly created Superintendent of Purchase. This section (No. 54-e of the State Finance Law) reads as follows:

"The board shall create a bureau of standards and appoint a director thereof and such assistants as may be needed to perform the duties imposed by this section. It shall be the duty of such bureau to establish standards and standard specifications for all materials, supplies and equipment purchased or contracted for by or under the jurisdiction of the superintendent of purchase. In its work it shall advise, consult and cooperate with the head of each state department, board, commission and office and with the superintendent of purchase. All such standards and standard specifications shall be submitted to and approved by the head of each department, commission, board or office requiring such materials, supplies or equipment, except in case of disagreement when the direction of the board shall prevail. Committees of officers and employees of the state shall be selected or appointed by the director of this bureau, to aid in formulating standards and standard specifications and to recommend them for consideration by the bureau."

REPORT OF CHEMICAL LABORATORY

There have been made during the year, for the various State hospitals and other State Institutions, 2,225 chemical analyses and

other physical tests, as follows:

Of the above, quite a number of the coal tests were made for the engineers of the State Architect's office, and the bacteriological water analyses were made for the Binghamton State Hospital alone. The individual tests require little comment other than that furnished by the original reports. Foods and feeding stuffs have been generally in accordance with the food laws and of good quality. Fuels, as usual, have received most attention. All shipments have been within the maximum and minimum limits found in former years, and many of the tests have been for helping to check the economy of power plant operations. We have not seen occasion to change the provisional standards of heating value, viz., an average of at least 12,000 B. T. U. for good deliveries of anthracite steam sizes and 13,500 B. T. U. for bituminous. Deliveries averaging below 11,500 B. T. U. for steam anthracites and 13,200 B. T. U. for bituminous cannot be considered good.

While total heating value is a direct measure of the steaming value of a suitable coal, other properties usually covered by the direct use of the fuel in practice have been studied. These have included fusing point limits of the coals themselves, which have varied between 400 and 600 degrees for soft coals. The fusing is attended by a shrinkage in volume, followed at a somewhat higher temperature by the evolution of gas (volatile-combustibles) and an expansion of volume of varying degrees to form the coke. Fusing points of the residual ash (clinkering) have varied with us between 2,250 and 2,430 degrees. The behavior of coals in these heat tests, with the percentage content of volatile combustibles, largely determine the behavior of the fuel in the furnace. For these studies we constructed and calibrated an optical pyrometer, operating on well known physical principles. It would be desirable, however, if we could extend the range of its scale. We have also made voltage-temperature studies on two pyrometers of the thermo-electric type. A few studies have been made in the tendencies of soft coals to spontaneous ignition in the pile, which seem thus far to be a function of the surface texture of the fuel; a minute loose division favoring it. We have continued to compare the determined heating values with those calculated from well known formulae, with reasonable agreement in many cases and wide divergence in others. In the light of modern thermo-chemical knowledge these results might be expected. If the combustible portion of a soft coal were essentially a single definite organic compound with a composition expressed possibly by the formulae

70

Cro H50 SNO4, its heating value like its other properties would be a physical constant and inversely proportional to the moisture and ash content. As we have shown in a previous (1920) report, however, even if the average composition should chance to correspond with the above, it would in reality be made up of a large number of complex organic bodies variously constituted and combined and having individually different heating values which chance only could make correspond with those of a calculated formulae. With anthracites, which are metamorphosed coals, the results are much closer.

We have made partial studies of the behavior of gasoline fuel in a motor engine working under varying conditions. The gasolines yielded from 15,085 to 15,550 B. T. U. per pint (20,050 to 21,125 per pound), determined in a gas calorimeter of the continuous flow type, and corresponded closely with the results of the distillation tests in each case.

In the motor the greatest velocity of explosion and the greatest horsepower were developed with a mixture of from 122 to 127 cubic feet of air to one pint of gasoline, at a temperature of 100 degrees F., although after starting with no increase in load the greatest thermal efficiency and economy were had with a mixture of from 170 to 190 cubic feet to each pint. The composition of the original mixture is shown in the analyses of the exhaust gases, which in the above cases showed from 8.5 per cent to 9.5 per cent of carbon dioxide, with from 7.7 per cent to 6.5 per cent of carbon monoxide, and from 11.0 per cent to 13.0 per cent carbon dioxide with from 2.5 per cent to 5.0 per cent of unused oxygen and little or no carbon monoxide, respectively. The theoretical combination would seem to be about 160 cubic feet of air to the pint, yielding about 14.0 per cent carbon dioxide and little or no carbon monoxide or free oxygen, but the motor would start with difficulty and not develop the most power. Apparently from 19.0 per cent to 45.0 per cent of the heat of gasoline is often lost, and from 22.0 per cent to 38.0 per cent is common.

The explosion limits of gasoline in a closed space vary according to the temperature, the degree of admixture, and the degree of moisture present, between 250 cubic feet and 415 cubic feet per pint of gasoline. For cold weather use, gasoline should have a flash point below zero.

With lubricating oils, comparisons were made of the viscosity (body) of various fractions of petroleum at various temperatures, and of the behavior of various oils in the common "fire tests.' At the temperature of motor cylinder walls there seems to be but little difference in the body of various good oils but this is no argument against the use of a high bodied oil where this is otherwise indicated.

Chemical methods have been investigated for identifying some of the common sugars in foodstuffs, for small amounts of methyl alcohol in spirits, and for preparing bromural.

Reliable practical tests for hospital rubber goods are still wanting.