This folder contains reports were submitted to Edison and the Naval Consulting Board by Miller Reese Hutchison. They concern tests of the feasibility of using anthracite rather than bituminous coal on steamships in order to reduce smoke emissions and make the ship harder for enemy submarines to detect. In addition to Hutchison's cover letters, there are conclusions presented by J. P. Sparrow, chief engineer of the New York Edison Co., who oversaw some of the tests. Hutchison's correspondence and preliminary report to Edison can be found in the general correspondence folders for 1917. Related documents can also be found in Edison Wartime Research Report No. 43, Charles Hummel Collection.

Approximately 30 percent of the documents have been selected. Unselected material includes technical specifications of the ships and detailed logs of data produced during the experiments.