The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1872-10-26 00:00:00

SUPPLEMENTARY FUEL.

The following communication, which has been Bent
to The Times for publication, possesses more than
usual intermit, not only from the urgency of the nub-
ject on which it treats, but from the well-known name
it beam
The drain on the resources of all classes of society oc-
casioned by the high price of cosJ must be considerably
greater to roost of them than that occasioned by the eaten
Mee failure of the potato crop and yet, while the most
earnest attention has been devoted to the latter calamity,
and various remedies have been proposed, scarceiy any at- ,
tention has been bestowed upon the former; and, so far as I
am aware, no remedy in any degree adequate to the almost
universal emergency has ever yet been mentioned.
Having from more than one point of view long and
earnestly regarded the subject of our coal supply, I confess
that my oisappolutment was great when, out of the delibera-
tions of the ruttish Association at their recent meeting at
Brighton, no light should be thrown at such a juncture on
the dark Frogged before us. That disappointment, how-
ever, compelled ma to look more earnestly and (may I add?)
more prayerfully for a remedy in a direction to which my
attention had frequently. during many years, hem. turned,
and I rejoice in the confidence that I have not looked in
vain.
:n this confidence I request permission, through your
colm:os, to lay thie remedy in its simplest form, 83 a sub-
gnu., ;nel fir Commie purposes, as fully and clearly as I
can helms the public, announcing at the came time art firm
convietien wit, by a full and fair application of science to
this point, this ;levelopmeut of; his first application of the
Principles involemi will call into extensive use two other
natural products, isf Ihe combustibility of which there can
be no question, but the ~ so of which, because of certain ap-
parenDy inpurmuuntall,o diZeulties, has hitherto been ex-
tremely limited.
With those who have ever noticed Cr read of the great
specific heat of chalk, or the large an.... 14 of carbonic acid
contained in is., and the convertibility of that aid.: by means
of heat into carbonic ozide fa combustible form yr ,mb-
stance), or wills those who have merely noticed either the
vast amount of best which, generated kg a comparatively
small proportion of fuel, is radiated from a n. or, again,
the effect in smelting ore of • few lutudred weight a llme-
atone ot chalk, it has long been • matter of strong Dec-
mudoo that the time must come when at leiirt for domestic
Dur Poses, chalk, if riot limestone, shall he mad.e subservient
tot he increase of warmth and heat and to the diminution
of the consumption of coal. From time to time, Indeed,
modes ill effecting so desirable an end have been devised and
published.
home 20 or 25 years since, for trutance, the Rev. J. Hicks,
Rector of a parisn in Dorset, publistmd, especially for the
use of
.cottagers, a rotate of placing lumps chalk at the
. .

back of an ordinary fire, udi all who, with a moiler.l.l degree
'(care, tried this mode must Loire been saddled, at I ,
witti the remit, both an to the brightness of the fire, as '
:awase of beat, and as to economy of filet
About elght or Din!) years ago an experiment, highly
• satisfactor) in all these respects, was coon, too daring
whole e,,,,,tet
.44 the Dorset County lh alpha' hy a nephew ,
mine, the heete wirgeon in that indtitution. The tires in the
two large wards were made up and attended to
by the housemaid
eharge of them under hi, direction.
in
Chalk wet pl., at the big.* of each tire In nearly eeoal pro-
portion wilt, the coal.rdmg that the patients might not,
.
by incautious stirring of the -.tee' teteetere with the Ixe'itith
of the chalk, said so deaden th.' Sloe Waging it forward
upon the coal in front, the Pre-ire:4 Were reino.d from the
room. In both wards hill sdisiactioi: Sean felt both as to the
cheerfulness and auto the warmth of te., fire. The Pstkiffs
frequently remarked that they never b'here had no much
warmth lu the rooms, Numer, us visitors exCeeeeed their Or-
cided approval. And the saving effected thre'ufhout that
winter in those two tires was 75 per cent. For who. Preetotte
to this use of chalk two boxes of coal were barely 6:41101_04
for each ward for one day, during its use one box Was
dent for two days.
To effect this saving, however, the eye of a toaster was re-
filffiffe. That water wasewithdrawn, and, doubtless because
ULU extra attention anti labour required of the servant,

left to herself, the user! chalk was relinquished, and the
experiment has Dever since been repeated. I fully admit
that in this arrangement of chalk and coal in. tire au 1. an
amount of care *ll.l attention is requisite as to render it a
matter of great itimertainty whether the lire might be very
good or very bad, and whether any saving of coal might not,
under certain circnnistancee. be rather the result of oimi-
nishoil combustion and diminished heat On this account,
no 1 suppose, the burning of chalk, even in the villages in
which it was roost larg, ly adopted, has fallen into disuse;
and the announcement of any new mode of burning it will
doubtless be constituently received with complete distrust.
N...vorthcloss, since I most certainly have been lett to the
discovery of a mode of rtndering chalks subsidiary fuel, and
since the experiments which Servo to verify the truth of that
discovery can he tried by any one in any class of society at a
verlatrilling cost, and hi our extensive chalk districts at no
cost at all, the prevalent distress constrains me, in the face of
that distrust, to make the following announcement of a new
mode of horning chalk, which, while calling for no extra care
and attentiop, shall, with a brighter and better lire, SAVO
generally 50 per Cent, of the coal now used.

The entire process consists In covering the liattlm of the
gr.te will, blip. of chalk, each about two or three inches in
diameter. In modern dining-room and drawing-room grates
the layer of chalk might rise to the first bar," and should be
kept about an inch behind the bar, no as to admit of small
pieties of eget being placed In front. In cottage grates, which
are generally deep, and to man) kitchen ranges, the leper niay
he three or lour inches 1,, thiUkllo69. Oe this layer the fire
Is laid and lighted in the ordinary way. There may occa-
sionally be some little slownesa in the first kindling, but,
once kindled, the fire will generally, without any additional
fuel, and without need of atirrin.r, burn steadily ler three or
four hours. When fuel is to be added It should be applied
before the embers have cook low, and in comparatively
small quantities. Auy stirring should he of the coals alone.
The chalk should not be lifted; but ,ccasionally, in order to
liberate the dust, the poker should be passed through it
horizontally.
In a strong tire In a kitchen range I have placed the chalk
tour Welles deep and in is deep cottage grate I have made
the depth of the chalk six inches. In the latter case bib,
weight of coal, together with a single turf for kindling the
fire this was in Huntingdonshire), burnt brightly for five
hours. In my own kitchen, with a depth of three inches of
chalk, my cook considers the heat greater than when coal is
used, and finds no difficulty in the change. The only thing
to be guarded against is that of allowing the tire to sink so
low that there shall uot be sufficient beat in the coal to con-
tinue to extract carbonic acid from the chalk, in which case
the lire becomes dull. Even here, however, the difficulty is
not so great as in an ordinary coal fire for if the coal be
moderately supplied, the rekindling of the tire, through the
extraordinary retention of heat by chalk, is more rapid iu
the former ease than in the latter.

The ultimate effect of burning it is to convert the chalk
into lime ; and the greater or less rapidity with which this
effect is produced must depend, of course, on the greater or
less intensity of heat generated by the united action of the
two substances. In a kitchen range in which there has been
much cooking and baking, I have known good lime to be
bunt in 15 hours ; whereas hi a moderately sized parlour
grate, or in a cottage grate, the came quantity of chalk, be-
cause of the slowness with which the carbonic acid is ex-
tracted, has served well as suleidlary fuel for a fortnight.
In the former of these cases, although more chalk is burnt,
yet its value as lime, either for whitewashing, for in-door
plastering, or for application in various ways to the land, is
considerable ; in the latter case—the continued use for a
fortnight—besides checking during no tong a time the more
rapid consumption of coal placed above it, and yet increasing
heat, it of necessity saves 14 times its bulk of coal.
If any of your readers should desire a scientific explana-
tion of this phenomenon, I would first direct their attention
to the simple fact that, the heat being applied to the chalk
from above, both the carbonic acid gas and the carbonic
oxide pass of necessity into the fire which generates that
heat, and in this way increase it. 1 would then refer them to
Miller'd Chymi6try, Second Edition, Vol. 11., p. 74.
It all this be correct, then the relief to he obtained by
I every class of society must be immense. Ihe consumption
of coal for domestic purposes, and for warming large build-
ings in London, will be diminished 50 per cent. On results,
however, I will not dwell. The length s 1 this letter forbids
my adding more at present than this—the working of a
chalk-hill being much more easy than that of coal-mine,
the delivery of chalk in any part of Great Britain and Ire-
land ought to be affected at far less cost than that of coal.-
1 am, rte., limier MOLLS.
Fordington Vicarage,