The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-04-07 00:00:00

THE SMOKE NUISANCE

There are few subjects of greater local,`'or general
importance, than the prevention of smoke. It has now
become a nuisance indeed, since the legislature has passed
laws which expose every manufacturer and steam
employer to the infliction of heavy penalties where smoke
is suffered to be emitted from a chimney. We have
already devoted a considerable portion of our space to
the different inventions which have been brought out, with
a view to remedy the evil sought to be removed ; and we
shall continue to give our best attention to the subject,
until some practical plan has been fixed upon, to relieve
the manufacturer from the vexatious position in which
he is now placed. 'We feel, also, no small additional
concern for the public health, and all will hail with the
liveliest satisfaction the formal adoption of some perfect
preservative. _

- We were called upon on Saturday to inspect smoke con-
suming furnaces, on the largest scale, at the Waterloo
station of the London and North Western Railway Com-
pany, and another at Messrs. Muspratt and Sons,
chemical works, Vauxhall-road. The furnaces at both
places are constructed on the principle of " O'Regan's
patent smoke prevention furnace." We have already
noticed this invention, but have never before seen it in
operation on so large a scale. At the Waterloo station, a
fifty horse power high pressure steam engine was effec-
tively worked at 451bs pressure to the square inch, with
one boiler 30 feet long and 4 feet diameter. The cylinder
is 24/ inches in diameter, stroke of piston 6 feet, making
14 revolutions a minute. In order to maintain steam on
the old principle, the superficial surface of the furnace
was 36 feet, but with the new furnace, this surface was
reduced to 24 feet, or one third less. This change gave a
greater heat for the generation of steam, the saving of fuel
at the same time being considerable, as in exact propor-
tion to the reduction of the furnace.

The reduction in the surface of the furnace alone would,
in the opinion of engineers, justify a belief that coal is
economised to a much greater extent; and this appears to
be confirmed by the fact, that where it took one hour and
a half to get up steam formerly, steam is now generated
up to 45 lbs. pressure in less than an hour. It has
hitherto been the practice to increase the size of boilers
to economise fuel, but a practical proof has now
been given, that that object can be obtained by
limiting the surface of the furnace. And in order
to accomplish the consumption of smoke with the ordinary
furnace, by keeing its doors open, boilers three times the
usual capacity have been used, at the suggestion of boiler
makers and their employes, but with little success, as
everything depends on the care of the stoker, for whose
neglect or want of skill the law makes no allowance, and
who, when pressed for steam, must close his doors, and
commence vomiting forth smoke, regardless of penalties.
Passing on to the Messrs. Muspratt's chemical works, we
found the same furnace in operation. It was applied to a
16 horse-power engine, and that portion which is used
separately for the prevention of smoke, was added to two
" white ash" furnaces, which are said to be the worst
description of chemical processes for producing that dense
black smoke, which is seen to impregnate the atmosphere
for a distance of miles. The volumes of foul and dele-
terious vapour thrown up from these large tanks, which
are filled with liquid, and which the furnace eva-
porates awl carries away with its smoke, has been
thought entirely beyond the reach of science, the Messrs.
Muspratt having expended fully £60,000 in defend-
ing actions brought against them for nuisances, which
have hitherto been thought to be an insuperable part
of the manufacture of " white ash," and one or
two other chemical products. There are about twenty
distinct furnaces in these works, and as the new inven-
tion has only been applied to the engine and two " white
ash " furnaces, it would be scarcely fair to expect to find a
total prevention of smoke in a chimney which receives the
vapour from several other fires. But we saw the " white
ash" furnace charged heavily with small slack coal, and
the flame, which was almost instantaneously produced,
passed over the liquid in the tank, collecting the fumes of
evaporation, but without generating smoke. This was
shown by the chimney emitting, after the fresh coaling,
nothing more than a light transparent vapour, such as
may be seen coming from a common house chimney, and
that only lasted for about forty seconds. We have been
informed that after a series of trials spread over a period
of six weeks, smoke was not visible for more than one
minute and a half, and then only in the most trifling
volume or density.
The Messrs. Muspratt, to be released from the persecu-
tion of the Corporation and the public generally, have left
no means untried to prevent smoke, but without success.
For upwards of twenty years they have laboured in vain,
but may now set their tormentors at defiance. For
chemical purposes the perfect combustion of the coal
which we witnessed must be of great value, and when
added to the saving of fuel, with the burning of all its
gases, and the coal itself, to a twentieth part olthe cinders
and other residuary products of ordinary furnaces are, to
our mind the disederata sought. We think, in fact, that gas
engineers would do well to study the extraordinary results
attained in the combustion of coal by this furnace, as it
pf•oves very clearly that it converts a much larger quan-
tity of the coal into gas than the common gas retorts now
in use. The question of smoke prevention is, however, of
such vast public importance, that all those who take an
interest in it should avail themselves of the opportunity
which is now afforded to them of witnessing what has been
done, both at the Waterloo Railway station, aad at the
well-known chemical works we have named. Finally, we
may add that the simplicity of the invention, secures the ut-
most duration of the doors, firebars, and other parts of the
furnace, and requires nothing more than the common atten-
tion of the stoker, while it lessens his labour very
materially, as the bars are cleared of clinkers and other
burnt refuse, by merely using a joggle shaft two or three
times a-day.

RAILWAY PROPERTY.—The anomalies in railway pro-
perty are perhaps greater-than in any other. There appears
no certain guide to inverters in the traffic or capital
involved in undertakings of this nature. Whilst a small
traffic, in sonic instances, appears to give a large dividend, a
large traffic frequently only results in a small one In some
cases, with almost precisely the same traffic and capital,
there is a difference of two per cent. in the dividend, and
twenty to thirty per cent. in the value of the property.
As an example of this we have the following :—Lancashire
and Yorkshire weekly traffic £20,000, capital £13,000,000,
dividend 41 per cent ; Midland weekly traffic £26,000,
capital £19,500,000, dividend 31 per cent ; Eastern
Counties weekly traffic £20,000, capital £13,000,000,
dividend 2a per cent, If anything were wanting
to confirm our views, so often expressed, against
the character of railway management, it is the above
table. Here is a line, with a capital of thirteen millions
sterling, at present representing a loss of six millions to the
holders, only paying per cent., whereas, by its traffic, it
ought to pay quite as much as the Midland ; indeed, from
the fact of there being no competition, it should, with a con-
scientious board of directors, be assimilated in its returns to
the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Company. The
materiel employed in the working of our railways has pretty
nearly the same value throughout the kingdom—the cost of
labour th° same. It is to remedy this scandalous state of
things that there has been of late so much agitation; and
after a large amount of personal suffering, in many cases,
amongst the more dependant part of the shareholders, we
have little doubt a remedy will be found.