The Richmond palladium., 1865-11-09
TIE USE OF WATER AS FUEL.

A, interesting discussion held recently at a
r,eet;ny cf the Ior Association for the Advance
rneu of Science and Art at the Cooper Institute on
,,.u.s Of water as fuel Dr. William L. Hager, Of
Troy y " has recently been conducting series OF
experiments to determine whether steam could not be
adyantageously used aid combustl"n- The sub
ect was brought before the Association at their last
meeting and a committee appointed to test the merits
of Dr. Hsger's plan. The committee reported at last
through their chairman. tIs although they had been
testing the matter By experiment "r week 'hst m
asuuch as the apparatus u>si by them Was not ADAPT
e 10 deterrnne with extreme accuracy the exact dl-
ference male ia the comDu>'i3n OF the coat oy the
introduction of the s:-Im, they had not prepared
formal report Of tie result obtained. Tie chairman
OF the committee. Dr. Leonard D. Gale however gave
verv interesting informal account of the expert
rnsnts ma l. an the resuts thus far obtITef The
first object which committee sought t" obtaIn be
ing the value of the discovery for domestic Purposes
they had conducted their experiments with an a?Para
.us much resembling common cooking stove IN TACT
differing from only having attached 10 II IN front
thick piece Of iron with cavity in the center
ye-v much Ike comm N water bicN 10 a stove
on the TOP of the apparatus were four kettle holes
in each of which kettle of water was placed, WINE,
another vesssl OF water placed ia the oven be-
hini The amount OF heat produced during the Vari-
experiments was determined by the weight q
water evaporAtei from the vessels. The experiments
CONDUCTED for three days by burning coal IN 'ne
apparatus in the ordinary manner the amount Oh coA
placei in the stove ben. carefully weighed each DAY,
ais, the amount Of ashes or resdum lett, and tue
amount OF water evaporatei. For the other four days
. small OF water was admit.s Iato the central
Of til. hollow iron front apaTe i1scrid wa'ci
bling converted bv the heat Of the fire into ste sn.
pissed through a series Of sni openings Unto the
center Of the burning coal As in the other expert
rpents the anorlt OF coal consnnel AMI Of water
svaporstei was carefully determined and noted The
net results OF the days experiments showed
that while pound Of coal bIrasi IN the ordinary
vav in the apparatus would sTsporAte 4s-Ioo
pounds OF per pound Of coa the proportion be-
ing so 10 IS In otlsr words, that the OF the
steam in connection with the coal, increased the avail
We give the 1gu-es gross, although Dr. Gale gave
them IN d,t Ill at sisrabls length. As IN the ex-
periunents grea, part Of the heat was necessarily
lo,, bv it:1a r5 the expose surface % tAe stove,
twas IN possible q determine Accurately the exact
souat Of increase of caused by the presence Of
th- steam but enough shown to demonstrate that
.e subject IS vel worthy se attention Of economists
DR. Has,n stated that locn motive vas now running
on the New York Genital Railroad. which. by The
use Of his system 50 pounds Of convert
81 into steam bv average consumption OF one
/ pound ~ coal This Company are now applying the
principle of their conosiyes. and are
about construct - Others. bunk expressly 10 ie-
clude this principe
After some further consideration Of
the subject again rsfsrei u the committee, VINO
were Instructed i thoroughly AMI report
1 at soma frture Esees;ng.-Si. iaersc1n.