Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1876-11-10
The Fuel of the Future.


There is, probably no branch of engineering
skill in which so little improvement has been made
and in which there is wide and inviting field
for the exercise of ingenuity in the utilization
of fuel. Professor Gruner states that
In the wnd-furnace, which is from this point OF
view the most imperfect apparatus, there is util-
lied in the fusion of steel in cruclbles but IL OF
the total heat capacity of the fuel at most per
cent of the heat generated. In the reverbatory,
when steel is melted in crucibles, the useful effect
is per cent. Of the total heat, or per cent. OF
the heat generated. In the Siemens crucible fur
naces, TO SO per cent; in Siemens glass-fur-
naces, operating a large scale, $50 to 6 per
cent In ordinary glass-furnaces, per cent. in
fusion upon the open hearth of a revcrberaory, OF
glass, per cent; of lron per cent; in we'll
arranged Siemens and Ponsard furnaces, up to ID,
Is and even 20 per cent of the total heat is util
lied.
1t is safe to assume that in ordinary steam
gines where the steam is generated IN plain cylin-
der boilers, the economy attained in the use OF
fuel is not much greater than in reverberatory fur
naces, while in domestic use, in open CRATES es-
pecally, it is doubtful if as large percentage of
the heat capacity of the fuel is utilized. Yet
though the extreme wastefnlness Of our methods of
using fuel have long been subject of remark, no
inventor has yet exploited with field that
offers pIize greater than the princely reward Of
the fortunate inventor of the Bessemer process for
making steel. There are many causes which con-
tribute to the enormous waste experienced In the
consumption of fuel. Among the most important
is the large amount of heat absorbed in the fur
mace ITSELF in the Justification of the carbon, that
is, in the preparation of the fuel for combustion
and further, in the fact that the quantity OF nitro
gen admitted with the atmospheric air necessary
to furnish the oxygen for combustion is so great
that ii materially reduces the temperature of the
furnace, and as a consequence, reduces, in a still
more rapid ratio. the effective work performed by
the fuel. The maximum OF economy would nat
urally seem to be attained by admitting to the
combustion chamber fuel in condition ready to
burn, i. c. in a gaseous form, and in the form of
gas or gases possessing the highest temperature of
combustion. Hydrogen and carbonic oxide seem
to be the most available, and so generally has this
fact been recognized that for many years efforts
have been made to manufacture these gases by
the decomposition of water in contact with coal
these efforts have not till recently been successful
in an economical sense. The reports we have pub
llshed from time to time during the past year or
two, recording the performances of the Lowe gas
process, seem to place the matter Of the econom-
cal manufacture on q large SCALE of water gas of
very high caorifc value, among the settled ques-
tons. 1t Is not of illuminating gas however, that
we would now speak, but of heating gas, for we
are convinced that the question of the economical
production OF good heating gas once settled,
the business Of manufacturing it will greatly
overshadow by its enormous proportions that of
making Illuminating gas. There is scarcely use
to which we now apply coal in cities that;woud not
be benefited by the substitution of heating gas if
the price sufficiently low. 1t is said that wa
ter gas manufactured according to the Lowe sys-
tenn, can be made at cost not to exceed l5 cents
per 900 cubic feet, figure which should allow of
its distribution, in the enormous quantities re-
quired for domestic and manufacturing purposes,
at very small price, say so cents per 900 feet.
Ii water gas, having more than four times the Ca
lorihc value of Siemens gas can be produced here
IN the seaboard cities where coal costs from 81 to
50 a ton, by the Lowe or any other process, at a
cost Of 10 cents per 900 feet it must be evident
that new era in the development of industry is
dawning upon us. 1t is not too much to expect
that, under these circumstances, gas would take
the place of coal in most uses; its cleanliness,
even If there were no great economy would Sc
that result for domestic USE and the increased
efficiency and convenience of gas and the i'm
proved quality Of the products obtained by its use
would be sufficient to secure its adoption for man
uiacturlng and smelling purposes. When we con-
sider the question of the distribution of gas for
fuel, for domestic purposes, the high calorifc
power of the gas becomes still more important
than when 1t Is manufactured directly at the works
at which it is used. We confidently anticipate the
introduction, before the lapse of many years, of
heating gas for general domestic use but though
this will not be attended with an enormous econo-
my in the consumption Of coal, we see nothing in
1t to lnJuTlously affect the coal trade Experience
has shown that every economy in the use of fuel
has been followed by such great and rapid de-
velopment Of the industries using coal, that the
total consumption OF this has increased, instead of
diminished. If but half of the coal now con-
sumed in this city were converted into heating
gas, at some central works and distributed, as il
Illuminating gas now is, IL would more than
do the work now done by the coal sold
But with the great reduction in the cost, and IA
cility in the use of heat, it would quickly be en-
ployed in multitude of ways not now thought
Of; and not only the cooking and heating would
be done by gas, but much OF the work done by
our servants would be performed by machinery /;
manufacturing of all kinds, and particularly those
industries that be carried on in private houses
would multiply to an unheard of extent Our
mills and machine-s hops, factories and furnaces,
able to save enormously in their fuel item, would
find wider markets for their products, and in a
thousand other ways the consumption offael would
be so greatly increased that the demand for coal
would be fully maintained and would soon assume
proportions exceeding the most extravsgant views
of our most sangune "coal men."-Eagiaee,inq
and Mining Journal.