Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1877-01-12

ENORMOUS WASTE OF HEAT IN FURNACES AND
STOVES.

ENORMOUS WASTE OF HEAT IN FURNACES AND
STOVES.
From the Engineering and Mining Journal.
There is, probably, no branch Of engineer
ing skill in which so little improvement has
been made and in which there is SO wide and
inviting q field for the exercise of ingenuity
as in the utilization of fuel. Professor Grun-
er states that
In the wind-furnace, which is from this
point of view the most imperfect apparatus,
there is utilized in the fusion of steel in cru
cibles but IL of the total heat capacity OF
the fuel, or at most three per cent of the
heat generated. In the reverberatory. when
steel is melted in crucibles, the useful effect
is two per cent of the total heat, or three per
cent of the heat generated. In the Siemens
crucible furnaces, three to 35 per cent in
Siemens glass-furnaces, operating on a large
scale, $50 to six per cent in ordinary glass
furnaces, three per cent in fusion upon the
open hearth OF reverberatory. OF glass,
seven per cent (; of iron, eight in
well-aranged Siemens and Ponsard furnaces.
up to fifteen, eighteen and even twenty per
cent of the total heat is utilized.
1t is safe to assume that in ordina-
~ steam engines, where the steam is genera
ted in plain cylinder boilers. the economy
attained in the use of fuel is not much great
er than in reverberatory furnaces, while in
domestic use. in open CRATES especially, it is
doubtful If as large percentage of the heat
capacity of the fuel is utilized. Yet though
the extreme wsstefulness of our methods of
using fuel have long been subject of re-
mark, no inventor has yet exploited with
success field that offers prize greater than
the princely reward of the fortunate inventor
Of the Bessemer process for making steel.
There are many causes which contribute to
the enormous waste experienced in the con-
sumption of fuel. Among the most import
ant is the large amount OF heat absorbed in
the furnace itself, in the gasifcation OF the
carbon that is, in the preparation OF the
fuel for combustion, and, further, in the fact
that the quantity OF nitrogen admitted with
the atmospheric air necessary to furnish the
oxygen for combustion is SO great that it ma
terislly reduces the temperature of the fur
mace, and, as q consequence, reduces in q
still more rapid ratio the effective work per-
formed by the fuel The maximum Of econo-
my would naturally seem to be attained by
admitting to the combustion chamber fuel in
Q condition readyto to burn,-that is, in gas
eous form, and III the form of the gas or
gases possessing the highest Temperature of
combustion. Hydrogen and carbonic OXIDE
seem to be the most available, and SO gene
rally has this fact been recognized that for
many years efforts have been made to manu-
facture 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
lished from time 10 time during the past
year. recording the performances of the
Lowe gas process, seem to place the matter
of the economical Manufacture on large
scala of water of htUh ealpria
value among the settled questions. 1t is not
of illuminating gas, however, that We would
now speak, but of heating gas, for We are
convinced that, the question OF tue economi-
cal production OF good heating gas once
settled, the business of manufacturing it
will greatly overshadow by its enormous pro-
portlonR that Of making Illuminating gas
There is scarcely L use 10 which we now APP
ply coal in our cities that would not be bene-
fitted by the substitution of heating gas if
the price were sufficiently low. 1t is said
that water gas manufactured according to the
Lowe system can be made at cost not to
exceed fifteen cents per 1000 cubic feet, Il
figure which should allow Of its distribution
in the enormous quantities required for do
mestic and manufacturing purpose, at u very
small price, say. fifty cents per 1000 feet. If
water gas, having more than four times the
calorlhc value OF SIemens's gas. can be pro-
duced here in the seaboard cities, where coal
costs from 81 10 S. ton, by the Lowe or
any other process, at u cost Of fifteen cents
per 1000 feet, 1t must be evident that new
eIa in the development Of industry is dawn
ing upon us. 1t is not too much to expect
that, under these circumstances, gus would
take the place of coal i'll most uses its clean
illness, even if there were no great economy
would secure that result for domestic use,
and the increased efficiency and convenience
Of gas and the improved quality of the pro-
ducts obtained by its use would be sufficient
to secure its adoption for manufacturing and
smelling purposes. When We consider the
question of the distribution of gas for fuel
for domestic purposes. the high caloritic pow
er of the gas becomes still more important
than when it is manufactured directly at the
works at which it is used. We confidently
anticipate the introduction. before the lapse
of many years, of heating gus for general
domestic use but though this will be at
tended with an enormous economy in the
consumption OF coal, We see nothing in it TO
inJuriously affect the coal trade. Experience
has shown that every economy in the use of
fuel has been followed by such great and
rapid development of the industries using
coal, that the total consumption Of this has
increased, instead of diminished. If but
half Of the coal now consumed in this city
were converted into heating-gas, ut some
central works, and distributed, as illumina-
ting gas now is, 1t would more than do the
work now done by the coal sold. But, with
the great reduction in the cost. and facility
in the use Of heat, it would quickly be EN-
ployed in q multitude Of ways not now
thought of and not only the cooking and
heating would be done by gas, but much of
the work d one by our servants would be per
formed by machinery manufacturing OF all
Kinds, and particularly those small industries
that can be carried on in private houses
would multiply to an unheard-of extent.
Our mills and machine-sbops, factories and
furnaces, able to save enormously in their
fuel item, would find wider market for their
products. and in a thousand other ways the
consumption of fuel would be so greatly in-
creased that the demands for coal would be
fully maintained and would soon assume pro-
portions exceeding the most e1travagant
views Of our most sanguine coal men,"