The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1880-11-11
Gas Fuels.

OaS Fuels.
There can be no question that the
best fuel for heating. cooking or max
ing steam is a gas. Only the high price
OF common gas prevents it from being
the universal fuel. A gas flame is clean.
Tree from smoke, gives its full power
instantly and may be cut of the mo-
ment the required work is done. 1t is
equally available in the range, furnace
and locomotive or marine boiler. To
reduce the cost of making gas has been
more or less successful; and il has been
demonstrated that good heating gas
can be supplied to the householder at
very low rates. All of the later proc
esses Tor making gas fuel depend on
the production OF hydrogen from water
and in a new process recently brought
out, naptha and water alone are used
20 produce what is called an Z" oxyhy-
dro-carbon heat" or flame tits prac-
tically non-luminous gas of great heat
ing power, made in a self-cOntained APP
paratHs that is at once retOrt and
burner. From an examination Of the
apparatus, il may be described as pair
of iron retorts, somewhat resembling
coal gas retorts and cast in one piece.
For common coOk-stove, the retort,
In its two compartments, would hold
about one quart Of water 1t is sup
piled with inlet pipes at one side, near
the bottom, one pipe for each eompart-
nent, each pipe being packed for a
short distapce with fine wire netting
From the top of each division of the re-
tort is taken pipe, bending over and
turning under the flat bottom of the re-
tort. Here one pipe ends with a mi
mute hole, or burner and the other in a
ring pierced with small holes on the in
ner side, or toward the top of the other
pipe, which is placed in the middle of
the ring. One OF the inlet pipes is con-
neeted with tank containing napth&
and the other connects with tank con-
tanning water, and each is raised suffi-
GENTLY above the retort to give fall of
about fifteen feet. Under the retort is a
small metal cup, connected with a
branch pipe from the pipe supplying
naphtha. The retort is placed in the
fre-pot of the stove or range, and about
3 teaspoonful of naphtha is allowed to
run through pipe into the cup under
the retort. On lighting this, it burns
for few moments and heats the retOrt.
The naphtha and water are then turned
into the retort in very small quantities,
or at the rate of seventy or eighty
drops a minute. The naphtha is at
once volatilized, and under its own
pressure escapes through the opening
below, and takes fire in the form of a
minute and slender flame. The wire
netting on the supply-pipe here serves
70 prevent the gas from striking back
into the supply-pipe. and to distribute
the naphtha in the retort in as finely di-
vided a state as possible. Water flows
into the other division of the retort in
minute quantities, and is at once con-
verted into steam, and then into super
heated steam; in other words, is de-
composed into its gases, that, escaping
from the ring below, strikes the naphtha
gas-fame, and combine to produce
gas-tire Of intense heat free from smoke
or dust. The process once started, the
supply of naphtha in the cup under the
retort is cut of, and the process of gas
making goes on continually, so long as /
the supply of water and naphtha is |
Maintained. Byadding a third division
- the retOrt, and a certain length of /
pipe III the iire-bOx, the same apparatus |
will, with the use of more naphtha sup /
piled by separate pipe, produce a good .
Illuminating gas, SO that the range may
as once cook for the family and make
gas for lighting the house by night. /
For making steam, the retorts are some
what larger, but are essentially of the /
same construction. The retort, placed .
Ia an open fireplace, gives brilliant 4
and powerful sheet of flame; really a
bright open fire, that may be lighted
instantly, eXtinguished in moment.
and requires neither cleaning nor at
tention, and makes neither smoke,
smell nor dust. By adding the retort
for making luminous gas to the fire.
place, The open fiIe will give a bright
light and make a light and cheerful
blaze ON the hearth. It would appear
as IL this method of making and using a
cheap gas-fuel, suitable for the house
hold and boiler-room, had been thor
oughly tested, and it win do much to
bring into use the fuel of the future,
which viii be a gas. - Scri5ner'S
M0Htbly.