San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1882-12-21

mineral coal into that city Tor the
reason, among others, that its smoke
injured tire complexion of the ladies'
It's odious smoke has always been the
strongest objection to the use OF MN
eral fuel and has always proved the
greatest impediment in the way OF ITS
odoption. The demands of industrial
works and the decadence of the for
ests, however, have made It's use
such a matter of necessity that peo'
ple have accepted the smoke as a
necessary evil and so have become re-
signed, though never reconciled to IT,
There have been many inventions de-
signed to mitigate the nuisance OF
abolish it entirely, but all have failed
to provide remedy applicable to all
cases, and on every railroad tram ana
about every furnace and factory the
"noisome smoke" is as abundant and
offensive to-day as it was in London
| A. d. 1900. Therefore, if the New
York inventor has accomplished all
that he claims, his memory should
be embalmed in history with those
Of Stephenson and Fulton.
! The new invention, as described,
lis, like most great inventions, found
ed on a very simple principle. The
great steam engine, complicated as 1t
appears, is founded simply on the
ability of a volume of steam to push
a piece of metal out of place, and,
similarly, Mr.. Mallet's invention his
| full name by the way, is E. j. Mallet,
Jr,) is simply the burning up of all
there is to burn. When shovel full
of coal is thrown into an ordinary
furnace, part of it is transformed into
light and heat, part remains in the
shape of incombustible ash, and part
escapes in the form of smoke, which
| is combustible matter unconsumed.
The theory of combustion makes
no allowance for smoke; which IS a
conspicuous instance of the wide diff
ference existing between theory and
practice. In this case Mr.. Mallet I'M
dertook to reconcile them. He no.
ticed that his argand lamp when prop
erly regulated gave out light and heat
without smoke, showing that IN 1t
combustion was perfect y accom-
plished, and the idea struck him that
he might make an argand lamp of his
furnace. 1t was merely question of
regulating the intermixture of carbon
and oxygen, OF, in less scientific words,
of furnishing just enough, and no
more, air to the burning coal. 1t is
not the purpose of this article to both
er the reader with details; tits enough
to say that Mr.. Mallet has patented a
very simple mechanism which, while
consuming tons of coal and raising
a vast amount of steam, gets along
very comfortably without a smoke
stack.
The industrial value of the new dis
covery lies in the fact that it econo-
mixes fuel by using that which has
hitherto gone up the chimney. This
is estimated to be about two-thirds of
the entire amount, so that the advan-
tage of smokeless fire in this respect
is a matter of a very simple arithmet-
ical calculation. This is not it. only
money value, however. Philadelphia
has an enviable reputation among
cities for cleanliness, yet in Philadel-
phia there are squares and squares of
buildings and building sites which are
greatly deprecated in value by the
smoky factory chimneys in the vicini-
ty, and those representative cities,
London and Pittsburg, are proverbial
for the noxious canopy of smoke that
overhangs them. With this removed,
the pccuniary benefit will be felt in
two ways. But the people as a whole
will be most interested in the aboli-
ton of the smoke nuisance from the
affairs of daily life. Residents in the
neighborhood of the aforesaid chin
neys will feel that life is worth living,
should those structures forever cease
to belch forth clouds of smoke, and
the relief experienced by railroad trav
elers in riding behind smokeless 10:
connective Will be almost inexpressible.
The Pennsylvania railroad, for in:
stance has adopted every known ex-
pedient for the travellers comfort. Its
stone-ballasted track and sodded
banks relieve him from all dust; but
what is that, when the engine that
draws him filings clouds of smoke and
fine cindersi n his face at every mile
of his journey? With this annoyance
removed, busters would become su-
perfuous and travelling a luxury. An
incredulous world will await the tests
Of Mr.. Mallet's invention with douht-