, 1888-03-06
THE FUEL OF THE FUTURE.


Coal Ground in n Cyclone Pulverizcr-BIg
Furnace Men Pronounce 1t n Success.
The steel and iron men of the country,
and all the rolling mill and furnace men
also, are interested in the newest rival to
natural gas as a saver Of fuel. 1t was a
modest little exhibition that was given in
Chester, Pa, the other day, but it proved
pretty conclusively that where natural
gas is not, pulverized coal is sure to be
ere long. j. g.. McCauley, of California,
for that is the discoveries name, claims
to have found a process by which 80 per
cent of the coal now used in furnaces
and rolling mills will be saved, and steel
and iron greatly improved in the pudding
process.
McCauley is one of the latest additions
to the array of genius collected by Erastus
Wiman, the Staten Island millionaire.
The Californian hunted around n good
while in search of n man of means who
would appreciate his invention. He could
have had all the capital he wanted several
years ago, but he wasn't able to get coal
pulverized fine enough to spray into the
furnace, and McCauley's process consists
in spraying coal that is pulyerized into an
impalpable powder into n combustion
attached to the furnace. Tn
combustion that takes place is perfect,
and it is instantaneous, and all the gases
are absorbed, so that none of the sulphur
gets int the iron and lessons its value, as
is how the case. That's all there is to the
new process, but it does the work, pro
vided the coal is powdered SO fine that
you can blow it around as you can the
smallest particles of dust.
1t was at this stage of the proceedings
that McCauley met Wiman. The man
from the Pacific coast explained his pro-
cess to the Staten Islander. The latter
said he would test it, because he had n
machin he got from two Wisconsin
farmers that would grind the coal out Of
sight if necessary. Two young Wisconsin
farmers were blowing when they saw n
cyclone come along safely out of their
way, and tear n town up. They noticed
how the two currents of air, moving in
opposite directions, knocked houses, barns
and paving stones into smithereens. The
thought struck one of them that if that
principle could be applied in machinery,
it would make the biggest grind in the
world. So the young men, whose name
was Raymond, and who were brothers,
went to Chicago and invented n machine
that they called the cyclone pulverizer.
Wiman met the Raymonds and they were
his, and so wa their machine. The Staten
Islander has n fortune in the pulverizer,
which has yet to meet n material it can
lOJ IGulCc " pONueTj L ul IOlu, una Jnc
Raymonds were paid a fortune by Wiman
for their discovery.
So McCauley md Wiman formed n
combination. Wiman's machine pull
verified the coal and McCauley tested his
process Mt the big Chester works. 1t was
n success beyond doubt, and had it been
put into operation before natural gas was
discovered, it would have had n clear
monopoly of the field. 1t isn't n free puff
to say that pulverized coal sprayed into n
furnace unquestionably saves the manu-
facturer hundreds of dollars n day. The
big furnace men at Chester and out In
Ohio say so, n so do all the big guns in
the manufacturing realm who were
present at the Chester exhibition. Out
side of the natural gas localities pu1ver.
lied coal is going to be the fuel of the
future. McCauley and Wiman are even
bold enough to say that they will confront
natural gas right in Pittsburg with
sprayed coal. The conflict ought to be an
interesting one Certain it is that to the
industrial world the new process of Nc
Cauley is the biggest item of news it has
received for years.-Cor. Boston Globe.