Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1888-07-05
GREAT DISCOVERY.


GREAT DISCOVERY.
The Direct Production of Pure Hot Ar
From Coal.
A discovery having an important
bearing in the present upon the arts
and manufactures has recently been
made by Mr.. William A. Gibbs, of Es-
sex. The discovery is that perfectly
pure air can be produced from the
combustion of coal. The arrangement
for effecting this result is extremely
simple. 1t consists of a brick cham
Der about five feet long by two feet
wide and two feet high, built upon the
ground. At one end is feed chamber
and fuel chamber, and at the other a
powerful exhaust and blast fan. Placed
intermediately between the chamber
and the fan are battle plates, splitting
plates, standing bridge with perfora-
lions at the back, and hanging bridge
with perforations at the front. There
are also several carefully proportional
lnlets to supply the exact quantity of
air requisite for perfect combustion.
This exact apportionment of the air
constitutes one of the main points of
success, and it is the one which Mr..
Glbbs found the most difficult to deter
mine. Once known, however, this
law of proportion between air and fire
is, OF course, easily maintained.
Another point having very impor-
tant bearing on the result is the exact
relative proportion of the fuel cham
n ha nhoy %
to the volume of air drawn per minute
by the fan. This also being ascer-
tanned, after many failures, is now a
fixed instead of a doubtful quantity.
Given these proportions and some 9TH
ers of minor Importance the result is
distinctly curious.
Issuing from a fan mouth twelve
inches in diameter comes rushing a
column of hot air, marking on the py-
rometer at its exit a steady uniform
temperature of five hundred degrees
Fahrenheit. Not trace of smoke or
fume is visible to the eye; not faint
of any kind is perceptible to the taste
or smell. Standing, as we did in the
range of this simeon, with the hot
blast full in the face, the heat is of
course excessive, but the stream of air
is perfectfuly pure. Save in the mat
ter of temperature it affects neither
the eyes, the throat, nor the nostrils.
As proof of this purity some choice
tea which had been saturated with hot
water was placed in the hot air cur
rent, and when redried was pronounced
by an expert to be wholly free from any
impaired faint or taste. In order to
show the character of the products of
combustion before being submitted to
the fiery ordeal the fan was stopped,
and dense cloud of black smoke rose
up from the coal in the feed chamber,
charged with suffocating fumes. On
restarting the fan it was quietly drawn
in again, but not a sign of it appeared
at the exit from the fan, and the air
when inhaled was as pure as ever. It
would be interesting to know the ra-
tionale of the process by means of
which all the varied products from
coal combustion are thus so COM
pletely destroyed. Mr.. Gibbs sug-
>
coal is decomposed into oxygen and
hydrogen, and that the hydrogen in
burning adds to the heat of the re-
sultant air, while the oxygen, re-en-
forced as it is by that obtained from
the large volume of fresh air admitted
at the various inlets, decomposes and
purifies all these products. But what
ever the theory may be, the fact re-
mains that that it is not only possible
but easy and economical to obtain the
utmost amount of heat from coal with
out any deterioration in the atmos-
phere.
The success attained by Mr.. Gibbs
naturally suggests the application of
the principle in the industrial arts as
well as for steam-raising purposes and
for domestic use by the supersession
of open fires in stoves.-LOndon Times.