Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1888-06-20
CHARCOAL BURNING.
The Rapid Decline of Once Great
Wasteful Industry.


Wasteful Industry.
Charcoal burning, once one of the
great industries of the country, is now
played out, says Newark IN. j. letter
to the ST. Louis Glohe-Democrat. It is
good for the country, and particularly
for New Jersey, where it thrived ahead
Of any other state, that it is becoming
thing OF the past 1t was a rulnously
wasteful industry from the very start.
Thousands of millions of dollars worth
of salable products have been destroyed
IN the United States by the charcoal
burners in order to obtain a product in
feriOr to many of those that were ruined.
The charcoal burners have beer the
deadliest enemies of timber supply of
the nation. Twice they have denuded
the mountains of Northern New Jersey
and greatly thinned out the pineries in
the southern part of the state.
Charcoal burning began in this state
in 1870, when Cornelius Board started
an iron forge at Little Falls, and it was
greatly extended when Hazenclever
came to this country in 1854 and started
several FORCES and furnaces on his baron
ial possessions in Passaic County. 1t in
creased rapidly until coal came into use
for iron smelling, and since then has
gradually decreased. SO that the trees
have had a chance to grow again on the
denuded hills. In recent years nearly
all of the charcoal made has been con-
sumed in the cites, and the consump-
ton IN dwellings has decreased constant
ly, while the factory consump tion has not
greatly increased. Charcoal is a great
heat-producer and is extensively used
in jewelry shops and few other facto-
ri 10 no at
price, and it is dear in the beginning
the way it is made on the mountains.
One of the most prominent lumber
men IN the country, speaking about the
waste caused by charcoal burning, said
the other day:
''Do you know how rustic charcoal
burner burns coal? Well, / will tell
you. He levels a space and sticks up
the wood on end till it makes pointed
stack about eight feet high and ten or
twelve feet III diameter. This he covers
with earth and sod until every bit Of
wood IS concealed. When the wood iii
fully watched night and day until the
conversion into charcoal is accomplish
ed. Should it break into fame there
would be nothing left but ashes; so a
man remains on hand at all times to
keep the combustion from being too
rapid and to mend the mound as
breaks appear in it. When it is all done
the charcoal burner gets a few bushels
of charcoal for his labor.
''Let us see what he wastes. It is
shown that the manufacturers of creo-
sote, acetic acid, wood-alcohol, mordant,
and other products of wood can make
profit on each Of the products they get
and have the charcoal clear Of cost. The
i II
fire is built under the retort. The
temperature Is raised to 500 degrees or
600 degrees and the liquid portions of
the wood are converted into gas and va
por, which pass through an iron or cop
per worm incased in a jacket of cold
water, which condenses the vapors into
various products. which are afterward
separated.
Georgia pine, for instance, will yield
by distillation and condensation wood
gas, small amount of wood naphtha,
large amount of pyroligneous acid "a
wood vlnegar), a large amount of wood
creosote oil, small amount of tar, and
a great quantity of charcoal Nine
charcoal, fourteen barrels of creosote
oil, ten barrels of acid, and few gall
Ions of naphtha and bitumen. The
pyroligneous acid alone will pay all of
the expenses of the labor and the wood
creosote will more than pay for the
wood and fuel Nobody but country
charcoal-burner will claim that the coal
is not as good as that produced IL the
wasteful way he has been brought up to
do it,
It is believed charcoal will cease to be
an industry anywhere in this country
within few years. Certain it is that wide
awake business men are doing all they
can to root out what is lett of the in
for more valuable and useful purposes.