The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1888-02-05
THE RIVAL OF NATURAL GAS.
Pulverized Coal Declared to Be the Coming
Fuel for Iron and Steel Mills.

epecial to the Indianapolis JournaL
TRENTON, n. j., Feb. 4.-Ths steel and iron
men of the country, and all the rolling-miii and
furnace men also, are moro than interested IN
the newest rival to natural gas as saver OF
fuel Itwas q modest little exhibition that was
given in Chester, Pa, the other day, but IL
proved pretty conclusively that where natural
gas is not. pulverized coal is sure to be ere long,
The man who made the discovery and gave the
exhibition at the Chester rolling mills does not
pretend to be a second Edison and makes no
pretensions to unexampled greatness. But J. u.
McCauley, of California, for that Is his name,
claims to have discovered a process by which
30 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 He
demonstrated this at Chester last week, II .
score of reliable and wealthy manufacturers
who were present are to be believed McCauleT
is one of the latest additions to the array Of
genius collected by Erastus Wiman. the Staten
Island millionaire. The Californian hunted
around a good while in search of a man or
m cans who would appreciate his invention. He
could have had all the capital he wanted at Ak
ron, O., several years ago, but he wasn't able to
get coal pulverized fine enough to spray into the
furnace, and McCauleys process consists in
spraying coal that is pulverized into an impalpa-
BILE powder into a combustion chamber attached
to the furnace. The combustion that takes
place is perfect, and it is instantaneous and all
the gases are absorbed, that none of the
sulphur gets into the iron and lessons its values
as is now the case That's all there is to the
new process, but it does the work. provided 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
MeCauley met Wiman The man from the
Pacific coast explained his process to the Staten
islander. The latter said he would test it. be-
consin farmers that would grind the coal out OF
sight, if necessary. Two young Wisconsin
farmers were pougning when they saw a cy-
clone come along, safely out OF their
way, and tear town up. They
noticed how the two currents of air,
moving in opposite directions. knocked houses,
thought struck of them that if that prnci-
pie 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 ma
chine that they called the Cyclone Pulverizer.
Wiman met the Raymonds and they We're his,
and so their machine. The Staten islander
has a fortune in the pulverizer. which has yet to
meet material it cannot reduce TO powder. L
am told, and the Raymonds. were paid fortune
by Wiman for their discovery. SO McCau-
ley 81 Wlman formed combination. Wimans
machine pulverized the coal and McCauley
tested his process at the big Chester works. 1t
a
put into operation before natural gas was dis
covered 1t would have had clear mo.sopoiy of the
field. 1t isn't free puff to say that pulverized
coal sprayed into furnace, unquestionably
saves the manufacturer hundreds of dollars q
day. The big furnace men at Chester and out
in Ohio say SO, and do al the big guns IN the
manufacturing realm who were present at the
Chester exhibition. Outside of the natural-eas
localities pulverized coal going to be the fuel
of the future McCauley and Wiman are even
bold enough to cay that they will confront natu-
raj gas right In PittSourg with sprayed COAL
The conflict ought to be an interesting one.
Certain it is that the industrial world the new
process of McCauley is the biggest Item OF news
it has received for years.