Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1889-03-28
HEAT WITHOUT FUEL
an Aseounoing Claim Which Sets All

an Astounding Claim Which Sets All Sci
ence at Naught.
ne accepted theories of heat gen.
eraton limit the list of materials from
winch heat may be produced bv arti-
nciai means to the substances known
as Iuels- And these fuels are almost
wholly confined to the various forms of
caroon, organic or inorganic, vegetable
or mineral. Not to enter on the cues
uon whether mineral carbons. coal and
OH are derived from organic bodies OR
hot' we need only consider them as
Hniherallzed fuels. And as to organic
fuels. whether vegetable, as in woody
tissues, or as carbonaceous matter in
the form of animal oils, they burn and
give heat in strict proportion to the
CARBON they contain. We have, there.
lore, In our wisdom, been attempting
much lately in the way of keeping up
the stock of these organic fuels by
planting forests, and by even making
straw up into cakes, like the dried peat
of the frugal Icelanders.
But there has now come forward the
bold invention of new source of heat;
an ever-present material, and a self
acting process of using it, almost. 1t
Is heat generator that consumes lit
Tie OF any form of fuel, as we now de-
hne that word. At least, it requires
scarcely more than the match that
nights gas jet to set it going. 1t
does not produce or generate any i'm
portant quantity of the ordinary prod
uctS OF ombustion-neither smoke,
nor carbonic acid, nor ashes. 1t will
not be necessary to sell the residuals
SO carefully as gas works do, nor will
IL De necessary to cumber the side
walks with ash-boxes or ash-carts
let the heat is as decisive and gen.
uine as the heat from anthracite coal
In blast furnace. 1t will warm a
house thoroughly, and even heat it to
excess II not carefully regulated 1t
Will melt iron or steel, and by its own
selt-action, when once started, it will
heat the containing drum or fire-box,
to red heat first and almost white
heat next. Its constant heat would
melt iron or steel if not checked by
slight manipulation.
Is this miracle or an overwrought
mental strain. such as might reasona-
bly, be inferred? 1t is neither 1t is
literal and absolute fact, as plain and
practical as a large iron-heating drum
can be made. In this drum a slight
coal-tire is lighted. and the ordinary
fuel door above and the draft door be-
low being properly adjusted, the cumu-
lative heat generation begins instant
ly. If not stopped By readjustment Of
the doors it will GO on indefinitely. al
most to the full red-heating Of the con-
tanning vessel or drum.
1t is clearly the air that is burned,
the oxygen of the common atmosphere
constituting the fuel. There can be
no exhaustion of the supply of air with
its contained oxygen. and, as no arti-
fetal blast or other mechanical agency
Is required to feed the air, it constitutes
a self-created flame. 1t is only requis-
lite to check the supply of air 50 as
to avoid cumulative efTects-otherwis
there would clearly be a steadily-in-
creasing draft to feed the flame, and &
degree of heat beyond any capacity to
apply it. The combustion in this case
gives an intense heat, but with little
visible flame. 1t forms little carbonic
acid gas. 1t would not deliver suffi-
cient of such gases into the air of any
room to asphyxiate its occupants if all
the products of com cushion were deliv-
cred in and not outward through any
outgoing fue. At the moment of orig
inal ignition the small amount of coal
Or wood used to light the fire would
possibly make some smoke, but after
the lighting is effected the heat may be
kept up Indefinitely by simply regulat-
ing the draft of air, and during that
time the contained fuel used to light
the furnace remains without being
more than in part consumed.
This reads little like the record of
any experiment with ordinary fuels, or
any record of the evolution of heat
units from weighed or measured frag-
ments of coal, or of wood, or of oil. 1t
is in great degree mystery under
our accepted scientific definitions, and
it's great significance is in the assur
ance that the common air may be made
the adjunct fuel, alike for domestic
heating and for metallurgic uses
1t will be a blessing to the people of
the great interior to be able to substi-
tute the bitter north wind for the cost
ly fuel that coal is with them. 1t will
be grateful chance for retaliation to
burn the wind there as a fuel against
its own violence All this is too strange
to be at once accepted. whether true
or not, and the writer hereof enters a
plea of pleasant enthusiasm to avert
too great antagonism. Yet it is true
that the common air is burned in this
self-acting furnace. with evolution of
intense heat--Lorrin Blodgett,. in
Light, Heat and Power.