Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-09-12
NEW USES FOR OIL.
The Duquesne Traction Company At
tempts Crude Petroleum as a
SUBSTITUTE FOR COAL AND GAS.
Its Cost Is Cheaper Than That of the Black
Diamonds and Is
EASILY APPLIED TO ANY BOILER

| De done Win the DAILY increasing SMOKE
and what shall be done with the surplus
oil. With regard to the former the evil il
proposed to be met by the use of smoke
consumers; and they may be very effective
in disposing of any smoke they may be
called upon to grapple with. 1t does not
seem to be understood in Pittsburg that 6
much better plan of disposing of the smoke
would be not to have smoke to dispose of.
! The fact is overlooked that the use of oil as
a fuel in lieu of coal will also dispense with
the smoke nuisance. In this respect Chica-
| go and Cleveland are much in advance Of
this city, and in both cities oil fuel
is used with great success, and
cheaply. With crude petroleum most
bountifully supplied almost on the thresh-
hold of the city it is matter for surprise
that this description of fuel has not been
utilized long before this. Perhaps it is that
Pittsburg, with her usual tardiness in
recognizing good things, has waited for out
side encouragement before undertaking to
use product which is peculiarly her own.
Trials of this fuel for iren making purposes
made at Lindsay g. McCutcheon's mill, in
Allegheny, about two years ago were con-
sidered by General Manager Hamilton to be
immensely satisfactory, and Dilworth, Por-.
ter & Co. also introduced oil as fuel with
similar success Outside of these efforts
nothing has bean done in the direction of
utilizing oil for boiling iron or steam rails
ing until the smoke nuisance made it an OBJ
ject with one consumer of coal to cast about
for substitute. This was the Duquesne
Traction Company.
SUCCESSFUL TESTS AT BEN VENUE.
If there is any lingering doubt in the
minds of Pittsburgers as to the applicable
ity and economical use of crude petroleum
as steam raising fuel, such must be dis
PEELED by the results attained at the Ben
Venue power house of that company. Two
things have been demonstrated; that the oil
is as cheap fuel as coal, and that it is
smokeless as well as comparatively odor-
less. The setting of a furnace for oil fuel
is not more expensive than the construc-
tion of any new furnace, and in the case of
old furnaces, the change is inconsiderable
in cost. In short it has been successfully
demonstrated that crude petroleum can be
substituted for both natural gas and coal
with economical results; at once opening up
new field of consumption to oil operators
as well as securing the desideratum of
smokeless combustion.
The Duquesne Traction Company has two
batteries of five boilers each in its
power house, One of these batteries was
running yesterday with coal and the other
was being worked with crude petroleum.
Thus relative figures as to the cost of each
system was obtainable, and the value of
each description of fuel in a measure
gagged The plan of burning the petro-
leum was fully explained to a DISPATCH
reporter by Chief Engineer Julian E.
Smith, who is responsible for the methods
adopted. The plan is his own, and he finds
it SO successful that he has applied for let
ters patent for a construction of boiler fur
naces as adapted to this use.
Mr.. Smiths system is as follows: The
furnace is divided into three chambers, sep
arated by brick walls extending nearly the
entire length of the boiler, which is 18 feet
long. Under each chamber is an air flue,
the air passing upward into the combustion
chamber through pelforations in the floor.
CONSTRUCTION OF THE FURNACE.
Crude petroleum is carried from tank
in the yard, by gravity, through pipes to
the rear end of the furnaces and introduced
through quarter-inch pipe into the
two side chambers, one pipe to each. A
passes through the center chamber and is .
connected by half-inch pipe with the oil
pipe. The two pipes meet in a Reeds
burner, the steam driving the oil into the
side chambers. The steam by being passed
through the center chamber is completely
dried, so that when it meets the oil it forms
gas calculated to give good results in heat.
The gas carried through the side chambers
meets at the front end and sweeping around
the bending walls passes up the ecenter cham
Der and so into the tubes. The effect of this
distribution of the gas is that fully two
thirds of the surface of the boiler is sub
jected to the action of the flame which is
uniform and spread over the heating area.
The boilers are kept going day and night
at pressure of 100 pounds to the square
inch. One battery of five boilers consumes
80 tons of coal every "a hours. This at
81 45 per ton would be $43 90 per day. The
battery of five boilers with the petroleum
furnaces consumes so barrels of oil in "a
hours at cost of SO cents per barrel, or
S47 20 per day. The costs of the respective |
fuels are thus nearly equal, but the balance
is on the side of the oil when the saving in |
labor incidental to firing with coal is reck- |
oned. Fifty-nine cents is above the price |
at which it is considered crude petroleum |
could be obtained under circumstances call |
ing for large consumption.
IT is CHEAPER THAN NATURAL GAS.
Mr.. Smith said yesterday he would put |
the other battery under oil just as soon as |
he could get permission to do So He be- |
lieves it will eventually supersede coal, and |
he says its cheaper than natural gas at % |
cents per 1000 feet
Speaking about the uses to Which crude |
petroleum could be applied, Mr. Smith said |
that if he had the time he felt he could |
build furnace for pudding iron which
would give as satisfactory results with oil
as the fluid did under his boilers There
was no reason why oil could not be used in
iron mills and glass houses, and it certainly
could be applied as a steam raiser as was
here demonstrated. Mr.. Smith said his
petroleum furnace would be fully covered
by patents.
Lindsay & McCutcheon's experiment
with oil for pudding iron was also success
full Why it was not subsequently adopted
is stated to be because the firm had con-
tracted for gas for period. Under the
system employed at these works there was
no gas formed with the aid of steam. The
oil was allowed to drip from a barrel upon
heated bricks and combustion following the
flames were drawn in upon the iron by
draught The opinion has been expressed
that oil would come into more general use
as fuel if facilities were provided for its
easy and safe transportation. The ventila-
tion of the ma ter may have some effect in
bringing the subject before those who are
interested in it.
POLICE-A description of the Irish con-
Ra Rui1 nv fish