Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-04-11
CLEANLY AND CHEAP.
HOW TO BURN COAL WITHOUT MAKING
VERY MUCH DIRT.

Some Suggestions From Gentleman Who
Talks From Experience - How Mr..
Eichbaum Saved Many Bushels of Coal
and Needed No Smoke Consumer
Joseph Eichbaum has something to say to
the people of Pittsburg, now that they are
forced In great measure to 60 back to coal
for fuel, and it seems pity that they can
not be made incline their ears and act on
Mr.. Eichbaum's suggestion before the city
again assumes its old-time funereal hue.
Mr.. Eichbaum's suggestion is not
patented, and he asks nothing for it but that
the city be keptas clean as possible, and as
he figures, it seems strange that anyone
burning coal and having the same to pay for
does not catch on at once. Here are some of the
results Some years ago he had hue boiler,
16 feet by sc inches, for power, and an
Eclipse boiler for heating, and the con-
sumption of coal under them to get the
service required was AZ bushels of coal a
day. As the fue boiler did not give enough
steam, Mr. Eichbaum had the furnace en-
larged. and thereby secured ample steam
for all purposes, without using the Eclipse
boiler, and the consumption of coal under
the new arrangement was but 181f bushels
day. He subsequently reset the same boiler,
and gave eight inches space between the
boiler and the walls instead of the custom
ary four inches allowed, and secured the
same result by the combustion of 15H bush
els of coal, little over one-third of the
amount originally employed, and the smoke
escaping from the stack was scarce percep-
tible.
Another Successful Experiment
Another boiler % feet by 3S inches had its
furnace enlarged in the same way, except
that the space at the sides could not be en-
larged, for want of room. Its consumption
of gold was 45 bushels a day prior to the
enlargement and p bushels day subse-
quent thereto. In this case the coal was
weighed during six days preceding and six
days succeeding the enlargement. In the
first experiment the CRATE surface of the
furnace was enlarged from to 20 feet and
in the second from IA to 21 feet, just so per
cent in the latter case. Nearly all the gases
were consumed by the perfection gained in
combustion and added to the saving of fuel
the fouling of the atmosphere by the escape
of smoke was almost entirely avoided.
Mr.. Eichbaum says he does not base his
theory and practice on any pretension to
scientific knowledge. but wholly on OBJ
servation and experience. When he was
steamboating economy of fuel was de-
sideratum on the Western and Southern
rivers and he had master stoker employed
to whom $40 month was paid when stokers
could be had in any port for S25 a month,
but this mans skill in firing saved the
owners Of the boat several times his extra
cost. Mr.. Eichbaum observed that this
stoker would not allow the furnaces choked
with raw coal as did ordinary iremeh, but
first coked the coal in the front of the furnace
and then spread the Goals by degrees so
as to not only get more heat than other
stokers, but at q much less expenditure of
fuel, and he did not have the facilities for
doing as much as he could have done with
an enlarged CRATE surface.
Can BE Done in Every House.
Mr.. Eichbaum says the same results can
be achieved in household consumption by
similar methods, and it is we'll known that
some crate settlers can give the same heat in
a room with less than half the coal con-
sumed in CRATES 40 years ago.
He attributes the waste of fuel in Pitts
burg to the cheapness of coal here in former
years. In the East and in some portions of
the West, where fuel has always been ex-
peDsive, the matter has received study,
and the Corliss engines are pro-
vided with furnaces built on scientific
principles, the amount of CRATE or
furnace room DelnC calculated according 10
whether anthracite or bituminous coal is to
be used. AS coal will never again be so
cheap in Pittsburg as it was in the days
when the surplus could not be shipped, the
matter is an important one. not only as re-
CARDS cost for manufacturing and house con-
sumption, but as has been demonstrated,
Mr.. Pickwick's observation that dirt and
prosperity 60 together is no longer axiom
attic. Why not make an effort to get along
without smoke in our atmosphere, especially
when it is cheaper to do so than not? AS
we have wasted in seven years a supply of
natural gas that ought to have sufficed 20
years, we should at least try and get some
salvage from our eXperienee