Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-11-27
THE END TO SMOKE
Anxiously Awaited by Londoners as
the Result of q New Plan.
FOGS NOW WORSE THAN EVER.
Progress Being Made In Various Lines of
Science and Industry.
VALUE OF PHOTOGRAPHIC TESTIMONY

The Inhabitants of London, who are Just
now undergoing, almost daily, the discom-
forts and Inconvenience of sitting fogs,
are awaiting with some anxiety and not q
little hope, the outcome of a new invention,
which promises if not to remove the source
of the murkiness of the London air, to at
all events deprive it of much of its exasper-
ating density and pungency. Four years
ago, London had fog one day in four. and
last year there were $50 foggy DAYS out of
the 365, and not only are the fogs increas-
ing in number but becoming more dense.
This is hardly surprising when it is remem-
bered that London has a million and half
chimneys, and every winters day there are
| burned in the ordinary freplaces of the
city 10000 tons of soft coal, which throws
off into the atmosphere 40 tons of sulphur.
The real trouble arises. not from the smoke
of the manufacturers chImnevs, but from
that of household fires. The English Me-
teorological Society states that nineteen
twentieths of the smoke in the London fog
comes from the ordinary 6replaces. A
member of the British Parliament. on be-
ing questioned as to the desirability of ap-
pointing royal commission with view to
the suppression of the smoke nuisance,
answered that the evil rose chiefly from the
domestic fires, and a select committee had
found the difficulty could only be overcome
by the use OF anthracite, the substitution of
coke for coal, or the adoption of improved
CRATES. If there is anything the English
domestic resents more than another it is
being obliged to use hard coal; and
coke is almost equally unpopular More
over, one of the most cherished home priv
ileges an Englishman possesses is the right
to jam the poker into the smoldering coal,
and evoke the magic of cheerful, brightly
blazing fire. There thus remains on the list
of practicable remedies, an improved form
of CRATE, and this has now been devised by
long-headed Yorkshireman. The princi-
pie of the invention is of the simplest
description. 1t has been proved that failure
OF combustion is due not to want of air, but
to the absence of sufficiently high degree
of heat to promote the combination of car
bon with oxygen, and the consequent evolu- Z
tion of carbonic acid. There have been
hundreds of patents taken out for the
effectual consumption of smoke, combined
with the economy of fuel, but before now
the scientific principle OF bringing sufi-
cient supply of the oxygen of the air into
intimate contact with the carbon of the fuel,
previous to the formation of what
is called ''smoke," has never been
thoroughly utilized. 1t is the practical
the claim of the new invention to be re-
garded as the ideal system of smoke con-
sumption, and doubtless explains the high
scientific recognition with which it has
been received in England. Instead of hav-
ing frigid iron bars in front of the fire, as in
the ordinary kitchen range, the improved
CRATE has three iron "Iouvres," or venetian
blinds, which may be opened and closed by
means Of lever. The bottom of the fire.
box consists of two grooved or cogged roll |
ers, which can be manipulated with ease SO |
as to stir the fuel and remove the ash. The |
fire chamber is divided into two parts by |
freproof screen of brick, suspended from
and fastened to fixed iron plate at the top. |
The fireplace consists, in fact. of a "
shaped tube, on the top of the front |
arm of which the fuel is placed and |
the air is admitted downwards through |
the venetian blinds in 'front.' 1t will |
thus be seen that the chimney is at the |
bottom instead of at the top of the fire, and |
as the products of combustion, by means of |
the downward draught, must always pass |
through the hottest parts of the fire the |
smoke is practically consumed. An in |
ferior grade of coal can be used, and be- |
tween the reduced cost of coal and the |
less than so per cent is effected. The practi- |
cal value of this invention is seen from the |
fact that it can easily pe applied in the |
homes OF all classes of the population 1t |
has been already successfully used in the |
working of a vertical boiler, in which o |
pressure OF 60 pounds was obtained without |
the slightest smoke, and designs are now |
being prepared with view to its applica- |
tion to factory and marine work. Should |
this system fulfill its promise, one of the |
most important problems of the day will |
have been solved, and the solution affects |
not only large sections of English communi-
ties, but many cities in this and other |
where soft coal is the staple fuel,
and where the general adoption of electric |
heating is likely to be long deferred.