Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-02-19
Leading Business Men and Manu-
facturers Tell of Successful
TRIALS OF SMOKE CONSUMERS.
Many Others Talk of the Pressing Necessity
of Their Use.
AN APPEAL TO COUNCILS FOR ACTION

|
officially demonstrated that smoke consum
ing appliances were a success, should moi
now be taken down, busted off and passed.
A new and interesting thought in con-
nection with the smoke nuisance was pre-.
sented by downtown business man yes
terday. "Suppose," said he, ''that the
natural gas supply should be exhausted
completely tomorrow. What would be the
result? We would have new illustration
of the city's growth and development and
be disagreeably reminded of the days prior
to the natural gas era. The darkness
caused by the smoky pail Of those days
would be trifing in comparison with that
which would fall like an inky mantle over
our city.
1t Would Be Worse Than Ever.
'"The number of large office and other
buildings In which elevators, steam heat
and power are used has largely increased
and many of our business houses have their
own electric light plants The power to
| operate all these is steam and it cannot
be produced without burning fuel The
| addition of all these smokestacks would
| increase largely the amount of smoke as
matter of course. The big electric light
| plants and traction power houses would add
much more. Nearly all the smoke produc-
| ing establishments that previously existed
| are still with us, so that all these new smok-
| ers are an increase and they are scattered
all over the city. Unless the City Councils
speedily adopt some restrictive measures
Pittsburg will become more dark and smoky
than it has ever been, for it is only ques-
tion of q short time until our gas supply will
be thing of the past"
Edward Keil, treasurer of the Amalga-
mated Association, disputes William Met
calf's statement that iron cannot be made
without smoke. said he: "At the Pittsburg
Forge and Iron Works we are heating and
pudding iron with gas made by Siemens
gas producers, and with most gratifying re-
suits. There is great saving in fuel, the
smoke nuisance is reduced to a minimum
and the economy Of labor required to heat
and puddle iron is one of the best features of
the system. Why, at the National Tube
Works the puddlers are SO well pleased with
the easy work they have that they refuse to
connect themselves with labor organiZa-
tion. II is not only possible but desira BILE to
to the manufacturers and abor for the work
men. The first cost of the Siemens process
Is heavy, but it pays in the end.''
The Bndley Hardware Company. of
Seventh avenue, has q stoker system which
works like q charm, anH one looking at the
big smokestack on the building would
think the fire was taking vacation from
the small volume Of smoke issuing Mr.
Cochran, of the company, kindly explained
the system as follows:
The Plan of Consumption.
at is an automatic device. The coal is
put in a bin over the furnace and is fed into
the mouth OF the fire pit, where it is
cooked. 1t then passes down into
the pit. The heat is so intense in
the furnace the gases are consumed and no
smoke is made. Early in the morning when
the fire is started afresh, there is a little
smoke, but it is never over 21a per cent. 1t
will smoke also ifallowed to work at a faster
rate than it was intended to-"
The cork factory of Armstrong, Bros Co.
was visited. 1t is situated in the midst of q
half dozen big mills, whose smoke stacks
2n1nmes 2re constantly pouring Id out great
not for the putting of the steam
from the factory's engines it would be hard
to tell that three big boilers were being fired
with coal. The system here is the same, and
Superintendent Cow had this to say of its
efficiency:
A Scarcity of Smoke There.
"We have no smoke at all except when the
fire is being changed and then only for a
few minutes. We burn about ten tons of
coal per day. Besides the fact that the
smoke is consumed, the stoker is an eco
nomic device, both from a financial and Ia
Dor standpoint. 1t is possible to get better
service out of the coal, as q pound will make
more steam when burned this way than by
the old mode of firing. We can also burn
the cheapest, meanest coal that can be
bought"
The Westinghouse Machine Company, of
Twenty-siXth street, has this system at
tached to one of its boilers, and it is highly
praised. The superintendent, in speaking
of it said: eve have three boilers in opera
ton, but of these only one is supplied with
a stoker. 1t was put in as test, and we are
so well pleased with it that think we will
get two more. This boiler is used
tasf
ing room, and often it requires
LOCO pounds OF steam. Of course, we do not
carry that large a head of steam, but by
working the stoker more rapidly than
usual we can get it up on short notice. It is
only at these times the furnace smokes.
Even then the volume of smoke is not to be
stacks, where the boilers are fired in the old
way.
Great Saving in Fuel.
1--WE also find it a great saving to us in
coal. We can burn a very inferior quality
and less of it, We are now running this
boiler with 800 bushels of coal per day."
The Wainwright Brewing Company has
this same arrangement and it is doing its
work well. Three boilers are being con-
stantly fired, but there is not as much smoke |
coming out of the whole three as is often !
seen issuing from the protruded stove pipe |
of shantyboat. One OF the members of the |
company said:
"THE DISPATCH is working along a good |
sumers or stokers. 1t must come and come |
soon. L am of the opinion the man who does |
not use one in his mill or factory is not prac- |
tical in his business transactions. We find |
we can not only consume or abolish our |
smoke but save money in fuel. We purchase |
tho poorest grade of slack coal we can find,
and even then we can make more steam |
with it than we can with a much higher |
grade OF coal fired in the old way"
stokers in Successful Use.
The Allegheny County Electric Light Com
pany uses stoker Its work compares
with that of others before men.
toned. The only time there is any show of |
smoke is when the fires are started fresh.
the power house of the Pleasant Valley
Traction Company for the past two wears
and half. Chief Engineer Johnston gave
the following information
81 can safely say we do not have a bit of
smoke, as glance at our smokestack will |
show. 1 suppose you have found, in some
instances, even where the stoker is used
that some smoke escapes. 1t is not so with
verticle boiler The horizontal boilers will
always smoke some, but the verticle ones
never will if they are supplied with stokers
which are properly manipulated"
The Pennsylvania Company's offices on
Penn avenue use the smokeless furnace sys-
tenn with good results. 1t consumes about
30 per cent OF the gases. It is. a
fire pit cokes the coal, when this
is done, the coke is pushed back into the |
second pit which is heated up to 5000 The
contact with such an intense heat they are
nearly all consumed The trouble with the
system is that when the doors are opened to
push the coke back the furnace smokes
more or less. In is different from a stoker
from the fact that the harder it is fired, the
ess smoke it will make.
An Allegheny Engineers Idea.
Andrew Brice, a well-known engineer of