The Portland daily press., 1892-01-01
COAIlAEsA DOLLARA ton.
An Inventor Claims to be Able TO
\ Manufacture Fuel.

His Process Is a Chemical One and Sim
ply Endows Ignite Inferior Coal.
Which Is Common Everywhere, with
Burning oualities-How He Worked.
Many inventions are in the field. An
other inventor has come to the front
with an invention which he believes will
rival even those of Edison and bring to
mankind generally q degree Of benefit
which will be in direct inverse proper
ton to the woe inflicted upon the indi-
viduals commonly known as the coal
barons.
What he has to offer is no less than a
scheme to manufacture coal which
will be superior in its results to either
bituminous or anthracite coal, to which
the world has been so long accustomed
to look for its chief supply Of fuel.
So many vast conceptions have been
already brought TO the attention Of the
public only to end in disappointing fail
ures that every new great scheme is apt
to be regarded with suspicion. We have
not suffered from the Keely motor prof.
ect and the many plans for navigating
the air, to say nothing Of the many ideas
for submarine crafts, without having
our confidence in such matters seriously
impaired.
The new aspirant for undying fame
and incidentally for the millions of
money that are attendant upon, great
discoveries which are world wide in
their uses has at least the courage Of Lis
convictions, and his ideas are entitled to
respect. 4
Mr.. Albert Edelmann claims for his
invention that it will enable him to man
ufacture his coal at cost of only one
dollar per ton. Besides the exceeding
cheapness of the new article Mr.. Edel-
mann claims for it the merit of being
absolutely odorless and capable of being
burned without smoke and being con-
sumed so utterly that it leaves but per
cent. of ashes.
Mr.. Flelmann was born in Warsaw,
Polan 1928, and was educated at the
university at Dorpat, one of the prov
inces of Liyonia, on the Baltic sea. He
was graduated there as a civil engineer,
and then made the grand tour of Europe.
In 1859 he went to Australia, the voyage
from London to Sydney occupying six
months.
HIS FIRST INSPIRATION.
In Australia Mr.. Edelmann devoted
himself to his profession and spent his
time in building railroads and in other
engineering enterprises. In 1860 he first
turned his attention to the discovery of
cheaper coal, and since then he has de-
voted all his time and money to that pur-
suit.
In the first place he argued that it was
a well known fact that there exists upon
the surface of the globe large quantity
of what may be termed inferior coal,
which is commonly called Ignite. Brief
~ defined, Ignite is coal formed at a
much later phriod than either biturni-
nous or anthracite coal, and therefore
without those chemical properties which
would enable it to burn as well as either
Of them, and which, therefore, renders it
practically useless for fuel Oh other pur-
poses.
That this Ignite would, in centuries
to come, develop into fuel which
might be utilized exactly as well as that
which was already known as bituninous
or anthracite coal was source Of pain
and vexation. to Mr.. Edelmann. He
could not sleep at night from his con-
tinual study of the problem. He was
actually jealous, he says himself, to
think that people thousand years
hence would avail themselves Of that
which the world might use today could
he but solve the problem of effecting by
chemical processes that for which nature
would take centuries.
CLEAN OF LIGHT.