Fairhaven herald. [volume] (Fairhaven, Wash.) 1890-????, 1892-04-15
TO BURN WASTE STRAW.
An Ingenious Brooklyn Man Has Devised
Simple Method of Using Weeds.

Z An ingenious brooklyn haB mas fPeFAbed
simple Method of Using Weeds.
/ In a little shop just opposite the entrance
to the Fulton ferry can be seen a unique
| invention in which number of well known
! Brooklynites are Interested. 1t is the straw
| burning stove, invented by Mr.. G. B. Field,
which he claims is destined to revoiutionize
| the fuel question in the far west AS is
generally understood one Of the great
hardsbips Of the winter in the west is the
lack Of fuel of any kind and the great ex-
pense of bringing it from the abundance of
other sections Of the country. Another
agricultural difficulty is what to do with
the waste straw and weeds about a farm
Mr.. Field contends that he has solved both
problems, or rather that he can make the
last solve the former His process is very
simple, AMI rs he gave practical demon
stratiOn il to a reporter, it certainly
seems TO carry out all he claims for it.
Every farmer has a lot of waste straw,
grass and weeds that is useless for fuel if
burned in the ordinary way, but Mr.. Fields
way is not the ordinary way. 1t is a very
easy way when You see how he does it, like
the famous standing egg Of the GeHOese
discoverer lie takes any kind of hay,
grass, weeds or straw, the ordinary day
farm refuse and cuts it up in a common
hay cutter. Then he puts it in what he
calls a retOrt, a sheet iron cylinder about
the size Of the everyday ashcan that fills
our streets when the carts go round. A
retort holds eighteen or twenty pounds of
the cut straw pressed down and packed
tightly.
There is an ordinary stove CRATE at the
bottom of the retort and before he begins
to pack in the cut straw Mr.. Field puts in
the center round stick about four inches
in diameter. This is the little joker Of the
whole scheme. When the retort is full he
pulls the stick out, and of course it leaves
a hole through the center Of the mass. The
consequence is very important. It makes
a central draft for his combustion when he
sets the straw on fire, and every one who
uses one of the central draft lamps can ap-
preciate the benefit Of this intense heat and
fire.
Now, having packed his weeds into the
retort, he next puts into what is an ordi-
nary stove except that i'm place of fire
box and CRATE, such as we find in the coal
burning kind, he has a compartment large
enough to hold the retort, which is about
twenty-eight inches high and eighteen
inches in diameter.
This is like a big oven and closes with a
door which takes up one end of the stove.
The other end is divided into two ovens,
one for baking, the other for heating. The
top Of the stove does k0t differ from the
ordinary kind, being divided up into six
pot holes, with the usual lids. Having put
in the retort null Of the cut weeds, he opens
a little door at the bottom of the stove, APP
plies a match and the fire is made The
hole in the middle Of the packed mass
makes a central draft fire that in a few
moments generates carbonic and nitrogen
gases, which, igniting, make an intense
heat. The straw burns slowly from the
bottom up, the twenty pounds of weeds
lasting about four hours and giving a fire
that will cook heat, boil, broil, or do any
thing that an ordinary stove will do and at
cost that is only the collection Of the
waste about the farm.
The reporter saw one Of them burn for
two hours and the contents were then not
half consumed. 1t was a most interesting
operation. Every one knows how difficult
it is to make straw or weeds burn in the
ordinary way even to merely destroy them.
Here they are not only reduced to fine
ashes but made to serve all the needs of
the farmer for fuel cooking or other do
nestle purposes. There is no complicated
machinery, no elaborate process of prepa-
ration; you merely, as it were, put a lot of
straw or weeds into an iron ashcan, place
it in another square iron box and your
stove and fire are ready.-Brooklyn Eagle.