The daily morning journal and courier., 1894-07-13
THE sxoKELEss LOCOMOTIVE.
Success Dawns at Last on the Struggles Of
 Science.


 Success Dswns at Last on the Struggles o
 Science.
 From the Vienna Fremdenblatt.l
 A few invited guests witnessed yes'
 terday the trial of a new smoke con-
 suming apparatus. which. according to
 all appearances Is destined to cause
 radical changes in the operation of rail-
 ways. The inventor of the apparatus, who was introduced to them, is the mechanical engineeer Of the Northwest
 railway. MT. Theodore Langer. The
 anagement of the Northwest railway
 kindly placed at his disposal the special
 train which conveyed the guests from Vienna to Znaim. a distance of one hundred kilometers.on yesterdays trial trip.
 The director of the railway company. Court Councillor Dr. Eger, received the invited guests at the Northwest rail- way station. At g o'clock in the morn- ing all these gentlemen entered the cars. The two cars immediately be- hind the locomotive were open. and the occupants wefe able, consequently, to observe closely the working of the new apparatus. It was shown that the loco- motive, even when running at high rate of speed-at times as high as sev- enty kilometers an hour-emitted only ,la tnr as but mt apnnkn sparks or clnders. Although usually person in an open railway car Is cov- cred with cinders and dirt from the To- comotive. the gentlemen who rode on this special train from Vienna to Znae yesterday, not excepting the ones who rode on the locomotive, found at the end of the journey that their coats. linen, and hands were as clean as when they started. On the train itself a per son had the enjoyable experience of moving about and getting up and down without selling his hands. In the clos ed carriage the windows were kept open without exposing anybody to cin- ders or smoke. All the guests were loud in their praise of the inventor Of the smoke consuming apparatus the following explanation was given:
 After years of observation MT. Lan- ger succeeded in explaining with theor- etical correctness the complicated pro- cesses of heat power and the law of the composition of smoke. In harmony with this law he placed outside the boiler an automatic device which sup plies the fire with just enough air to make possible the consumption of the smoke and gas. In the space over the fire steam veil operates in such a manner that the air and the gas are whirled together and thoroughly mixed. The gas, which has thus been burned, is then forced against the boiler, and it's heat-giving power is utilized to the last possibility. The great advantages of this process are plain. Besides ef- fecting great saving of heating ma terials-estimated as ten to twenty-five per .eent.--it enables a railway com pany do away with the disagreeable and unhealthy smoke, cinders and gas which are emitted by the locomotives of the usual type, for the locomotive provided with the Langer smoke-con- ouAiAAS oCFiSC e1NS ifOt OIlIy IuG pure steam necessary to operate them. ' This device has been applied on thirty-five locomotives, (most of them in the express train service), of the Northwestern railway. and after trials extending over two years has been found in every way satisfactory. More locomotives are provided with 1t by the Northwest company almost every month. Other companies which have tested the invention report equally good results. : Among specialists Langer's ingenious invention has been known for some time. We recall, for instance, the lec- ture delivered on the subject by Profess sor R. Boeck of the Vienna technical school on February IS, 1893, before the meeting of the Austrian Society of En- gineers and Architects. Among those who Inspected the Langer device on the locomotives of the Northwest railway last year was Director Garbe of the royal Prussian railways, who was sent here by the president of the railway board in Berlin. He spoke of the in- vention in terms of unconditional a1d unreserved praise, summarizing, his opinion in the words: "Mr. Langer's invention represents an extraordinary step forward in the development of the locomotive. His invention is astonish- ingly simple in practice, can be easily handled, can be utilized without diffi- culty by the railways, and in short time saves its full cost 4(about 600 for ins) The invention has been used also in stationary boilers in the Hungarian arms factory at Budapest. The results have been very favorable. A special advantage of the apparatus is that it can be introduced in any locomotive or stationary boiler in few days and without the slightest alteration of the general system used in either