The Dakota chief. (Gann Valley, Buffalo County, S.D.) 18??-1913, 1894-01-04
~PULvERIZED COAL,
Herr Krupp Says 1t Is the Coming Ideal

Fucls
Herr Krupp. the man of world
wide artillery fame. is credited with
the construction of an experimental
furnace for the burning OF coal that
has been reduced TO an impalpable
powder. The idea is not a new one,
but its actualization has been re-
tarded by the cost of eifecting the
reduction. The idea is to spray the
coal dust into the flame in the same
way that petroleum is now used in
some furnaces, and with the best of
results But the ordinary coal dust
will not do for this. The PARTICLES
must all be reduced to the same
(small) size or the flames will not at
tack them with elual facility, and
the larger will escape without having
yielded up all their force for the pro-
duction of steam.
The cost of etfecting a uniform
pulveriZatiOn is not the only difficulty
to be overcome or made amends for.
One objection is that the fire has to
be started in the old way, by e
Of wood or other cOmbustible, till
sufficient steam has been generated
to set in operation the blowers that
spray the dust into the fame. Also
it is said to have been found necessary
hitherto to use in the blast much
more than the $50 cubic feet of air
necessary to the perfect combustion
of n pound Of the fuel, the consc
quence being a cooling and wasting
of heat that should be used in the
production of steam. And though
the process does not involve the
formation Of tho old-fashioned
clinker, yet the production Of ashes
cannot be avoided SO long as the fuel
contains materials which does not
burn-namcly: earthly matter mixed
in with the coal.
How far Herr Krupp has succeeded
in meeting these objections is not
stated. but the claim is made that
he has found out how to obviate that
which would appear to be the most
difficult to deal wlth-namely: the
distribution of the ashes broadcast
over the furnace to the detriment of
The operations it is desired to have in
progress. His plan is being tried in
some of the North German LLOYD
steamers, the dust being burned di-
rectly under the boilers. The dust
falls from a large iron bucket through
Il pipe upon a sieve. which is adjusted
to let through a large or small guam
tity OF the dust, as may be desired.
The material passes from the sieve
to iron bars so adjusted as to form
little burrows on iron plates fixed in
a position to slo! e towards the in
terror of the furnace. An air blast
catches the dust as it falls from
these plates and sprays it through
the furnace.
OF course it will be understood the
object of this arrangement Is to get
cut of the fuel all the heat there
is in it. Nothing more.
The scientific man does not ex-
pect to he able to go beyond
that and counts or giving up some
Of the force in the fuel to the pro-
duction of the blast which spreads
dust evenly through the flame with
every particle can combine with the
needed oxygen before the draft has
carried it into a region where the tenn
perature is not sufficiently high for
chemical combination, without which
the fuel does not yield up it's con
tanned heat. The great trouble with
fuel in the ordinary form in which it
is used is that a considerable proper
tiOu of the cOmbuStible matter gets
away from the sufficiently hot reg on
in the furnace before the oXy gen has
met with its individual particles.
All the arrangements of hOt-air
blasts, steam jets, double furnaces.
etc, are aimed at the accomp-
lishment of this result, and this only
if the aimer be one of those scientific
lei who know it is absurd to try to
get out of the material used more
force than has been put into it by
mother nature. SO the great ques-
ton in regard to the use Of pulver-
lied coal tor the production of steam
is how the cost Of affecting the COM
minution and applying the material
compares with the saving Of fuel
thus effected over combustion Dy
the best Of other practical methods.
POlYGLOT WHALING CREWS.