The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1895-06-15
FUEL OF THE WORLD.
A Description of Some of the Curious
Substitutes for Coal Employed by Va.
rious Nations. Past and Present,

From the Cleveland World.
One of the most interesting Of the
patented fuels Is a brick or cartridge
of highly porous clay, which is to be
soaked in parafiln, and put into a stove
when wanted. The housewife has only
to touch match to it, and the fire Is
ready for cooking. No laborlous pre-
liminary process of kindling is required
before breakfast can be prepared. AT
first blush the idea seems to be a de-
lightful one. but after few trials 1t
is discovered that SCOT Is given off in
such quantities from the burning bricks
as to blacken everybody and every
thing in the kitchen.
In France pressed bricks Of tannery
waste are used by economical house
keepers to keep up fires at a slow rate
of combustion. All over Europe bricks
of coal dust are largely employed for
running locomotives. In Japan charcoal
is ground and made into balls with
ashes for cheap fuel. In certain shoe
making towns there are some very poor
people who burn nothing else but leath-
er chips from one end of the winter to
the other. They get them from the fac
tories by the wheelbarrow load. Such
chips, of course, shoulder with great
deal of smoke. Nearly all of the saw
dust from saw mills everywhere is
utilized for fuel.
Hay Used in Utah.
But one must go to Utah in order to
find hay put to the same purpose.
There the Mormons have peculiar stove
ovens constructed for the combustion
Of hay. They twist the hay into tight
wisps, and at night they fill the fire.
box of the stove with It as full as
possible, closing the damper, and per-
mitting 1t to shoulder all night.
Maize Is first-rate fuel, and makes
a rousing hot fire. Dried manure Is
utilized for fuel all over the world,
from Peru to Asia Minor and the plat
eaux of Thibet. 1t Is used in this way
to such an extent in India that the au-
thorities are making great efforts to
stop the practice. What cattle and
other browsing animals take from the
soil ought to go back to 1t, instead Of
which 1t Is burned and lost for ever.
Thus the soil Is becoming steadily i'm
poverished
In Egypt mummies,. chiefly those of
cats, ibses and other animals held sa-
cred by the ancient inhabitants, were
employed within recent years for run
ing trains between Cairo and Alex
andria. Dead fish, particularly the
salmon, have been. and perhaps are to
this day, employed to some extent as
fuel by the Indians In parts of British
Columbia. They contain enough oil
and muscular fibre to burn well.
On the coast of Scotland petrels are
utilized in an odd way. They are very
fat, and are made to serve as candles,
wicks being run through them. The
employment of the candle-fish of Alas
ka in similar fashion is familiar. But
this is a question of illumination and
not of heating. The Eskimo lamp of
.soapstone, filled with whale-oil, is a
stove.
In the desert regions Of Arizona,
where there is no vegetation worth
mentioning. the Indians dig up for fuel
the enormously developed roots Of va
rious plants. Pine cones make a fine
kindling, and are utilized for that pur-
pose all over Europe, particularly in the
Black Forest and other parts Of Ger
many.
To Utilize the SUMS Rays.
The attention Of many scientific men
has long been engaged in trying to de-
wise some sort Of apparatus for employ
ing the SUMS rays as fuel. One of the
more noted eXperimenters in this line
Is Professor Edward Sylvester Morse.
Mirrors are most commonly used to
concentrate the rays of the solar orb
for this purpose. In one instance not
long ago success was obtained in an
attempt to cook a goose by sun-stove.
Unfortunately at the conclusion of the
peration 1t was found that the bird
was spoiled, being rendered unfit for
food by the chemical action of the suns
rays. This. of course, might be avoid
ed by shutting up the articles to be
cooked in closed ovens. But the OBJ
lection to the sun-stove, thus far found
insuperable, Is its necessary elaborate
ness and consequent great cost.
Alcohol Is an ideal fuel. 1t gives
great heat, and its combustion is per-
feet. without smoke or other solid resi-
dunn. In burning 1t resolves itself
into water and carbonic acid gas. or
course, 1t is too expensive for. COM
mon use, but chemistry may yet dis
cover way of producing 1t at small
fraction Of its present cost.
! Some machinery Is already run by
chemicals without fire. Nature under
stands this. The human body Is a ma
chine run by chemical energy. Sui
phate of magnesla has been employed
for running engines. Cans are filed
with this compound and heated. In
cooling and crystalllsing 1t gives Off
heat.
There is tradition in Ireland to the
effect that the present peat-bogs of the
Green Isle were formerly fertile fields
belonging to the Druid priests, and that
that great religious reformer, st. Pat
rick, blasted them. If the peat-bogs
could lie undisturbed. and be covered
over for ages they would be trans
formed into coal.
MAGIC OF THE SUMMER WOOD.