The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-03-28
THE SMOKE NUISANCE.
To the Editor of The Herald:

To the Editor of The Herald:
The recent agitation about The smoke
nuisance in your paper has been the
cause of writing the following lines:
There is no doubt that the smoke
produced by the present system of
heating boilers is, from a hygienic and
economic standpoint, nuisance. 1t is
therefore a very important question
and should receive careful considera-
ton. So far all eadelvors to make
real success in reg ard 10 thorough
combustion has been IN vain. II the
year of 1880, at the Union Iron and
Steel Works, in Chicago, experiments
were conducted by mys elf, and the
principle presented at that time is
correct one and will prove 70 be
success as soon as it is properly tiled.
There are two questions in this prob
lem involved: The one is a chemical
one and refers to the laws of thorough
combustion, and the other is a mechan-
zeal one and refers to the proper con-
Struction of the combustion box.
The present system can never over
come the difficulty, for the reason that
the mechanical engineers are laboring
under an illusion, believing they can
accomplish it by placing great quant1-
ties upon the CRATE bars, and then sup
plying oxygen from the atmosphere by
lIlc NECESSARY QLdAI
openings at the bars on the one side
and constructing a high smoke-stack
on the other side.
The mechanical engineer forgets by
his calculations always the great fac
tor, that coal contains a high percent
age of carburetted hydrogen cCm-
pounds, which require a different de-
gree of heat than the particles of coal
for producing the highest caloric effect
thorough combustion and therefore
cooling of one or two other of these
substances will take place which will
necessarily produce smoke and also a
low caloric effect. If we had to deal
with homogeneous body the mechani-
cal engineer would be correct with his
system but, unfortunately, and to the
discomfort of the neighborS sof such
operated plants, the coal is a substance
of compound composition and there
fore requires for thorough combustion
a different handling than that now in
use.
If city authorities and corporations
would consult leading local engineers
instead of playing engineer themselves,
good results might be expected. The
nuisance of smoke clouds would surely
disappear and a dissatisfied population
would breathe a pure air.
Respectfully,
H. HIRSCHING,
Salt Lake Mining Academy.
The Herald has been long of the
opinion that the nuisance has been
aggravated and much of it created, by
the persistence of men who attend to
the fires in piling up large quantities
of coal and coal dust in the way men
toned above. and that if more care
was exercised in feeding furnaces, less
smoke in quantity and density would
be the result. But this would necessi-
tate more trouble and some watching.
When Mr.. Faraday. of Logan, put in
his understanding apparatus
very simple affair-and attended to the
firing himself. there was no smoke
perceptible from the electric light
works chimneys. When the regular
firemen attended to it the smoke was
nearly as bad as ever Mr. Faraday
returned to the fires a night or two
later, and again the smoke was con-
sumed. But there seemed to be an in
to manage the fires as he
directed, and very soon the whole con-
Germ was knocked out and the nuisance
has been continued right along.
The question has reached the point
of understanding or heavy filming,
and so it may be expected that some
thing will be done to mitigate if not
abolish the evil complained Of We
commend the letter of our correspon-
dent to the attention of all who are
in danger of prosecution Zor making a
smoke nuisance. -