The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-08-22
SCIENCES LATEST
VALUABLE VICTORY
The Problem Of Getting Nearly Full
Power from Coal.
IT HAS BEEN SOLVED AT LAST
DR.. Jacques's New Process Likely to
Reduce the First Cost Of Electric
Light Plants to a Quarter of What
1t ls..What the Invention Will Ac.
c0mplish.
From the Buffalo Express.

From the Buffalo Express.
No announcement in practical science
Of recent years has been calculated 10
excite SO much interest as that made the
other day that the problem or the dlrect
conversion of coal into electricity had
been solved. The announcement came
almost simultaneously in this country
and in Germany-in Germany from an
eminent chemist that the thing could
be done, and Enthusiastically, in this
country from an electrician of high
standing that it had been done. DR..
Cochin, a German chemist of note, has
been experimenting at the problem for
some time, and as result of his re-
searches announced n short time ago
his belief that it would be possible to
transform coal into electricity directly.
The same month DIR. William w. Jac-
cues, an electrician of the Bell Tele-
phone company, filed letters of patent
upon q process accomplishing exactly
this result
Just what all this means was best put
in q lecture by Professor Ostwald two
years ago, when he said Had we
cell in which electrical energy was pro-
duced by the direct oxidation of carbon,
with an output approaching the tneo-
retical. we should be on the brink of an
industrial revolution compared with
which the invention of the steam engine
sinks into insignifcance."
This is putting the case strongly, but
1t Is nevertheless in a large measure
true. AS almost everyone at all ac-
quanted with the subject knows, tina
amount of actual work that we get out
of pound of coal, burned in an ordin
ary steam engine, is absurdly small, as
compared with the total amount OF
power resident in the coal. The finest
triple expansion engine on one of our
great ocean liners, which probably real
ICES the highest efficiency known at the
present time, only secures about IA per
cent of the the theoretical efficiency of
burning coal An ordinary steam en-
Eine does not realize over or per cent
The remaining 80 or more per cent. is
absolutely lost-wasted.
Furthermore, in order to get the po-
tential energy of coal into form where
it is easily utilized commercially in
wolves still further loss and waste. All
the power that is consumed in running
tnc dynamo Is SO nlucn energy InlDWn
away. A table recently prepared. show
ing the workings of several hundred
electric light plants in the United States
disclosed the fact that the large plants
of the very finest equipment only Sc
cured about 6 per cent. in actual work,
or electricity, of the potential of the
coal, and that the smaller plants only
secured around 3 per cent. All told it
is probable that the average for the
whole country is less than per cent.
THE PROBLEM STATED.
Nov, ~ ,,.o,, oo,,d ba s,,,ra 70
nrovin,otoIv reverso tboso nronortions II
is aasv to Coo u,b,t ay, irdustrior rovo-
Ir,ion would rasrIt ,nd m, T,o,,,o.
of poston holiovos thot bo hoe doro
about this ue bss DEVISED n nrocase
of singular simplicity. generating an
electric current direct from coal or
rather from coke and in a series of
tests was able to secure in one instance
as high as 81 per cent. of a theoretical
efficiency of the coal used. This. of
course, was exceptional, but DR.. Jac-
ques believes that he will be very short
ly able to produce electricity CONNER
and one tenth its present cost.
Put in the very simplest way, DR..
Jacques process is this: Taking a
quantity of coke he reduces this to q
powder, adds a little water, jams it into
a cylinder and makes big round stick
OF carbon that looks good deal like a
giant firecracker or stick of carbon
Tor an electric arc light very much en-
larGed. This stick of carbon he sus-
penas In cylindrical iron pot contain
ing an electroiyte OF melted caustic
soua' ana Wheh current OF ar, IN
.,oouc.o "! sinai tupe' Is drlVeh
.osn '"'' aoiu'ioii' eiec'ricai action
s.' up piouuciiis current ol extra
.u'u'ie'
S"ii .''e Neoe"s'is 'o,'aSe vi eiec-
- 80, pesue huiiureu UT more oi
80. mn po's arc pu' 'oseuner' 'heii
INNS eoi'iiec'eu ny wire. Inc Whoie
piih'-,t cun haruiy pe caiied battery
a. n,''.. IA an o,en III u, uei u heep
.e sou'ion m "t uiiiiorii temperature
aoou' 'vo uesieeS ceht,sraue'
'.ia' - an 'he[e Is ol this
,.,l "s in,ei'ioh' Wi'h Tue eN-
., pu.iip " uiiVe the ar
at'i ' Vi SUI" 'iieie is iio
.,1,e a All oonlpareu with
engine and dynamo are, as Prof. Jac-
Tbere arc NO ho,,nr. o'.p'en "A.
namo M osbos IN to ra,,,s,.s, an7.'.' '.o ~
20 ho ,,o,d Co... ~ a,,>,,no eu, nv "a'ei
sunnI;os to ha nro,,iaoa f''''i'' Vi
Pnuah,,, snaoi,;nn ~
mates tbot tho f;rst oaat . "s 81
ugbt nlant nor horso go go ~, a." uiH1',f,
son,ath;nn M ta,'u.,, pomei VII VIII pe
4ha ,rnso,t oo,. ,r. Vi nun ol
,,o,,.enanaa -, peise ~ vi
a. na,..n W. ia.nei' VI a'.eiluance'