The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-05-01
nr-pnopuor COKE OPENS.

The following report of the manufac- | sturing committee of the chamber of commerce was presented at the meet ling of the chamber Wednesday night Eby Max Adler, James A. Cowles and fJudge Sheldon, MT. Cowles is very 'sanguine that if proper action be taken Ia plant of great importance and value Twill be located in New Haven.
 To the Honorable Chamber of Com
 merce of New Haven:
 ' Gentlemen-The committee appointed Nmanufacture of gas, etc, by means of by-product coke ovens, after the plan |Jproposed by MT. Henry M. Whitney of Boston, beg leave to report as follows: We believe this matter worthy the Emost thoughtful consideration of this |8city and of this state. It appears that |sa plant of 125 of these ovens located on |the shores of New Haven harbor and Boosting about $46S,000 would furnish B. lsS22000 cubic feet of IA to 16 candle Epower gas per day, practically free or Fall expense except the cost of distribu- [ation and using the Welsbach burners, |this gas would need no enrichment for illuminating purposes It also appears Igthat where this gas is used in large kquantities as in Pittsburg, the cost of Redistribution is not over two cents #thousand feet. It further appears that Hoy using what is known as the Mond #producer, in connection with these Eovens, the quantity of surplus gas can Hoe nearly doubled. The secretary Of the Semet Solvay Process company Ewrites me that if a market can be Hound for the coke, the gas will be all Eprofit, or in other words, will cost nothing. The coke, coal tar and am Emonia will more than pay for the coal, &and for all the expenses connected With 1.-the business, including interest on the cost of the plant, repairs, etc. It fur Fther appears that if the forty cents tax were taken off from Dominion coal coke made by these ovens could be sold to our manufacturers for full dollar land perhaps one dollar and a half per ton cheaper than the present rates.
 We are informed by the highest au- thority that four tons of this coke
 
 Bpurposes to five tons of the best an- Gthracite coal.
 N One of the heavy burdens that has Eborne with crushing weight on the iron Eindustries of New England in recent [years has been the cost of fuel, and par Eticularly coke. The establishment of these ovens here as a branch of our public works would place this portion #of Connecticut in practically as good Ia condition as Pittsburg as to the cost #of fuel, and as for iron ore we should be in a better position. MT. Joseph D. Weeks said to the committee of manu- facturers of the Massachusetts legisla- ture the other day: You are as well situated to manufacture iron right heM in Boston (and what is true of Boston lis true of New Haven)-pig iron and bother iron-with the single exception of your fuel as Pittsburg is. You have mo iron ore. Neither has Pittsburg land yet it is making 100000 tons of |pig iron a year. You can get iron ore laid down at your furnaces at the sea- board from Spain, the Mediterranean and Cuba, just as cheaply as we can get iron ore lald down in Pittsburg- flor every pound of iron ore that goes into our Pittsburg furnaces is brought Ia thousand miles. With coke made in these ovens. the ores from Cuba, from the Mediterranean, from Elba, from Mokta, from the Cartegena mines in Spain, can be made into pig iron just as well and nearly as cheaply as pig iron can be made in Pittsburg-much more cheaply than it can be made there and laid down here"
 Most of the iron ore that is made in Bethlehem, Pa, comes from Spain But this project is of quite as much interest to the people and to the manufacturing interests of Bridgeport and Hartford, and of Waterbury and of Southingtof, and the intervening towns and cities, as to New Haven, for this gas can be Transported in pipe lines to those places and can be furnished to them at little, if any more, cost than to us. The pro- ject of MT. Whitney covers the whole state of Massachusetts.
 And this matter is interesting, not only to the inhabitants of our cities, but to our farmers also. Our farmers, indeed, have double interest in the establishment of this business here The increased population which will HOLLOW CHe eSIdDliSHllellL OL lHIS BT6dL public business and the resultant res toration of our iron industries will fur nish them a large home market for their produce, and the cheap fertilizer, sulphate of ammonia, made in their ov- ems, will enable them to largely in crease the produce of their farms. Our farmers too, will enjoy the opportuni- ties given to obtain cheaper fuel, and those along the pipe lines will be able to use the cheap gas for lighting, heat ing and cooking. This cheap gas, more- over, means cheap electricity; it means cheaper fares and freight rates; it means the use of gas engines instead of steam engines, and, in short, it means power as cheap or cheaper than the least expensive water power, wher- ever the gas can be used and where the gas cannot be carried, the coke can.
 The secretary of the Gas Engineering company of Pittsburg writes us that his company has already closed con- tract for the Massachusetts work, and pr. Slocum, the president of the com pany. will go to Boston next week in connection with the business. We sug- pest that Dr. Slocum should be invited by the chamber of commerce to visit New Haven on this proposed journey through our city and to tell us what he knows on~this subject. We would also suggest that similar invitations be sent
 M k. slf n