Evening bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1895-1912, 1896-09-26
PROBLEM OF GETTING NEARLY
FULL POWER FROM COAL.
Process Discovered I'm Both America
end Germany-wiII Make the
stenm Engine obsolete.

dry that the problem OF direct
conversion into electricity had
been solved, says the Chicago
Tribune. The announcement came
almost simultaneously in this
country and in G,rmnny--in Ger
many from au eminent chemist
tn It the thing could be done, and,
enthusiastically, in this country
from an electrician of high stand.
ing that 1t had been done. DR..
Cohen, Il German chemist of
reputation, has been experiment
ing ut the problem for some time,
and as a result of his researches
announced short time ago his
brlief that it would be possible
to transform coal into electricity
directly. The same month DIR.
William w. jacques, an eIectri-
clan of the Bell Telephone COM
pauy, filed letters of patent upon
a process accomplishing exactly
the same result.
Just what all this means was
best put in lecture by Prof.
Ostwald two years ago, when he
sad: Had we "a cell in which
electrical energy was produced by
the direct oxidation of carbon,
with an output approaching the
theoretical, we should be on the
brink of an industrial revolution
compared with which the inven-
tinn of the steam engine sinks
into insignificlnce."
This IS putting the case strong
ly, but it is, nevertheless, to a
large measure tree.
As almost everyone at all
acquainted with the subject
lnows, the amount of actual work
that is got out of a pound of coal,
burned i'll an ordinary steam en-
gne, is abs lrdly small compa red
with the total amount of power
resident in the coal. The finest
triple-expansion engine on one OF !
our great ocean liners, which pro-
badly realizes the highest eff
ency known at the resent time,
secures only about IA per cent. of
the theoretical efficiency of burn
ing coal. An ordinary steam en-
gine does not realize over per
cent. The remaining 80 or more
per cent. is absolutely lost
wasted.
Furthermore, in order to get
the potential energy of coal into
a form where it is easily utilizable |
commercially involves still further
loss and waste. All the power
that is consumed in running the
dynamo is so much energy thrown
away. A table recently prepared |
showing the workings of several
hundred electric light plants in
the United States discloses the
{ ct that the large plants of the
very finest equipment secured
only about 6 per cent. in actual
work or electricity of the po-
tential Of the coal, and that the
smaller plants only secured about
g per cent. All told, it is pro-
bible that the average for the
whole country is less than five
per cent.
Now, if a way could be found to
reverse these proportions approxi-
mately, it is easy to see what an
industrial revolution would re-
suit. and DR.. Jacques Of Boston
believes that he has done about
this. He has devised a process
Of singular simplicity, generating
An electric current direct from
coal, or rather from coke, and in
a series as high as 81 per cent. of
a theoretical efficiency of the coal
used. This, of course, was ex-
ceptional, but DR.. jacques believes
he will soon be able to produce
electricity commercially for some-
where between one fifi1 and one
tenth its present cost.
Put IN the very simplest way,
DIR. Jacques process is this
Taking quantity of coke, he
reduces 1t 10 powder, adds a
little water, jams it into cylinder,
and makes big round stick of
carbon that looks a good deal like
a giant fire cracker or stick of
carbon for an electric arc light
very much enlarged, This stick
OF carbon he suspeuds in II
nxrli a i nj nnl inn, nd 90, a, =, |