The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-11-05
THEY CAN ABATE SMOKE
MEN WHO OFFER TO PUT IN Salts
FACTORY CONSUMERS.
U. s. PIaying-Card Company Has One
Used Continuously for
Fifteen Years.

| The agitation OF the smoke ordinance
and the announcement that it is to be
enforcer by Building Inspector Bunting has
| attracted the attention of numerous manu-
| facturers and others owning large furnaces
| to the question of smoke consumers. Day
| before yesterday the Journal published an
| interview with W. E. Stevenson agent for
| the sky-scraper on Washington street, who
| spoke of the unsuccessful efforts he had
| made to secure a practical smoke consum-
| err. Mr.. Stevenson said that he was unsuc-
cessful in the effort although he had spent
| considerable money.
| Samuel j. Murray, superintendent of the
| United States Playing Card Company, has
a different experience to relate. eff Mr..
| Stevenson has the time or will send some
| one to represent him to this factory" said
| Mr.. Murray, Il will show him a perfect
smoke consumer (for any kind of coaD that
has been in use continuously for about fif-
| teen years. 1t is called the Murphy auto
matte stoker and smoke consumer
Mr.. Murray did not state what it cost
his company to procure the smoke con-
sumner about which he is so ent n lsiastic
w. III. Turner, new $50 Kentucky avenue
says he has been experimenting for twenty
years to produce apparatus that will re-
duce smoke to the minimum, and believes
the apparatus he is producing the best and
cheapest in the United States. His theory is
that the gases that are produced by the
combustion of coal at a temperature of $50
degrees can only be consumed at about
1900 degrees. The apparatus he offers con-
sists of a double-chambered fire box. The
interior chamber corresponds to the ordi-
nary firepan of a furnace. Around it is an
other chamber, into which cold air is in
troduced by natural suction. When the fire
is started in the ordinary way, in a short
time the walls of the inside chamber are
heated to red heat. The air around it, he
says, is heated in the outer chamber to
temperature of from 500 degrees up. When
| it reaches the fue that carries off the gas
and smoke that have combusted at $50 de-
groes and upward, the hot air from the out
side chamber begins to consume the gases
that otherwise would belch forth from the
smoke stack in the form of dense, black
smoke. The result is, he claims, that but
one-third to one-half as much smoke is
vented. and that of a character practically
free from SCOT. In his own shop Mr. Turn
er has a practical demonstration of his
theory There is a. stove in the rear of his
SnOp PROVIDED with his apparatus. A Six
inch stove pipe forty feet in length reaches
from the stove to the chimney, forty feet
away. He says that it takes this pipe over
two months to become clogged with SCOT
from soft coal smoke. The ordinary stove,
he says, would fill the pipe with SCOT in
five or six days.
Mr.. Turner says he can produce an APP
paratus that will do way with smoke al
most absolutely at a greater cost than his
cheaper apparatus, which reduces it one
half to two-thrds.
What would it cost in the Stevenson
block, for instance" he was asked.
THE cheaper apparatus would have cost
$3.50 before the furnaces We're set. Now it
would cost $3.50 more
THAT is for the consumer that reduces
the smoke two-thirds?"
YES"
Can the smoke be entirely consumed?"
Yes, with dearer apparatus
What would that cost?"
About $1,000 would have fitted up the
Stevenson building"
Mr.. Turner's ideas have been developed
from the experiments of an English scien-
fist, he says, who worked for twenty years
at the expense of the British government
He succeeded in producing smoke con-
sumner at cost of $40, 000 Mr. Turner
claims he has advanced to a lower price
at any rate. AS will be noticed by his own
statements, however, it is still pretty ex-
pensive thing to get a smoke consumer that
viii partially accomplish the result sought
IN the smoke consuming ordinance-the
total abatement of the smoke nuisance
whether there would still be complaints
II only one-third as much smoke floated out
over the city as now is question
Mr.. Turner had a word to say about the
proposition of the street-car company to
heat one hundred cars with heaters under
the seats. His idea is that the company
should nave some sort of foot warmers
and in support of X he says that passen-
gers always come into the cars wearing
heavy wraps in the winter time and only
suffer from cold feet. He doubts whether
heaters under the seats will make the cars
much more comfortable to passengers.