Birmingham state herald. (Birmingham, Ala.) 1895-1897, 1897-03-09
PRODUCTS OF COKE OVENS,
Gentleman Who Has Studied the Sub
ject Expresses Surprise at the Build
ing of the Bee Hive Ovens.

A gentleman was in Birmingham yes
terday who has made the study of the
economies shown in England by the use
of the by-product coke ovens. one of his
leading themes for some years. and ex-
pressed great surprise at the proposed
building of more bee hive ovens in the
Birmingham district, in view of the great
saving shown in by-product ovens. The
following matter from the Iron World
was handed representative of the State
Herald, showing the great savings shown
in England. Germany, etc, in coke manu-
facture through the use of by-product
coke ovens. ,
The gentleman remarked: This is all
due to the aid of chemistry, ana the
chemist is, has been and will be more so
in the future, the great factor in econo-
mics in blast furnace practice, and It's
Kindred branches" This brought TO the
mind of the State Herald representative
an editorial published some months ago
upon the subject of by-product coke ovens
and their economy, and inquiring which
of the large pig iron and coke producers of
the Birmingham district would be first
to build fifty or 100 by-product coke
ovens to start the ball rolling IN that dl-
rection
Recent Progress in the Recovery OF
By-Products from Coke ovens in West
pha lia," was the title OF an important pa
per by Mr.. George Blake Walker and Mr..
L. T. O'Shea, B. Sc, recently read before
the Midland (England) Institute of En-
gineers.
The writer's visited Westphalia last
summer and were greatly interested in
the important Developments which had
taken place there in that industry in the
last few years.
The recovery of the by-products of coke
ovens was the one in which German min
ing engineers were at present chiefly in
terested, and the present position of the
subject was worthy of close attention.
The Hoffman coking oven, with re-
coVery of by-produGtS. had not been the
subject of a paper at any of the institutes
bur since its introduction the output of
coke in the Dortmund district had in
creased from less than 100000 tons in
1885 to more than 100000 in 1894. OF the
by-product ovens in use in Westphala
a the end of 1895, two-thirds were of the
Otto-Hoffman type. Statistics showed
these newer types of retort ovens to
yield in addition TO an increase in the
weight of coke CT from IL to Is per cent.
10 gallons of tar per ton, valued at Led
per gallon, and % to % pounds of am
monium sulphate per ton, valued at
about Fl per ton, or about Is 4d. fer tar
and Is. I'd. for ammonium sulphate per
ton, subject TO the cost of manufacture.
If the anthracene were recovered a bet
ter result was realized. A successful pro-
cess for the recovery Of benZine was in
operation at some CT the works in Ger
many, but it was at present a secret pro-
cess. The permanent gases Chiefly car
bureted hydrogen, hydrogen, carbon mo-
noxide, etc) were used without further
publication as fuel for ating the coke
ovens and boilers. The writers described
the Carves, Simon-Carves, Semet-Solway
and the Otto-Hoffman ovens.
The basis and the design of the last
named was that on each side of the row
of coke ovens there extended a pair of
regenerators Tor large arched f1ues), filed
with fire bricks. arranged In checker
form. which, by means of the Siemens
reversing value, were alternately placed
in connection with the supply of burn
ing gasses, and the oven fues, or the oven
f1ues and the chimney A fiue of con-
siderable area ran berea tn the floor of the
ovens from side to side, but separated in
the center by a partition These floor
fiues were in connection with number
of vertical passes which passed up the
center of the division walls beneath the
ovens, and entered at the top into another
horizontal fue. The heated air and gases
from. one of the generators entered the
fiue below the floor OF the ovens and
passed up the first vertical passages in
the oven walls into the upper horizontal
fiue until ii reached the middle Of the
oven, when it descended by the vertical
passages in the other half of the oven
into fiue beneath the oven f1cnr. and from
thence into the second Regeneration, and
so on to the chimney. The normal type
of the Otto oven was $3.50 feet long 67