Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1899-09-19
ANOTHER INDUSTRY.
! Fifty-oven Coke Plant for
Ottumwa.
WILL REDUCE PRICE OF COKE AND GAS
Patent Process by Which Iowa Coal
Can be Utilized i'm this Great In-
dustry-What 1t Means to
Manufacturers.
[From Fridays Daily.J

[From Fridays Daily.l
Another great industry is coming to
Ottumwa. Kilian II. Seibel, of the
Universal Fuel Co., of Chicago, is in
the city for the purpose of organizing
a branch company of the Universal Flu
ell Co. for the manufacture of coke from
Iowa coal. The process is recent pat
ent for coking non-colSing Goals, and
making an anthracite out of Ignite
coal, thus saving the gas, tar and am
monia. The new process will reduce
the price of gas fully one half, and
furnish an almost unlimited output of
coke. The patent process is the in
venticn of Joseph Hemingway, who is
the consulting engineer of the Univer-
sal Fuel Co. The other members of
the company are L. 2. Letter, presi-
dent; Joseph Letter, vice president;
w. ]. War;, secretary and treasurer;
w. e. Rothermel, general manager.
The branch company in Iowa will con-
sist of five men, one of whom will be in
Ottumwa, one at Des Noines, one at
Centerville, one at Sioux City, and the
other place has not been decided upon.
The Iowa company will be organized
with one million dollars preferred
stock and two million dollars common,
of which the Letters will own one-half,
Thus giving the Universal Fuel Co. the
controlling interest. Coke plants
will be established at each
of the above named places. The one
proposed for Ottumwa win have a bat
terry of fifty ovens, and will be estao-
Ilished within radius of few miles
of the city. Forty men will be given
employment at the new plant. It will
have a capacity of 100000 cubic feet
of gas every twenty-four hours, and an
output of $50 tons of coke in the same
period. The new plant, Mr.. Seibel says,
will be in operation by Feb. 1, provid-
ling there is no delay in getting ma
terial, etc, on the ground.
The value of an industry of this kind
to Ottumwa is inestimable. Mr.. Seibel
has visited number of the manufac-
turing industries here and has met with
the greatest encouragement. The re-
duction in the price OF gas, which the
establishment of this coke plant will
make, will enable them to substitute
gas as fuel, instead of coal. The
coke made by this process is equal in
quality to that made from any other
variety of coal, commonly used in the
manufacture of coke. In just wha,
manner the new company will dis
pose of it's gas, has not heen de,
| termined, as. Mr.. Seibel has no.
been able to see the manager o.
the Ottumwa Gas works. If some ar.
rangement is not made whereby the
Ottumwa Gas, Light, Heat & Power
Co. does not agree to take the entire
output of the new company, it is pos
sible that it may go into the gas bust
ness itself.
The oven in use in the Hemingway
colsing process is of the beehive type,
which is SO common in Pennsylvania
and other coke producing states. 1,
differs from the ordinary beehive
however, in being fitted with a hot
blast obtained by blowing air over an
incandescent bed of COAL The process
not only produces coke from Goa.
hitherto regarded as non-coking, but
it eliminates a considerable part Of
the sulphur that may be found in the
coal, and further, that it will turn out
coke in twelve to thirteen hours, equa
W lie uSusi III " -SiSAo VI SSSCHlS
two hour coke. Ovens of this character
! will cost much less than retort, or bi
product ovens, if the production o.
coke is alone sought.
| These processes are owned by TIL
Universal Fuel company, just incorpo
rated in New Jersey, with a capital o
4 S1,OOO,OOO. Subsidiary companies vii
be organized in coal mining towns o
localities, in which coke ovens can b
economically located, taking license
from the parent company. Should tn
anticipations of the inventor and hi
hackers be realized when their collin;
plants are in. commercial operation
in the west, great industrial chang
will take place. AT nrst small man
facturers and domestic consumers wi
probably be the purchasers of all Ill
native coke. But eventually it will b
used by iron and steel manufacturer
to reduce their cost of production.