The Saint Paul globe., 1899-12-01

They Have Convinced the Officials
of That Road of the Value of the
New Fuel, and 1t VIII He One OF
the Heavy Consumers When the
Pressed Coal Company Begins
Operations,
Several days ago dispatches appeared
In several Twin City papers from Bis
marck, N. D., regarding the project of an
Eastern syndicate to utilize the Ignite
fields of North Dakota as fuel of COM
merce. Julius Moersch. authorized agent
of the New York syndicate, was seen by
the G Oh be yesterday. and said that
the information contained in the dis
patches was somewhat misleading. He
made the following statement to the
G. o b e:
1T was the intention of the gentlemen
interested i'll the scheme to say nothing
regarding the project until the details had
been fully decided upon; but, as there
has been SO much speculation in the
newspapers, and so much printed that is
far from the facts, I have been authorized
by Messrs. Alexander Menke and Herman
Wolff, of New York, to make a general
statement.
I'm the first place the United States
Pressed Coal company will on the outset
invest $4,000, 900 in the scheme, and there
is an unlimited amount of capital back
of the plan, which will be brought into
play as the plants are put in operation.
The statement made in one Of the
papers that each plant would cost in the
neighborhood of $4,000 Is unauthorized,
and L can say that the gentleman making
the statement would be surprised If he
had to pay the balance over that sum out
of his own pocket. The process extracts
all the water sulphur and other impuri-
ties from the Ignite, and the raw ma
terial after being purified is reduced to
small briquettes, that can be made for
a price much lower than that Of high
grade bituminous or anthracite coal.
The fuel will be practically smokeless,
and does not clinker, but burns to a fine
white ash. There are millions and millions
of acres of the ignite in North Dakota,
in fact it IS wellnigh inexhaustible
''Mr. Wolff, the investor and protector
of the process and enterprise, has secur-
ed patents for the United States, England,
France and Germany, and the United
States Pressed Coal company has secur-
ed the patent right for the United States,
and is preparing to commence operations
as soon as the required machinery and
plants can be built.
Where the plants are to be located we
decline to say just at present, but both
Mr.. Wolff and Menke will be back within
short time, and final arrangements
made for the establishment of several
large plants.
The Northern Pacific railroad is to
use the fuel for their engines in North
Dakota and Montana, and later will nrob-
ably use 1t all over the system. When
Mr. Menke and Mr.. Wolff were in St.
Paul two weeks ago the fuel was sub
mitted to severe test in the presence
of the superintendent of motive power,
chief engineer, Mr.. Menke, Mr.. Wolff and
myself that was entirely satisfactory
The statements regarding the matter
that have already been published make
it appear that the process is yet in the
experimental stage. This is not a fact
A year ago both Mr.. Menke and Mr..
Wolff came to st. Paul, and at that time
the matter was thoroughly investigated,
but it has required some time to, get
the plans together. The new, company is
prepared to invest millions of dollars in
the manufacture of the new fuel, and
work on the plants will be hastened as
soon as the gentlemen at the head of
the company return West
1.-TWO years ago, in an article on arti-
fetal fuel. which was printed in the
Eastern papers, 1 described a new