Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1900-06-09

ment has attracted such widespread
attention that letters have been re-
ceiVed by President futile from rall-
roads in BRUSSELS, Italy and other
continental countries. asking for m
formation about the use Of coke, ana
from all parts Of the United States
have come similar requests. All ~
which are cheerfully answered.
You can always tell Cuke-hurncr
among locomotives ny the lack ot
smoke, and by the white ring which
forms around the top of tn" smoke
stack. Nowadays. you may pick them
uut occasionally on the line NJ the
Boston < Albany and Fitchhurg Rail
roads. as well as along that Of the
Ioston & Maine. The Albany and
Fitchhurg examples are fewer. how
over. for these roads now us" only
about one hundred tons Of coal each
daily The Albany has eighteen coke
burning locomotives, Will" the Fitch
burg has about thirty. An interesting
contrast between the Albany's expert
cnce with coke ana that.of the Boston
4 Maine seems to have resulted from
the fact that the Albany has more ana
beth Fifcld was held. at , i. NJ
sleeper grades Ia climb between here
and Springfield than the other road
has between here ana Portland. II
appears that an ordinary tender. even
with 4 rack on it, cannot carry cox"
enough for the entire Springfield run,
while one tender carries a plenty for
the Portland trip. An Albany official
u,, t,.it ~, i.1I r-IlY
was made without any additional
supply.
iSut locomotive fireboxes are not
the only places where coke is already
being used 1t is being adopted in
large manufacturing plants which buy
it by the carload. ana ii is going into
dwelling house furnaces and cook
stoves, supplied in all sorts Of
amounts from several carloads at a
time down to the small lots SOLD in
paper bags at the corner grocery.
Since last November the fires under
the eleven big boilers Of Norths great
provision ana packing establishment
at East Cambridge have been running
day and night with coke for fuel. Forty
tons a day 20 into the Water-Erate
furnaces. and if you ask Supcrntcnd-
ent Guthrie how il acts. compared
with soft coal. he viii probably lead
you out into the hig yard. point up to
III" top Of the stack. and say:
You see that? There's only thin.
yellow haze coming out now but that
is as much as we ever get. When we
used coal we got heavy. black smoke
a large part of the time. ana there
was SCOT enough from it to bother us
in our manufacturing. 1t got into
lard, and a hit of SCOT shows pretty
plainly on leaf lard Now we have
no trouble at all. The difference is
that when you throw shovelful Of
soft coal into the furnace, the tremen-
dous draught is enough to take a good
deal of the fine dust straight up the
chimney before it is half consumed.
The coke is graduated. but in being
handled over it never gets as fine as
the finest dust from soft coal Very
little coke gets by the fire uncOnSumed
This is an an advantage not only on
account of the decrease in smoke. but
also because with the coke we get very
little Stag, and get rid altogether of a
fine red dust which used to clog M
'ii' pt'h connexions, ana MAKE II nee
essary to shut down a boiler every
three or four weeks to clean out Be
sides the fire box has to be filled with
coke only about once in every half
hour. while with soft coal we had to
fire every Il or 20 minutes"
This is, in fact. a summary Of the
experience with coke at the North es-
Enlistment. There is another feature
of it which is important there ana
wherever else it is kept standing ex-
posed to the atmosphere in a great pile
There is danger from spontaneous
combustion. A mass Of soft coal. out
doors. after two or THREE rains. packs
down upon itself and begins TO heat.
until. if no outlet is afforded, fire
breaks out. But the coke has had 50
much of the oil and gas taken out of
it that hardly anything but
carbon remains: and, even then.
it cannot mass together as coal
does. for the reason that it piles
up more in the "cob- house" fashion
than in a mass There is always a