The Honolulu republican. [volume] (Honolulu, T.H.) 1900-1902, 1900-07-07

z Tie CHIMNEY. I-e EASt II rs 11EA~ =
consumed. but the large zz0Ins OF the
vzpor Of water passing o. carries away
with Il large amount u the heat
evolved, and tie useful effect CT the ba-
gzsse Is thereby Tsrr lzTgsiy dlnkn-
ished
The probIszz. therefore. Is 70 dis
pose Of the water in these refractory
fuels without Industrial less. and II
vas found in practice. long before the
theory vas deduesd, that SltE an ex-
fsEnaI furnace and high initial heat.
such fuels could De slecsszta y utilized
when success was Impossible in ordi-
nary furnaces Water "a ccIaf cssd CT
hydrogen and oxygen il combination
These two indanuable gases. which
combined, form water. may be disso-
ciated az q temperature OF about 200
F. Water begins TO decompoSe AZ
about 1850 F., but only 10 very lin
tied extent, beginning at 2lsz 2 II.
therefore, the initial temperature OF
the furnace can be kept above zoo T.,
or up TO q white heat. the water cor
tanned in the hagasse is dec0mposed,
and in its new combinations with the
carbon Of the bagasse il VIII evolve as
much as was consumed in the diSsOeia-
ton and In this way the water in the
fuel can be disposed OF without indus
trial loss, q fact that led Professor
Silliman of Yale College, 1lany years
ago, 10 say that under proper furnace
conditions, wet fuel was better than
dry This may have seemed little ex-
travagaut, but at the same time our
inventors were endeayoriug to plan
meehanisms for the burning Of water,
believing that they had arrived at con-
cIusions that would work industrial
revolutions in that direction Our ex-
perience is to-day that il Is somewhat
difficult TO maintain the necessarily
very high initial temperature in our ba-
gasse furnaces, and that win US dry
bagasse always burns better than wet
Mr. Stream, in the lowering of the arch
of his bagasse furnaces, seems to have
made move in the right direction.
Fifteen or twenty years ago there was
quite disposition in this State to place
the bagasse furnaces directly under
the boilers, the immediate impact of
the flames against the bottom of the
boilers being then thought TO produce
the best results. More recently the ex-
ternal furnace, or Dutch oven furnace,
is coming into higher esteem. and we
believe that 1t to-day is generally pre-
ferred
The third point brought ont in the
discussion before the Planters Associ-
alton last week that we have herein-
above referred to, was that of the dis
tribution of the bagasse over the crate
surface of the furnaces. Mr.. ComeauX
seems to have thought thai. he could
effect this satisfactorily by Land feed
ing, and that when he fed b. hand he
had no trouble in maintaining an am
pie supply of steam for the work that
he had in hand The bagasse furnaces
in use in Louisiana generally are fed
automatically, and while crate bars are
now in general use, there is ordinarily
but one hopper over each furnace. and
the bagasse falling on the CRATES is apt
TO accumulate in piles. unless the fur
naces are intensely hot ana the ba-
gasse kept consumed out of the way all
the time. AS Mr.. Fisher said in his
paper, if the best fuel that we have,
bituminous coal, were fed automau-
eally into our boiler furnaces. regard
less of the quantity ALREADY on the
crate bars, and in high piles not cover
ing the CRATE surface, we should lose I /
very large part of the value OF such /
fuel This conclusion is certainly a !
true one. To remedy that difficulty Mr.. |
Fisher has a special mechanical device !
for the distribution of the bagasse over |
the entire CRATE surface of the furnace. |
Even with his device he might still I
labor under the difficulty of having an /
excess of fuel in the furnace. but he /
believes and seems 10 have slhstanti- /
ated. that he can spread the bagasse |
evenly over the entire furnace, thus /
an even combustion, pre- /
venting the access of unnecessarily
cold air and producing sucd conditions i
as are everywhere recognized as essen
tial to good combustion. Some years
ago Pittsburg inventor came TO New
Orleans for the purpose of exploiting
furnace in which he would Distribute
the bagasse more thoroughly by having
our ordinary brick furnaces with a
number of hopper holes on the top, say
six or eight, through which the ba-
gasse should be fed to the various
parts of the furnace as Ii might seem
to be needed. These hoppers. or OPEN
Ings, were covered with tight iron lids,
and as the draft would ordinarily be
inward, there was not much danger of
fire. and the top house being built OF
ron. this plan of feeding, it was
thought, could be accomplished with
safety. Interest in bagasse burning AT
hat time was not so great as at pres
ant. and the inventor OF that plan.
which he said had been successfully
.ested in Cuba, did not secure any pat
IONS in Louisiana. so far as We learned.
-Reverting, then, to the three points
brought out in the recent meeting,
riz.. Mr.. Comeaux's insistenee on the
,areful distribution of the hagasse over
he CRATE surface, MIR. Streams insist
snce on the development of high initial
heat by low crown fire arches external
% the boilers, and Mr.. Fishers claim
hat his device will successfully dis
tribute the incoming bagasse ever the
whole CRATE surface without any in
furious or unpleasant conditions. we
may conclude that considerable light
aas again been thrown upon this some
what difficult subject and tSaf all our
-esders who are interested in hagasse
burning would do well probably %
ggain read the interesting papers read
Il the meeting of the Planters Associ-
Ition. which were published in our
asst issue
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