Evening star., 1902-03-03
ABATEMENT OF SMOKE
ALBERT M. READ WRITES TO DIS
TR1cT COMMISSIONERS.
Says Use of Buckwheat Coal is Good
Remedy-Mr. Macfarland's
Opinion.

The District Commissioners hd\e io-
ceived a copy of communication from Al
bert NJ. Read of the American Security
and Trust Company on the subject Oh
smoke and it's abatement.
Now that it has been quite clearly dem-
onstrated that smoke consumers 90 not
consume all of the smoke from the soft OF
bituminous coal used i'll our furnaces ana
that some other means will nave 10 pe
found to free our city from the smoke hui-
sance and enable owners Of smoking stacks
to place themselves we'll within the desls-
nation Of law-abiding citizens, Mr.. feau
says, 'lt will be wise to inquire "hether
substitute for soft coal cannot be obtained
that will combine thestwo necessary essen
tials OF absolute smokelessness and COM
paratiye low cost. H'
The experience Of the American Security
and Trust Company at Its storage ware
house may be of Interest in this connection
It might be we'll to state In passing tndt
the steam plant of the storage warehouse
has now In operation two smoke consum-
ers put In nearly three years ago, that WIN
intelligent stoking reduce the emission OF
| black or brown s!noketo minimum.
A Smokeless Coal.
with a general knowledge Of the large
consumption of anthracite coal for steam
| ing purposes in northern cities 1t occurred q
to us that inquiry. as to the comparative
| cost steaming qualities. etc, OF this coal
should properly precede its use. even IN
EXPERIMENTATION. Upon investigation 1t was
| found that variety OF smokeless anthra-
| cite coal, known commercially as buck
| wheat COAL could be had in the Washing
| ton market for the same price per ton that
| we were paying for the bituminous coal,
and that its steaming value. as gwen py
| the authorities, was equal to that of the
| Cumberland and most OF the other so1t
Goals entering this market. 1t then only
| remained for us to determine whether IL
could be burned in our furnaces 70 advan,
| tage, This we ascertained by trial could
| be done and the problem OF smokeless
steaming appeared solved. for us at least
| From our experience In practice not of
| long duration. however. We have been leo
| to conclude: First, that buckWheat coal at
| the same price is 6s economical, with care
full use as bitumiEous coal; second, that 1t
| is smokeless third that 1t can be economic
| ally burned on CRATES that the ordinary rum
of-mine bituminous coal Of this market can
he economically burned on; fourth. tnat the
! fires from it require closer attention ana
furnish more work for the hreman thah
! those from bituminous coal when burned on
crates ordinarily used for the latter. The
use Of shaking CRATES would, however, 1t Is
understood, partially, If not entirely, rem
| edy this.
Question of Easy Solution.
| "shouId these conclusions stand the test
! of experience-and every soft coal user in
! the CITY can easily test them at once and
without additional expense or change In
| plant by ordering ton of buckwheat coal
| for trial-it would appear that the smoke
question can be easily solved In the same
way that 1t has been solved in New York
and other cities. namely. by the abandon
ment Of the use or a sihohe-Hahlhs loi
| smokeless coal. "a,
| TT goes without saying that every citi-
| zen of this city beautiful Is anxious to have
| its atmosphere as clear and pure as Is that
Of the far-famed lands of southern Italy,
and that this feeling would have actuated
| the owners of all smoking chimneys to cure
them long ago had put @ ahe e. oistr,et ,a auenop
| other communities in their abolishment,
| and thus pointed out the way.
This brings me to suggestion that
time will no doubt resolve INTO an axiom,
that every law or regulation formulated to
| cure an evil should be accompanied by
| cure that can be readily applied without
unreasonable hardship: The example OF
| tion is a good illustration of the advan-
| tages Of the educational system over that
| of sporadic punishments. to which our cit
| les usually resort.
| Commissioner Macfarland's Opinion.
| Commissioner Macfarland. in discussing
the matter todays referred to that portion
! of Mr. Reads communication In which 1t
| Is suggested that the authorities might
have pointed outt way of complying with
the law instead of making sporadic efforts
at imposing fnesxfor fs violation, and said
that the Commissioners were expressly for
hidden by the language of the statute from
making any sugsestioh as to device or
| method. section 5,of the act reading:
| "That no discrimination shall be made
! against any method or device which may
be used for Misrepresentation of smoke and
which accomplishess the purpose of this
| act" oe L3
| TO recommend a. mHthod or Device. Mr..
Macfarland said.swouia clearly be discrim-
| nation against sh other methods and de-
vices. and the manufacturers of smokeless
machinery would.genepally object to It,