The Savannah morning news., 1902-10-11
WHY NOT BURN OILED BRICKS?
There Is an Easy Way of Using the
stove without Coal.
From the New York Sun.

From the New York Sun.
There need be no more worry about
having to cook the dinner without coal.
The washerwoman who didn't expect
to be able TO iron and heat the boiler
much longer with anthracite at $40
ard more ton may rest easy AS long
as kerosene oil is cheap and the brick
makers keep at it, nobody's stove need
be cold.
With one of the ordinary terra-cotta
bricks with which freproof buildings
are largely constructed and less than
a cents worth of kerosene you can
cook dinner. heat the boiler and be
comfortably warm for nearly an hour.
With a relay of bricks and a little more
kerosene the stove can be kept going
all day with little more trouble than
ii costs to replenish the ordinary coal
fire.
Why nobody proclaimed il before can
hardly be explained. for the fact that
very porous brick and kerosene can be
used for fuel in this way has been
known to the brickmakers ever since
they began to manufacture these
bricks years ago. But the brickmakers
never thought of coming out as public
benefactors, and incidentally selling
more bricks, until Adolf Muller of the
firm of Henry Maurer & Son, in West
Twenty third street, which manufac-
lures this particular style of fireproof
building material. told about its use
in a letter in Tuesdays Sun.
The letter set forth the fact that IL
an ordinary fat, hollow, terra Gotta
brick is plunged in kerosene for few
seconds and then ignited it VIII burn
from half an hour to an hour. throw
ing out great heat at an infinitesimal
cost. A few people have known that,
and in some places in the country it
has been practice to use pile of OIL
soaked bricks in an open CRATE to take
the chill off a room.
There really is nothing remarkable
about it. The bricks have been used
for the last ten years to line ceilings
and for partitions. They are Slightly
hollow, and in the sides are shallow
grooves, these answering the double
purpose of decreasing the weight of
the brick and insuring ventilation. The
purpose in making them porous is the
same. This is done by mixing the
terra-cotta clay with sawdust. In the
kiln the sawdust is burned out leaving
the brick of fine terra-cotta clay.
shapes and sizes. The most conven-
lent fit for the ordinary kitchen range
is one about eight inches long, a lit
tie less than four wide and about two
and quarter inches thick. In showing
a Sun reporter yesterday how one of
these could be used Mr.. Muller drop
ped it on its side in a tin wash basin
half full of kerosene. When it had
lain there half immersed for ten or
L.
soaked the other side. Then he fished
it out by putting the end of stick
through the hollow, set it down on two
ordinary bricks and applied match
The oil on the brick slowly began to
burn, very much as a piece Of camel
coal or highly combustible wood might
have done. In ten seconds the brick
was throwing out from all sides a
flame which rose to a hight of about
two feet. The heat could be felt five
feet away.
AT the end of half an hour the brick
was burning as steadily as ever. To
show how easily it could be extin-
guished it was dropped into a pail of
water, then fshed out, soaked in oil
again and relighted. It seemed to burn
better after being in the water than
it did when first lighted. The brick it,
self, except for coming out black after
burning While, was the same as ever.
The flame given out was clear and
! sootless. After soaking in oil for less
than half a minute brick seemed
likely to burn for about an hour
Il hold" said the exponent of brick
burning, that this solves the fuel
problem for the East Side, at any rate
Let the coal strike go on till one side
or the other is tired. All that poor
folks-or weather. ones. for that mat
ter-need to do is to keep a few bricks
and kerosene bath handy and the old
coal stove is just as good as it ever
was. You can use the bricks in the
stove. OF course you can't very well
heat large buildings in this way, but
if we are to have plenty of soft coal,
| as they say, there will be no need"