Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-10-13

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| been at work on this thing he said, land
We cannot expect to perfect so difficult a
| work within year. But it will be done in
! time"
City Ordinance in the Way.
| The three chief points In perfecting these
large burners are perfect combustion, so
that there will be as little odor and smoke
| as possible, to make t-noiseless and safe.
| So heating the apartment houses with oil
| this winter seems to be out Of the ques-
| ton. . ,..--.,
Even If a burner We're to be perfected the
furnace manufacturers say they would be
unable to perfect the apparatus for manu-
| featuring them and get them ready fast
| enough to supply the demand. And even if
| they were available. the five-gallon restric-
| ton in the storage of oil would have to be
| overcome. How these thousands of apart
| ment houses are to be heated no one could
| be found who would say. Gas is too expen-
! sve, and the supply would not be sufficient
| If gas burners were placed in the furnaces
| of the apartment houses. In half dozen
| places yesterday 1t was said that part of
the gas now supplied to the city Is not pure
| coal gas, and that the quality of the gas
| will continue to deteriorate as the demand
increases
| Harrison 2. Gawtry, president of the
| Consolidated Gas Company reiterated yes
terday that his company could not under
| take to heat the entire city and that some
| other method of heating would have to be
| found He said the supply of big and little
| gas stoves had been exhausted, and that
| the company was utterly unable to get the
| stoves manufactured as fast they were
called for. Thousands of people who had
| never before burned gas We're now using it
| for warming and cooking. He said neces-
| sarily the quality Of gas would get little
| poorer under the great drain upon the sup
ply, but the company would do the best it
| could and no one could do more.
| Inventors at Work.
| group of workmen and scientists were
hard at work at an asbestos establishment
| in William street yesterday perfecting a
new asbestos brick for burning Oil. Several
| tests have been made, and 1t has been
| demonstrated that fire felt" block eight
| by six inches In size, saturated with one
| quart OF kerosene oil, will burn an hour and
| produce In any ordinary cook stove heat
| enough to do usual family cooking and heat
| the oven. The members of the firm believe
| that In this they have solved the question
| Of comparatively cheap fuel. One brick, IL
| used carefully, will last many years. On
| the outside is coating of firm material
| but the inside is soft and PUPPY and quickly
absorbs the oil.
| In using these bricks the proper plan is to
| have three, and while one is being used in
| the stove the second may be cooling and the
| third one soaking in the Oil. They may be
put in the stove as one would place there a
| stick of wood, and may be used in wood or
coal stoves. Experiments are now being
made to get as perfect combustion as pos
| sible, so as to do away with disa greeable
| smoke and odor. This can largely be regu-
| lated through proper adjustment Of the
| draughts. The asbestos bricks will cost not
| to exceed 10 cents each.
| Experiments have been made with ordi-
nary building brick. but while they absorb
the oil the process is much slower than with
asbestos, and they are heavier and do not
| produce so strong heat.
Where Standard Oil Steps In.
| Next to the oil bricks, oil Stoves appear
to come nearer meeting, the demands of the
poor man than anything else A first-class
| oil stove for heating cooking may be had
| for from So to SO. These stoves have now
| been perfected so that theysprove satisfac-
tory to those who re,aIsins them. At all
the stores where they are sold in the lower
| part of the city, the deinanalis far greater
than the. supply. Thed heating stoves are
| smaller than the smallest isize coal stove
| and require chimneyl pI41ey are so ad-
| justed that the combustion rs perfect and
| they give off no odor. 40 steve large enough
1 to heat a room sixteen by eighteen feet in
| size burns one gallon of +eiti in ten hours
| making the cost about oneRcent an hour
| The heaters have white lame, showing
that equal parts Of oxygen and fuel are be-
| ing burned. The COOK Stoxef use about the
| same amount of oil, but they produce blue
fame. and the room In which they are used
should always be ventilated, as they burn
| about seven times as much oxygen as the
| heaters.
| the tenement houses and into the homes of
| the weather. classes as well, during the last
four weeks If oil remains at the present
| figure the expense to the ordinary family
| would not be greater than coal at normal
| prices, but one dealer yesterday predicted
| that as soon as the demand for oil increased
! the Standard Oil Company would put up the
| prices beyond the poor mans reach. They
| increased the price enc cent a gallon last
| Thursday he said, sand have been in
| formed that the price will steadily go up as
| the demand grows.
| Would Utilize Bricks.
| Several alleged inventions have recently
| been announced for reducing the price of
| gas for heating by Using with 1t some sort
| of heat-giving materials like asbestos or by
mixing the gas with compressed air. A