The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1903-11-05
LIGHT FROM SMOKE.
Deleian Method of Utilizing the
Waste to Produce an Illumfn-
amt and Heat.

amt anu AACnAs
N. Tobiansky recently demonstrated
before tho Belgian Society of Engineers
the value of an apparatus which is well
worth the study of manufacturers, says
La Nature.
Smoke may be more or less invisible.
but its composition is inyariable. 1t Isl
made up of pulverulent matters, incom-
bustible gases, as nitrogen and anhy-
bride carbonic, combustible gases such
as oxide of carbon, hydrocarbides and
hydrogen, These represent the struc-
ture of gmoke, no matter how transpa-
remit it may be. The fact is, however,
that this heterogeneous mixture may be
burnt, a familiar proof of which Is given
in the paper horn, the smoke of which Is
ignited, but after this second combus-
ton the smoke is not again destroyed
the exact point being to make the smoke
disappear absolutely and to find some
means of making profitable use Of this
same destruction.
The method of M. Tobiansky is as fol-
lows: First. filtration of the smoke to
rid it of pulverulent matters and of the
condensible hydrocarbides; second,
carburation of the gases to increase
their facility of combustion. For long
time attempts have been made to filter
the smoke by Kidding it of it's carbonic
acid and to do away with chimneys by
replacing them with an artificial
draught which sucks or draws back the
smoke. NJ. Tobiansky has combined the
two systems and knowing that car
burated air produces an excellent gas
he carburated the smoke which had pre-
viously been filtered and drawn back.
The products of the combustion thus
treated gave him a new gas, which he
called "pyrogas," and which does not
condense For purposes of lighting,
heating and motor uses the method is
Invaluable and permits the utilization
of detritus of all sorts.
The operator by means of an instru-
ment of suction forces the smoke into
filter filled with porous substance
which is saturated with volatile n.y.
drocarblde such as naphtha or petro-
leum. The porous matter is combus-
tible; for example, coke, and we will see
in moment why this is so. In passing
through the filter the smoke deposits
on the coke portion of the hydrocar-
bides or tars which it contains, at the
same time becoming charged with the
vapor OF the volatile hydrocarbides with
which the porous matter is saturated
After filtration the smoke is only com.
posed of combust:ble gases, such as
oxide of carbon, hydrocarbide vapors
and hydrogen, and of incombustible gas
as nitrogen and carbonic acid.
BY this method M. Tobiansky obtains
from smoke OF all sorts the greatest pos.
sible profit, utilizing first the heat which
is present in the smoke for the purpose
of heating the hydrocarbides of the FL
ter, the volatilization of these hydro
carbides being all the more complete
| and their employment all the easier
since the heavy hydrocarbides, such a!
petroleum, while being cheap, may per
fectly answer every requirement of thil
system. The heat of the smoke warns
the water of the refrigerator which sur
rounds the filter and this hot water il
turn can feed a boiler Finally thu
porous matter, the coke of the filter
after having been charged with con
densed hydrocarbides and with the car
bon in suspension in the smoke, forms
an excellent and very rich combustible
In fact, the Tobiansky method make
the combustion of material employee
in whatever way as complete as posi-
BILE, and this is no small economy whel
one considers that in a locomotive
where all is combined to produce tn
smallest loss the return is only Is pc
cent.