The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1903-12-18
ASHES.
More Light From Practical Ex,o.:.
With the Scb~ 'enc,

..-H#E ~ C$nnrt.-
With the Scheme. 'ehc'
Nonpareil Man. in Minneann,is
some time ago in something of tba outhal:
of the Man-Who-Knows-It-An az spirit
satire appeared in this co,,,r,r " sentle
matter of the furnace burninv on the
ashes. A number of intelligent neon,. o%n
sisted mat they We're burning their an II
IN tneir furnaces, and a number of o ,ne
intelligent people, who had MOI - otAer
insisted that 1t could not he 5oa .t'ed 1t,
proposition seems a foolish ono Inc
sight, but when you can verify ;. Htst
yourself it is not reasonable ia ro Tor
until you have tried it. That Is Nh dt 1t
column erred. 'Wie the
But the seed of the discussion
less, fell on good ground, and the detnrne-
natlon was made to give the ashes.hrrnt-
ing plan a fair trial on the first cola ~
If there IS any way of beatinn ~ uay.
game, In ever so small a wav - ~ eoai
worth the experiment. well
One evening last week 1 tool
ashes and gave them a good wettioa tne
next morning they had dried ont - lhe
but were damp. This was SUNDAY ne1le'
ing. The fire was well shaken dow n'Utn
a good supply of hard, black coal = aAa
coal, worth $S.75 per-was shovo,oa Ist
When this was we'll under way and H.
ing all over, l threw in from four RI 81
'tiSiASo VI NhiiP CllS III l0nKnl It.
very asinine and suicidal thing 10 do 70
the remark was made soto yoca =, anu
cellar wall: " lHe
"A man who thinks them tht,cs .a,,
burn ought to be kicked by a two-I1con "n'
tive-power jackass.' ~0N'o
The drafts of tie furnace wore
behind and the ashbox draft was naf, .4oSea
about the width OF a finger nail Al, 'ben
long the house was warm and comforta% ~
In TACT, TOO Warm-and the Windows
were kept open. That night 7 trt :"
lightly down the broad co!onia, asns
stairway and looked into the furnace TSl
ashes were all aglow with little hr;nh.
spots of fire. The sight was 50 nIensa les.
and Inspiring that nothing was dona ~.
the furnace No coal was added nor "
it shaken down. In the morpiDs a. 90 "@'
after its neutrality-suspicious. run. looked ~ ~,
as good as 1t did the night before U"ae .
mildly astonished, but out for blood N Ne
the worst must be known. l threw q, NV
inches more of wet ashes-no coal-snS
went down to the office. That night st
p. H., after a ~thirty-six hour run tha sro
was still! going and the house was w.,
l shook the fire down thoroughly than
added coal and a little wood, and when
1t was blazing merrily, in went the wat
ashes again for another thirty-six .hnnr
run. And they are going to keep going
in for the present.
This story ounds like an exaggeration,
put 1t is a plain, unvarnished fact. In
place of three "helpings Of coal, that fur
mace is nov getting one. How II will
work in the coolest weather has not vet
been demonstrated, but the furnace will
certainly be given a chance to show what
it can do.
Are the ashes all consumed? some
body asks. .
That cannot be told from my expert
ence yet. AS fast as they come out Of
the ashpit they wander back on top of
the fire. I notice nc increase in their
numbe yet.
One fact has been n~oted-that the ashes
when wet show innumerable fine points
of black coal that has not been con-
sumed. The reason for this evidently is
that in the old way the ashes are under
the fire. In the new way the ashes are
over the fire. Hence anything combusti-
BILE must burn.
Having tried this thing and found 1t
satisfactory, all professors of chemistry
or doctors of philosophy who tell us that
1t cannot be done are to me as strangers
n aliens. They cannot doctor my phi
losophy Of coal urnac and ashes-burn-
ings.
1t is said that the first steamship that
came across the Atlantic carried a book
proving that steamships couldn't cross
the Atlantic
Our fathers, it mi be said, never
burned ashes in their furnaces and We
guess that the way our fathers ran their
furnaces is good enough for US. There is
a story told somewhere of a mar who for
forty years had always gone down town,
leaned up against the "deepot'' and
watched the train come in. One day the
railroad management sent a gang of men
and moved the depot" to the next lot,
but the man came down town as usual,
leaned against the place where the sta
ton had formerly stood and got a bad
fall because 1t wasn't there.