The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-02-01
Time Of Artificial Fuel
Is Not Very Distant
Special to The Globe.

Special to The Globe
WASHINGTON, D. c., April 24-The
cramped condition of our coal supply
consequent upon the coal strike and the
doubts as to any legislation in the di-
rection Of taking off the tariff on coal
being consummated has led to steps
being taken to introduce the manufac-
ture of briquettes in this country on an
extensive scale,
In Germany and France, where the
best fuei is high priced, it has been
found to be an economic necessity
to use briquette powdered fuels.
The Investigations made during the
recent strike have shown that the time
must certainly come when our best
qualities of coal will become scarcer,
and necessarily more expensive.
There is, however, in the United
States an almost unlimited supply Of
powdered carbon in the form of slack
from bituminous mines or culm from
the anthracite, and also peat or ignite
which is too friable to be Of any value
in it's natural state, but could be con-
verted into briquettes satisfactorily.
In view of the fact that large COM
panies have been formed for the i'm
portation of German briquette manu-
featuring machinery into this country
an account just given by our consul
general at Berlin on the question
proves of considerable interest.
Mr.. Mason says: German briquette
factories are divided, in respect to the
crude material employed, into two gem
eral groups, those which make the
al ~
Qignite), or carbolized peat, and those
which produce the so-called industrie
briquettes, for which coal dust or slack
form the basic material, these being
the waste of the bitumlnous coal
mines.
Household briquettes, as made in
Germany from brown coal, peat, and
to certain extent from anthracite
dust, are used for CRATES, heating
stoves, cooking stoves and ranges, and
constitute the principal household fuel
Of Berlin and other German cities. They
are clean to touch, kindle readily, burn
with a clear, full flame, and are cheap
er in Berlin, ton for ton, than anthra-
cite or good bituminous coal
HThey are made largely from brown
coal in factories located mainly in ST.
1ys
and united in syndicate, which con-
trolls the output, regulates prices, and
looks after the general Walfare of the
industry.
Machinery for the manufacture of
briquettes from Ignite is made by sew
eral large establishments, among
which may be cited the Zeiter Eisen-
giesserei at Zeitz, in SaxorY; the Ma
schinen Fabrik Buckau, in Madgeburg,
and the Konigin Marienhutte, at Gains
dorf, in Saxony.
"There are in Germany 439 brown
coal mines, which produced last year
4A,211, 902 tons of Ignite, valued at
SAG, 042, 500, or a little more than 81 per
ton. OF this whole number of mines
eighteen have each from one to six
briquette factories, in each of which
from one to ten presses are employed.
The whole brown coal briqaette indus
try of Germany includes 2S6 factories,
with a total of SOL presses.
Industrial briquettes are used in
Germany for firing locomotives and
other steam boilers, for smelling in
reverberatory furnaces, and for many
other kinds of industrial heating. They
are made of bituminous coal dust, he Id
together by a matrlX of mineral pitch
that is, coal tar derived from retOrt
coke ovens or gas manufacture, and
from which the benzole and other val
liable elements have been eliminated.
Pitch Of this quality costs in this couR-
try from SO to S12 per metric ton
(2.205 pounds). The percentages of
matrix necessary to be used varies
greatly with the %fatness'-i. e., rich
ness in bituminous elements OF the
coal itself. Slack from very TAT coal