The Washington times., 1903-09-01
STUDYING FIRE PREVENTION,
SCIENTISTS FIND A NEW FUEL

portions taken from near the surface OF
the marsh. sticks and roots frequently
appear. half decomposed. II is. there
fore. distinctly a vegetable product
which may. when dried. be easily ce-
composed into a fine powder that has
value as a disinfeetant.
Prof Norton has discovered that speci-
mems taken from swamps In eastern
Massachusetts, weighed at first from 100
TO 125 pounds per cubic foot. AID that
after they had been dried In the air for
periods varying from three weeks TO two
months. the weight became reduced TO
about hfty-ive pounds per cubic foot
The mud. moreover. as you may easily
discover. becomes quite hard. and tough
after drying and this hardness is easily
increased b. moderate pressure so that
the denser samples become quito COM
parable with pine wood. being difficult 70
saw. but easy to split with an az.
The experiments in coking mud have
yielded some interesting results. IL has
been found. for example, that sun-aried
muds will not coke properly. the product
IN a complete briquette. Even half
dried mud shows great deal of crumbl-
ing when cooked; but If an air-dried clod
-bone-dry. as the phrase isis cooked az
high temperature. there results firm.
dense coke which in appearance. hard
ness and weight resembles the coke de-
rived from soft coal.
Farmers Have Mint
On the basis of investigations carried
out with the aid of the most accurate
apparatus and methods available at the
Massachusetts Institute Of Technology,
any farmer who owns an acre Of bog
that runs twenty feet deep. which is by
no means a rare depth. has or his
place the raw material of aboIt 40.0G0.-
600 pounds OF air-dried mud. which is
equal in heating power TO at least 1900
tons of good coal.
Surprising that the farmer used twenty
tons year for household purposes, his
mud bed would therefore keep the fam
lily warm for 600 years. The coke and
the briquetted mud. it should be said.
both burn with a hot fire, leaving only
from 70 u per cent OF soft ash. n
some Of the familiar metaIluvgfcaI pro-
cesses the coke has been shown 20 serve
.excellently and as substitute for char
coal in working iron il has been proved
satisfactory.
ouestion-Will It Pay7
What needs to be done nezt--so fhs
authorities of the Insurance Engineering
Experimental Station believes to
make Investigations on a somewhat more
extensive scale into the purely financial
side of the operations involved. They
have already shown that il can be done:
now the query TO answer is, VIII il pay?
Prevented by his position, as director OF
the Insurance Engineering Experiment
Station. from embarking in any get-rieh-
quick scheme of exploitation of the com
mercial possibilities OF mud, Mr. Akin
son is nevertheless very anxious % dis
cover and report from purely judicial
standpoint. on what can be gained from
the boys
Because good quality of coke can be
made from ordinary Shiny mud. IL doea
not necessarily follow that the coke can,
be made probably. and that problem or
It's financial value. Mr. Atkinson thinks. i
is one that IL would pay the American |
people to have solved. At the very
least it would stand US ell in good stead
to know how much or how little depend
ence can be placed on the bogs and mud
holes of the country to furnish quick
emergency fuel next time-if there IS
next time-a coal famine occurs.