The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-11-26
LIGHT FROM SMOKE.
Method of Using the Waste as an IL
Iuminant.
From La Nature.


M. Tobiansky recently demonstrated
before the Belgian Society of Engineers
the value of an apparatus which is
we'll worth the study of manufacture
ers.
Smoke may be more or less invisible,
but it's composition is invariable. 1t is
made up of pulverulent matters, in
combustible gases, as nitrogen and an
hydride carbonic, combustible gases
such as oxide of carbon, hydrocarbides
and hydrogen. These represent the
structure of smoke, no matter how
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 Sec
ond combustion the smoke is not again
destroyed, the exact point being
to make the smoke disappear absolute
ly, and to find some means of maxi
ing a profitable use of this same de-
struction.
The method of M. Tobiansky is as
follows: First, filtration of the smoke
to rid it of pulverulent matters; and
of the condensable hydrocarbides; sec
ond, carburation of the gases to in
crease their facility of combustion. For
a long time attempts have been made
to filter the smoke by Kidding if of it's
carbonc acid and to do away with
chimneys by replacing them with an
artificial draught, which sucks or draws
back the smoke. M. Tobiansky has
combined the two systems, and, know
ing that carburated air produces an
excellent gas he carburated the smoke
which had previously been filtered and
drawn back. The products of the COM
bustion thus treated gave him a new
gas, which he called "pyrogas," and
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 in
strument of suction, forces the smoke
into a filter filled with a porous sub
stance, which is saturated with a vo-
lathe hydrocarbide, such as naphtha
or petroleum. The porous matter is a
combustible; for example, coke, and we
will see in moment why this is so.
In passing through the filter the smoke
deposits on the coke a portion of the
hydrocarbides or tars which it con-
tails. 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 composed of combustible
gases, such as oxide of carbon, n.y.
drocarbide 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
possible profit, utilizing first the heat
which is present in the smoke for the
purpose of heating the hydrocarbides
of the filter, the volatilization of these
hydrocarbides being all the more COM
plete, and their employment all the
easier since the heavy hydrocarbides,
such as petroleum, while being cheap,
may perfectly answer every require
ment of this system. The heat of the
smoke warns the water of the refrig-
orator which surrounds the filter. and
this hot water in turn can feed a
boiler Finally, the porous matter, the
coke of the filter, after having been
charged with condensed hydrocarbides
and with the carbon in suspension in
the smoke. forms an excellent and very
rich combustible. In fact, the Tobian-
sky method makes the combustion of
material employed in whatever way as
complete as possible, and this is no
small economy when one considers that
in a locomotive where all is combined
to produce the smallest loss the re-
turn is only Is per cent.