Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1905-01-26

the state university recently on
the subject of Water Supply
for Locomotives. Having had wide
experience in constructing water
plants for railroads, Mr.. Snow was
well qualified to talk upon the sub.
ject. A large number of engineering
students were present. He spoke in
part as follows:
1T is desirable for engineers 80
know the great value of good water
supply. All water is good, but some
waters are much better than others
We are not interested in a superlative
degree, but we are interested in a
comparative degree. AS you are ali
more or less familiar with the natural
circulation of water you know that the
warm rays Of the sun pick up the
water from the surface of the earth
and distribute it again over this sur
face, and you know how it condenses
and falls down through the atmos.
phere in the shape of rain; you may
not know that in doing this it picks
up, as a sponge, all the carbonic acid
gas it can hold, and in percolating
lHlOuSA TIE SOIlS duu lliHGIdlS Ol Tic
surface of the earth it then has the
property and capacity of carrying
these minerals with it; the water
having such function on account of
this carbonic acid gas.
IF the carbonic acid gas were no..
present in the water all of our springs
rivers and wells would flow volume
of pure, soft water. Here in Wiscon-
sin you have but little trouble from
the mineral properties bu, other
portions of the United States are not
so favored. No sooner does rain fall
strike our lime and magnesia de.
posits and the other mineral salts
than it Immediately starts in doing a
little business on it's own account.
The great lakes like Michigan and
Superior do not carry large amount
of these mineral properties. Lake
Michigan and the Mississippi river
will carry only about grains of in
crustating matter to the gallon of
water This may be considered as un.
usually good boiler water, but in The
great majority of places where water
has to be used for supplying the neces-
sary steam of our locomotives we find
anywhere from 25 to SO and some.
times rs grains of incrusting mater
to the gallon. In many instances the
source of water supply is limited to
one and the question you will have to
study then is how to eliminate the
bad qualities from this water and
render it fit for steam purposes.
"As it takes only quart of lime
water to act on 100 gallons of ordinary
well water ii can be seen on that these
chemicals would be very cheap and
the carbonate of lime could be thrown
out without much expense for chemi.
cal treatment. Where this lime water
is used without such chemical trea..
ment 1t forms scale on the boiler
tubes and adheres to the same and in
terriers with the radiation of the heat
generated by the coal. This deposit
is soft and is like chalk in its
character; both carbonate OF lime
and carbonate of magnesia act in this
manner. Where the natural water
carries sulphate of lime and sulphate
OF magnesia the deposit is very hard.
In nearly all cases we have both
sulphates and carbonates in the same
water, and while these vary from "a
to 60 grains to the gallon, yet even
this amount will in a few weeks or
months so coat the tubes as to make
double, treble and frequently a
quadruple consumption of coal neces.
sary.
In removing the sulphates of lime
and magnesia We use a simple solu-
ton of soda. The average commercial
cost of clarifying water from car.
Donates of lime is approximately one
half cent for every thousand gal.
Ions of water treated
"The capacity Of locomotive ten.
der is 5000 gallons, and some OF the
later types are much larger. This
5000 gallons is good for run of rs
or 100 miles; the locomotive would
therefore in an ordinary days run
evaporate from to tanks full OF
water. II this water Is untreated. that
is taken from central Iowa, We would
average five pounds of solid scale
forming matter in every thousand
gallons, or about 60 pounds OF scale
on the tubes every running day. In a
three months run we would have near.
ly three tons of this solid matter de-
posted in the boiler; at the end OF
tnat time II would be necessary to
pass the locomotive to the shops to be
oyerhanled at an expense Of several
hundred dollars. This is not an ex.
IRENE case by any means hut n IL .
common or average case through such
territory as Iowa and Illinois.
There are two methods of handling
and treating this water in general use.
known as the intermittent or alternate
type and the continuous type. The
results Of chemical action are more
thorough In the intermittent type, as