Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-01-03

his stokers feed the fire with coal is very
much more important
The public have never studied this ques-
ton intelligently. Fully one-fourth of the
expense of manufacturing is the cost of
fuel, and a saving of so per cent Is possible
by the intelligent use of fuel. The same
rule applies to the household as well as to
the factory and 1t Is equally important
wherever fuel is used either for heating
lighting or power. Tests now going on at
the fair grounds are to determine these
questions and educate the people In the
proper handling Of fuel in the kitchen, in
the furnace room of their residences. as
web as in the factories, on locomotives and
steamers and other places where 1t is used.
Utilization of Slack.
Large sections of this country are under
laid with peat and Ignite forms of fuel
which cannot be used in furnaces. The
peat is in the east and the Ignite is in the
west They contain so much moisture that
they won't make steam, but when used in
gas producers they develop great value
Gas engines are being rapidly developed
because they can utilize this form of fuel
which makes a quality of gas equal to that
produced from high-grade coal. This has
been absolutely demonstrated here at the
tests. 1t has also been demonstrated that
the slack or waste OF bituminous coal will
make good gas also. Every coal mine is
surrounded by enormous piles of slack
which will burn, but will not bring enough
in the market to pay for its transporta ton
At the test furnaces here it has been
shown that by placing it in a gas producer
this slack will drive an engine with an
economy OF three times that obtained nv
burning 1t under boiler, and for that pur-
pose it can stand any reasonable freight
rate.
This discovery is worth millions of dol
lars. 1t transforms worthless mountains
of slack into valuable gas fuel, and, like the
dumps around the gold and silver mines in
the west, the piles of slack which now de-
face the landscape In the coal regions turn
out to be valuable property. The plant is
the first ever successfully operated on a
commercial basis with ordinary slack as
fuel. Experience here has shown that gas
generated from slack has three times the
energy or steam made with ordinary coal
under ordinary boilers. The improvement
IN gas engines due to this discovery is very
rapid and inventors and manufacturers are
adapting their construction to the REQUIRE
ments thus disclosed
Mr.. Malcolmson is engaged in very prom
islng experiments for utilizing slack and
other coal wastage in the manufacture of
briquettes, blocks about the size of an or
binary brick made OF combustible mater
iais and generally used In Europe for cook
ing house heating, locomotive driving and
Tor furnishing steam power generally. They
have here large plant which was made
in England. The Germans are the most
advanced or any of the European nations
In their machinery and methods for the
manufacture of briquetteS This form of
fuel is very important in countries where
coal Is scarce. and we are approaching the
necessity for using 1t in several parts of
our country-in New England, in the south
west and in the northwest In Europe
briquettes are usually made from the waste
from mines. from peat, Ignite sawdust.
coal tar and other worthless materials and
sell for $40 and S12 ton. It costs for the
labor alone about 81 or $3.50 to manufac-
ture briquettes, and when the cost of ma
terials is added it is not always possible for
briquettes TO compete with ordinary coal
In the United States we have enormous
tracts of country without fuel. and other
sections where peat or Ignite only are
available: The problem, therefore, is to
produce briquettes out of waste materials
which can be shipped to these points
cheaper than coal can get there.
The first great value of briquettes is
found in the fact that they are smokeless,
and New York. Chicago, Philadelphia, ST.
Louis and other of our great cities ulti-
mately must adopt a smokeless fuel The
deposits of anthracite coal are being slowly
consumed and will be exhausted IN very
few years. There isn't anthracite enough
TO meet the demand that Will be made upon
the mines within the life of the next gener-
alton. and briquettes must be adopted soon
er or later as substitute. 1t has been
demonstrated here that our Ignite can be
manufactured into briquettes on German
machines with economy and at cost that