New-York tribune., 1906-08-20
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
A LARGE CITY's FUEL PROBLEM.
Value of By-Product Coke Ovens in Supply
ing Smokeless Heat.

To the Editor Of The Tribune.
Sir: The writer grstified to the editorial
reference to his article in "Cassiers" in The
Tribune OF the sth inst. more particularly It
Is renewed evidence of the closeness with which
great metropolitan journal watches the technical
press for anything that tends toward real progress
in urban conditions. At the risk of obtrudng his
hobby on your notice. he ventures to emphasize
or two points.
AS your editorial truly states. the OF gas In
stead Of soft coal. would solve the problem Of
smokeless fuel. But for industrial uses gas will
hardly become cheap enough until much more
progress has been made in Its manufacture than
now nems possible The palmy days Of natural
gas in Pittsburg showed the engineers there that
it was cheaper than coal at 81 25 ton. until 1t
cost them cents a thousand feet. then coal was
cheaper for industrial uses And for domestic uses
25 cents thousand is the prevailing rate
And this for gas that is nearly twice as rich in
neat units as our city gas The discrepancy Is too
English project mentioned in the last paragraph Of
selling price OF gas; and at our distance from me
Pennsylvania coal field fields even this price seems far
this city And while at this price the CONSUMPTION
for lighting cooking and heating small houses and
minor Industrial furnaces would be enormous, IL
would stil fail to touch the real smoke producers.
the larger hotels and apartment house heating
The gas engine viii find introduction under excep-
tional conditions only IL II is 70 rely on city gas
the solid & fIel problem Ana this Is wnere ere the by
RTo6u&f5 proc Ct ooHs s GVen @ GO comes @ IN asher en- man TP
fits transportation through huge pipe lines 10 this
city, involving enormous outlay and leaving the
why not avail ourselves Of the cheap and convenient
railroad service already existing and transport the
gas IN con en- form to point near enough
simple matter. after the coal has been gasifed?
Considering the fuel supply OF modern city as
neareF % satisfying the conditions than any otRer
device A city Of 100000 inhabitants 70 quote
from the Cassier's'' article. requires about $500.
tons OF coal The carburetted water gas process
will supply the gas the gas retort process will sup
ply the and possibly $4,000 tons Of coke. while
the by-product coke oven Will supply the gas and
$4,000 tons OF coke. There is still large dscrep-
ancy between the solid fuel demand and the coke
supply. but as the consumption OF gas Increases
ways TO diminish the discrepancy rather than TO
As demonstration Of the faith some people have
IN the future OF coke as domestic and industrial
fuel II may be Of interest to note that coke made
in bylprodg&st & ovens ems near an aSjonng SstX Is BOW
New York. Aug. II. 1906.
There are two difficulties to be overcome be-
fore there can be general adoption OF gas as
a source OF power in a large city like New York.
1t would be necessary 20 substitute gas engines
for steam engines. and the cost Of the change
would be great. Again. there Is not yet an ade-
Quate supply Of cheap gas. However, illumi-
mating gas is not essential for this purpose A
much less expensive article would serve as we'll
It might prove more convenient to retain the
engines now IN service and raise steam for them
by burning COKE but 1t IS far from certain that
that plan would be as economical in the long
the other Determining the relative cost
Of the two smokeless methods Of generating
power is g. peculiarly complicated tasiL1