Omaha daily bee., 1907-04-21

as a guide It is safe to assume that in
the next ten years the iron and steel output
will exceed $1,000 10000 in value. In steel
rails alone the output has exceeded 2,OOO-
900 tons yearly for the last three years.
at an average price of SOS ton. The rail
output promises to reach 100000 tons be-
fore the century is twenty-five years old. If
the poor cobber Of Altoona can turn coal
ashes into fuel with his mysterious COM
pound he will enable the furnaces to pro-
duce 100000 tons of rails for what It now
costs to produce 100000 tons
Cheaper building, Lower Rent.
The demand for structural steel is grow
ing at such a rate that to make anything
like an accurate estimate of what 1t will
be twenty years hence would be impossi-
BILE even for the most perspicacious ex-
pert In 1904 the structural steel con-
sumed was 9i6146 tons. 1t went beyond
600 tons the year following. and its
demand is growing in almost arithmetical
progression The market price of 100000
tons of structural steel today is about
S23, 10000. If old John Gilmore cuts down
the cost Of the fuel needed in the manu-
facture &c per cent the price of steel must
fall and the cost Of building construction
be lessened The logical conclusion is that
rentals would be reduced or a better class
Of buildings erected.
Should the owner Of the apartment house
built with structural steel produced at a
lower cost heat his building with a mix
ture Of coal ashes treated with the shoe
makers compound his coal bill would be
reduced in exactly the same ratio, and II
he happened to be a real good landlord
he might reduce rents accordingly.
Mining and Smelling.
Steel ingots and castings are as impor-
tant to the building trades as the struc-
tural steel in its finished form. The total
production in 1904 of Bessemer open hearth
and crucible was 49, 59,S77 tons. The major
part of the expense was for fuel If the
initerate shoemaker has made no mistake,
he can increase this output to 100000
tons at the present cost for 1900, 900 tons.
One billion pounds of tin plate were man
ufactured in this country in 1904. Calcu-
lated from the same basis as the other
manufactures where fuel enters largely into
the expense, Ellmores compound would in
crease this to 100000 pounds or cut the
production cost of the same number Of
pounds from 60 to 70 per cent.
Fuel is an important factor in all the
mining camps. In the Lake Superior re-
|
Alaska the smelling has to be done at a
cost of from $50 to $40 a ton for coal.
| The Pennsylvania cobbler claims and has
demonstrated by actual tests that he can
mix ashes and soft coal in the proper
ton Of four to one and even six TO one
and produce a heat more intense than that
obtained from the pure coal.
AS for the firing of thu locomotive en-
gines on all the roads of the world, the
vista is too great for reasonable conjec-
ture. The majority of the steam roads OF
the world use bituminous coal for fuel
On heavy grades this requires from five tc
six tons an hour and on the level about
one ton The cobbler's compound would
not only reduce the cost OF coal, but, would
furnish the ashes from the engine fur
mace itself without the labor of taking II
aboard. The inventor says that special
CRATE bars would have to be put in the fire
boxes o the engines but that this cost
boxes of the engines when balanced against
the economy in fuel.
The last official report of the coal output
Of the United States gave 100000 tons OF
bitumlnous and 100000 tons Of snthra-
cite. Until Thomas A. Edison or some
other of the thousands of scientists who
are seeking to obtain electrical energy
from coal direct, shall succeed, coal must
be the fuel chiefly used to generate cleo
tricity through steam. The Gilmore com,
pound can, II proven practicable. reduce thC
cost of generating electricity just as it Is
claimed to reduce the cost of fuel in all
other industries.
Uses Wood Ashes, Too.
THE poor cobbler Of Altoona" asserts
that with his chemical agent he can uti-
lie the ashes from wood as well as the