The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-02-03
SMOKE TROUBLE
CAN BE STOPPED
Government Experts Explain
How Cities Can Be Kept Al
most Free From SCOT.

Government experts who have been
studying the smoke evil of American.
municipalities have just issued a bulle-
! tin showing how the pollution of the at
mosphere can be avoided and how GER
tain cities are earnestly endeavoring to
solve this problem. The general. state
ment is made that coal can be burned
| sInOkelessly, the same as gas, gasoline,
! or kerosene OIL if the furnaces are prop
erly designed and adjusted. Each OF
| these fuels, it is known, will smoke if
| conditions are not favorable,
| Many steam power plants in the large
cities of the United States are burning
! bituminous coal practically without
smoke, and if this can be done in certain
plants, it may ultimately be done in all.
/ The purpose of authorizing these inyest1-
| cations, which were carried on by the
| United States geological survey, is to m
| crease the efficiency and thus to. prevent
/ the waste of fuels, especially such as are
used by the United States government.
| D. T. Randall. engineer in charge of
| snoke-abatement investigations and au-
| thor of the bulletin, declares that it is
| recognized fact that the more nearly per-
| feet the combustion of any fuel the great
eF the efficiency. With. perfect combus-
| ton there is no smoke.
! with the knowledge that. it can be
prevented, there has come an Increasing
| demand from the people of the large
cities that smoke shall not be allowed to
pollute the atmosphere" says Mr.. Ran
| dali I'm nearly all cities of the United
States efforts are being made to abate
| the smoke. AS result of the demands
| of the public the ordinances of some. of
these cities require that all new plants
| be equipped properly and that old ones
| be remodeled, and permits are now nee
| essary for the installation of all boilers
and furnaces
AT present no city in which a con-
siderable quantity of bituminous coal is
burned is free from smoke. The cities of
the east have avoided this problem by
general use of anthracite coal For this
reason it is not surprising that the great
| est Improvement in the methods of burn
ing bituminous coal has been made IN the
central and western states.
Smokeless Furnace Requirement.
'An of the authorities on the subject
| of combustion and smoke prevention
agree upon the following conditions as re-
| quirements for a smOkeless furnace:
! 1.-The coal should be supplied to the
! furnace in sm;.Il quantities at frequent
! intervals. The more nearly the feed APP
proaches a continuous and uniform sup
ply the better the results:
1.-THE air supply should be slightly IN
| excess of the theoretical amount required
and be admitted principally through the
fuel bed with an auxiliary supply ad-
| mitted at the front or rear of the furnace
to burn gases from the coal.
1.-THE temperature in the furnace should
be sufficiently high to ignite the gases
/ given off from the fuel bed.
| There should ne a friedrich combus-
| ton chamber of sufficient dimensions and
so designed as to cause the thorough mix
ture of the gases and the air. permit
ting complete combustion before the
mixture reaches the boiler surfaces.
Skill in Sticking Helps.
'3The efficiency of the furnace and the
degree of success attained by any EQUIP.
ment in the prevention of smoke depend
on the skill of the firemen, proper design
of the furnace and boiler setting. eharac,
| ter of the coal, capacity of tHs boiler and
furnaces, and the load carried.
Every few firemen can be induced TO
fire regularly and frequently because II
is easier to put in enough coal to last
twenty or thirty minutes at one time and
have little or nothing to do in the inter-
val between firingS.
| 1.-THE hand firing of plain furnaces Vio-
Iates all the principles laid down for Sc
curing good combustion. The coal is us
ually supplied in large quantities at long
intervals, and the result is that at the
time of firing the temperature of the fur
\ mace is lowered, the resistance to the
lfloW of air through the fuel bed is in
creased, and consequently great guam
titles of combustible gas which cannot
be burned for lack of air and the neces-
sary amount Of heat are generated.
! Hand-fired furnaces with ample combus-
ton chambers and adjustable openings
for air admission are suitable for some
! kinds of coal if tended by careful and
experienced foremen.
''Difficulties : re also encountered with
! mechanical Sockets One oi lnt SItdlSoN
troubles is the tendency of the firemen
to poke the fires unnecessarily instead Oh
using or adjusting the attachments pro
vided for feeding and handling the coal
! In many plants where it is possible they
will shovel green coal into the stokers
instead of feeding it through the hopper,
and then take a bar and stir up the fresh
coal with the coke and ashes, causing
smoke and wasting coal
Trained Men Save Fuel.
at is generally conceded that intelli-
| gent men trained in boiler-room practice
could save 10 per cent of the fuel used
in 30 per cent OF the plants of the United
States and that in another % per cent OF
the plants such men could save per cent
of the fuel 1t is the practice of nearly
all large power plants to employ boiler
room experts end many OF them nave
chemists who make frequent tests and IN
lvestigatiOns to determine the conditions
1 favorable to the best economy. The saw
ing of only a small percentage of the
coal consumed will make handsome re-
turn for the cost of the experimental
work. There are now in a few of our
larger cities competent engineers who are
making a speciality of supervising boiler
plants for a number of firms.
This all leads to the fact that the man
agement of the boiler room is a problem
for properly trained men and that as the
pense, averaging about so per cent of the
cost of producing power, there is more
opportunity to save in the boiler room
than in the engine room with any given
equipment The average boiler room is a
hot, dirty and otherwise unattractive
place For these reasons but little atten-
ton has been paid to it by superintend-
ents and operating engineers in mOder-
ate-sized plants. The boiler rooms are
managed for the most part by men hired
. f1r