The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1908-02-06
POWER FOR IRRIGATION
GAS PRODUCING PLANTS AND GAS ENGINEs-ExPERiMENTA
WORK BY THE UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY.

The fuel consumed in the ordinary
manufacturing plant operated by steam
power yields less than five per cent of
| its available energy In useful work.
The superintendent of one of the most
efficient steam plants in existence to-
day estimates the total losses in a
years operation of the plant at about
80 per cent-the utilized energy at
about 10 per cent. 1t is this wasteful
consumption Of our most important
ured by competent experts, is limited
| to a few hundred years, that has
brought about the rapid development
of one of the marvels of modern in
vention-the gas producer and gas en-
CINE. 1t is estimated that plant OF
this type, properly operated, will uti-
| lie more than 20 per cent of the avail
/ able energy in the fuel consumed.
| The gas engine came into general
use in the latter part of the nineteenth
century, but large engines of this type
have been constructed only during the
last five or six years. Recent develop
of steam engines by producer-gas
plants is destined to be one of the two
great factors in the economical prOduc-
ton of power for manufacturing and
transportation purposes-the other be-
| ing Capitalization of power production
and distribution
! For long time the natural fuel of
these internal combustion engines was
/ city gas. but that was too expensive
except for engines of small capacity.
i Cheap gas was essential for the de-
velopment of the engine, but the early
attempts to produce it were somewhat
titles of the internal combustion en-
CINE operating on cheap fuel promised
so much, however, that difficulties
which seemed almost insuperable have
| been overcome; and as result of i'm
provements in the production of cheap
gas directly from fuel through the aid
| of the gas producer. the development
of large sized gas engines has been ex
ceedingly rapid. Only seven years ago
600 horsepower gas engine exhibite1
at the Paris exposition was regarded
as a wonder; today, four cycle, twin
tandem, double acting engines run as
high as 5000 horsepower
In view of the, possibility that the
gas engine. with it's gas producer, may
displace the steam engine. the fuel
problem became so important that the
government made special provision for
nroducer-eas tests at it's fuel-testing
plant installed in connection with the
exposition at ST. Louis. These tests
have furnished valuable data on the
relative consumption of coal per
horsepower per hour when used by the
steam plant and by the gas plant. BY
means of the producer-gas plant,
which was installed in 1904, 1872 tests
have been made on bituminous Goals,
| lignites. and peats from 26 states. The
results of these tests, and discussion
of the present status of the producer
gas power plant in the United States,
prepared by Mr.. Robert Haywood Fer
nald, have'been published by the Unit
ed States Geological survey in Bulletin
| No. 316, which forms Part II of "COn-
tributions to Economic Geology, 1906"
| All of the tests, whether on btu
minous coal, Ignite, or peat, were made
| in a producer of one size and type-a
| type designed primarily for use with
anthracite coal-and with every coal
| that was run through the producer the
results were more than satisfactory.
several low-grade Goals and lignites