Bisbee daily review., 1909-04-24
PLAGUE SUCCESSFULLY
 COMMITTED
Clean, Comfortable American Cities Are Promised in the Near Future As Result of Scientific Investigation

I%tA b9 aNOOiuAAAS to the statement of Federal experts who have been studying the problem for a number of years. They not only make tae assertion that smoke
 prevention is possible. but stand ready to prove it by actual demonstration Co any one sufficiently interested and
 are proving it every day at the United States Geological Survey experiment station, at Pittsburg, Pa. Iu that smoky city the plant is being oper- ated absolutely without smoke and the experts are burning a coal considered
 refuse by the trade, costing. delivered at the station, eighty-e.ght cents a
 ton.
 Some may say that this can only be done at eXperim mt stations and not at commercially operated plant" said H. NJ. Wilson, chief engi- neer .technologic branch. United
 States Geological Survey. but the in
 yestigation conducted by the govern ment leads to a different delief. Elm ployes of the survey visited industrial Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, New York. Ohio. and Pennsylvania and found more than 200 plants being operated without smoke ana with a gain in economy, for smoke these days means waste.
 The investigation indicates that the clean comfortable American city with d normal amount or sunshlr is not far off. Smokeless cities only await ouickened public conscience to the fact that this means uncleanliness, poverty, wretched- ness, disease and death. The public has only to realize that smoke in the cities costs in merchandisei in stores and warehouses, more than six hundred millions a year. This loss in money is based on the statement of the Chicago smoke inspector that his city suffers a loss each year of fifty million dollars. More than third of the people of this country live in the great and moderate sized cities
 The geological survey has been en- dsavoring for several years by ex- periments to increase the efficiency with which the fuels of the country are used and this led to a study of the smoks problem. fer smoke is waste due to improper combustion. The statement Is now made that in fifty per cent of the industrial plants of ths United States, more than ten per cent of the coal bill can be saved each year by the smokeless burning of coal and five per cent h the other plants. This would amount to seV- eral million dcllars.
 The experts who had immediate charge of this investigation were D. T. Randall and H. w Weeks, engi- neers of the technologic branch of the survey. and they have just made their report which will soon be issued by the geological survey as a bulls- tin. MT. Randall makes the state meat that not only can bituminous coals high in volatile matter be burn ed without smoke, but also that large plants carrying loads that fluctuate widely. where boilers over banked fires must be, put into service quickly and fires forced 10 capacity can be operated without producing smoke that is objectionable. MT. Randall maintains that 1t is not necessary to use any one certain patented furnace to obtain smokeless conditions On the other hand he declares that there are many types of furnaces and stoA- CTS that burn coal without smoke.
 Credit is to be given to any one kind of apparatu only in so far as the manufacturers require that U shal
 be SO set under the boilers that the rrincfples of combustion are respect ed D saws MT. Randall "A good stoker or furnace poorly set is of less value than a poor stoker or furnace well sci Good installation is necessary | for smoke prevention.
 And here is the secret of all smoke | less burning of coal. MT. Randall says: "Stokers or furnaces must pc | set so that combustion Is complete before the gases strike the heating surface of the boiler. When partly burned gases at a temperature or
 say. 2,5OO degrees Fahrenheit, strike | the tubes of a boiler at, say, SoO de- Qrees Fahrenheit. combustion IS nee | essarilv hindered and may be entirely | arrested. The length of time required i for the gases to pass from the coal to the heating surface probably aver 1 ages considerably less than second | a fact which shows that the gases and the air must be intimately mixed
 when large volumes of gas are distiil- de as at times of hand firing. or the ] gas must De tiSNAlic1
 a mechanical stoker.
 The suryer's engineers do not oe- Iieve satisfactory results can be oo- tained in plants where the furnaces are fired by hand. Although hand fired furnaces can be operated wlth- out objectionabIe smoke says MT. Randall. the fireman is so variaDie
 factor that the ultimate solution or the problem depends upon the, me chanicaI stolser-in other words the personal element must be eliminated
 The small plant is no longer depend
 ent on hand firsd furnaces. as certaAn types of mechanical stokers can De ! installed under a guarantee Of high | economy. with reduction of labor TOT the fireman.
 None of the problems of combust On have received more eXper-mental ltre.sment Chan the burning Of coal ! in hand fired furnaces Hundreds or ] devices for smOkeless combustion have been patented but almost with out exception they have proved fall ures. This record may be explained by the fact that many of the patentees have been unfamiliar with all the dit- ! ka.a haa-