Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-01-30

line of business where | ought To nave
them
Another suggestion has been made to
take your 16-caudl epower gas and enrich
1t up. That has been tried. If You wish
10 maintain Your candlepower at -, you
viii find great trouble in doing the thins
in that way. for this reason, that coal
gas can be enriched with oil or naptha
10 bring ii mp to 22-candle. but You are
going to have trouble with smoking. You
will have imperfect combustion The or
binary tanning of an open flame sends
up little clouds of smoke. That Is one
OF the beauties OF the watergas flame.
that you never have anything of that
sort
Mr.. SIMS-Do you agree with the gen
tlemen who preceded you that il is prac-
teal To limit the carbon monoXide to IL
per cent and use water gas at all:
Opponents Now Use It.
Mr. LOVE-It cannot be done. There is
an old saying that workman is known
by his chips and if that is so l rather
think that any Industrial process may be
safely judged by the degree of success
that the process has attained, and il has
attained it because it finds increasing use
everywhere all over the world. That is
the case with water gas. In this report
in the hearing before the Massachusetts
Legislative committee there was list OF
about fifty circumstances to that petition.
OF the fifty who objected to the repeal OF
the 10 per cent charlottesville clause,
thirty-one of them are today using the
very thing they objected to then III
other words, thirty-One are manufacturing
gas which contains much more than III
per cent of carbonic oxide
Another point. There are about 3ii gas
companies in the United States supplying
either d straight coal gas. straight wa
ter gas, carbureted water gas, or mix
ture of the two. having an output of -.
0oo00O cubic feet per annum. OF these
:iI1 companies, Ill, or about ~ per cent,
supply straight coal gas: I'D, or about -
per cent, supply a straight carbureted
water gas: IA. or IS per cent, supply a
mixture of coal and water gas. In other
words. of the 31I companies. $50, or more
than go per cent. are today supplying gas
containing more than 10 per cent of car
bonic oxide.
Mr.. SIMS-Do you know what the aver
age of carbonic oxide is in the gas you
refer to?
Average of Carbonic Oxide.
Mr. LONE-Where they are making a
straight water gas the carbonic oxide
would be from - To 80 per cent: where
they are making a mixture of ccal gas
and water the percentage OF carbonic
oxide would vary from, perhaps, u to 20
per cent, depending upon the proportion
of water gas and coal gas in mixture.
Mr.. SIMS-A gas that contains 20, p.
or ~ per cent or carbon nlOnOSlue, tntl,
has no coal gas in il?
Mr.. Lowell may be a very little. If
il is as low as % PER cent. 1t is very
difficult to draw the line. because the per-
centage of carbonic oxide in any straight
water gas is very great. The conditions
would vary from day to day.
Mr.. SlMS-How low does the per cent
OF carbonic oxide run?
Mr.. LOVE-I have seen it as low as 2;
per cent. / have never seen it over 30
SIMS iph iS
ide in mixed gas like this used here?
Mr.. LOFE-The quantities of monoXide
in the two constituent gases are known
it would be impossible to predict what
is going to be in the mixture but if you
have a coal gas with per cent ca rbon
monoxide. and you have straight water
gas of from % to so per cent. and you
mixed those, IL is going to depend alto
gether upon what proportion of each you
have in your mixture in order to deter
mine the percentage of carbonic oxide in
that mixture.
Mr.. SIMS-A mixed gas averaging 2.
per cent of carbon monoXide. then, would
have very little coal gas in 1t?
Mr.. LOVE-Oh, yes. % per cent carbon
monoxide would be practically straight
water gas.
Mr.. SIMS-And if it runs as high as 30
1t must necessarily be straight water
gas?
What Thirty-Nine Cities Use.
Mr.. LOvE-Exactly. I have few fig
ures here. Taking the cities of the United
States which have population of 100000
or more the following have gas supplies
which contain more than 10 per cent OF
carbonic oxide. There are thirtynine OF
such cities. and the following have gas
which contains more than 10 per cent of
carbonic oxide: Allegheny. atlanta. Bal
timore, Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati
Cleveland. Dayton, Denver. Detroit. Fall
River, Indianapolis. Jersey City, Louis
vil1e Memphis, Milwaukee. Newark. New
Haven. New Orleans. New York. Omaha
Paterson Philadelphia. Pittsburg. Port
land. Ore; Providence, Rochester. ST
Louis. st. Paul, Scranton. Seattle. SYRIA
cuse. Toledo. Washington and Worcester
Mass. That makes thirty-five cities.
Mr.. SIMS-Do you get your figures from
official sources?
Mr.. LOVE-I get them from Browns
last directory for 1905 which is the only
figures at all. Then the cities of this
same class having gas supply of less
than 10 per cent are two in number. One
is Buffalo and one Columbus. Ohio. One
is supplied by natural gas.
Mr.. TAYLOR-Columbus has natura
gas supply?
Mr. LOVE-And then there are two
cities with a supply of natural gas, st
Joseph, Mo- and Kansas City. Mo. Sc
that. using these two together. you have
thirty-nine cities supplied with gas con
tanning less than 10 per cent of carbonit
oxide. and you have thirty-five cities. o,
about ~ per cent of all these cities, sup
piled with gas containing more than that
Mr.. SIMS-What is the candle power
of pure water gas, uncarbureted?
Mr. Lowell of itself has no candle
power at all: il burns with a blue flame
Mr. SIMS-So the candiepower. then
comes from using naphtha?
Candlepower in Naphtha.
Mr. LOVE-Naphtha. and. perhaps, il
answer also to that question. / will say
The attempt has been made to distribute
this blue gas for ting purposes. II
has about half the heating power o.
the carbureted water gas. but it has ne
odor
Danger When Uncarbureted.
Now. there is no one nowadays who
would advocate the distribution under
any condition OF an uncarburetet
water gas. Ii is done. 1t was tried il
Troy. They had a great many fata
cases there because it was impossible Il
tell it, There might be little leak anC
You could not detect il. because the ga:
has odor. but when you carburet j
YOU give ii just as much odor as any
coal gas ever made that that objec
ton would not hold there.
There is just one point more. gentle
men. | was interested 10 know VIVA
the members Of this committee wer'
burning when they were home and if yol
will pardon me I would like to say that
are nineteen members of this committee
IN q "a | find hl. Va,