Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1909-04-23
Government Experts Have
Been Studying Problem
And Believe That Smoke Pre-
VentiOn Is Possible.
Engineers Find 200 Plants in Opera
ton Without Smoke.

Washington, April 22.-The smoke
plague Of American cities has been con-
Iuered by science according to the
statement of Federal experts who have
been studying The problem for num-
Der of years. They not only make the
| assertion that smoke prevention is pos
slble, but stand ready to prove it by
actual demonstration to anyone suffi-
GENTLY interested and are proving il
every day at the United States Geologi-
cal Survey experiment station, at Pitts
| burg, Pa. In that smoky city the plant
is being operated absolutely without
smoke and the experts are burning a
coal considered refuse by the trade
costing, delivered at the station, eigh-
ty-eight cents ton
Some may say that this can only
he done at an experiment station and
not commercially operated plant
said H. H. Wilson, Chief Engineer
Technologic Branch, United States
Geological Survey. But the investiga-
ton conducted by the government
leads to a different belief. Employees
Of the Survey visited Industrial estab-
lishments in the larger cities of ILL
! nois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland,
Michigan, Missouri New York, Ohio,
and Pennsylvania and found more than
200 plants being operated without smoke
and with a gain in economy, for smoke
these Gays means waste.
1.-The investigation indicates that the
clean. comfortable American city with
q normal amount Of sunshine is not
far off. Smokeless cities only await a
quickoned public conscience to the fact
that this nuisance means uncleanliness,
poverty, WretchedneSs, disease and
death. The public has only to realize
that smoke in the cities costs in mer-
chandise in stores and warehouses,
more than six hundred million dollars
a year. This loss in money is based on
the statement of the Chicago smoke in
spector that his city suffers a loss each
year of fifty million dollars. More
than a third of the people of this coun-
try live in the great and moderate
sized cities.''
The Geological Survey has been en-
deavoring for several years by expert
mentS to increase the efficiency with
which the fuels of the country are be-
| ing used and this led to study of the
smoke problem, for smoke is waste due
| to imperfect combustion. The state
mcnt is now made that in fifty per cent
| of the Industrial plants of the United
States. more than ten per cent. of the
| coal hill can be saved each year by the
snokclcss burning of coal and five Fer
| cent. in the other plants. This would
| amount to several million dollars.
The experts who had immediate
r,f tl,ir Investigation ,,-aro n
Randall and Fl. W. Weeks, engineers
of the Technologic branch of the Sur
vey, and they have just made their re
| port which will soon be issued by the
| Geologic al Survey as a bulletin Mr.
Randall makes the statement that not
| only can bitulninous Goals high in vol
atile matter be burned without smoke,
| into service quickly and fires forced tC
| capacity can be operated without pro-
! ducing smoke that is Objectionable
| M. Randall maintains that it is not
| necessary to use any one certain pat
ented furnace to obtain smokeless con-
| ditioEs. On the other hand he de-
! clareS that there are many types OF
! furnaces and stokers that burn coal
without smoke.
Credit is to be given to any one
| kind of apparatus only in so far as the
| manufacturers require that it shall be
| so set under the boilers that the princ-
| piles of combustion are respected" says
Mr.. Randall. "a good stollep or fur
| mace poorly set is of less value than a
poor stoker or furnace well set. Good
installation is necessary for smoke pre-
vention.''
lc Of n
| less burning of coal. Mr.. Randall says,
''Stokcrs or furnaces must be set so
that the combustion is complete before
the gases strike the heating surface
of the boiler When the burned gas
es at temperature of, say, 1850 de-
grees Fahrenheit strike the tubes of a
butler at. say, $50 degrees Fahrenheit,
combustion is necessarily hinered and
may be entirely arrested. The length
of time required for the gases to pass
from the coal to the heating> surface
probably averages considerably less
thar a second. fact which shows that
the gases and air must be intimately
mixed when large volumes of gas are
distilled. as at times of hand firing, or
the gas must be distilled uniformly, as
in il mechanical stoker."
The Surveys engineers do not believe
satisfactory results can be obtained in
plants where the furnaces are fire by
hand although hand fired furnaces
can be operated without Objectionable
smoke" says Mr. Randall, 1.-The fireman
is so variable a factor that the ultimate
solution of the problem depends upon
the mechanical stoker--in other words,
the personal element must be eliminat-
ed. The small plant is no longer de-
pendent on hand-fired furnaces. as GER
tain types of mechanical stokers can
be installed under a guarantee of high
economy, with reduction of labor for
the firemcn.
"None of the problems of combus-
tion has received more experimental
treatment than the burning of coal in
hand fired furnaces. Hundreds of de-
vices for smokeless combustion have
been patented but almost without ex-
ception they have proved failures. This
record may be explained by the fact
that many of the patentees have been
unfamiliar with all the difficulties to
he overcome or have bepun at tho