The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1911-09-19

nual coal bill amounts to something
like $500, 600, 600. O~ne-third Of this
goes to produce power and it is of this
that 80 per cent or more is lost.
The Age of the Gas Engine
In order to cut down this waste
Uncle San has been testing our va
rious coals and making experiments
to get more power nj OF them he
has a great heating station at Pitts
burgh, with all kinds of apparatus tor
testing the coal, and he has been max
ing special work Of what are known as
the gas producer and gas engine
hic shOW hat we can get two
or three times as much as We are
now doing. The gas producer, which
was tested by the Government at the
St. Louis Exposition, IS now so Well
known hat it is in use all over the
country, and it is doing much TO
drive out the steam boiler. It has aid
ed in the development of the gas
engine, and today four-cycle, twin
tandem, double-acting engines Of two
or three thousand horsepower can
be found in all our up-to-date steel
plants, and there are some installa-
tons where the engines contain sew
eral units each rated at 5,400 horse
power.
In the production of gas the Goa is
put into what looks like a mighty
steel boiler stood upon end. 1t is a
great furnace or cylinder Of steel.
The coal is put in at the top, which
is then closed, and a forced draft
500 converts it into gas. There is
no smoke. the combustion is perfect,
and the gas passes out through a pipe
into a gas engine in which it pro-
duces the power. In this process the
saving is SO great that a 600-horse-
ar> ,r,r rjr ";IY SOW - 0an q
year in its coal bills over the same
power steam engine, and the saving
on a 6,000-horsepOwer gas engine
would amount to something like s72,-
600 a year. indeed, the saving is SO
great that many of our factories are
d~iscarding the steam plants and in
Producing the gas producer. 1t is now
used in the subWayS Of New York
and at hundred of other stations over
the country.
Will Turn Ignite to Money.
These improvements in the use Of
coal will turn our Ignite into money,
and will add billions Of dollars to our
National wealth. The Ignite coal is
too poor for profitab BILE use in me
ton with steam, burt by means of the
gas produce. it will develop as much
power as the Pennsylvania and West
Virginia bituminous coal when used
under a steam boiler. Now We have
$50, 900 zoe acres of Ignite. In North
Dakota alone We have five times as
much weight for weight, as there is
coal in Pennsylvania. The former
State has 20 ,0O0, 900 acres of Ignite.
It's coal beds are as large as South
Carolina or Indiana, and they can be
easily mined, Montana has about
500, 0G0, 900, 900 ons Of such coal, New
Mexico has 80. 00e, 600, 900 tons, while
r~ 49, - - a n AAA nm Dr. W.
producer this can all be turned into
power, and that in the places where
power is much needed, and where. at
present it is produced by costly east
ern coal. transported hundreds and
thousands Of miles for the purpose.
How Gas Plants Will Run the Rail
roads.
The future of the gas engine. or
rather of the internal combustion en-
CINE. as the officials of the bureau Of
mines prefer to call it, is beyond con
ception. Prof. Fernald. the engineer in
charge Of the gas producer tests, says
that it will cut down our coal bills
somewhere between S100, 0O0.0G0 and
$500, 000. 900 a year. He says that
some day there will be great central
gas plants situated at the coal fields
throughout the country, which will
generate power to IL our railroads
and factories. Each of these will be
connected with an electric system
which can distribute the power over
a radius of $50 miles, each center
covering a possible area five times
that of Ohio or Kentucky. or as much
! as either Germany or anc
With ten or twelve such plants To-
Gated at the various mine centeTs. the
great railroad systems coluld send
their trains from the Atlantic to the
Pacific. and from Hudson bay to the
Gull Of Mexico. Then the cars will
move by electricity, the smoke
nuisance will be obliterated. and one
Will be able to cross the continent
without a cinder in his eye. This
work OF electrifying the roads has
already begun. The New York Cen
trail has Eubstftut<ed electric power
on itS lines for some distance ont nj