El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1911-09-16

muCn, weight IOr weight, as Inere Is
coal in Pennsylvania. The former state
has 100000 acres of Ignite. It's coal
beds are as large as South Carolina
or Indiana, and they can be easily
mined. Montana has about 100000
00O,00 tons of such coal, New Mexico
has 130, 100000 tons, while Texas
has 5000, 600, 900. By the gas producer
this can all be turned into power, and
that in the places where power Is
much needed, and wnere, at present
it is produced by costly eastern coal.
transported hundreds and thousands
of miles for the purpose.
How Gas Plants VIII Run the
Railroads.
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 500, OOO, 600
and 100000, 900 year. He says that
some day there will De great central
gas plants situated at the coal fields
throughout the country, which will
generate power to run 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 COW
ering a possible area five times that
of Ohio or Kentucky, or as much as
either Germany or France.
With 10 or II such plants located at
the various mine centers, the great
railroad systems could send their
trains from the Atlantic to the 1 a.
cific, and from Hudson bay to the CUT
of Mexico. Then the cars will move
by electricity, the smoke nuisance VIII
be obliterated. and one will be able to
cross the continent without cinder
in his eyes. This work Of electrifying
the roads has already begun. The
New York Central has substituted
electric power on its lines for some
distance out of New York, and 1t is
Rochester and Buffalo. The Pennsyl-
vania is operating electric trains be-
tween Atlantic City and Philadelphia,
and the New York, New Haven ana
New York to Stamford by electric
power. The great steel plant at Gary,
Ind, has gas engines which are devel-
oping over 100000 horse power They
are operated by the gases which would
ordinarily go to waste. They come
from the furnaces, and the fuel costs
nothing. 1t will be so with every
large plant of the future
Gas for Our Navy.
They are putting gas engines on the
great ships of the world, and they Will
be eventually used by the navies of
the future. Prof. Fernald says that
the United States will probably dis
tance the other nations in this re-
gard. He advises that our gunboats
be run by gas instead of steam, say
ing that the gas will make no smoke.
and that it can be made in the pro-
Queer, which has no chimney and
needs none. He says the coming war
vessel will be swift, smokeless,
noiseless craft, lying low in the water,
the entire deck being given over to
the work Of the guns. At night there
will be nothing to show the presence
of the ship to the enemy.
to
some of the big ocean liners, and 1t is
said that the steamships of the Great
Lakes are about to adopt them. one
of the big freighters there has plans
for 5000 horsepower gas engine or
the marine type, the idea being that
it's use will save a great deal OF coal.
AS to the ocean liners, some OF them
consume as much as 10000 tons or
high-grade coal on round trip with
a gas engine this could be cut to 5000,
with a saving of hundreds of dollars
a day.
The gas producer experiments show.
so 1 am told at the bureau of mines
ated from our large manufacturing
cities AS it is now the most of the
smoke comes from the railroads and
factories 1t is estimated that 600 tons
of SCOT a day are dropped into chicago
by the locomotives and that 40 percent
of all the smoke of that city comes
from the railroads. With gas produc-
ing plants the immense switch yards
there could be operated by electricity
and the same force could be supplied
to the factories. The saving to the
buildings would be enormous Chi
cago is said to be damaged to the ex-
tent of $50, 600 a year by its smoke,
and Cleveland loses $4,000,0O0 from the
same source 1t is estimated that the
total losses entailed by coal smoke
upon the merchandise, buildings and
vegetable life in the United States
every year foots up more than $780,
O0O, 600, and the doctors say that this
coal smoke causes a great loss of life.
According to Uncle Sans latest fig
ures, 10000 of his men, women and
children annually die of consumption;
it is said that with the absence of
smoke and the use of proper hygienic
conditions three-fourths of such
deaths could be prevented.
Half Our Coal Wasted
The chief work of the bureau of
mines has so far been devoted to stop
ping the waste. I have already writ
ten of the wonders accomplished in saw
ing the lives of the miners and in
creasing their safety while below
ground. The work is now being rap
idly extended to saving our material
resources. The story of the gas pro-
Queer has shown you something of
what may be done with the coal above
ground. There is an enormous waste