Evening star., 1912-11-17
By Frederic J. Haskin.

Aside from the immense cost of smoke
to the owners of the plants which make
it-a cost represented in needless coal
lbils-the national smoke bill represents
millions of dollars of economic waste to
the public at large. The blighting In
fluence of a municipal smoke pail on the
health of community alone might justi-
fly it's statement. for it has been shown at
home and abroad that smoky cities are
cities with high death rates from all
bronchial and pulmonary diseases. In
addition to this the effect on trees and
vegetation in general has been shown to
be harmful and costly. In the parks Of
st. Louis each year one tree out of every
twenty five dies because of the smoke pail.
1t has been found that the smoke gases
of busy cities frequently injure vegeta-
ton within. radius of fifty miles. But
more apprecialble smoke loss to the
community is that inflicted upon the mer-
chant and by him transferred to the
ultimate consumer"
One Chicago merchant estimated that
the smoke nuisance cost him S2OoOOo a
year in damaged goods, an expense that
one may be sure was included In his
price tickets He further estimated that
State streets smoke tax amounted to
100000 a year, and that it played no
insignificant role when the price makers
were marking the price tickets. Carry
ing the matter still further. he declared
that the toll that Chicago's smoke exact
ed from it's citizens was equal in amount
to all the taxes levied by the municipal
lty.
Out OF the 100000 600 tons of coal used
annually in the United States less than
T5,OOOOGO tons is actually turned into
service and power. The energy of the
remainder is wasted in smoke. friction
and other ways. Most of the waste comes
from imperfect power systems and nigh
be reduced greatly We're all coal-using
plants to measure up to the best engineer
ing practice. But the amount that might
be saved simply by proper combustion
methods in existing power plants through
out the country would certainly amount
to $1OO,0OO0O0.
These possibilities are illustrated by
the experience of a railroad which de-
cided to put
Different Experiences its firemen to
Of Railroad Firemen. f,reman was
sent out with an engine to draw train
from one city to another, the running
time being an hour and fifty-hve min
utes. He used 5000 pounds OF coal to
make the trip, and had hard time
keeping up steam all the way. Next
day, with duplicate train, and with
weather conditions similar. the same en-
gine under a better fireman made the
trip with 4.5OO pounds of coal, and. In
the language Of the roundhouse. had "the
steam against the pop the whole dis
tanee. He left trail of steamy smoke;
the fireman he succeeded left one long
streak of black behind.
On a larger scale the experience of
the Burlington, Cedar Rapids and North
ern railway is illuminative of what rail-
roads have accomplished by adopting
proper firing methods. During one period
of nine months it reduced the amount of
coal burned by nearly 8 per cent as COM
pared with the same months of the pre-
vious year. in the face of an increase of
per cent in train mileage and of some
increase in the weight of the average
train. The superintendent declared that
three-fourths of the increased efficiency
was due to better firing methods.
Factories have had similar experiences.