The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-02-01
EXPERT ENGINEERS
TELL WHY SMOKE
ORDINANCE is NOT
PRACTICAL PLAN
CONTINUED From Page Five)

tContinued From Page Five)
----~-----------------~----
for small manufacturers than the use
of their own steam power plants. There
is where the smoke problem of Bir-
mingham will come to natural solu-
tion. IL let alone now The manufac-
turers will install the electric power,
which will be cheaper than their own
Individual steam power plants, there
Will be no necessity for a smoke ordi-
nance nor for a smoke consumer and
Birmingham Will be q smokeless city
and the City Beautiful.
Words Misleading, Says Geismer
''It Is very easy to be misled by ex-
pressive words, even though they be uni
ted into meaningless phrases" said III. s.
GeIsmer, vice. president of the Keiser-
Geismer engineering firm. AN illustra-
ton, very much to the point just now, is
found in the combination of the words
smoke and consumer. 1t sounds well,
In fact It's just what we are looking for,
but frankly, it doesn't exist.
You can prevent the formation OF
smoke by increasing boiler capacities
and installing automatic stokers, but II
once you allow smoke to form you can
consume it, unquestionably it would pay
every power user to redesign his boiler
plant SO that it would not produce smoke
but that takes money and some people
haven't the money.
ANY blast furnace man will tell you
that eventually by-product ovens Will re-
place all the bee hive type of ovens--they
do not produce smoke and they cut the
cost of coke making in half-but they
cost money, more money than many exist
ing furnace companies can raise a.
present
pass a law forbidding the construc.
ton of any more bee hive ovens and nc
one will object; follow the same course
with smoke producing boiler settings anc
YOU will have accomplished, something.
UNITED States Geological Survey Bul
letin Number 373, ON the Smokeless Com
bustion of Coal In Boiler Furnaces aftel
devoting some 1S4 pages to the subject
sums up with the following general con
clusion:
Goals containing a large precentag'
of tar and heavy hydrocarbons are diff
cult to burn without smoke and require
special furnaces and more than ordinary
care In firing.
I'm ordinary boiler furnaces only Goals
high in fixed carbon can be burned with'
out smoke, except by expert firemen us
ing more than ordinary care in firing
'of the existing plants some can b'
remodeled to advantage. Others cannot
but must continue to burn Goals high IL
fixed carbon or to burn other Goals witt
inefficient results, accompanied by NOR
or less annoyance from smoke. In thes'
cases new. well designed plant is thu
only solution of the difficulty.
Cheap Power Soon Available
''Within year electric power will b'
available In Birmingham at a price tha
will render obsolete most of the poorl.
designed boiler plants, and the smok
problem will solve itself. The boiler
that are properly equipped will probabl!
be able to compete with electric power
but they produce very little smoke.
'There is one fact in connection will
coke oven smoke that most persons over
look, and that is. that people who liv'
and work around coke ovens inhaling tn
fumes and smoke constantly. general.
enjoy good health. Another ciirous fac
about coke oven smoke Is that it doe
not settle In the vicinity of the ovens
IL you doubt this, examine the clothe
that the women wash who live within
stones throw of the sloss ovens
Hugh McGeeyer Gives Views
"I never heard of "a man objecting t
a dollar because it came through smoke,
said Hugh MeGeever of the jefferson
county board of revenue yesterday. II
talking about the Weatherly smoke ordi
nance.
II came to Birmingham in 1886 becaus
there was smoke here. The only troubl
Birmingham has ever had since was tha
there wasn't enough smoke. When tn
rolling mill shut down here during tn
panic in the '90s a committee Of citizen
and officials OF the city went to Louis
VILE to see If they could not get tn
IN. pfa art n etc, -
up after long session of hard time
the sight of the smoke coming from tn
big mills sent thrill of encouragement
and optimism through every man in Bir
mingham.
"As to the practicability of the Wealth
erly smoke ordinance / am not able t.
express an opinion because / have no
had any experience in the manufactur
ing line. But ] do say that anythin
that is going to cause as much hardsh
and as great a cost to the small manu-
facturers as the ordinance in question
is said to do should be repealed or 4
least delayed for several years.
It's just such agitation az this smok
ordinance that is responsible today TO
Bessemer and for what might be termed
'F'ragmentary Birmingham
1T is a deplorable fact that the city o
Birmingham is too widely scattered. Til,
factories and furnaces and mills are 81
widely separated that much Inconvenience
is caused. They should be more con
centrated into one community and no
scattered all up and down the valley
Agitation Of this sort is what is respon
sible for these fragments. Bessemer to
day ought to be a part of Birmingham
right here close to the rest Of u.s. Th,
mills and factories that have made Bes
semer were driven out of tho city by Jus
some such thing as this. 1t always doe
harm and 7 indorse the fight that Is be
ing made against It,"
I'D rather see more industries her,
than air without smoke said DR.. r. +
Lovelady, president OF the board of rev
enue. 1--WE lived in Birmingham in thi
smoke for 25 years and am still alive
1t has never hurt me. Birmingham. yol
might say, has been made out of smoke
Smoke may at times be disaereeable to ,
certain extent. but / do not think II 4
injurious to health. What Birmingham
needs Is more small manufacturing plant
instead Of trying to harass the ones al
ready here"