Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-05-31

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; been found. however. outside of the limit
| ed water power, which usually requires
| vast capital for development. and now
the eminent engineers both OF the federal
government and commercial interests
have practically given up hope Of dis
| covering anything that will take the
| place Of coal. They have been bending
| all their energies toward a better utii
zatton OF the coal itself. and since the
| first alarm Of the government engineers
| great strides have been made in this
| direction.
When the governments mining engi-
| neers made the announcement that the
coal supply of the future was a serious
! problem Robert H. Fernald. consulting
engineer with the bureau of mines. sug-
| gested that one method Of preventing
| waste would be to construct great CEN
| trail power stations at the coal mines,
sending SEND e. electric power distance Of per.
| haps $50 miles over wires He claimed
| Tor this plan great economy through the
absence Of the necessity Of Transporting
| the coal from the mines to the power
plants now in use.
Mr.. Fernald's prediction Is about to be
realized in Pennsylvania on a gigantic
scale. The Lehigh Navigation Electric
| Company Of Philadelphia Is Just COM
| pleting at Hauto. Pa. the first part of
a great power station that will eventually
| cost $1OOOO.OOO and will supply light
and power by high-voltage transmission
| lines through eastern Pennsylvania and
New Jersey and may also reach New
YORK city. Perhaps the most remarkable
| feature Of this plant Is that the fuel sup
ply Tor the two acres Of heating sur
race In the boilers will como from the
| enormous culm piles, the mountains OF
| waste coal that are so frequently seen
in the anthracite districts of Pennsyl-
| vania. This refuse coal is Of such char
| acter that it is claimed it would not pay
the companies to transport it to mar
ket Yet the engineers expect the de-
velopn1ent of considerably more than 1OO.-
600 horsepower
| Every ton Of coal burned In this plant,
| 1t Is said, will represent a genuine saw
| ing. a reduction in the drain on the
worlds supply Of coal. to say nothing of
| an abolition of an economic waste in
carrying fuel when such transportation
IS unnecessary. By Transforming the coal
| into electric energy at the mines and
| transmitting it direct to the consumers.
handling, loading. hauling and dumping
+, will be eliminated. At present the COM
| pany has an annual waste of half q mill
lion tons Of coal particles and dust, which
will be utilized in this plant.
To run the plant at the contemplated
600 tons Of coal will be needed yearly.
| 1t is said that the present culm banks
| will supply this fuel for years to come.
One of the economic features is illus
| to be transported by freight it would re-
| quire 10000 cars to take the 1000. OOO
| tons to market Hauto is about ten miles
west Of Mauch Chunk. at the mouth of
railroad tunnel leading from the Le-
| high Coal and Navigation Company's
main body of anthracite coal. at Lans-
| ford This is the largest Identification
project since the Niagara power plants,
and is claimed by the government en-
gineers to be the most important step
ever taken in the United States toward
the economic use Of coal and generation
by the use Of fuel of electric power on
| large scale.
| This remarkable illustration OF practical
conservation of the natural resources OF
the country finds a counterpart in the
! hydro-electric development which IL now
| taking place in the south. -Four water
power developments, with rated output
power, are under way in Alabama. Ten
nessee. Louisiana and North Carolina.
| One Of these projects will represent an
expenditure Of $12o.000o00. The Southern
Aluminium Company Is just beginning the
| construction Of a power plant of 100000
horsepower capacity on the Yadkin river
in North Carolina This will be one OF
the greatest plants Of Its kind In the
| United States.
The federal engineers sum up all these
| instances of big power development as
veritable revolution in the generation of
power, and make the assertion that II
more plants are constructed at the mines
the saving in fuel will be sufficient to ex-
| tenQ the lie OF In0 coal many
years, and will also assure cheaper fuel
for longer time. That the federal gov
| eminent is taking this problem in
serious manner is seen in the recent des-
| ignation of Robert H. Fernald, consulting
engineer of the bureau Of mines. as an
official representative of the United States
to study the use Of low-grade fuels In
| Europe. Mr.. Fernald will sail for Europe
shortly. and will visit all the principal
power plants across the Atlantic. Europe
| ~ 60 1, adr In HA TIon
of low-grade fuels than the United States.
| because Of the greater exhaustion OF high
grade coal there.
| The government engineers who are
| maintaining that no substitute for coal
| has yet been found call attention to the
recent failure of wave motors and sun
| motors. For a number of years Frank
| Shuman of Philadelphia has been con-
Quoting experiments in the development
! Of power from the suns rays. He has a
| large plant near Cairo, Egypt, where ex-
tensive tests have just been completed.
His plan, In brief was the concentration
of the rays of the sun by rejecting
! curved mirrors upon boilers containing
the water to be evaporated. The plant
covered seven-eighths Of an acre Of
ground and the highest output Of power
obtained from 1t in the test was only 1871
horsepower. While 1t is claimed that the
low-pressure steam engine which utilized
the steam did not work satisfactorily. it
| was evident that even had the engine
| worked with as high degree of eff
ficiency as could possibly be expected
the power output would have been a
| mere trifle compared with the enormous
cost and space occupied by the plant. In
commenting upon these tests. one Of the
governments engineers said: 1.-THE results
are well worth placing on record for their
scientific value, but as commercial en-
terprise the production of power from
sunshine appears to be about on q plane
with the proverbial industry of extract
| ing sunshine from cucumbers.'
Wave and tide motors have operated
for a time until some big sea has put
the entire plant out of commission. AS
far as the federal engineers know, these
| motors have not been permanently sue
| cessful. The most original and most
fanciful scheme to find substitute for
coal is the dream Of certain persons that
the weeds In the Sea OF Sargasso can be
cut and pressed into briquettes for fuel
The originators Of the idea point to the
| fact that many Nile river steamers are
run on blocks Of sudd, the floating weed
that chokes the upper Nile.
! The bureau of mines believes there are
vast power possibilities in the ignite coal
of the west and in the abundant supply
of peat. Investigations in the use OF
| both are now being made at the expert
! ment station of the bureau at Pitts
burgh, Pa Already the bureau has
demonstrated that the lignites can be
made into briquettes without the use of
a binding process The great difficulty