The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-03-09
electrical Experimenter.)


The ocean waves give promise of
some day furnishing vast quantities
of electric power, not to mention nat
ural gas power plants, wind motors,
and a host Of other more or less avail
able and comfortable sources of nat
uraf energy, but who would ever
dream of Harvesting q volcano Cor
rather volcanic heat) to an electric
generating plant developing thousands
Of horsepower? Verify, it would seem
like rank folly to seriously consider
such an undertaking, yet we have ever
to face the facts and Fact, remem-
Der, is often stranger than Fiction.
The actual Harvesting OF an Ital-
ian volcano to an electric generating
station of far-reaching usefulness Is
described by Professor luigi in En-
cheering of London. The ever-1n-
creasing cost Of coal in Italy was one
Of the principal incentives that goad-
ed the brilliant and original Prince
Ginori-Conti on to his goal. AS is
we'll known, in Central Tuscany, near
Volterra, there are numerous cracks
in the ground from which powerful
the air with great violence and con-
stancy, bringing up boric acid-which
is very valuable-and other mineral
substances of less importance. These
powerful jets of superheated steam
are called Soff1oni-the blowers-and
have been utilized for many years in
the production of boric acid and bo-
rax and occasionally for warming the
houses in the nearby village of Lar
derello. The larger proposition of
the steam however, is lost, having
no local application, and with it is
lost its very valuable heat.
Prince Ginori-Conti, the president
of the Societa Boracifera di Larde-
relic, was the first, in 1908, to try
to utilize this superheated steam for
the production Of motive power.
Elaborate experiments which were
made very accurately demonstrate
that each bore can provide steam at
a temperature of at least $50 degrees
c., and at the rate Of from Is, 900 to
$4,000 ky. per hour, that is, practical
ly from about 1000 to 1000 theoret-
ica1 horsepower per hour. Thus
near Larderello there is the possibil-
ity of developing motive power up to
thousands and thousands Of hose-pow-
err Encouraged by these results
Prince Ginori-Conti, in 1905, applied
the steam to an ordinary steam engine
Of about forty horsepower.
The experience of several years has
shown that this arrangement works
we'll so far as the mechanical power
Of the steam is concerned, but that
the borax salts and the gases mixed
with the steam-especially SATURATED
hydrogen and traces Of sulfuric acid
have a corrosive action on the iron
parts Of the engine and are the cause
of frequent repairs. This difficulty
was finally avoided by applying the
superheater and afterwards used for
driving but to boiler; that is, by
applying it instead of fuel to an or
binary multitubular boiler in which
steam was produced at pressure of
two atmospheres, then past thru a
superheater, and afterwards used for
driving 800 horsepower condens-
ing steam turbine, directly connected
with a three-phaseA electric generator
which supplies the works and the
villages around Larderello. This in
stallation had been at work quite sue
cessfully for several months when the
present European war started. Then,
coal becoming very scarce, and prf-