Baraboo weekly news. [volume] (Baraboo, Wis.) 1912-197?, 1918-08-22
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ELECTRICITY iunI,o
DUST INTO MONEY
DEVICES IN CHIMNEYS RECOVER
PORTION OF PRODUCTS
FORMERLY WASTED.
Value of Various Metals Saved Pay
Handsome Profit.

Over the hills from a Vermont slate
quarry there came, with "p.ospering
Winds" tiimy clouds of reddish dust,
settling down on pleasant homes and
seeping il through unsupported
cracks. Quite a problem it became.
and it seemed to be we'll nigh unsolv-
able. says Worlds Work.
In Il Pennsylvania town, mist from
q sI;y,:u:iG acid plant became an
equally much discussed problem.
Some folks even used the word
nuisance"
Then electricity came, not only to
stop the dust as well as the mist, but
to extract from each-as we'll as
frCn smoke-a money value which
formerly no one received-anG.
stopped the nuisance.
Technical. men called this remedy
electrical precipitation causing a
valuable product to fail out of the
dust ard mist; putting a price, in
other words, on things which former
ly went UP in smoke"
It is one Of the unique examples Of
the many and varied uses to which
electricity is adapted today on a COM
mcTc;&l scale. Electrical precipita
ton works out in this way; given a
nine or factory from which gases.
mists, dust or smoke arise and settle
over the community, they are confined
in chimneys or caught by specially
constructed pipes or cylinders. These
pipelike chimneys are then equipped
with a thin straight wire hung axially
inside the hollow pipes or cylinders
and charged with from $4,000 to $4,000
volts of electricity. It is known as
the discharge electrode." The pipe
or cylinder, in turn, is grounded"
and is known as the collecting cleo
trode." Thus we have the gases,
smoke or mist, led up through ths
specially prepared pipes or cylinders
Then the electric current is turned ON.
The intervening air space becomes
highly charged with electricity. Ala
floating particles become electrified
and are repealed by the charged wire
over against the side Of the pipe or
cylinder, where they are collected. IL
the case of a liquid, as in the sui,
phuric acid mist, the particles which
the electricity separates from the
mist gather On the side wall and
drip down to the bottom where there
is vessel ready to collect theu>
whence they are piped of io~ ~3c,
becoming the new element saved, az
a brand from the burning" III the
case Of the particles escaping -
dust, as from the slate quarry, the
electricity drives them to the side CT
the pipe and they either settle down
to the bottom of the chimney or adj
here to the sides and, when the cur
rent is turned off, more or less
light tapping on the sides will cause
sh-an to drop into the bins built at
the bottom to receive them. There
they likewise become another tangible
element snatched out Of the air.
The diameter and length Of the
cylinders will, naturally, vary with
the volume Of the gas, dust Or smoke
to be treated. Several pipes may ns
Joined in a set by a common headel,
each pipe having it's own discharge
electrode suspended axially within II.
In this manner, not only smoke,
which is nothing more than uncon-
sumed particles of carbon, but also
fumes and mistS of various char-
acter, are now successfully treated
eliminating much damage to prop
erty, doing away largely with the
"smoke nuisance" and enabling ME
recovery of much valuable material
which has hitherto been allowed to
escape.
Iu numerous installations of the
electrical precipitation system, the
value~of the various metals and 9TH
er products, such as silver, "copper"
iron, lead, zinc, sulphuric acid, arsen-
ic and potash, pays handsome prof
1t on the cost of the "treater
Among the problems to which the
system is being applied are collect
ing and recovering fumes and dust
from gases given off by many KINDS
of furnaces removing acid mist and
fumes from gases given off by nj
trating operations and sulphuric acid
concentrators cleaning gases arising
from electric furnaces; cleaning pro-
Queer gas and Illuminating gas, re-
covering the tar and oils; cleaning
iron blast furnace gas, recovering the
potash and iron values; removing
SCOT and other suspended materials
from gases drawn from the smoke
stacks in railway locomotive round,
houses: and numerous other oper-
atoms.
Thus, electricity comes in to create
valuable by-products and to make the
proverbial two blades of grass grow
where only one grew before.