Free trader-journal. (Ottawa, Ill.) 1916-1920, 1918-07-02
ELECTRICITY TURNS
DUST into MONEY
DEVICES IN cHImNEYs RECOVER
PORTION OF PRODUCTS
FORMERLY WASTED.
Value OF Various Metals Saved Pay
Handsome Profit.

Handsome Profit.
Over the hills from Vermont slate
quarry there came. with prospering
winds" filmy clouds of reddish dust,
settling down on pleasant homes and
seeping in through unsupported
cracks. Quite problem it became,
and it seemed to be well nigh unsolv-
able, says Worlds Work.
In Pennsylvania town. mist from
4 sulphuric acid plant became an
equally much discussed problem
Some fovs even used the word
nuisance
Then electricity came, not only to
stop the dust as we'll as the mist, but
TO extract from each-as well as
from smoke-a money value which
formerly no one received and
stopped the nuisance.
Technical men called this remedy
electrical precipitation" causing a
valuable product to fall out of the
dust and mist. putting a price, in
other words, on things which former
ly went UP in smoke"
II is one Of the unique examples OF
the many and varied uses to which
electricity is adapted today on a com
mercial scale. Electrical precipta.
tion works ont in thir u-o,-. ,;,+o,
mine 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 thin straight wire hung axialy
inside the hollow pipes or cylinders
and charged with from $4,000 to $4,000
volts Of electricity. r. Ia 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 the
specially prepared pipes or cylinders.
Then the electric current IL turned on.
The intervening air space becomes
highly charged with electricity. All
floating PARTICLES become electrified
and are repealed by the charged wire
over against the side OF the pipe or
cylinder, where they are collected. In
the case of 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 whore there
Is a vessel ready to collect them,
whence they are piped off for use.
becoming the new element saved. az
q brand from the burning" N the
case Of the particles escaping In
dust, as from the slate quarry. the
electricity drives them to the side Of
the pipe and they either settle down
to the bottom OF the chimney or ad
here to the sides and. when the cur
rent Is turned off. a more or less
light tapping on the sides will cause
them 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
cy lindels Will. naturally. vary with
the volume OF the gas, dust OF smoke
to be treated Several pipes may he
Joined IN d set by common header.
each pipe having its own discharge
elecllode suspended aXlally within IT,.
In this manner, not only smoke.
which is nothing more than unc0n
suned PARTICLES OF carbon, but also
fumes and msts OF various char.
acter, are now successfully treated,
eliminating much damage to prop
erty, doing away largely with the
smoke nuisance" aud enabling the
recovery OF much valuable material,
which has hitherto been allowed to
escape
Ill uulHtiOuS VI AhN
electrical precipitation system. the
value Of the varl:us metals and 9th
er products, such as silver, copper.
iron, lead, zinc, sulphuric acid, arsen-
ic and potash, pays handsome prof
it 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
by.products and to make the
proyeIbia two blades Of grass grow
where only one grew before.
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