El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1918-02-09
BY
Frank G. Carpenter


it consumes it produces Is tons Of coke,
which is more than could have been got-
ten from the Old beehive ovens. and in
addition 10GG gallons of tar, 2Soe pounds
Of su phate Of ammonia and about 800. 0eo
cubic feet Of Illuminating gas
II Is estimated that the tar and ammo
MIA alone viii pay for the cost Of main
tenance and operation Of the plant as well
as the interest on the capital invested.
The plant I saw at Chicago produces more
gas every day than IS used in that city
and this gas is employed for heating the
/ furnaces and in producing the power that
Z runs the steel mills. The sulphate Of am
I monia takes the place Of nitrate Of soda
( when used as a fertilizer There Is said
( TO be enough Of it wasted each year in
the beehive ovens we are still operating to
{ supp sufficient nitrates for the farms Of
3 the United States. and enough in the coal
7 smoke Of the whole country 10 maintain
F the fertility Of our country for all time To
E come. The by-product ovens are rapidly
increasing They are driving out the bee
coal made into coke viii be so consumed
that nothing is lost
= But One Item
But this saving relates only 10 the Coz
f used in the making Of coke. which is
something like 6e-0oo. 00o tons every year
Z Why should not a similar saving De made
as 90 the remainder Of bituminous coal
we consumer The amount is something
! like 5oo.o00,o00 tons. I asked this ques-
: tion OF one Of our expert biologists who
has made special study Of the saving
T OF bv-products. He replied.
The chief difficulties as 70 the crea-
tion OF such plants for small Factories or
Z for saving the by-products in household
consumption is the enormous Gust OF the
Z new ovens and in the marketing Of the
3 hy-produCts- The plants now in use each
cost S50.000 and upward. and they have
I their own market FOR the gas saved M
the sreat steel plants with which they
are connected By-product plants could
not De erected 70 serve small communi-
dies or individual household consum rs.
but sec no reason why one costing. say
S50.ee0, should not be invented that would
serve FOR the heating and lighting RI
cities OF 10000 population or more. TEey
might be Installed hv the rnunlcipaiities.
or they would pay III owned hy private
capital In sucn cases the plant would
furnish an the fuel and gas fer the town
The fuel would be made of The tar ard
coke in the bituminous Goa. ana it would
be fully equal To anthracite iu quality
me Eas IN the same coal would supply an
the gas needed for cooking and lighting.
Moreover this could probably be done
at such low cost, in comparison with
what the two cost at present that either
the light of the heat would De free The
cause Of the great freight congestion Just
now is largely due 20 the demand Of thz
people for anthracite coal Our anthra-
cite comes from one little field IN eastern
Pennsy -vania. and IL has 10 be shipped
from there all over the country. The
people like IL because & burns without
smoke and has high heating qualities The
the creation Of little anthracite mine
at every large town in thu country L {
would supply a fuel. made Of the coke
and tar IN the coal combined into hri- I
quettes. which would have the same heat
ing value as anthracite and burn without /
smoke. The hriQueltes would be the same
thracite dust with tar as binder. For I
every ton OF bitumiuous coal consumed !
there would be seven-tenths OF a ton OF 4
fuel equal TO anthracite"
What NynrtrI
Just what would such by-product {
plant saver I asked.
That would depend upon the prices I
which the town Is now paying for its /
coal and light For every ton OF anthra-
cite consumed you could figure the value 4
OF these briquettes at seven-tenths Of its 2
cost Htfre in Washington, D. G. we have
70 pay g and upward ton so that 3
the briquettes from every ton Of bitumi- 4
nous coal would he worth $3.50 You
could also figure GA 5eo0 cubic feet OF gas {
from the same ton OF coal This gas IS Z
Just like that we are now burning al
cost Of - cents per thousand Its value
IS $3.50. and il all goes out In the smoke.
Vow. the bituminous coal that gocs into f
the plant costs abont So ton ~ the
mire. and IL would seem that the city
cou furnish the EIel and light SO much
cheaper than now that 30 would be the
same as having either one or the other
for nothing. II certainly would cut the
combined cost OF these things 10 half
But that is not an" continued the eN-
I
ditionai savings for each ton Of coal In
addition 10 the seven-tunths OF a ton OF
anthracite. and 5000 feet Of Illuminating
gas the plant would save 20 pounds Of
sulphate OF ammonia worth about "a
cents per pound, and about two gallons
OF benzol equal in value TO the gasoline
we buy FOR automobiles There would
also be the gas liquor, which could be Z
sold TO the manufacturers Of coal prod
ucts distillates- In short. there would be
at least dollars worth Of hy-products in
addition TO the fuel and gas So you
see my estimates leave plenty OF margin
for interest on the amount invested cost
OF operation and considerable waste"
But Il this is so Why has not such a
plant been invented2-
Il do not know" replied the expert
Why did we wait thousands Of years
before we began 10 use steam and the
electric light I only know that there
IS no scientific or mcdaniel reason why
something OF that kind should not be
Our Low Grade Coal supply.
In connection with the saving Of ceal
ments as 10 the use Of our iignites or
low-g grade Goals which are found in such
vast Quantities over many parts Of the
west and in Alaska We have thousands
Of square miles Of territory in which
nearly every farmer might have coal
mine In his back yard In North Dakota
a one there are deposits Of that kind
covering an area four times as large as
the state OF Massachusetts Many OF them
are from ten to IS feet thick and alto
gether they have five times as much coal
as Pennsylvania
There are other large deposits in Mon :
,aua- Wyoming. Colorado and Texas ana
Alaska has hundreds Of billions Of tons.
In Germany they take this poor coal and
make IL into briQuettes which can be used
for fuel. They also run IL through gas
producers by which they generate cleo
tricity and gas for manufacturing nur-
poses We might do the same. esta biish-
ing the Eas-producing plants at the
mines and sending electric power to che
industrial centers nearby As IL Is We
have now something like 1000 gas produ-
GERS In the United States and they have
an been installed within the last IS years.
The largest Of them are using Ignite or