The mirror., 1919-10-16
in America are
sent up in smoke" year.
ly because of the enor-

- -
H98Ag sent "up in smoke" year.
asbylW@RN ly because of the enor-
Ia0AD nous waste in the fuel
used by our industries. On the
other hand, there is a man in
Washington who has discovered
how to turn smoke into money and
he is now busily engaged teaching
the rest of the country how to per-
form the same trick. He does
this by means of devices which,
through electrical precipitation,
not only reclaim vast wealth from
the smoke, dust and fumes of
smelters and other plants. but at
the same time redeem thousands
of acres of nearby land. As a
matter of fact, the curb which he
has put upon the smoke and dust
nuisance-his original aim-now
actually bids fair to be, in some
directions, the primary reason for
the running of certain of our in
dustries. The smoke wizard who
has accomplished these remarkable
things is DR.. Frederick G. Cot
trell, chief metallurgist of the
bureau of mines.
Doctor Cottrell's experiments
began several years ago when, as
member of the staff Of the Univer-
sity of California, he was called
upon to solve the problem of help
ing smelter located on San Fran
cisco bay. The waste gases and
vapors from this smelter, result
ing from the sulphuric acid part
ing process used in treating gold
and silver bullion. were declared a
nuisance by neighboring farmers
and seemed likely to provoke cost
ly litigation and possibly lead to a
shutdown of the plant.
The gases discharged into the
air amounted to substantially 5000
cubic feet per minute and held in
suspension an important proper
tion of sulphuric acid in the form
of a fine mist. The corrosive
action of the sulphuric acid was
shown throughout the entire zone
swept broadcast by the shifting
winds, and both the agriculturists
and the people generally had am
pie reason for complaint. The
smelter was a profitable one and
the management was anxious to
find some way to abate a nuisance
that was both a menace to health
and hurtful to vegetation.
Doctor CottrelPs preliminary
work brought up some puzzling
situations. Up to a certain stage
matters went we'll enough on the
miniature scale of the investiga-
tional tests, but beyond this was
the question of meeting the prac-
tical situation presented by large
commercial smelter. A big part
of Doctor Cottrell's achievement
lay in spanning the gap between
the laboratory and the industrial
plant and in finding ways to con-
troll the enormous pressures of the
necessary electric current, mount
ing up to 100, 900 volts.
The problem was solved. how
ever, and so well was the precipi-
tator installed at this smelter de-
signed that it has been doing its
work satisfactorily ever since.
Further, by mere chance Doctor
Cottrell attacked at that plant what
is commonly admitted to be the
most difficult of all problems of
smoke or fume abatement, viz,
the precipitation of acid mist.
The good results obtained in
this first instance soon became
widely known and q new line of
application was opened a few years
later when the great copper
smelter at Balaklala, CAL, was
threatened with fume litigation by
the United States forestry service.
"Fume," or fine particles in the
form of smoke. and sulphur