The Nenana daily news., 1919-01-13

least 35 million dollars, and which will require 25OO H. P. a year for twenty years to be worked out. Sev- eral other creeks in the district containing low grade placer de- posits which could not be worked owing to the high cost of everything were being investigated by the con- mittee
 In addition, there were the Hot Springs, Tolovana, Totatlanika, Kan tishna and other districts contain ing both quartz and placer mines all within a radius of 100 miles of the proposed power plant. The Ruby and Iditarod districts were not be- yond the reach of the power plant; not to mention the rich mining dis tricts on the other side of the divide.
 As regards the source of power,
 
 and gas were explained in detail. Water as a source of power was not considered satisfactory, owing to the great difference in the volume of the flow in the summer and winter seasons and the difficulties of eli mate and ice, which often render the cost of such plant excessive. Steam plants compete successfully with water plants in Colorado and Washington, but owing to the grade of fuel available here, such a plant might not be very successful, he thought. This difficulty lay in the fact that Ignite contained nearly 30 per cent of moisture. A plant generating power by means of in- ternal combustion engines using the gas released by Ignite in process of treatment would, he thought, be the most reliable, effective, econo- mical and satisfactory source.
 Mir. Davis described a gas pro- ducer in which Ignite coal is burned and the gas released thereby is held for other purposes. He also de- scribed a carbonzer in which the Ignite is subjected to a certain tenn perature which releases the gas and leaves a residue known as artificial coal. The artificial coal is screened into two qualities, known as over size and undersize. The oversize can be immediately sold for fuel and the undersize briquetted and sold for the same purpose.
 The gas produced both by the carbonizing process and by the pro- ducer is conveyed by means of a pipe to receptacle known as scrubber, where the impurities in the gas are removed and from this scrubbing the purified gas will be led to the gas engines that will generate the power. These impuri- ties consist of tars and oils and sulphate, both valuable y-products; and thus source of revenue is made available and the amount derived from the sale of the artificial coal and the other by products may, to a considerable eX- tent, meet the cost of operation of the power plant.
 Regarding the fuel available for power and other purposes in the Lignite country, MT. Davis stated that careful estimate made along scientific lines showed that one square mile of territory in the coal fields contained fifty-five million tons of Ignite coal. Chemical tests of the coal showed that one ton of it contained 5000 cubic feet of gas, 15 pounds of ammonium sul- phate, and 50 pounds of tars.
 Assuming then that a combination plant consisting of several gas pro- ducers and carbonizers is decided on, the question of cost of installa- tion of the plant comes up.
 MT. Davis said that a fair esti- mate would place the cost of the power plant at a million and half wires would cost another million dollars, bringing the total cost of