Evening star., 1923-09-23

4 ictS. 70 neat more IMAM a @Smhit pOr-
(, tion of the country through the win
ter, even II the season be mild one
| During the past year or SO numerous
| devices have been placed on the
! market to burn crude oil, kerosene,
| distillate and other fuels. Some of
| these are pronounced by experts to be
of great convenience. while others are
still in the experimental stage. There
is one great advantage that such
heating apparatus has and that is the
| freedom from dust and dirt, while
many of them require but little care.
! That the public is willing to pay a
high price for conveniences. nova
days, Is shown by the fact that a
certain large oil concern has, for
carloads of oil to the cities where
liquid fuels are being used.
! According to Prof. Kudlich the cost
of Kerosene is high compared with
anthracite. He states that, caiculat-
ing on a heat-value basis, kerosene
costs from one and half times to
| twice as much as anthracite, and al
/
/ which may be effected by increased
| efficiency of combustion in properly
adjusted burners. and by starting up
and shutting off the furnace as need
cd, instead of banking it, as is nee
cssary with a coal fire. the cost will
still be in excess of anthracite. How
ever. such an ntoil-burning furnace can
be operated with a minimum of at
/ tention. with entirely automatic reg
uiation and without bother of ash
handling - advantages for which
mary are willing to pay the addi-
| tional cost
| A few weeks sago story was
| printed stating that there was not
the slightest chance of any one being
cold this winter. as the great fields
of North Dakota had some hundreds
could be used, that it was being
experimental with and that soon all
! of us were to have all the coal that
! we wanted and at figure that would
bring JOY to our hearts and a sur
cease to the tightening of our small
! bank accounts. 1t was story that
found responsive chord in the heart
! Of every one. who read 1T, but the
fact is that the so-called discovery
in the far west is not new nor does
it fill the long-felt want
/ Ignite is a young coal, young by
several hundreds of thousands of
years, perhaps millions of years; the
| scientists have not yet quite decided
which set of figures is correct, and
| it Is too long to wait until Ignite
natures sufficiently to be classed as
! coal.
TT IGNITE occupies place between
IL peat and coal. 1t is green coal.
if such an expression may be used.
and-the dispatches evidently did not
! take into consideration that the
! plants that are now in operation in
this country and in Canada. too, for
/ that matter. are not producing more
| than fifty tons apiece every week.
! The Ignite that is in the fields of
| North Dakota has been the subject
of experiments for long time In
| fact. extensive experiments were con-
| Quoted at Grand Forks in 1921. The
work was done under cooperative
agreement between the United States
bureau of mines and the University
! of North Dakota. These experiments
! brought report from w. w. Odell,
| fuel engineer of the bureau of mines,
which says:
"First-The apparatus used in the
carbonizing process or used to pro-
! duce carbonized Ignite suitable for
briquetting is too oostly-that Is, the
cost per ton-day of residue made is
too high.
"Second-The depreciation of the
! carbonizing apparatus is too high.
"Third-The carbonizing apparatus
cannot be operated intermittently
| without seriously damaging it and
| impairing it's efficiency of perform
ance.
"Fourth-Too little attention has
been given to the possibility of using
at least a certain percentage of the
carbonized ignite directly in suita.
BILE stoves and furnaces without
| briquetting Or other treatment"
The Ignite treated in these and in
other experiments was, to put it in
everyday English, to be made into
a char" by being heated and treated
in specially constructed ovens.
The head of the house, who paws
the coal bills. is naturally interested
| in what financial experts call cost
sheets; in other words.~in knowing
how much this new kind of coal is
going to cost him per ton delivered
! to his house, and in working out the
cost of the char made from Ignite
we find that the cost, including all
expenses, overhead and all the rest
of the things that go to make up the
cost sheets, is s4.S5 per ton.
! The question then arises, why
not get some of it for this winter,
! for surely 1T is far less than we
have to pay at the present time?"
After examining the matter closely
we find that the cost sheets before
| men toned include only the cost CT
| production. and that, too, at a point
many hundreds of miles away from
/ Washington, so we must add to this
| the profit that the producer will
+; cndESe. IHSn auO " lHlS lhe IIanS-
portation charges and to this, again,
/ the charges of the local dealer, who
| must store 1T and deliver 1t to your
door.
! Suppose, however, we want to
know what it will cost to make
! briquets out of the char and, again
! looking at our cost sheets, we find
that the cost per ton OF the briquets
/ is about So, and to this we have to