INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1875. cclxix 



chine, invented by Dr. J. R. Hayes, for pressing coal-dust 

 into fuel, was put in operation at the Harrisburg machine- 

 shops. The apparatus employed is said to be capable of 

 producing a ton of compressed coal in six minutes. The 

 mechanism is described as being simple, and the operation 

 of utilizing the coal-waste quite inexpensive. Concerning 

 the projected works of the " Loiseau Pressed Fuel Com- 

 pany," to which reference was made in our last volume, 

 nothing further has transpired during the year. 



As an important item in connection with the employment 

 of gas fuel in metallurgy, we must allude to the system of fur- 

 nace-working with petroleum, which appears of late to have 

 made substantial progress. Considerable attention was drawn 

 to this subject during the last year by the publication of a 

 careful* investigation of the system of Dr. C. J. Eames, in 

 practical operation at an iron - working establishment in 

 Jersey City. The investigation was conducted by Professor 

 Henry Wurtz, whose opinions on this subject are worthy of 

 the greatest respect ; and the conclusions which he announces 

 bear most favorable testimony to the value of this particular 

 process, and to the system in general, both with respect to 

 economy of operation and quality of product. Without en- 

 tering too much into details of construction, it may suffice 

 to remark generally that in the Eames system the oil is in- 

 troduced into the furnace, in any desired volume, in the form 

 of a vapor, evolved in a so-called "Vapor-Generator," so 

 constructed that no possible interruption can occur in its ac- 

 tion, and that the device for securing rapid, complete, and 

 uniformly distributed combustion of the vapor witli the 

 enormous volume of air that is required is effected by an 

 adjustment of great simplicity and efficiency. The genera- 

 tor which is the essential feature of the new process is a 

 cast-iron vessel, with horizontal shelves projecting alternate- 

 ly from opposite sides, over which shelves the oil flows 

 downward in a thin layer, dripping from shelf to shelf. In 

 this condition it is met by a slow opposing current of steam 

 heated to incandescence, and kept at a pressure of about ten 

 pounds per square inch, which passes upward into the cham- 

 ber from a superheating coil placed below it, and heated by 

 a fire. Every trace of oil is taken up in vapor, and swept 

 onto a mixing chamber, which occupies the fireplace of the 



