THE ALUMNI JOURNAL 99 



Factory Equipment — By-Products. 



The factory building is a plain one-story stone structure, 40 by y2 

 feet, and was built at a cost of $24,000. It is equipped with one 

 i2-horsepower explosion gas engine, which furnishes the motive 

 power to drive the compressors working at high speed. The engine 

 is supplied with gas produced in the process of reducing the crude 

 oil to liquid gas. The furnaces in which the retorts are heated are 

 also partially supplied from the same source, about one-half of the 

 fuel consumed being surplus or exhaust gas. The application of this 

 by-product reduces the cost of fuel for operating the plant to the 

 minimum. In addition to the residue of gas, a considerable residuum 

 of tar is secured in the process. From the tar may be extracted 

 lubricating oils, benzole, creosote, and materials suitable for street 

 and road dressing as a dust preventive. 



The material from which the liquid oil is produced in the Bassers- 

 dorf factory is the residue or refuse of crude oil after various ingre- 

 dients such as benzine, vaseline, etc., have been extracted. It is im- 

 ported from Austria. At the factory the crude oil is transferred 

 from a reservoir into the retorts by an automatic process. The cost 

 of the oil used in the Swiss company's factory is about 7 cents per 

 gallon. 



After passing through the process of heating, condensation, and 

 cooling, and the various carbonizing and other substances have been 

 separated from it, the liquid gas is placed in steel tubes of various 

 sizes holding 20, 40, 60 and 80 pounds each, in which form it is ready 

 for use. The tubes containing the material are accepted by the rail- 

 ways and other carrying companies without restrictions or special 

 provisions, as the gas is nonpoisonous and is three times less explosive 

 than ordinary gas. The liquid gas is utilized by attaching one of the 

 tubes to the special apparatus manufactured by the company, which 

 contains a regulator, gage, etc. 



Installations and Usefulness. 



The Bassersdorf concern, which has passed beyond the experi- 

 mental stage, now has over 100 installations in different towns and 

 cities in Switzerland, all of which are declared to be entirely satisfac- 

 tory to the purchasers. In a descriptive circular regarding the pro- 

 duction of liquid gas, its uses, etc., the company says : 



