438 



The Weekly Florists' Review* 



February 12. 1903. 



gated and crimson, and you will have 

 about the right amount of each if your 

 market is about the same as the aver- 

 age. If you have been growing carna- 

 tions you should know what colors yoiu' 

 market wants in quantity. 



A. F. J. Baub. 



THRIPS. 



I send some blooms of Goodenough 

 carnations. Please tell me what is the 

 matter with them. The plants are in 

 the same bed with Norway, Bon Homme 

 Richard, White Cloud and Flora Hill, 

 none of which have this tendency. On 

 the same plants there will be perfect and 

 imperfect blooms and buds. The plants 

 are strong and healthy and it is gener- 

 ally the smallest blooms that are affect- 

 ed. Goodenough is one of the most 

 prolific bloomers I have. I. B. S. 



Oregon. 



Tlie blooms you sent were badly dried 

 up, in fact they were dry as hay, and I 

 was unable to judge by them. From 

 your letter, however, I judge that you 

 are troubled with thrips, and the remedy 

 is nicotine in one form or another, and 

 a good lot of perseverance. TaKe one 

 of the half-opened buds and pull the 

 petals apart, watching all the time for a 

 tiny insect about one-sixteenth to one- 

 eighth of an inch long and of a yellowish 

 brown color. That is Mr. Thrips, and 

 he does just what you say is being done 

 to your carnation blooms. I am not ac- 

 quainted with the variety that is 

 troubled and so I cannot say as to 

 whether the variety is in the habit of 

 throwing imperfect buds or not, but it 

 is possible that such is the case. 



A. F. J. Bade. 



HOW TO nRE WITH SOFT COAL. 



By the Hartford Steam Boiler luspection and 

 Insurance Co., Hartford, Conn. 



To burn bituminous coal without 

 smoke has long been the hope of in- 

 ventors and engineers, for it is generally 

 admitted that an enormous waste oc- 

 curs when any considerable amount of 

 smoke issues from the chimney. It is 

 true that smoke is a sure indication of 

 imperfect combustion, but the vapor or- 

 dinarily seen coming from the chimney 



flues. When the damper is right, the 

 draft good and the fires well laid, so 

 that all parts of the grate are evenly 

 covered, the lazy smoke flame is changed 

 to a short flame of intense brightness. 

 Too much air is as capable of producing 

 smoke as too little; for by its chilling 

 air it makes perfect combustion impos- 

 sible, and causes the same dense cloud to 

 appear at the stack. In charging fresh 

 coal it is a good plan to leave the fur- 

 nace door ajar slightly until the fire has 



ly enlarging them until after a time a 

 strong current of cool air passes un- 

 checked up through the grates, along the 

 sidewalls and the bridge, and the hot 

 gases coming from the coal are so chilled 

 by it that it is almost impossible to 

 make steam. The same result follows 

 when the coal is heaped upon the center 

 of the grate like a haycock, as shown in 

 Figs. 1 and 2. In both these cases the 

 invariable result is a hard-worked fire- 

 man, struggling laboriously to keep up 



Fig. 2. Bad Firing — Plan View of Furnace. 



burned up a little so as to admit an 

 extra supply of air, that which passes 

 up through the grate being checked for 

 a few moments by the fresh fuel. If the 

 door is kept wide open the boiler will be 

 cooled down and may be severely 

 strained; big columns of cold air will 

 pass right over the fire in a body and 

 right up the chimney. But if the door is 

 kept half or three-quarters of an inch 

 ajar the air that is admitted will dis- 

 tribute itself through the furnace pretty 

 uniformly, and will consume the gases 

 given ofi' by the fresh coal. As soon as 

 the gases burn off the door again should 

 be tightly shut. 



Fig. 1. Bad Firing— Side View of Furnace. 



is not all smoke. The dense black smoke 

 sometimes seen comes almost entirely 

 of unconsumed carbon, but the composi- 

 tion of the lighter smoke is entirely dif- 

 ferent. The black smoke is usually 

 given off when long flames of yellowish 

 or reddish hue lap along the whole length 

 of the boiler and perhaps pass into the 



There is good and bad firing. To fire 

 only at considerable intervals, throwing 

 on coal so heavily as to almost shut off 

 the draft for a time, is certainly bad. 

 Fires run in this way and then left to 

 themselves burn hollow, and air rushes 

 through the holes, burning the fuel away 

 around the edges of them, thus constant- 



steam and a bitter complaint from the 

 oflSce at the cost of the fuel consumed. 



In Fig. 3 a bituminous coal fire is 

 shown from 6 to 9 inches thick. It is 

 kept thicker at the uacK end and along 

 the furnace walls and in the corners, be- 

 cause the heat radiated from the side 

 walls and the bridge causes the coal in 

 these places to burn faster than that on 

 the rest of the grate. It is kept solid 

 and in form by quickly sprinkling a 

 thin uniform layer of coal on alternating 

 sides of the furnace at frequent inter- 

 vals, and by falling in such parts as 

 burn hollow. 



Fig. 4 illustrates what is called coke 

 firing. The grate is covered witti incan- 

 descent fuel as in Fig. 3, except near the 

 doors where a windrow 18 inches wide 

 and built of fre.sh coal extends entirely 

 across the front of the furnace. Tlie 

 heat to which this windrow is expo.sed 

 causes it to coke as it would in a retort 

 in a gas works, and to give off the in- 

 flammable gases that it contains, which 

 are burned as they pass baCK over the 

 incandescent bed of fuel. When fresh 

 air is required this mass of coke is 

 broken up and distributed evenly over 

 the grate, bearing in mind the necessity 

 01 keeping a good supply on those por- 

 tions of the fire which tend to burn the 

 fastest. When the fire has again become 

 incandescent, fresh coal is put to coke, 

 and so the firing continues. In this 

 method of running a fire it is still all- 

 important to prevent holes from burning 

 through, and admitting undue quantities 

 of air into the furnace. 



NOTES OF A WAYFARER. 



(CONCLUDED ) 



Out next jump was to Boston and out 

 to Framingham. We had no more than 

 alighted from the train than we caught 

 sight of the genial Mr. Wm. Nicholson 

 driving up in a cutter. He did not ex- 

 pect us, therefore you can imagine his 



