OE RTS i meee: Se ae 
Fuel for Steam Boilers. 135 
proportioned to the quantity and heat of the fuel, might be made to 
increase the activity of the fire, and to furnish it with an abundant 
flame. Water presents the great advantage of being without cost, 
and always at hand in the same apparatus to which the fire ‘is applied. 
It will be observed that we are not now speaking of a mode of in- 
creasing the quantity of heat, but of applying, advantageously, that 
which is produced. It would perhaps be unphilosophical to expect, 
that gas created at the expense of the fire, should do any thing more 
than to restore the heat which it had taken up when it became gas, 
and there could plainly be no increase of heat from this source, ex- 
cept from the oxygen employed in burning the inflammable gas, and 
which, mingling with it every where in the flue, might thus increase 
the quantity of heat evolved. ee 
ut there is another property of ignited anthracite, which it pos- 
sesses in common with probably all ignited bodies. It decom- 
poses various compound fluids, even where it does not operate by 
Attracting oxygen ; it dissolves the bond of union between the ele- 
ments, and thus enables them, in new combinations, to assume the 
gaseous form. 
This is the foundation of the important application proposed to be 
introduced by Mr. J. L. Sullivan, and described in an early part of 
present number. He proposes to pass the vapor of spirits, and 
of inflammable oils, or other combustible fluids, through or over ig- 
nited anthracite, and thus to supply the only imperfection (in rela- 
tion to steam boilers) of this admirable fuel. no mechanical diffi- 
culty occurs in practice, it is not easy to foresee why a continued 
flame, sufficiently abundant to pervade the entire flue of a steam boiler, 
May not be thus afforded by ignited anthracite ; the flame, by a due 
regulation of the supply of the inflammable fluid, or of its vapor, may 
made more or less abundant, at pleasure ; it may be very quickly 
Stopped or renewed, by cutting off or opening the communication 5 
the anthracite, remaining in the mean time ignited, there can be no 
loss of time in reanimating the fire, as happens when a fire of blazing 
Pine is extinguished, and as the anthracite continues to burn for many 
hours With little variation of energy, the attendance of the firemen, 
stead of being constant, as now, (and distressing even to the specta- 
‘or to behold, much more to these poor men to endure,) may admit 
of considerable intervals ; taking care to supply the anthracite, once 
perhaps in half an hour, or possibly an hour, and in the mean time to 
Tegulate the flow of the inflammable vapor, which may be done with- 
out even approaching the mouth of the furnace. 
