378 



CONSERVATION 



The Smoke Nuisance 



The smoke plague of American cities has 

 been conquered by science according to the 

 statement of Federal experts who have been 

 studying the problem for a number of years. 

 They not only make the assertion that smoke 

 prevention is possible, but stand ready to 

 prove it by actual demonstration to any one 

 sufficiently interested, and are proving it 

 every day at the United States Geological 

 Survey Experiment Station, at Pittsburg, Pa. 

 In that smoky city the plant is being oper- 

 ated absolutely without smoke and the experts 

 are burning a coal considered refuse by the 

 trade, costing, delivered at the station, 88 

 cents a ton. 



"'Some may say that this can only be done 

 at an experiment station and not at a com- 

 mercially operated plant," said H. M. Wilson, 

 chief engineer, Technologic Branch, United 

 States Geological Survey ; "but the investi- 

 gation conducted by the Government leads 

 to a different belief. Employees of the Sur- 

 vey visited industrial establishments in the 

 larger cities of Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, 

 Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, New York, 

 Ohio, and Pennsylvania and found more than 

 200 plants being operated without smoke and 

 with a gain in economy, for smoke these days 

 means waste. 



"The investigation indicates that the clean, 

 comfortable American city with a normal 

 amount of sunshine is not far off. Smokeless 

 cities only await a quickened public con- 

 science to the fact that this nuisance means 

 uncleanliness, poverty, wretchedness, disease, 

 and death. The public has only to realize 

 that smoke in the cities costs in merchandise 

 in stores and warehouses, more than 

 $600,000,000 a year. This loss in money is 

 based on the statement of the Chicago smoke 

 inspector that his city suffers a loss each year 

 of $50,000,000. More than a third of the peo- 

 ple of this country live in the great and 

 moderate-sized cities." 



The Geological Survey has been endeavor- 

 ing by experiments for several years to in- 

 crease the efficiency with which the fuels of 

 the country are being used and this led to 

 a study of the smoke problem, for smoke is 

 waste due to imperfect combustion. The 

 statement is now made that in fifty per cent, 

 of the industrial plants of the United States, 

 more than ten per cent, of the coal bill can 

 be saved each year by the smokeless burning 

 of coal and five per cent, in the other plants. 

 This would amount to several million dollars. 



The experts who had immediate charge of 

 this investigation were D. T. Randall and 

 H. W. Weeks, engineers of the Technologic 

 Branch of the Survey, and they have just 

 made their report which will soon be issued 

 by the Geological Survey as a bulletin. Mr. 

 Randall maintains that it is not necessary to 

 use any one certain patented furnace to 

 obtain smokeless conditions. Many types of 



furnaces and stokers burn coal without 

 smoke. 



"Credit is to be given to any one kind of 

 apparatus only in so far as the manufacturers 

 require that it shall be so set under the 

 boilers that the principles of combustion are 

 respected,' 1 says Mr. Randall. "Stokers or 

 furnaces must be set so that the combustion 

 is complete before the gases strike the heat- 

 ing surface of the boiler. When partly 

 burned gases at a temperature of, say 2,500 

 degrees Fahrenheit strike the tubes of a boil- 

 er at, say, 350 degrees Fahrenheit, combustion 

 is necessarily hindered and may be entirely 

 arrested. The length of time required for 

 the gases to pass from the coal to the heat- 

 ing surface probably averages considerably 

 less than a second, a fact which shows that 

 the gases and air must be immediately mixed 

 when large volumes of gas are distilled, as 

 at times of hand firing, or the gas must be 

 distilled uniformly, as in a mechanical 

 stoker. 



"The fireman is so variable a factor that 

 the ultimate solution of the problem depends 

 upon the mechanical stoker in other words, 

 the personal element must be eliminated." 



Maine's Peat Bogs 



The United 'States Geological Survey, in 

 Bulletin 376, reports the results of an inves- 

 tigation of the peat bogs of Maine. 



"The field tests and analyses recorded in 

 this report show that Maine posessses im- 

 mense resources of peat of excellent quality 

 for fuel and other purposes. In the southern 

 and eastern parts of the state deposits of 

 good quality are most abundant in Andro- 

 scoggin, Kennebec and Penobscot Counties, 

 and especially in Washington County. In the 

 northern part of the state tests were made 

 only in Aroostook County along the Bangor 

 and Aroostook Railroad. Peat resources as 

 great as or greater than those of southern 

 Maine undoubtedly are to be found in the 

 forested lake districts of the northern part 

 of the state. There utilization is so remote 

 that testing them for the purpose of the re- 

 port was not warranted, but they must be 

 considered in estimating the total peat re- 

 sources of the state. These resources, ex- 

 cept for experimental plants near Lewiston 

 and Portland, are at present undeveloped. 



The area of peat land actually tested in 

 preparing the report is estimated at twenty- 

 five square miles. The average depth of the 

 peat is about ten feet. It is calculated that 

 the bogs tested are capable of yielding at 

 least 34,000,000 short tons of air-dried ma- 

 chine peat which, at $3 a ton, would repre- 

 sent a value of more than $100,000,000. It 

 is probable that the deposits tested form only 

 one-tenth to one-fifth of the total peat re- 

 sources of the state." 



The bulletin 376 may be obtained free from 

 the Director of the U. S. Geological Survey, 

 Washington, D. C. 



