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OIL AS FUEL 



FOR FLORISTS 



Greenhouse owners make constant inqtiiry as to the progress made in 

 heating greenhouses with oil. What has been accomplished to this end at 

 a large rose range near Chicago, and at a small pla^e on the outskirts of the 

 city, will he instructive to those interested. 





-X^ 



ROXIMITY to the Chicago 

 market and fertility of 

 the soil in that locality 

 make Niles Center, 111., 

 an excellent site for green- 

 house ranges. A number 

 of them are found in this 

 little village and among 

 them one of the foremost 

 is the range of Stielow 

 Bros. This range consists of about 

 150,000 square feet of ground covered 

 with glass, having been doubled this 

 summer by the erection of seven houses 

 by the American Greenhouse Mfg. Co. 

 It is devoted to the growing of Colum- 

 bia and Premier roses exclusively, with 

 the exception of two houses of carna- 

 tions. The outstanding 

 feature of interest at this 

 range is its heating sys- 

 tem, which is one of the 

 forerunners in the depar- 

 ture from the old way of 

 heating with coal. This 

 range uses oil entirely for 

 heating purposes. Tlic 

 system, the Crane, has 

 been in operation for over 

 a year and has proved it- 

 self so satisfactory that 

 Fred Stielow goes so far 

 as to say that he would 

 never care to go back to 

 the use of coal. 



Boilers Converted. 



The boilers at the Stie- 

 low range were formerly 

 used with coal as fuel, but 

 they were easily con- 

 verted to the use of oil. 

 The only changes neces- 

 sary were the removing of 

 the grates and the build- 

 ing up of the ash pit with 

 brick, allowing enough 

 space in the ash pit for the 

 draft, and the relining of 

 the fire boxes with fire 

 brick, which was then 

 coated with Plibrico. The 

 oil lines are led into the 

 burners inside the boilers 

 through holes in the fire 

 doors, with the oil and 

 steam adjusting valves 

 just outside these doors. 

 Compressed air may be 

 used, as well as steam, for 

 mixing the oil. By using 

 the steam from the boil- 

 ers, it is found that a 

 small saving is effected in 

 the use of fuel. If steam 

 is used as an atomizer on 



hot water boilers, a small boiler must 

 be provided to generate the steam. 

 There are, however, other ways of get- 

 ting around this difficulty, referred to 

 later in this article. 



The equipment necessary to convert 

 a system which is already in use, so 

 that it may burn oil instead of coal, is, 

 first, a tank in which to store the fuel, 

 preferably under ground, as this elim- 

 inates the necessity of pumping the fuel 

 from the cars — gravity doing the work. 

 Fuel tanks may be constructed of steel 

 or concrete; the cost of either will de- 

 pend upon the cost of the materials and 

 labor at the place of construction. At 

 the Stielow range there are two fuel 

 tanks, a short distance from the green- 



Ready to Heat with Oil, in Stielow Boiler Room. 



hoitses. One of these tanks is made of 

 concrete buried under ground, with a 

 capacity of 120,000 gallons of oil. The 

 system, when in full operation, requires 

 approximately 1,200 gallons of oil a day. 

 From this it will be seen that the con- 

 crete tank's capacity is equal to a 100 

 days ' supply. But a 100 days ' supply of 

 fuel does not allow the owner much 

 choice as a buyer of oil; that is, he will 

 not always be able to bide his time and 

 make his fuel purchases when oil has 

 reached its rock-bottom price. It was, 

 therefore, deemed a wise investment 

 Ity the owners of this range to purchase 

 an additional and larger tank. This 

 second tank is of steel construction, 

 cylindrical in shape, above ground, and 

 has a capacity of 500,000 

 gallons of oil. Although 

 the capacity of the steel 

 tank is a little more than 

 four times as great as 

 that of the concrete tank, 

 there is not a great deal 

 of difference in the cost 

 of the construction of the 

 two — due, of course, to 

 the fact that the price of 

 steel dropped greatly just 

 before the latter tank was 

 purchased. It will readily 

 l)e seen that the combined 

 capacity of the two tanks 

 is 620,000 gallons. At the 

 rate per day mentioned 

 above, these w^ould give 

 tlio owner a supply of oil 

 equal to 516 days, or ap- 

 proximately a year and a 

 half, which would permit 

 him to buy fuel at his own 

 pleasure and also insure 

 himself against a short- 

 age. The problem of tank 

 construction is an eco- 

 nomic one, and reduces it- 

 self to the range of the 

 cost of materials and la- 

 bor at the particular time 

 it is desired to build. 



Fuel Tank. 



There are certain prac- 

 tical features in the con- 

 struction of these tanks 

 which must be taken into 

 consideration. In the case 

 of the steel tank above 

 ground, when the oil has 

 reached the level of the 

 car from which the tank 

 is being filled, it will have 

 to be pumped into the 

 tank as more cars are un- 

 loaded; then, too, the 



