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20 



The Florists^ Review 



July 20. 1922 



steel tank inuat be painted every 

 year or so, in order to prevent oxidation 

 {getting in its nefarious work, while, 

 with the concrete tank once in the 

 ground, there is no more to be done. 



Steam coils are necessary near the 

 openings of the tanks through which the 

 pump draws its supply of fuel. No ad- 

 ditional steam is required for this i)ur- 

 pose, however, as the exhaust from the 

 pump which draws the oil can be turned 

 into these coils when needed. At the 

 Stielow range the cars of oil are 

 switched onto the premises by the rail- 

 road company and are unloaded imme- 

 diately into the tanks from the cars, do- 

 ing away with the necessity of provid- 

 ing a tank wagon or truck. This, of 

 course, would not be possible where the 

 range is located any distance from the 

 railroad. 



The amount of pipe required to trans- 

 fer the oil from the supply tank to the 

 boilers will depend upon the distance 

 between the two points. Two lines of 

 pipe will be needed, one for the steam 

 with which to heat the coils in cold 

 weather and one for the fuel supply 

 line. It is also important to remember 

 in constructing a tank that a vent 

 should be provided in the top (in the 

 case of the underground tank it should 

 protrude high enough in the air to pre- 

 vent dust and dirt from entering) to al- 

 low any gases which might possibly 

 arise from the oil to escape into the air, 

 thus avoiding danger of an explosion. 



Atomizing the Oil. 



In the boiler room or the receiving 



end of the fuel line, the apparatus 

 necessary consists of two steam pumps 

 Cjyie for use and the other as an aux- 

 iliary), an oil cleaner, with a strainer 

 in the pipes on either side of it, a steam 

 pressure reducer, and the burners inside 

 the fire box of the boiler. The oil is 

 pumped from the fuel tank in the yard 

 to the water filterer, where it passes first 

 through one of the strainers, then 

 llirougli the water in the filterer and 

 out into the line leading to the burner 

 in the boiler, while the surplus oil is re- 

 turned 1o the tank through an overflow 

 provided for this purpose. The oil lines 

 and pumps are shown in the illustrations 

 of the Stielow boiler room accompany- 

 ing this article. The oil is put under 

 the pressure of the steam just before it 

 enters the boiler. The steam pressure 

 reducer spoken of above is necessary, 

 ))ecause the steam pressure ordinarily 

 carried on the boilers is about eighty 

 pounds and the pressure of the oil when 

 it enters the boiler should be between 

 thirty and thirty-five. The reducer, as 

 well as the other parts of the equip- 

 ment, are exceedingly simple in con- 

 struction and require little or no atten- 

 tion after being once properly adjusted 

 to suit requirements. 



Air as an Atomizer. 



A similar oil heating system is in 

 o])eration at the range of the Grant 

 Floral Co., 1401 Austin avenue, Cicero, 

 111., on the southwest border of Chicago. 

 It works on the same principle as that 

 at the Stielow range, but it is set up for 

 the purpose of heating a range of about 



Oil Burners Installed in Old Boiler at Range of Grant Floral Co. 



7,000 feet of glass. The installation 

 here was made by the Combustion Co., 

 manufacturers of combustion fuel oil 

 burners, Chicago. In this system the 

 fuel tank has a capacity of 3,000 gallons 

 of oil, and the owner finds it necessary 

 to refill this tank approximately four 

 times a year. In addition to the fuel 

 tank, there is a second tank in the base- 

 ment of the boiler room into which the 

 oil is pumped from the storage tank. 

 This tank is known as the pressure 

 tank and it is here that the oil is put 

 under pressure. In this system air is 

 used instead of steam as the atomizing 

 agent, and the pressure on the tank is 

 maintained by means of an air pump 

 driven by an electric motor. This sys- 

 tem is controlled automatically, being 

 equipped with a thermostatic control. 

 The pilot light on the boiler is fed by 

 a connection to the city gas main. Mr. 

 Grant finds that the great advantage 

 of the oil heating system over coal is 

 that with oil a more even heat can be 

 maintained, to say nothing of the sav- 

 ing of labor and the freedom from dirt. 

 He says that, as far as a saving in fuel 

 is concerned, there is little, if any, over 

 coal, but he would not care to go back 

 to the use of coal again. 



Steam as Atomizer. 



Where steam is used as the atomizing 

 agent, the oil is heated by the steam 

 before it reaches the fire box, thus pro- 

 ducing not only a more complete, but 

 also a more rapid combustion, and creat- 

 ing a greater intensity of heat in the 

 fire box. For this reason, where it is 

 l)ossible, it would be preferable to use 

 Hteam, as at the Stielow range. 



The amount of steam and oil required 

 can easily be determined by a glance 

 into the fire box when the fire is started. 

 The oil, with some steam, is first turned 

 on and the vapor thus produced is ig- 

 nited. More steam is then turned on 

 until the flame ceases to smoke. If 

 thick, black clouds of smoke issue from 

 the flame, this is an indication that 

 combustion is only partial ,and the 

 amount of oil should be reduced or the 

 amount of steam increasecT. About one 

 hour is required to get up steam when 

 the boiler is cold, according to the ex- 

 ])crience of both Mr. Stielow and Mr. 

 Grant. 



Oil vs. Coal. 



The advantages of burning oil instead 

 of coal for a heating plant, aside from 

 cost, outweigh the disadvantages. In 

 the first place, a more even heat is ob- 

 tained with oil and there is no dirt or 

 Hoot around the place. There is no coal 

 to shovel from the cars and to wheel 

 into the boiler room. There are no ashes 

 to remove, which was a considerable 

 item in itself at the Stielow range. Mr. 

 Stielow stated that it had been neces- 

 sary formerly to emj)loy a team one 

 week each month to haul away the ashes 

 from the boilers. 



The actual cost of o])erating an oil 

 burning system, and whether or not it 

 will be cheaper than coal, will depend 

 upon the location of the range to 

 be heated and also the price at which 

 oil can be secured. If a range is in the 

 l)roximity of soft coal mines, where the 

 freight becomes negligible, it will un- 

 doubtedly be cheaper to heat with coal. 

 The item of freight is the biggest factor 

 in determining the comparative cost. 

 One may be able to purchase oil in Okla- 

 homa or Texas at the rate of 1 cent per 

 gallon and then be required to pay a 

 freight rate of almost 3 cents per gallon 



