4 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 vs^ithout cost, 

 and always at hand in the same apparatus to which the fire is apjjlied. 



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. 



But 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 

 the 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. If no mechanical difli- 

 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 5 the flame, by a due 

 regulation of the supply of the inflammable fluid, or of its vapor, may 

 be made more or less abundant, at pleasure ; it may be very quickly 

 stopped or renewed, by cutting off or opening the communication ; 

 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^ 

 instead of being constant, as now, (and distressing even to the specta- 

 tor 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 

 regulate the flow of the inflammable vapor, which may be done with- 

 out even approaching the mouth of the furnace. 



