A NEW SOURCE OF POWER 



941 



A UGNITE IvEDGE : KENAI PENINSULAR COAE-FlKED, ALASKA 



ASTONISHING WASTE 01^ ENERGY IN 

 STEAM PIvANTS 



From the standpoint of conservation, 

 the producer-gas experiments and the 

 rapidly increasing installations of gas- 

 producing plants are notable advances. 

 Stated in terms of wasted energy, the 

 figures of fuel consumption become 

 deeply impressive. 



Incredible as it may seem, the fuel 

 consumed in the ordinary manufacturing 

 plant operated by steam power yields less 

 than 5 per cent of its available energy in 

 useful work; the other 95 per cent is 

 wasted. The superintendent of motive 

 power of the New York subway system, 

 one of the most efficient steam plants in 

 existence today, estimates the total losses 

 in a year's operation of the plant at 

 about 90 per cent — the utilized energy 

 at only 10 per cent. As against this, it 

 is estimated that a producer-gas plant 

 operated on a similar scale would utilize 

 over 21 per cent of the available energy 

 in the fuel consumed. 



Not only will the ultimate complete 

 substitution in the United States of the 

 gas engine entail a direct saving of mil- 

 lions of tons of coal annually, but, 

 through the utilization of the lower- 

 grade coals and lignites, which would 

 otherwise never be mined, it will greatly 

 lengthen the life of the high-grade coal 

 deposits. 



LIGNITE BRIQUETS 



Another feature of interest in connec- 

 tion with the utilization of lignite is the 

 briquetting tests started under the Geo- 

 logical Survey and now being carried on 

 by the Bureau of Mines. Briquets from 

 dust of ordinary coal make almost ideal 

 fuel, but they are expensive to produce. 

 The several per cent of "binder" — tar, 

 pitch, etc. — necessary to make them co- 

 hesive runs up the cost. Lignite, how- 

 ever, can be briquetted without binding 

 material ; at least, this is done with some 

 of the foreign lignites, and there seems 

 no reason wh}^ American lignite as well 

 should not make good briquets. The lig- 



