l86 TlMEHRl. 
possibly be attainable, owing to the combustion being imperfect and 
less rapid, neither can we hope to approach this degree of perfection 
until the necessary modifications, in the means employed, have been 
arrived at and introduced. 
In the United States and some of the West India Islands, the Jarvis 
patent furnace for burning green megass, is reported to be in successful 
operation ; hot air is introduced upon the fuel, and although theoreti- 
cally it can only impart as many units of heat as it receives from some 
other source, the idea presents two indirect methods for promoting 
combustion. The drying process is probably effected by the heat 
in the air, and, the moisture being disposed of more rapidly, the 
units of heat, due to combustion, are available for useful work ; 
then a forced draught is known to increase the rapidity of combustion, 
besides enabling perfect combustion to take place with less air, that is, 
a lesser percentage of additional air being required for the dilution of 
the products of combustion, the products are less, the loss due to the 
escaping gases less, and the temperature of combustion more. 
I give below, in a tabular form,* a recapitulation of the above results, 
with the addition of two other examples, calculations for which are sup- 
pressed. One is for megass holding 66'6 per cent, its weight of mois- 
ture (as represented by 55 per cent, expression from canes carrying 15 
per cent, woody fibre), it presents a sorry comparison, but is, I fear, 
too often the case with inferior crushing. The other is for megass con- 
taining 25 per cent, moisture, a result that could only be obtained by 
very heavy crushing and perfect feeding ; and, as this touches upon 
another subject of great interest to me, I will dismiss it with the hope 
and belief it will be an accomplished fact before very long. It is my 
opinion, improvements in single crushing should be aimed at by every 
one of us, as in this direction alone can we expect the burning of green 
megass to become more and more economical, and in time a great 
success. 
* See page 187. 
