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Can the smoke nuisance be abolished ? No. Can it be abated ? Yes. To what extent? Say, 8o per cent. Bituminous or soft coal has come to stay. With each successive strike in the anthracite districts its use has become more general; and the manufacturer finding it better adapted to his use, and cheaper, will continue the use of it. Under these circumstances, it now becomes the duty of the city government to establish laws regulating its use, as has been found necessary in Pittsburg, Chicago, St. Louis, Cleveland and elsewhere.
It is the proclivity of Americans to love walking on the edge of a precipice. In running their boilers they work them up to the full extent, often beyond it, with an occasional explosion. In thus running we have a smoky chimney when using soft coal, as the volatile matter evolved from it passes off largely unconsumed.
If the boiler owners would add extra coking surfaces to their boilers, retaining their grates, they could consume the gas (and their boiler also if they were careless). To this want of boiler capacity, add bad firing, with poor draught, and we have stated the case of the present smoke nuisan.l~e in Philadelphia. Metallurgical furnaces, of course, contribute their quota.
This extra coking surface will help to do more than normal work withla boiler, without smoke, though at the expense of the coal-bin. The first operation in burning soft coal is the driving off the volatile hydrocarbons. The~e gases and vapors must be burned quickly so as to utilize their heating effect At once, and the remaining part of the coal must be promptly changed into coke. The second operation is to buru the coke, the heat from which in its turn heats the gases and assists in developing their full heating power. One pound Of these gases develops more heat than a pound of anthracite. The burning of these gases increases the intensity of the heat in the furnace and perfect combustion ensues, no smoke being visible at the chimney-top. The first ope~tion, therefore, is a coking process, and should be kept separate from tile second operation, which is a burning process. -No fresh coal should be placed on the burning coals of the firing surface, as it lowers its temperatul~e and causes smoke.
There are three types of furnaces that cause the smoke nuisance: First, stationary boilers. Second, locomotive, marine and portable boilers. Third, metallurgical furnaces. STATIONARY BOILERS.--All our stationary boilers are set with gra~s close to the boilers, as anthracite coal burns with a short flame and .no smok~. Bituminous coal burns with a long flame, requiring the grate to be plaee~l much farther from the boiler in order to give the gases time to burn before. reaching the cold surface of the boiler ; otherwise the gases are chilled mad are not completely burned, giving a smoky chimney-top.
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