SMOKELESS FUEL FROM COAL.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 225, 28 June 1881, Page 4

SMOKELESS FUEL FROM COAL.

Mr W. D. Scott-Moncrieff, in a paper read before the Society of Arts, hag recently brought to the attention of that body an important project for not only hereafter preventing, but also for rendering commercially available the dense stratum of smoke, that has so long hung like a pall over the city of iondon, obscuring the light and rendering the atmosphere dangerous to the whole community. He proposes to substitute for the bituminous caal now in universa use for domestic and industrial purposes, a modified form of this coal, from whioh the gas has been partially extracted. Experiments made by him as long as ten years ago showed that a semicoke, resulting from a short distillation of coal, furnishes a fuel that is practically smokeless, and he has since discovered that by treating this coke with water when hot renders it still more smokeless, and makes it the most perfect fuel imaginable, as it has all the cheerfulness and heat-giving properties of the unprapired coal with none of the disadvantages arising from its use. To produce this fuel in quantities suitable for public use he proposes to take advantage of the existing plant of the gas companies, finding that they are amply sufficient for the purpose. Instead of taking 10,000 cubic feet of gaa per ton from the coal, he would take 3333 cubic feet, or any other convenient proportion, and pass three times the quantity through the retorts. In this manner the gas would be ooming away from the retorts all day long, just as formerly, with a slight loss of time to be allowed for the additional frequency of the charging. The supply at the end of the twenty-four hours would be in excess of that which is obtained from the long extraction, and in thn way less and not more plant would be necessary to give the same quantity in a given time, while the gas itself would be of better quality. The author claims, from his investigations and experiments, that the results of the application of his scheme would prove startling. The gas companies would have double the quantity of by-products in the shape of tar and ammoniacal products, that they have at present. Tho community would have twenty-four c»ndle instead of sixteen candle gas ; the fuel resulting from the process would be of a nature to ignite readily, making a cboorful fire that gives out 20 per cent, more heat than common coal, and London would become a smokeless city. Tha only extra expense to the companies would be that of the additional workmen employed in charging the retorts and interest upon the additional capital required for transit appli-

anew ; bat as an of!-sot, the companies would receive an increasod quantity of valuable byproducts and a supply of fuel that would bo in universal demand, and tho profits from tlm oslo of this at prices much bolow that cf coal would bs ounh that tho companies would bo actually getting their coal for nothing.