TRAINS WITHOUT SMOKE?

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 10 November 1928, Page 11

TRAINS WITHOUT SMOKE?

sjOMID clay it may bo possible to * travel Loin Auckland io Wellington by a steam-driven train without .nhaling .some 151 b of poison and sootladen air. Factories may tie distinguishable by their appearance and not by their belching smoke-stacks. If, and when this state conies about, there should be no smoke of any importance in cities, and iogs, ‘ more e,specially in large cities like London, will greatly be minimised, and it will be the result of experiments and research extending over 14 years by Mr. Charles Turner, who recently claimed and demonstrated in Siotland that he could-obtain the following from one ton of bituminous coal: 2J cwt. of oil and wax, 13 ewt. of smokeless fuel, 2 cwt. of dirt, 1* cwt. of water, 3 cwt. of loss. ; Early in August the British Prime M.nister was asked if he was awaie that foreign interests were negotiating for the rights over a- process to extract oil from coal, and at" the same time produce a smokeless fuel. The reply was that the Government saw no reason for interfering with the rights of the owner of the process to dispose of it as he saw fit, which was precisely the attitude taken up when Perkins, a Manchester man, perfected the aniline dye, and had to sell it to Germany because of lack of interest in his own country. The latest method of treating coal, particularly in its relation to the production of oil, has been receiving a great deal of publicity in the British Press and the Glasgow Weekly Herald has devoted several pages to the subject. Four per cent, of all coal burned is dissipated in the form of • smfokle, according to scientists, and the householder gets the benefit of only between five and ten. per cent, of the coal he burns. Records show that in Britain 3,000,000 tons of coal are used annually for domestic purposes. Mr. Turner has now demonstrated that he can use coal to produce petroleum oil to the tune of about 30 gallons to the ton of coal, and locwt- of smokeless fuel, the latter having a 30 per cent, greater,, heating capacity than untreated coni. In a small plant in Lanarkshire, he can deal with 100 tons of coal a day of 24 hours. The coal is carried by a bucket elevator to the top of a retort GO feet high. The retort is then closed and is airtight. Tn the retort the coal is submitted to a super-heated steam process, which sweats out the oil in the form of volatile or evaporating oil. This is let into a condenser, the ; vapour and volatile the]re reverting . to water and oil respectively. These are separated by an easy process. 1 What remains of the coal is washed. -■ and it provides a clean and smokeless 1 fuel, the dirt which is washed out J being used in the plant. 1

TREATMENT OF COAL

>. At the refining plant the oil is fracItioned into motor spirit, naphtha, burning oil, gas -oil, fuel anti lubricating oils, and paratlni wax. • - The. inventor claims that, a plant dealing with 10,000 tons . daily could be worked by 15 men, and would produce anything up to 30,0D0 gallops of crude oil daily. At present America, produces 75 per rent, of the oil used in the wprld. Its bores on the average, produce five gallons daily and last about three years. The bores cost £5,000 each, and many of them produce nothing. Britain imports £34,000,000 Worth' of oil yearly from America, and the import tax imposed is 4d a gallon/ ; With this maz-gin Mr. Turner considers 'that . his process will save the importation of any oil, and that any attempt'ait competition can easily be met. The oil and fuel produced from coal will be cheaper, and if necessary losses on oil can.be made up by increases on fuel, so that the 4d tax, the cheaper oil, and the cheaper fuel; give several strings to the bow. Henry Cort’s discovery of" a new pi'oeess of puddling and rolling iron gave Britain its industrial supremacy, and the new discovery, which the inventor is determined to keep for Britain if he can, is lield up as "an example of another great happening thatmight again restore the Home, court-; try. It lias other effects, one of which is a saving of £40,000,000 annually in depreciation, due to the presence of soot ,in the atmosphere, this being one of the causes for the £250.000 appeal a year or two ago for the restoration of Westminster Abbey. Though the patent rights will remain with the inventor in Britain itis not likely tliat Britain will be the only country to use the new process if it- is as successful as the demonstations have shown. Britain, has 140,000 million tons of coal in reserve in an area of 12,000 square miles. In other parts of the world the coal areas include : America 230,000 square miles; Russia. 20,000; China, 200,000, and the British Empire 140,000. New Zealand is not in the happy position of being able to look forward to a supply lasting thousands of years. It is regarded as probable that the bituminous coal in New Zealand—at least that which is known to exist—will be exhausted in a period leas than 100 years. The proved amount is 187,000,000 tons, although the probable supply i,s set down in the official year book as 477,000,000 tons. The figures for semi-bituminous coal are 68,000,000 and 196,000,000 tons respectively. There are large supplies of brown and lignite coals, l>ut tlieir uses for this purpose are nil. Australia, .: however, has much larger “supplies". - L-.