The Waipawa Mail. Published Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. Saturday, June 8, 1907. COAL ASHES AS FUEL.

Waipawa Mail, Volume XXVII, Issue 5118, 8 June 1907, Page 2

The Waipawa Mail. Published Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. Saturday, June 8, 1907. COAL ASHES AS FUEL.

A cobbler of Altona, Canada, neglectful of the aphorism that “ every shoemaker should stick to his last,’’ lately turned his attention to fuel experiments, and the results he achieved quickly set the whole province talking. He mixed together coal ashes and unburnt coal, damped them with salt water, put the mixture on live coals, and produced a bright clear fire that burned until only a clinker was left. The proportions he usel were three parts ashes to one part coal. There is, however, a way of ensuring a brighter and fiercer fire, and that is by adding a few drachms of oxalic aoid to the mixture. This acid causes a chemical change that produces a carbide, which eventually gives acetylene gas, and facilitates combustion of the mass. It is claimed that when this mixture is placed on a live fire it fuses into a mass having a coke-like appearance, and burns until there is practically nothing left. When the discovery was talked of in Toronto, a local reporter made enquiries of a professor of applied chemistry, and was assured that the conglomerate could not be of much practical benefit, because no heat could be procured from ooal that had been already through the fire and completely combusted. The scientist also gave warning that economical housewives who tried to use it may save a penny or two in coal and spend a shilling or two on new fire bars, by reason of the action of the salt on iron. The reporter thought it well to give practical trial to the cobbler’s discovery, so he arranged with a fireman to make a test. The ashes and unused coal were putina heap on the floor, a few handsful of common salt were thrown over the heap, and then a pail of water, hut no oxalic acid was used. The sceptical fireman shovelled the mixture into hia furnace, and sat down in expectation of seeing his fire ruined. But he saw the hands of his steam gauge go on and on until a very considerable increase of pressure testified that the heating-power of the mixture was great and the dictum of the scientist based on unstable premises.

The foregoing particulars condense the statements printed in different issues of American newspapers of recent date, but it occurred to an Evening Post representative that a demonstration nearer home would have greater weight with the New Zealand public in regard to arriving at a decision concerning the merits of the new process, there having been occasions within the past hundred years of stories from America being more astonishing than truthful. By arrangement with Mr J. P. Luke, of the firm of S. Luke and Sous, a test of the conglomerate was made in the furnace attached to the firm’s premises. The result of it goes to further establish the fact that when picturesqueness of detail is desired the American writers clear the hurdles of fact two in a stride. There is something in the cobbler’s discovery, but not much ; for it is the case that with New Zealand coal the ashes are burnt up by being fed a second time into the live furnace without addition of any sort. After the second burning only a clinker remains, and the clinker if anything is understood to defy all attempts to make it burn again, no matter what process is tried.

* The test made was a severe one, the idea being to get at the truth. Steam pressure was falling, and the fire under the boiler had burned low, though the coals remained live and red. The steam gauge showed a pressure of 90 degrees. A big-sized fire shovel was used, and two heaped shovelfuls of ashes were mixed with one of coal,

after which the heap was damped with water in which salt had been dissolved. When this mixture wa3 shovelled into the furnace it took fire speedily, but there was a gradual dropping of, the steam pressure until in three minutes • the gauge showed 85 degrees. In ten minutes’ time there had been a fall of eight degrees, and for the next five minutes the pressure was held at 82 degrees, but not improved. Thereupon a fresh mixture was made, the same proportions being taken with an addition of about two drachms of oxalic acid. When this fuel was put on the steam dropped one point more and then began an upward tendency that brought the pressure back to 80 degrees. Here it remained stationary for a few minutes and then it began to fall, so the engineer had to fire up with ordinary coal to raise the pressure sufficiently to meet the steam requirements of the machinery. Afterwards ho raked out the clinkers left by the mixture. They were hard and clean, and they were removed from the firebars without effort. There had been an impression in his mind that they would cling to the bars and only come away in “streaks,” a characteristic possessed by certain coals which were named. The engineer expressed himself that the test, so far as it had gone, should not be regarded as a failure, for he had an idea that if the mixture was used in larger quantities the results would be more pronounced.