A NEW HEATING POWER.

Western Star, Issue 295, 3 May 1879, Page 7

A NEW HEATING POWER.

The following statement is made by the New York “Commercial Chronicle,” a newspaper not given to sensational announcements The exhibition made by Mr Salisbury on October 10, at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, promises to revolutionise the iron, steel, and glass trades. By using petroleum for fuel, not only is coal superseded, but at a comparatively trifling cost there is an acquired heating power which surpasses anything hitherto known. In the expi riments the heat registered 5000, melted pig iron in ten minutes hours, and made liquid glass in two hours instead of about sixteen. The invention consists of the liquid fuel and the means of using it. The fuel is the residuum of petroleum and coal tar, a mixture the consistency of molasses. It is conducted from the barrel to the furnace by means of a small pipe. At the end of this pipe, as it extends into the door of thu furnace, is a funnelshaped apparatus. When the fuel enters this funnel it comes into contact with a current of highly-superheated ; stqam, which the liquid, and thus admits a sufficient amount of,, oxygen at/the point of ignition. The atomised fuel then shoots in a fierce but delicate spray into the blazing furnace, the brick arches of which are kept at a white heat. Mr Salisbury hopes by this invention to revolutionise the ocean steamship trade; and he is about to proceed to Pittsburg to reconstruct her 300 blast furnaces, and make that city the greatest manufacturing centre of the world. If the apparatus proves to be as safe, as it is undoubtedly effective, Mr Salisbury’s discovery will lead to great radical changes in many branches of industry. .