| OCR Text |
Show Charcoal Gas Is Fair Gasoline Substitute, Tests Show; Could Be Used on Farms " ' - - 'V : Advantages, Defects Revealed by 800-Mile Trial Journey in Car The present scarcity of gasoline gas-oline has turned attention to oossible substitutes. One of the most practical is the gas generated from charcoal or wood by a high temperature burner. These devices, which are common in Europe, are rare in the United States, and If the wartime stringency in motor fuel had not developed, they would probably have remained re-mained curiosities. If gasoline gaso-line becomes expensive and scarce in the postwar years, however, the gas generators will probably come into use, at least for some purposes, such as stationary engines and farm machinery. The charcoal burned in the generator gen-erator can be made from any kind of wood or dried plant fiber, such as pressed out sugar cane. Here is possible future market for farm products that are now wastes. All this, however, depends on the adequacy ade-quacy of our petroleum reserves. If gasoline is once again plentiful and cheap, there is little likelihood that the gas generator will be widely wide-ly employed, for at its present stage, it does not give as satisfactory satisfac-tory service as gasoline does. To investigate the possibilities of using gas generators on their delivery de-livery cars, as well as to obtain material for an informative article, Newsweek magazine had one of its small station wagons fitted with a generator, and driven on an 800 mile test trip. The journey hegan The gasogene generates gas (principally carbon monoxide) by burning burn-ing charcoal at high temperatures. The hopper holds 170 pounds. It is best to refuel it every 50 to 75 miles. More than 1,000,000 passenger cars and trucks throughout the world use various forms of gas generators. Recently reports have come that the oil-famished Nazis are operating war machines, including includ-ing training tanks on gasogenes. In this country the army and other government gov-ernment branches (Bureau of standards. stand-ards. Forest service of the department depart-ment of agriculture, Tennessee Valley Val-ley authority) have made or still are conducting exhaustive tests. When the German submarine campaign threatened to cut the sea lanes to our fronts the army stepped up the gasogene experiments it had started three years ago. Seeking, Seek-ing, a satisfactory gasoline sub- miles). Curiosity appeal was high. Motorists seeing the device as they approached from the rear would pull up and sometimes tail them for miles. In towns small crowds gathered to look and ask questions. Though the fuel hopper holds 170 pounds, it was found best to refuel every 50 to 75 miles. Fresh fuel is put in through the hatch on top of the generator, a dusty, dirty, two-to three-minute job. Usually at the same time, Mr. Van Slyck took a couple more minutes out to look at the security filter, a small screen which is the last cleaning stage. Twenty Cents for 15 Miles. . They averaged close to 30 miles an hour for the 800 miles and burned 600 pounds of charcoal. Put into its gasoline equivalent (15 miles to the gallon) this stacked up to about UVt pounds which, at the rate of $35 a ton for charcoal, meant nearly 20 cents for 15 miles, or within a penny or two of gasoline cost. The whole system is entirely rational; ra-tional; there is nothing mysterious about it. The regular carburetor is used when the motor operates on gasoline. A carbo-charger feeds gas into the cylinders in the gasogene operation. The main difference is that the gasogene gas (principally carbon monoxide) must be manufactured in the, generator before it can be burned: gasoline in the tank is ready for use. With a gasogene it is necessary neces-sary to keep the engine turning over a little faster than usual in order or-der to manufacture gas. If the engine en-gine is run too slowly on a hill, where power is needed, the fire may die down, reducing speed. The fire requires relighting only after long intervals of parking. After only two or three hours of disuse the motor will start on gasogene gaso-gene direct. After three or four hours it is necessary to use a little in Kalamazoo, . Mich., where the charcoal burning gas-producer, known commercially as the "Gasogene" "Gaso-gene" was attached at the manufacturer's manufac-turer's plant, and ended in New York city. The route traversed the Allegheny mountains, where steep grades forced the car to give its best possible performance. Milton Van Slyck, associate editor, supervised super-vised the experiment. On the June morning when the trip was to start, Mr. Van Slyck poured 170 pounds of charcoal into the hopper of the gasogene. He then started the motor of the car with gasoline. Next he stepped around to the rear, opened the small fire door, and lit the burner with a twist of paper. The suction of the motor drew the flame right in and in a few seconds the fire was nearly white hot. In one minute fifteen seconds sec-onds after he poured the charcoal they rolled out of the shop down the highway. Within a couple of minutes min-utes they turned off the gasoline completely. In about eight minutes, all told, the gasogene was delivering its full power, which is about 65 per cent of that obtained from gasoline. This did not mean that the station wagon could go only 65 per cent of stitute, nearly every conceivable fuel was subjected to tests, even dried camel dung, which worked O.K. Now, with shipping lanes opened, the army is not so interested. But it did find that the gasogene gas was a satisfactory substitute' for gasoline under certain conditions, although al-though it gave less power and the mechanism was harder to maintain. main-tain. The possibility of using the gasogene when the Burma road is reopened is not yet definitely ruled out. Army and other experiments, plus some Canadian research, produced reports of varying degrees of approval ap-proval and disapproval. Some held the horsepower loss was too great, gasogenes were too dirty, and so on. Numerous in Sweden. Under the wartime gas shortage there are several thousand gasogenes gaso-genes now operating on wood, especially espe-cially in countries such as Sweden where lumber is plentiful. Undoubtedly Un-doubtedly most will go back to gasoline gaso-line after the war. Wood does not give as good a performance as charcoal; it is dirtier in its gas content con-tent and therefore more apt to foul an engine. Since coke or hard coal operate satisfactorily, in hard-coal regions where fuel is cheap, coal-burning coal-burning gasogene trucks might be feasible. A group of farmers, too, might band together to make charcoal char-coal for use on their machinery and trucks. All in all, any widespread postwar use in the United States is unlikely and what there is probably will be local and mainly in agriculture, agricul-ture, industry, and business not private driving. Gasogene's proponents point out that the history of the use of substitutes sub-stitutes is replete with stories of improvements im-provements and lower costs, such as in synthetic nitrates, rubber and fibers. For this reason they anticipate antici-pate further improvements. But because be-cause of the gasogene's limitations, the oil companies, though highly interested in watching experiments, do not expect any serious competition. competi-tion. The results thus far in these tests confirm that the gasogene is a This is the small station wagon equipped with a gasogene that made the 800 mile experimental run from Kalamazoo,' Mich., to New York city. The trip was a rigorous test for the efficiency of gas fuel, for the route led over the steep grades of the Allegheny mountains. the speed it would be capable of with gasoline. In speed tests, given time to work up momentum (about three times that ordinarily needed for gasoline), it reached 70 miles an hour for a brief run. There was no zip in pickup. On the hills the lack of horsepower showed up more, although al-though they encountered none that could not be made in low. As a rule of thumb a hill on which a gasoline engine would balk a little in high required second speed with the gasogene; one that made a gasoline car use second, required low. Shaking Down the Ashes. The cross-country run was made without mishap. One night a truck driver air-braked his big van to a stop and tore over with a fire extinguisher ex-tinguisher when they paused at the roadside to shake down the ashes (this was done twice in the 800 gasoline in the motor to get the draft going through the firebox and build up a good fire. The gasogene used less than 2 quarts of gasoline for 800 miles, better than 1,600 miles to the gallon. gal-lon. What It Costs. The cost of the gasogene attachment at-tachment varies: For this experimental experi-mental unit was about $700; on trucks with a simpler installation job the cost would be perhaps $100 lower. In South America they are somewhat less. Mass production naturally na-turally would bring economies. At present gasogenes are not made in this country for unrestricted civilian use, though no priorities for the purchaser pur-chaser would be required if a manufacturer manu-facturer were able to get clearance on materials from the War Production Produc-tion board and on manpower from the War Manpower commission. satisfactory substitute for gasoline where the standard fuel is unavailable un-available or where transportation or other factors make its price prohibitive. pro-hibitive. The relationship between the cost of gasoline and the cost of the substitute fuel is the main factor fac-tor which will control the gasogene's future. For instance, gasoline at 25 to 50 cents a gallon in remote sections of South America could make it feasible to use charcoal, which fs plentiful and cheap, as it is a home product sold everywhere for cooking. In the United States gasogenes gaso-genes may be used in the lumber industry. With plenty of waste lumberespecially lum-berespecially in the far north where transportation makes gasoline gaso-line costs high, it might be feasible to turn waste into charcoal (a simple process requiring two or three days) or even burn the wood as it is. The gasogene outfit requires some attention that machines operating on gasoline do not, since the gasogene gaso-gene burns charcoal or other solid fuel. It is necessary to shake out the ashes perhaps once a week. Then there are two filters that must be taken out and cleaned periodically. peri-odically. One is the radical-finned filter, (right). This was serviced once on the trip. The other is the security filter, (left). It was thought best to look at this every time they filled the charcoal hopper. |
