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Show MUCH SMOKE CAUSED BY BITUMINOUS COAL This Fuel, It Is Said by Expert, Is Responsible for Greater Part of the Nuisance ' Complained of By A Q WHITE Mine Economist, V S Bureau of Mining F, KOM two th rds to three quarters of the smoko produced m Salt Lake C ty comes from the ib tuminous coal burned dur g the cold weathor months n the sto es and furnaces of the 20 000 houses in the city The rail roads factor es and largo central heating heat-ing plants of the downtown district contr bute the remainder probably in nearly equal shares Because of the geographical location of the c ty in a pocket between the n ounta ns and tho absence of strong winds in the winter tin e this smoke when onco produced, hangs about the c ty and is ery slow and hard to clear away in the morn mg With the rap d giowth of the c ty and the consequent large increase n the amo nt of f el used the smoke s tuat on g gradually grow ng worse and will cont nue to do so mless some steps are taken to decrease the amount) of smoke produced The work wh ch the city is now car rying on to reduce the smoke from the larger plants promises to be success ful as it is following the 1 nes laid down by the careful invest gat on wh ch other c t es have made at an ex pense of thousands, of dollars But no natter how successful th s work ,may be bait Lako C ty w 11 stiil have a smoke problem as long as noth ng is done to decrease the smoke coming from the house chimi ey Gases m Smoke Smoke cons sts of the heavy gases wh ch are d ven off from fresh coal from the time t is put on the fire unt 1 it reaches a red heat These gases escape before they have a chance to be completely burned bo cause the emperature in the ins de of the stove or f rnace has been so reduced by the intro luction of a large amount of comparatively cold fuel at one time In large plants smoke is eliminated by the slow mtrodnct on of new fuel e ther from the front of the fire or by pushing the coal up from under neath by mechan ca stokers or feed ers In th s way fresh fuel is added slowly and evenly and the necessary h gh te nperature can be maintained The smoke gases have to pass over or througl the hot bed of coals and a o almost all burned before they havo a chance to es ape The use of a forced draft and the delay in the escape of the gases up the chimney by tho bu Id ing of a large combust on chamber are a Id t onal factors in the more com plete burning of the smoke gases At present there are only two ways of getting heat with 1 ttle smoke First install devices that will feed the fuel s owlv make the Erases nass over or through the hottest part or the fire and delay the r escape long enough to perm t their complete burning or sec ond, use a smokeless fuel anthrae te coal coke gas or electric ty So far no very successful dev ces have been developed that will apply to the small Bcala furnace or stove that is used in heat ng houses Its very smallness is the chief handicap n the problem smoke catcher or strainer has not proved practicable because of it3 interference w th the natira draft which the small unit rol es on. Devices Discussed There has been conB derabla discus s on with regard to the heating of houses ironi large central plants wnico can employ these spec al devices The tendency in tho downtown office dis tnct is for more and more of the buildings to be heated by a few b g central plants But m a city in which there are so many small w dely scattered scat-tered ho ses th s central heating- plant idea could not ibe very successfully applied ap-plied except in a few of the more thickly settled large house districts. Spice as yet, no successful smokeless tove or small furnace has been devel oped the most natural th ng; has been to look for a smokeless fuel. For certain intermittent uses such as cook nsr and heat ncr in the anrlv fall or late epr ng where seivice s only wanted for a short time gas and electric ty have proved very effect ve The e is a poss b 1 ty for a very con s derable expansion n their use along these 1 nes but there seems to be no immediate poss b hty of their taking the place of the bulk of the coal used for winter heating purposes For the same heat serv ce gas would probably cost at least tour t mcs as much as coal and electricity twice as much as the gas The eastern c t es relv on anthracite coal from Pennsylvan a for a smokeless fuel The coal is located in the moun tarn d str ct and was deposited be fore the mounta ns were formed Tho heat and pressure due to the mountain bu Id ng d sturbances drove off most of the smoke produc ng gases and left a natural smokeless fuel Found in Colorado A limited amount of a s milar an thrac te coal is tound in Colorado but the d ff culty of access the h gh cost of mm ng and the long fre ght haul have made it so expens ve and uncer ta n a fuel that only a few hundred tons are used in the c tv in a year The coke which is now being used in the c ty comes from two sou es Gaa coke is a by product of the local gas works and its supply is hm ted by the amount of gas that is required m the city A scrap coke is now bang ba-ng used which comes from the bee hive coke ovens at Sunnys de It rep resents the smaller p eces that are not b g enough for metallurgical purposes and f o nerly were thro vn away Both of these cokes sell n the c ty at prices ery close to that ef soft coal They are both by products of another industry and 1 n ted in quan t ty As byproducts they sell for what they will bring in competition w th coal wh ch will serve the same purpose If the same coke that is used for metallurgical p urposes was manufactured with the pr mary pur pose of serving as a domestic fuel t ould not be sold at anywhere near tho present price of coal The si ppl of t e e sn okeless fne now be no se in the citv s str ctly lu ted Tom present nd cat ons thee iu s ould not turn sh a a max m m o er oO 000 ton per ear for house use or on abou one sov nth of the c t s p se t do nest c requ en ents Th to tal quant ty of these fuels avaJab would p obablv not n nch more thai take care of the increasing a nount of luel that w 11 bo b irned in the next few years due to the normal growth of the city So that thev cannot be looked to as an adequate solution of the city s smoke problem Solution of Pioblem To solve the domest c smol e problem either some smokeless device m st be worked out to burn the present coal or else some new smokeless f el must be developed in large q ant t es at a reasonable pnee Ive ther one ot these remed es is lmposs ble But if the c t cont nues to wait for son e body else to find the answer to the problem the solut on may be a long t me in com ng Any problen of th s k nd has a cons derable local element n olved n it duo to the vanat ons in the character of coals ava lable as a fuel s pply The only hope for any very iinjrhed ate relief fron tho pres ent smol e s tuat on s for the c ty or state or both to establish an expe mental station to take up the t,t dy of tho local problem There are three d st nst 1 nes of study wh ch should be followed (1) Improvements in tho method of bu ning the present fuel m the present equipment (2) The study and test ng out of any new stove and furnace devices that are being put on the market with es pecial regard to local cond t ons (3) The exper mental st dy of the product on of a new en okeless f el Under present cond tions the publ c spirited cit zen does not know where to turn He would 1 ke to stop the smoke from h s ch niney but there is no one m a pos t on of reliable an thonty to whom he can put the ques tion of Howl Tl ere is a need for some organization tol arefully study the local oqu pment and cond tions and to tell h m nst what the best methods of burning his coal are If a new type of furnace or stovo is put on the market he needs some d s nterested party to demonstrate tho effectiveness of its claims before he buys Experiments Made "With regard to a new smokeless fuel some experiments have been made at the eng neer ng experiment stat on of the Univers ty of 111 no s using coals 6 milar m character to those making up tho fuel supply of Salt Lake C ty The idea is to heat the coal n a closed oven to a temperature ot about red heat wh ch is the point where th coal stops giv ng off the heavy smoke gases when burned n the stove or fu nace Tho effect of this Ben ok ng treat ment is to drive otf about half of the volat le or gas n atenals in the coal pract callv all of the smoke producing elements and leave the sem coke fuef which stll las al o t half of the lola t le gases m t and therefore is a half way fuel between coal and coke t lacks the smoke of the coal and will burn more read ly than the coke Tho sases given off are almost as r ch an I natural gas and are ot h gh heat and light value and might be used to sup pie nent the present c ty gaa supply While the experiments that have been can ed on indicate that the proce s would in all probabil ty be successful yet it has not been tr ed o t on a large scale commerc al bas b The quest on of how the local coals would stand such treatmE w. nd o a fuel they would make and what the extra cost of treatment would be can only be an swered by local experiment There is no ready made solut on at hand for the domest c smoke problem in Salt Lake C ty There are possib hties which promise a solut on along the lines ind cated but it will take time and exper ment along new lines Difficulty Elsewhere 5 This house smoke problem s ons that is common to many other cit es in the country but to a lesser degree than in Salt Lake Many of the eastern or middle western cities have large sup plies of anthracite coal or natural gas available for domestic purposes The r natural location is more open and con sequently the smoke clears more read lly In many of the n the s tuat on is more compl cated by a larger amount of smoke from manufacturing plants. Salt Lake City should be a leader m the study of the solut on of the d tie smoke problem because it is the b ggest element in her smoke s tuat on. which is becoming a question of v tal importance m ts effect on the attrac tveness and growth of the ety The c ty is of just the right size to make the study of the problem mnch eas er than it would be in e ther a very sniall place or in a very large one. The main quest on seems to be how m ch longer nill the people of the c ty be will ng to contentedly breathe snokef When will thev wake up to the fact of the damage and injury that the s tuat on is do ng to the c tyf If the city and state were nterested enough to real ze the importance of th t matter work m ght eas ly be started along tho 1 ne of sc entif c study and improvement of the smoke problem by the estabhshment of a small exper mental plant to test out var ous ren e e Undoubtedly both the univers ty and the fede al bureau of mines would be willing to co ope ate in studying Buch a problem just as they have been in working on the development of the w alth of the state by a study ot the utiluat on of the great low g ade ore depos ts |