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Show exhaustive refiearoh on a.ny subject. It does not attempt to settle- domestic troubles. Write your question plainly and briefly. Give full name and address and enclose two-cent stamp -for return postage. All replies are sent direct to the inquirer.) 1 f Burn Coke By Frederic J. Haskln, j i WASHINGTON, Oct. 31. Burn coke in your furnace. . This is a suggestion from the hureau of mines which is here given publicity for the first time, but which, from now on. will be dinned into the ears of the American public. The purely personal and selfish reasons why vou should burn coke instead of coal are that you will have a cleaner house. vou will not have to clean your flues, ana, if vour neighbors will also uSfe coke, you wii'l enjoy the rare advantage of breathing breath-ing smokeless air. The more altruistic reasons why you should burn coke are . that 90 per cent is adied to the value of every ton or coal which is properly coked, and all byproducts by-products extracted, instead of the coal being burned raw. The United States is wasting mthlons every year by burning coal raw.- Nitrogen Nitro-gen that we need for fertilizer is SQWZ up our flues, and so are coal tar, light oil and gas, which should be extracted and used for their proper purposes. As one scientist put It, there is no more ex-cuso ex-cuso for us to burn our fuel raw than there is for us to carve a raw beefsteak oft the rump of a living, cow, as the Australian Aus-tralian bushman does. Both practices are wasteful and barbarous. So far as the individual householder is concerned, it cannot be claimed that the coke offers him a better fuel than anthracite an-thracite coal. Anthracite is almost as clean and smokeless, and it is a little easier to use, not rewiring quite as much skill and care. But anthracite is now obtainable ob-tainable in only a small part of the l;nlted States, and the supply of it Is constantly dwindling. Between coke and bituminous coal there can be no comparison. About the same amount of fuel value may be obtained ob-tained -in coke for the -same money; but it will be cheaper in the long run, by reason of the fact that it eliminates so much cleaning of flueSi furnaces and houses. Besides this, it is the only real solution of the smoke problem. Residence districts will never be free from smoke until- coke is substituted for bituminous cofll as a household fuel. . Coke may now be obtained by the householder' anvwhere in the region north of the Ohio river and east of the Mississippi, Mis-sissippi, and in many industrial cities outside of that area. It can be burned in practically all ordinary household furnaces. fur-naces. In some very small furnaces It is difficult to burn. It requires slightly different dif-ferent handling from that required by coal, but is not any more trouble to use, if as much. Those who wish detailed instructions in-structions on how to burn coke can obtain ob-tain them in printed form by addressing tho Bureau of Mines, Department of the Interior, Washington, D. C. From the viewpoint of national economy and efficiency, the burning of coal raw is a wholesale waste .which no civilized nation can afford. A ton of coal is1 worth about $7 as such. If this same ton of coal is put through a modern by-prodncts coke oven, it produces about two-thirds of a ton of coke, worth $6; five thousand cubic feet of gas. worth $5; three gallons of motor oil. worth 75 cents; nine gallons of tar, worth 25 cents, and tTVenty-.fi.ve pounds of ammonium sulphate, worth $1.25. Thus the ton of coal. properly treated is worth $13.25, or nearly twice what it is worth as raw fuel. If the burning of coke in both factory and household, and the resultant saving of coal by-products, became general, our fuel should be much cheaper. T?he cost of digging and distributing the fuel wouLd be practically paid for by its by-products. However, there is no use in expecting the general use of coke to make fuel cheaper for a while, because the producers pro-ducers of coke will be able to charge, and will charge, as much or nearly as much for coke as it would cost the consumer to buy coal. The saving, as usual, will not go Into the pocket of the ultimate consumer. con-sumer. He, ks usual, will have to constant cons-tant himself 'with incidental advantages,' such as cleaner fuel, a less emciky atmosphere and the glow of patriotic pride which we all feet, of course, when we do some thine- to promote national efficiency and conservation. Kven so, there is jio doubt about tho advantages of using coke as fuel, both to the individual and to the nation. Nothing stands In the way of its use, over a good part of the country, except-that conservatism conserva-tism and devotion to habit wrhleh block progress in so many directions. There are quite a number of house holds scatT tered about the country which, now burn coke Instead of coal, and most of them would not think of golne back to the dirtier fuel. There are a good many people peo-ple who have tried coke, but have not succeeded with it because they did not know how to use it, and most .of these have decided that it is no good. But the vast majority of people never thought of trying coke in their furnaces, and per-hans per-hans most of them never heard of using it. Coke was used In households some years ago more generally than it is now. "Gas-house coke" was then something of a drug on the market, because the gas manufacturers had no use for their coke. It could be. obtained more cheaply than could coal. But the gas makers later discovered a new method which enabled them to use their own coke, so that one sonrce of supply was greatly diminished and the prlee went up. Just before the war the bureau of mines made an Investigation which showed that coke was training slightly in popularity as a household fuel. It was not gaining as fast as the population was erowine:. but still. Its use grew perceptibly. It seemed that if educational Propaganda on the subiect were put out the use of coke might become general. Hence the present pres-ent campaign of the bureau of mines. In the old davs coke was seldom "sized." Poke which has not been sized is verv difficult, if not impossible, to burn in a furnace. Anthracite coal should not be burned unless It' were sized, for that matter. Most of the producers of byproduct by-product coke now sfze their product, and this make's It much easier to use than it formerly was. The use of coke has been gaimne' with soecial rapid'tv In Chicago, accordine- to thp bureau of mines, rhipqero IIvps undr a bnaw nnll of soft-cnal smoke. The smoi'ft problem there hns been stud'pd by an important eommis'on, and a vohim-inous vohim-inous renort Issued upon it, but nothing, annpren-tlv. has heen done. The means of liHinc th smke inruhns Is now in the binds of the Chfraa'oans, if thev only ren''zed it. If the burning of coke should become general, the smoke nui?ance would be at an end. And Chicago has a plentiful plenti-ful siipnly of coke. I The bureau officials mention one Chicago Chi-cago coke firm which put a laree forr of salesmen -demonstrators in the field These men not only sold coke to !hf ' householder, but they adv'sed him whm size to buv. showed him how to fire it, a.nd did not abandon him until he w;i retting satisfactory results. The sorear of such methods would rapidly establish j coke as a domestic fuel. Questions and Answers. i ! Q. Has the nverpre lpntrth of hurrnr life bpen prnlonfTPd dnHng the lasl twpntv-f 've years? T. G B . : A. Ypr. In the year lRPfi the averngf ' length of If fe was 31 1 years. whMe Ten years later it was 3n.2 years. At thf present time it is est i mi ted that the average ape at death is 43. 7 years. 1 Q. If I treat a fr;end to a drink nt a , soda fountain, should I pay a tax on each drink Rpparniely, or on the total? D. H A. The internal revenue bureau say f that whpn one person pays the bill foi spveral dr'nks the dealpr should computf f the tax on thp total bill and not on eacl' drink separately. Q. Does It injure a nine tree to tar. - it for turpentine? J. K. A. The forest service says that tap. ping of pine trees, to extract turpentinf nr rosin, if nronerlv done, does not ma- t terfally injure the tree. Q. In what language have moat important im-portant treaties of the last few centurie; been wrttten?-H. G. A. Most of the important treaties anr diplomatic documents of modern time; have been written in the ITrauch, lan guage, which is the language of diplomacy. diplo-macy. Q. Who wrote thp words of the song "Home, Sweet Home"? S. H. . : A. This song was written' by: John Howard. Payne, and was introduced by him into the play, "Clari, the Maid of Milan," which was later changed into opera. At the time of the writing of this lvric. Pavne was almost starving in an attic in Palais Royal, Paris. Most authorities au-thorities agree that the music of the song is a Sicilian air, adapted by Sir Henry Rowley Bishop. Q. Is the Washington monument, at Washington, D. C built of stones from diffei-ent countries? If so, which countries coun-tries contributed?-!?. C. A. A. The Washington monument contains con-tains stones contributed by various states and cities of the United States and also by the following foreign countries: Turkey, Tur-key, Greece, Japan, China, Siam, Brazil, and Switzerland. A stone was contrib-. uted by the Pope, taken from the Temple Tem-ple of Concord, in Rome, but before it-could it-could be put in place it was removed at night by a band of unknown persons and sunk in the Potomac. Q, How many die annually in the United States from tuberculosis? I. M. C 'A. There are approximately 150,000 deaths from the white plague in this country every year. Q. What was the first naval engagement- .between "Great Britain and the .Cmted States? 1. M. A. The naval battle between John Paul- Jones on his ship Bon Homme Richard and, the British boat Serapis was the first . naval, engagement with England. Q. Does New York outrank Wisconsin as a- dairy states' "A. F. N. 1 A) No. The bureau of agriculture -says that Wisconsin is ahead of the Empire Em-pire state . in its production of dairy produ6ts. It is estimated that there are 1,803,000 dairy cows in Wisconsin. Q. How" are bayberry candles made? M. V. A- In making bayberry candles the bayberries are gathered late in autumn and thrown into a pot of boiling water where the fatty or waxy substance floats on top, and is skimmed off. When congealed con-gealed this substance is of a dirty green color, something between wax and tallow. tal-low. It is again melted, mixed with a preparation of tallowy and then shaped into candles. . Q. Who started the modern socialist movement? L. A. A. Karl Marx, who. was born in 1318, at Treves, Germany, and "who died in 1883, is considered the founder of modern socialism. (Any reader can get the answer to any question by writing The Tribune Information Infor-mation Bureau, Frederic J- Htftskin, director, di-rector, Washington, D. C. This offer applies ap-plies strictly to information. The bureau cannot give advice on medical, legal and financial matters, nor can it undertake |
