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Show POTATOES SAVE THE PIPES. Owing to a workingman's discovery that potatoes placed in boilers will counteract the action of foreign acids and alkali on the holler tubes, thousands thou-sands of dollars will be saved annually by tbe Carnegie Steel company at-Its big mill in the lower Monongahela valley. val-ley. , The water of the Monongahela river is said by men familiar with its action on boiler tubes to be the most destructive destruc-tive of any on record. Expensive water-softening water-softening plants costing as high as $10,-000- have come to be considered necessary' neces-sary' equipment' of boiler-houses getting get-ting water from the Monongahela river. riv-er. The Carnegie Steel company made exhaustive tests to ascertain what chemical, would neutralize the effect of the acid in the water and rejected as impossible many alleged processes. The only means deemed of sufficient note to install is a mechanical water-softening plant which passes the water over beds of chemicals and then slightly heats it before using. With this process specimens of heavy pipe are shown which have become as pofous as baked clay through the action ac-tion of the water during a short period. Men working" on the boilers of the Carnegie Car-negie works cite instances where boiler tubing has been eaten through within five days after being placed in use. In one case an iron pipe five-eighths of an inch thlek within ten days became too porous to hold water. While efforts were being made in solve the question a workingman in Homestead placed a bushel of raw potatoes po-tatoes in a boiler and awaited results. The allotted time for the life of the tubes passed and no leakage was discovered. dis-covered. The time was doubled) and attention at-tention was directed to the time the tubes lasted. The workingman told his employers of his idea. Separate trials were Inaugurated and an exhaustive investigation was made. The result Is said to have been more than satisfactory. It was found that the starch in the potatoes almost entirely en-tirely counteracted tbe acid In the river water. No secret has been. made of the discovery. dis-covery. Companies and . individuals owning boiler- plants using the river water have been quick to give the potato po-tato a trial and the reports have been without exception satisfactory. Pittsburg Pitts-burg Dispatch. |
