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Show By-Products Formerly Wasted Are Now Utilized m, i drlglnally Watted, trie Gat, Tar, Am. monla, and Other By-product. Are Valued at at Much At the'Coke Washington, June 27. It Is now 20 years since coke was first manufactured manufac-tured In by-product ovens in the United Uni-ted States. Dy this process all the 'B products of. the coal are conserved Bf first of courso the coke, but also H large quantities of coal tar, ammonia, H gas, and other constituents. It Is as- H serted that In the by-product coke I plants of the present day the by-pro- H ducts pay the cost of the process I that Is that the coke Is clear gain. I The old method of coke-maxlng, by I means of the beehive oven, which 1 I In fact still largely In use allows all I these valuablo by-products to waste absolutely. B The first plant using the by-prod- uct or retort typo of oven whs install-I install-I ed at Syracuse, N. Y., In May, 1893, I according to Edward W. Parker of I the United States Geological Survey. I This pioneer plant consisted of 12 H Semet SolvaV ovens and produced In H that year 12,850 tons of coke. The H plant has slnco been Increased to 40 H ovens. The second by-product plant H to be constructed was one of CO Otto H Hoffman ovens at Johnstown, Pa. H From these small beginnings the by-H by-H product branch of the coking Industry H has grown steadily, new plants being H added each year until ht the close of H 1912 there were 5,061 ovens of this H type In operation and the production B of retort coke for tho year was 11,048 489 tons, or a little more than one-'H one-'H fourth of tho total output. Tho mak- I lng of by product coko has materially I dovcloped along other lines thhn In H the simple building of now ovens aid H Increased production. Tho ovens of the present day are larger, higher, and wider than those Installed In oar-lleer oar-lleer times. Tho charging capacity of the original ovens at Syracuse was 4.4 tons of coal and the tlmo required fcr coking was 24 hours. Even at that time a gain of at least GO per cent In coking time was obtained compared with beehive practice, whlcn required 48 hours for the production of turn-hco turn-hco coke and 72 hours for tho production produc-tion of foundry coko. Tho Semet-Solvay oven of today hold at tho average about 1C tons of coke. The exact capacity depends of course on the specific gravity of tho coals used. The original GO Otto-Hoffmann ovens at Johnstown, had a charging capacity of about G 1-2 tons each. Tho latest Installation of United Uni-ted Otto ovens at Mayvtlle, Wis., In 1912 have an average capacity of 10.33 tons of coal each. The coking time hhg been materially reduced, so that excellent furnace coke is now made in 16 to 18 hours. The development devel-opment of modern mechanical appliances appli-ances has also done much to forward the efficiency of the retort oven and to t educe the labor necessary per unit un-it of output. The same crew of men .who 20 years hgo were required to handle 25 of the small ovens and who were carbonizing say 110 tons bt coal a day are able with modern equip ment to handle GO or more of the larger ovens, coking 1000 tons of coal a day. This represents an Increase of about nine-fold In the tonnage carbonized car-bonized per man employed. These developments de-velopments have been accompanied by marked improvements In by-product recovery In the manufacture of ammonia and other by-products. Tven ty years hgo tho only ammonia recovered re-covered was In tho form of crude liquor running from 12 to 15 per cent ammonia. Now coking plants are producing pro-ducing ammonia liquor ranging from crude through the different grades required for tho manufacture of flame-less flame-less powder, etc., to tho production of almost chemically puro hcqua ammonia am-monia at one operation. Still another anoth-er marked development In by-product oven practice Is In the adaptation of tho surplus zas to the illumlnn' cities and towns. In tho earlier dhs the ovens produced only a small and Irregular quantity of surplusages of arylng quality. Today By-product oens In the United States are selling from 40 to 60 million cubic :eet of gas a day for Illuminating purposes. Almost the entire supply of gas in somo cities Is derived from retort ovens. Among these cities may be specially mentioned lloston, Mass.; Camden, N. J.; Indianapolis, Ind.; Hamilton, Ohio; Baltimore, Md.; Du-luth, Du-luth, Minn.; South Chicago, III.; and Milwaukee, Wis. Until 1908 the Semet Solvay hnd United Otto (Otto-Hoffmann) oens held the entlro field of retort e.i practice. In that year howoer, thy Illinois Steel Co. constructed at Jo-llet, Jo-llet, 111., 140 Koppers regenerative byproduct by-product oens. This plant was doubled dou-bled In tho following year and a number num-ber of other plants of this type have since been constructed In different phrts of the country. In 1909 construction construc-tion was begun on 300 DIdtcr ovens at South nethlehem, Pa., but they had not been put Into blast at the close of 1912. During 1912 a bank of 22 Klonno ovens were completed at Mun-cle, Mun-cle, Ind. At this plant all tho gas from the ovens Is supplied to the city of Munclo. The ovens are hoated with producer gas made from the coko. Two recent Installations of Se-ment-Solvay ovens, one at Waukegan, III., and the other at Indianapolis, Ind., are constructed on the same plan. |