Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 89.djvu/390

 A Locomotive That Burns Pulverized Coal

��OUR modern locomotives are vo- racious creatures. To fire one of them — the Twentieth Century Limited, for instance — is a task gradu- ally approaching the superhuman. The

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��lignite and peat, are as productive of economic results as the larg-er and better grades of coal. Some ot the products mentioned are unsalable and ha\e been liirown away as waste, so the great

AIR BLOWER FUEL CONVEYOR

MOTOR

���The Fuel Container, Which Is a Part of the Ordinary Locomotive Tender, Receives the Coal Dust or Pulverized Coal Through Two Openings in the Top. The Fire-Box Is Pro- vided with Brick Arches and Air Inlets. A Slag Pan Is Used Instead of the Usual Ash Pan

��only remedy, according to railroad men themselves, lies in the utilization of pulverized coal. Of only comparatively recent date, however, have appliances for burning powdered fuel or coal-dust in loconiotive fire-boxes been effectively developed. The results have been en- tirely satisfactory, effecting a saving of from fifteen to twenty-five per cent of fuel and untold labor.

This economy is possible because any solid fuel which in a dry, pulverized state has two thirds of its content combustible will be suitable for steam-generating ])urposes. This means that such ordi- nary coal products as dust, sweejiings, culm, screenings and slack, and e\en

��saving eftcctcd is apparent. The total cost to prepare pulverized coal is some- thingless than twenty-five cents a ton, and the preparation is not at all complicated. The coal must be dry and groundto a fine- ness so that it will pass through a one- himdred or two-hunilred mesh screen. 'I'his is all the preparation necessary.

There are three railroad lines which have locomotives fitted with a successful apparatus to burn coal-dust. These are the New York Central, the Chicago and Northwestern and the Delaware and Hudson. The last-named system has l^robably the largest pulverized fuel- l)urning locomotive. Its tractixe effort is about si.xty-three thousand pounds.

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