| From the Charleston Mercury |
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| February 16, 1861 |
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| Railroad Smoke |
| It is known that in England and the law
requires that railway engines shall consume their own smoke. The
London Artisan describes one of the modes devised for realizing
the end in view. The whole apparatus is exterior to the fire-box, and
therefore not exposed to heat, and is controlled in the most perfect
manner by a single stop-cock. Air is admitted, above the fuel, by
means of one or more rows of tubes, inserted through the walls of the
fire-box, and jets of steam are projected through the air tubes from
nozzles one-sixteenth of an inch in diameter, in small steam pipes
outside the fire-box, to increase the quantity and force of the air
admitted above the fuel, in order to consume the smoke. The jets of
steam are used principally when the engine is standing, with the aid
of a light draught from a ring jet in the chimney, to carry oil the
products of combustion, and these may be shut off when not required.
The supply of air through the tubes may also be regulated by dampers.
The grate bars are placed close together, with narrow air spaces, and
the ash-pan and the damper are tightly fitted. It is stated that this
plan requires less weight of coal than the engines formerly did of
coke, to do the same duty. |
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