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acid, the easily soluble fuchsine sulphurous acid being formed. This solution is frequently used as a test reagent for the detection of aldehydes, giving, in most cases, a red coloration on the addition of a small quantity of the aldehyde.

dation of

The constitution of the fuchsine bases (pararosaniline and rosaniline) was determined by E. and O. Fischer in 1878 (Ann., 1878, 194; p. 242); A. W. Hofmann having previously shown that oxiwhilst oxidation of a mixture of aniline and para-toluidine gave pure aniline alone or of pure toluidine yielded no fuchsine, rise to the fine red dyestuff para-fuchsine (pararosaniline hydrochloride)

CH, CH,NH2+2C«HsNH2+30=HO.C(C&H NH2);+2H2O.
Colour base (pararosaniline).
HO-C(CH,NH,),HCl=HO+(H_N-CH,),C:CH, NHẠC.
Pararosaniline hydrochloride,

A. Rosenstich! (Jahres., 1869, p. 693) found also that different ros-
anilines were obtained according to whether ortho- or para-toluidine
was oxidized with aniline, and he gave the name rosaniline to the
one obtained from aniline and ortho-toluidine, reserving the term
pararosaniline for the other. E. and O. Fischer showed that these
compounds were derivatives of triphenylmethane and tolyldi-
phenylmethane respectively. Pararosaniline was reduced to the
corresponding leuco compound (paraleucaniline), from which by
diazotization and boiling with alcohol, the parent hydrocarbon was
obtained
(H,N•C‚H1)2C:C2H1:NH,Cl→HC(C2H2NH2HCI),→HC(C‚H‚N2C!)
Pararosaniline hydrochloride. Paraleucaniline.

sandy soil and watered. A temperature of 70° to 75° Fahr. has | tion of fuchsine is decolorized on the addition of sulphurous been found suitable for raising. The seedlings are pricked off into shallow pots or pans, and when 3 in. in height are transferred to 3-in. pots, and are then treated the same as plants from cuttings. Fuchsias may be grafted as readily as camellias, preferably by the splice or whip method, the apex of a young shoot being employed as a scion; but the easiest and most usual method of propagation is by cuttings. The most expeditious way to procure these is to put plants in heat in January, and to take their shoots when 3 in. in length. For summer flowering in England they are best made about the end of August, and should be selected from the snortest-jointed young wood. They root readily in a compost of loam and silver-sand if kept close and sprinkled for a short time. In from two to three weeks they may be put into 3-in. pots containing a compost of equal parts of rich loam, silver-sand and leaf-mould. They are subsequently moved from the frame or bed, first to a warm and shady, and then to a more airy part of the greenhouse. In January a little artificial heat may be given, to be gradually increased as the days lengthen. The side-shoots are generally pruned when they have made three or four joints, and for bushy plants the leader is stopped soon after the first potting. Care is taken to keep the plants as near the glass as possible, and shaded from bright sunshine, also to provide them plentifully with water, except at the time of shifting, when the roots should be tolerably dry. For the second potting a suitable soil is a mixture of well-rotted cow-dung or old hotbed mould with leaf-mould and sandy peat, and to promote drainage a little peat-moss may be placed immediately over the crocks in the lower part of the pot. Weak liquid manure greatly promotes the advance of the plants, and should be regularly supplied twice or thrice a week during the flowering season. After this, water is gradually withheld from them, and they may be placed in the open air to ripen their wood. Among the more hardy or half-hardy plants for inside borders are varieties of the Chilean species, F. macrostemma (or F. magellanica), a shrub 6 to 12 ft. high with a scarlet calyx, such as F. m. globosa, F. m. gracilis; one of the most graceful and hardy of these, a hybrid F. riccartoni, was raised at Riccarton, near Edinburgh, in 1830. For inside culture may be mentioned F. boliviana (Bolivia), 2 to 4 ft. high, with rich crimson flowers with a trumpet-shaped tube; F. corymbiflora (Peru), 4 to 6 ft. high, with scarlet flowers nearly 2 in. long in long terminal clusters; F. fulgens (Mexico), 4 to 6 ft., with drooping apical clusters of scarlet flowers; F. microphylla (Central America), →CO(CH,OH)2; with small leaves and small scarlet funnel-shaped flowers, the but if para-nitrobenzaldehyde be used in the above reaction and the petals deep red; F. procumbens (New Zealand), a pretty little then pararosaniline is the final product, and consequently the third resulting nitro compound NO C ̧H ̧·CH(C&H‚NH2)2 be reduced, creeper, the small flowers of which are succeeded by oval magenta-amino group occupies the para position. Many derivatives of paracrimson berries which remain on for months; and F. splendens (Mexico), 6 ft. high, with very showy scarlet and green flowers. But these cannot compare in beauty or freedom of blossom with the numerous varieties raised by gardeners. The nectar of fuchsia flowers has been shown to contain nearly 78% of cane sugar, the remainder being fruit sugar. The berries of some fuchsias are subacid or sweet and edible. From certain species a dye is obtainable. The so-called "native fuchsias" of southern and eastern Australia are plants of the genus Correa, natural order Rutaceae.

FUCHSINE, or MAGENTA, a red dyestuff consisting of a mixture of the hydrochlorides or acetates of pararosaniline and rosaniline. It was obtained in 1856 by J. Natanson (Ann., 1856, 98, p. 297) by the action of ethylene chloride on aniline, and by A. W. Hofmann in 1858 from aniline and carbon tetrachloride. It is prepared by oxidizing "aniline for red" (a mixture of aniline and ortho-and para-toluidine) with arsenic acid (H. Medlock, Dingler's Poly. Jour., 1860, 158, p. 146); by heating aniline for red with nitrobenzene, concentrated hydrochloric acid and iron (Coupier, Ber., 1873, 6, p. 423); or by condensing formaldehyde with aniline and ortho-toluidine and oxidizing the mixture. It forms small crystals, showing a brilliant green reflex, and is soluble in water and alcohol with formation of a deep red solution. It dyes silk, wool and leather direct, and cotton after mordanting with tannin and tartar emetic (see DYEING). An aqueous solu

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→HC(CH3)3. Triphenylmethane. triphenylmethane being nitrated, and the nitro compound then The reverse series of operations was also carried out by the Fischers, reduced to triaminotriphenylmethane or paraleucaniline, which on careful oxidation is converted into the dyestuff. A similar series of reactions was carried out with rosaniline, which was shown to be the corresponding derivative of tolyldiphenylmethane. The free pararosaniline, C19H9N3O, and rosaniline, C20HNO, may be obtained by precipitating solutions of their salts with a caustic alkali, colourless precipitates being obtained, which crystallize from hot water in the form of needles or plates. The position of the amino groups in pararosaniline was determined by the work Fischer (Ber., 1880, 13, p. 2204) as follows: Nitrous acid converts of H. Caro and C. Graebe (Ber., 1878, 11, p. 1348) and of E. and O. pararosaniline into aurin, which when superheated with water yields para-dioxybenzophenone. As the hydroxyl groups in aurin corre spond to the amino groups in pararosaniline, two of these in the latter compound must be in the para position. The third is also in the para position; for if benzaldehyde be condensed with aniline, condensation occurs in the para position, for the compound formed may be converted into para-dioxybenzophenone,

CH ̧CHO→→CH ̧CH(C,H,NH2);→CH,CH(CH,OH)2

rosaniline and rosaniline are known, in which the hydrogen atoms of the amino groups are replaced by alkyl groups; this has the effect of producing a blue or violet shade, which becomes deeper as the number of groups increases (see DYEING).

FUCINO, LAGO DI [Lat. Lacus Fucinus], a lake bed of the Abruzzi, Italy, in the province of Aquila, 2 m. E. of the town of Avezzano. The lake was 37 m. in circumference and 65 ft. deep. From the lack of an outlet, the level of the lake was subject to great variations, often fraught with disastrous consequences. As early as A.D. 52 the emperor Claudius, realizing a project of Julius Caesar, constructed a tunnel 33 m. long, with 40 shafts at intervals, by which the surplus waters found an outlet to the Liris (or Garigliano). No less than 30,000 workmen were employed for eleven years in driving this tunnel. In the following reign the tunnel was allowed to fall into disrepair, but was repaired by Trajan. When, however, it finally went out of use is uncertain. The various attempts made to reopen it from 1240 onwards were unsuccessful. By 1852 the lake had gradually risen until it was 30 ft. above its original level, and had become a source of danger to the surrounding countryside. A company undertook to drain it on condition of becoming proprietors of th site when dry; in 1854, however, the rights and privileges were purchased by Prince Giulio Torlonia (d. 1886), the great Roman banker, who carried on the work at his own expense until, in 1876, the lake was finally drained at the cost of some £1,700,000. The

reclaimed area is 12 m. long, 7 m. broad, and is cultivated by | be stated to be--carbon, 52 to 66; hydrogen, 4.7 to 7·4; oxygen, families from the Torlonia estates. The outlet by which it was 28 to 39; and nitrogen, 1.5 to 3%. Average air-dried peat may drained is 4 m. long and 24 sq. yds. in section. be taken as having a calorific value of 3000 to 3500 units, and when dried at 100° C., and with a minimum of ash (4 to 5%), at about 5200 units, or from a quarter to one-third more than that of an equal weight of wood. The lighter and more spongy varieties of peat when air-dried are exceedingly inflammable, firing at a temperature of 200° C.; the denser pulpy kinds ignite less readily when in the natural state, and often require a still higher tempera. ture when prepared by pulping and compression or partial carbonization. Most kinds burn with a red smoky flame, developing a very strong odour, which, however, has its admirers in the same way that wood smoke has. This arises from the destructive distillation of imperfectly carbonized organic matter. The ash, like that of wood, is light and powdery, except when much sand is present, when it is of a denser character.

See A. Brisse and L. de Rotron, Le Desséchement du lac Fucin, exécuté par S. E. le Prince A. Torlonia (Rome, 1876). (T. As.) FUEL (O. Fr. feuaile, popular Lat. focalia, from focus, hearth, fire), a term applicable to all substances that can be usefully employed for the production of heat by combustion. Any element or combination of elements susceptible of oxidation may under appropriate conditions be made to burn; but only those that ignite at a moderate initial temperature and burn with comparative rapidity, and, what is practically of more importance, are obtainable in quantity at moderate prices, can fairly be regarded as fuels. The elementary substances that can be so classed are primarily hydrogen, carbon and sulphur, while others finding more special applications are silicon, phosphorus, and the more readily oxidizable metals, such as iron, manganese, aluminium and magnesium. More important, however, than the elements are the carbohydrates or compounds of carbon, oxygen and hydrogen, which form the bulk of the natural fuels, wood, peat and coal, as well as of their liquid and gaseous derivatives coal-gas, coal-tar, pitch, oil, &c., which have high values as fuel. Carbon in the elementary form has its nearest representative in the carbonized fuels, charcoal from wood and coke from coal.

Solid Fuels.

Wood may be considered as having the following average composition when in the air-dried state: Carbon, 39.6; hydrogen, 4-8; oxygen, 34-8; ash, ro; water, 20%. Wood. When it is freshly felled, the water may be from 18 to 50%. Air-dried or even green wood ignites readily when a considerable surface is exposed to the kindling flame, but in large masses with regular or smooth surfaces it is often difficult to get it to burn. When previously torrefied or scorched by heating to a temperature of about 200°, at which incipient charring is set up, it is exceedingly inflammable. The ends of imperfectly charred boughs from the charcoal heaps in this condition are used in Paris and other large towns in France for kindling purposes, under the name of fumerons. The inflammability, however, varies with the density, the so-called hard woods, oak, beech and maple, taking fire less readily than the softer, and, more especially, the coniferous varieties rich in resin. The calorific power of absolutely dry woods may as an average be taken at about 4000 units, and when air-dried, i.e. containing 25% of water, at 2800 to 3000 units. Their evaporative values, i.e. the quantities of water evaporated by unit weight, are 3.68 and 4:44.

Peat is principally found in high latitudes, on exposed high tablelands and treeless areas in more temperate climates, and in the valleys of slow-flowing rivers,—as in Ireland, the west of Scotland, the tableland of Bavaria, the North German plain, and parts of the valleys of the Somme, Oise and a few other rivers in northern France. A principal objection to its use is its extreme bulk, which for equal evaporative effect is from 8 to 18 times that of coal. Various methods have been proposed, and adopted more or less successfully, for the purpose of increasing the density of raw peat by compression, either with or without pulping; the latter process gives the heaviest products, but the improvement is scarcely sufficient to compensate for the cost.

Lignite or brown coal is of intermediate character between peat and coal proper. The best kinds are undistinguishable in quality from free-burning coals, and the lowest earthy Ligaite. kinds are not equal to average peat. When freshly raised, the proportion of water may be from 45 to 50% and even more, which is reduced from 28 to 20% by exposure to dry air. Most varieties, however, when fully dried, break up into powder, which considerably diminishes their utility as fuel, as they cannot be consolidated by coking. Lignite dust may, however, be compacted into serviceable blocks for burning, by pressure in machines similar to those used for brick-making, either in the wet state as raised from the mines or when kilndried at 200° C. This method was adopted to a very large extent in Prussian Saxony. The calorific value varies between 3500 and 5000 units, and the evaporative factor from 2.16 when freshly raised to 5.84 for the best kinds of lignite when perfectly dried. Of the other natural fuels, apart from coal (q.v.), the most important is so-called vegetable refuse, such as cotton stalks, Wood being essentially a flaming fuel is admirably adapted for brushwood, straw, and the woody residue of sugar-cane use with heat-receiving surfaces of large extent, such as loco-after the extraction of the saccharine juice known as motive and marine boilers, and is also very clean in use. The absence of all cohesion in the cinders or unburnt carbonized residue causes a large amount of ignited particles to be projected from the chimney, when a rapid draught is used, unless special spark-catchers of wire gauze or some analogous contrivance are used. When burnt in open fireplaces the volatile products given off in the apartment on the first heating have an acrid penetrat-gineers, vol. xlviii. p. 75), the evaporative values of 1 lb of these ing odour, which is, however, very generally considered to be agreeable. Owing to the large amount of water present, no very high temperatures can be obtained by the direct combustion of wood, and to produce these for metallurgical purposes it is necessary to convert it previously either into charcoal or into inflammable gas.

Peat.

Peat includes a great number of substances of very unequal fuel value, the most recently formed spongy light brown kind approximating in composition to wood, while the dense pitchy brown compact substance, obtained from the bottom of bogs of ancient formation, may be compared with lignite or even in some instances with coal. Unlike wood, however, it contains incombustible matter in variable but large | quantity, from 5 to 15% or even more. Much of this, when the amount is large, is often due to sand mechanically intermixed; when air-dried the proportion of water is from 8 to 20%. When these constituents are deducted the average composition may

Other

natural fuels.

megasse or cane trash. These are extensively used in
countries where wood and coal are scarce, usually for
providing steam in the manufactures where they arise, e.g.
straw for thrashing, cotton stalks for ploughing, irrigating, or
working presses, and cane trash for boiling down sugar or driving
the cane mill. According to J. Head (Proc. Inst. of Civil En-

different articles when burnt in a tubular boiler are-coal, 8 lb; dry peat, 4 lb; dry wood, 3.58-3.52 lb; cotton stalks or megasse, 3-2-2-7 lb; straw, 2-46-2-30 lb. Owing to the siliceous nature of the ash of sraw, it is desirable to have a means of clearing the grate bars from slags and clinkers at short intervals, and to use a steam jet to clear the tubes from similar deposits.

The common fuel of India and Egypt is derived from the dung of camels and oxen, moulded into thin cakes, and dried in the sun. It has a very low heating power, and in burning gives off acrid ammoniacal smoke and vapour.

Somewhat similar are the tan cakes made from spent tanners' bark, which are used to some extent in eastern France and in Germany. They are made by moulding the spent bark into cakes, which are then slowly dried by exposure to the air. Their effect is about equivalent to 80 and 30% of equal weights of wood and coal respectively.

of a weighed quantity in the furnace of a boiler, and measuring the amount of water evaporated by the heat developed.

In a research upon the heating power and other properties of coal for naval use, carried out by the German admiralty, the results tabulated below were obtained with coals form different localities. The heats of combustion of elements and compounds will be found in most of the larger works on physical and chemical constants;

Westphalian gas coals

Do. bituminous coals
Do. dry coals
Silesian coals
Welsh steam coals
Newcastle coals

Sulphur, phosphorus and silicon, the other principal combustible elements, are only of limited application as fuels. The first is used in the liquidation of sulphur-bearing rocks. The ore is piled into large heaps, which are ignited at the bottom, a certain proportion, from one-fourth to one-third, of the sulphur content being sacrificed, in order to raise the mass to a sufficient temperature to allow the remainder to melt and run down to the collecting basin. Another application is in the so-called "pyritic smelting," where ores of copper (q.v.) containing iron pyrites, FeS2, are smelted with appropriate fluxes in a hot blast, without preliminary roasting, the sulphur and iron of the pyrites giving sufficient heat by oxidation to liquefy both slag and metal. Phosphorus, which is of value from its low igniting point, receives its only application in the manufacture of lucifer matches. The high temperature produced by burning phosphorus is in part due to the product of combustion (phosphoric acid) being solid, and therefore there is less heat absorbed than would be the case with a gaseous product. The same effect is observed in a still more striking manner with silicon, which in the only special case of its application to the production of heat, namely, in the Bessemer process of steel-making, gives rise to an enormous increase of temperature in the metal, sufficient indeed to keep the iron melted. The absolute calorific value of silicon is lower than that of carbon, but the product of combustion (silica) being non-volatile at all furnace temperatures, the whole of the heat developed is available for heating the molten iron, instead of a considerable part being consumed in the work of volatilization, as is the case with carbonic oxide, which burns to waste in the air.

Assay and Valuation of Carbonaceous Fuels.-The utility or value of a fuel depends upon two principal factors, namely, its calorific power and its calorific intensity or pyrometric effect, that Calorific is, the sensible temperature of the products of combustion. power. The first of these is constant for any particular product of combustion independently of the method by which the burning is effected, whether by oxygen, air or a reducible metallic oxide. It is most conveniently determined in the laboratory by measuring the heat evolved during the combustion of a given weight of the fuel. The method of Lewis Thompson is one of the most useful. The calorimeter consists of a copper cylinder in which a weighed quantity of coal intimately mixed with 10-12 parts of a mixture of 3 parts of potassium chlorate and I of potassium nitrate is deflagrated under a copper case like a diving-bell, placed at the bottom of a deep glass jar filled with a known weight of water. The mixture is fired by a fuse of lamp-cotton previously soaked in a nitre solution and dried. The gases produced by the combustion rising through the water are cooled, with a corresponding increase of temperature in the latter, so that the difference between the temperature observed before and after the experiment measures the heat evolved. The instrument is so constructed that 30 grains (2 grammes) of coal are burnt in 29,010 grains of water, or in the proportion of 1 to 937, these numbers being selected that the observed rise of temperature in Fahrenheit degrees corresponds to the required evaporative value in pounds, subject only to a correction for the amount of heat absorbed by the mass of the instrument, for which a special coefficient is required and must be experimentally determined. The ordinary bomb calorimeter is also used. An approximate method is based upon the reduction of lead oxide by the carbon and hydrogen of the coal, the amount of lead reduced affording a measure of the oxygen expended, whence the heating power may be calculated, 1 part of pure carbon being capable of producing 344 times its weight of lead. The operation is performed by mixing the weighed sample with a large excess of litharge in a crucible, and exposing it to a bright red heat for a short time. After cooling, the crucible is broken and the reduced button of lead is cleaned and weighed. The results obtained by this method are less accurate with coals containing much disposable hydrogen and iron pyrites than with those approximating to anthracite, as the heat equivalent of the hydrogen in excess of that required to form water with the oxygen of the coal is calculated as carbon, while it is really about four times as great. Sulphur in iron pyrites also acts as a reducing agent upon litharge, and increases the apparent effect in a similar manner.

The evaporative power of a coal found by the above methods, and also by calculating the separate calorific factors of the components as determined by the chemical analysis, is always considerably above that obtained by actual combustion under a steam boiler, as in the latter case numerous sources of loss, such as imperfect combustion of gases, loss of unburnt coal in cinders, &c., come into play, which cannot be allowed for in laboratory experiments. It is usual, therefore, to determine the value of a coal by the combustion

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a convenient series is given in the Annuaire du Bureau des Longitudes, appearing in alternate years. The following figures for the principal fuel elements are taken from the issue for 1908; they are expressed in gramme calories or heat units, signifying the weight of water in grammes that can be raised 1°C. in temperature by the combustion of 1 gramme of the substance, when it is oxidized to the condition shown in the second column:

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The results may also be expressed in terms of the atomic equivalent of the combustible by multiplying the above values by the atomic weight of the substance, 12 for carbon, 28 for silicon, &c.

the calorimeter is higher than that obtainable under working conIn all fuels containing hydrogen the calorific value as found by ditions by an amount equal to the latent heat of volatilization of though under ordinary conditions of use the vapour passes away unwater which reappears as heat when the vapour is condensed, condensed. calorific values for such substances, the latter being those generally This gives rise to the distinction of higher and lower used in practice. The differences for the more important compound gaseous fuels are as follows:

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Calorific Value. Higher. Lower.

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Calorific intensity.

The calorific intensity or pyrometric effect of any particular fuel depends upon so many variable elements that it cannot be determined except by actual experiment. The older method was to multiply the weight of the products of combustion by their specific neats, but this gave untrustworthy results as a rule, on account of two circumstances-the great increase in specific heat at high temperatures in compound gases such as water and carbon dioxide, and their instability when heated to 1800° or 2000°. At such temperatures dissociation to a notable extent takes place, especially with the latter substance, which is also readily reduced to carbon monoxide when brought in contact with carbon at a red heat-a change which is attended with a large heat absorption. This effect is higher with soft kinds of carbon, such as charcoal or soft coke, than with dense coke, gas retort carbon or graphite. These latter substances, therefore, are used when an intense local heat is required, as for example, in the Deville furnace, to which air is supplied under pressure. Such a method is, however, only of very special application, the ordinary method being to supply air to the fire in excess of that required to burn the fuel to prevent the reduction of the carbon dioxide. The volume of flame, however, is increased by inert gas, and there is a proportionate diminution of the heating effect. Under the most favourable conditions, when the air employed has been previously raised to a high temperature and pressure, the highest attainable flame temperature from carbonaceous fuel seems to be about 2100°-2300° C.; this is realized in the bright spots or eyes" of the tuyeres of blast furnaces. Very much higher temperatures may be reached when the products of combustion are not volatile, and the operation can be effected by using the fuel and oxidizing agent in the proportions exactly

"

1

FUEL

required for perfect combustion and intimately mixed. These conditions are met in the "Thermit" process of Goldschmidt, where finely divided aluminium is oxidized by the oxide of some similar metal, such as iron, manganese or chromium, the reaction being started by a primer of magnesium and barium peroxide. The reaction is so rapidly effected that there is an enormous rise in temperature, estimated to be 5400° F. (3000° C.), which is sufficient to melt the most refractory metals, such as chromium. consists of alumina which crystallizes in the forms of corundum and The slag ruby, and is utilized as an abrasive under the name of corubin. The chemical examination includes the determination of (1) moisture, (2) ash, (3) coke, (4) volatile matter, (5) fixed carbon in coke, (6) sulphur, (7) chlorine, (8) phosphorus. Moisture is determined by noting the loss in weight when a sample is heated at 100° for about one hour. The ash is determined by heating a sample in a muffle furnace until all the combustible matter has been burnt off. The ash, which generally contains silica, oxides of the alkaline earths, ferric oxide (which gives the ash a red colour), sulphur, &c., is analysed by the ordinary gravimetric methods. The determination of coke is very important on account of the conclusions concerning the nature of the coal which it permits to be drawn. A sample is finely powdered and placed in a covered porcelain crucible, which is surrounded by an outer one, the space between them being packed with small coke. The crucibles are heated in a wind furnace for 1 to 1 hours, then allowed to cool, the inner crucible removed, and the coke weighed. The coke may be (1) pulverulent, (2) slightly fritted, (3) spongy and swelled, (4) compact. Pulverulent cokes indicate a non-caking bituminous coal, rich in oxygen if the amount be below 60%, but if the amount be very much less it generally indicates a lignite; if the amount be above 80% it indicates an anthracite containing little oxygen or hydrogen. A fritted coke indicates a slightly coking coal, while the spongy appearance points to a highly coking coal which has been partly fused in the furnace. A compact coke is yielded by good coking coals, and is usually large in amount. loss of weight on coking less the amount of moisture. The "fixed The volatile matters are determined as the carbon" is the carbon retained in the coke, which contains in addition the ash already determined. The fixed carbon is therefore the difference between the coke and the ash, and may be determined from these figures; or it may be determined directly by burning off the coke in a muffle and noting the loss in weight. Sulphur may be present as (1) organic sulphur, (2) as iron pyrites or other sulphides, (3) as the sulphates of calcium, aluminium and other metals; but the amount is generally so small that only the total sulphur is determined. This is effected by heating a mixture of the fuel with lime and sodium carbonate in a porcelain dish to redness in a muffle until all the carbonaceous matter has been burnt off. The residue, which contains the sulphur as calcium sulphate, is transferred to a beaker containing water to which a little bromine has been added. Hydrochloric acid is carefully added, the liquid filtered and the residue washed. To the filtrate ammonia is added, and then barium chloride, which precipitates the sulphur as barium sulphate. Sulphur existing in the form of sulphates may be removed by washing a sample with boiling water and determining the sulphuric acid in the solution. The washed sample is then fused in the usual way to determine the proportion of sulphur existing as iron pyrites. The distinction between sulphur present as sulphate and sulphide is of importance in the examination of coals intended for iron smelting, as the sulphates of the earthy metals are reduced by the gases of the furnace to sulphides, which pass into the slag without affecting the quality of the iron produced, while the sulphur of the metallic sulphides in the ash acts prejudicially upon the metal. Coals for gas-making should contain little sulphur, as the gases produced in the combustion are noxious and have very corrosive properties. Chlorine is rarely determined, but when present in quantity it corrodes copper and brass boiler tubes, with which consequently chlorine-bearing coals cannot be used. The element is determined by fusing with soda lime in a muffle, dissolving the residue in water and precipitating with silver nitrate. Phosphorus is determined in the ash by fusing it with a mixture of sodium and potassium carbonates, extracting the residue with hydrochloric acid, and twice evaporating to dryness with the same acid. is dissolved in hydrochloric acid, a few drops of ferric chloride added, The residue and then ammonia in excess. is then treated as in the ordinary estimation of phosphates. If it be The precipitate of ferric phosphate necessary to determine the absolute amount of carbon and hydrogen in a fuel, the dried sample is treated with copper oxide as in the ordinary estimation of these elements in organic compounds. (H. B.)

Liquid Fuel.

[LIQUID

scientific possibility, and some attempts had been made to adopt it in practice upon a commercial scale, but the insufficiency and still more the irregularity, of the supplies prevented it from coming into practical use to any important extent until about 1898, when discoveries of oil specially adapted by chemical composition for fuel purposes changed the aspect of the situation. These discoveries of special oil were made first in Borneo and localities has shown that while not less adapted to produce kerosene or illuminating oil, they are better adapted to produce later in Texas, and experience in treating the oils from both fuel oil than either the Russian or the Pennsylvanian products. Texas oil did not hold its place in the market for long, because the influx of water into the wells lowered their yield, but discoveries of fuel oil in Mexico have come later and will help to maintain the balance of the world's supply, although this is still a mere fraction of the assured supply of coal.

necessary to say more in the present place than that the lighter With regard to the chemical properties of petroleum, it is not and benzene, must be removed by distillation in order to leave and more volatile constituents, known commercially as naphtha a residue composed principally of hydrocarbons which, while containing the necessary carbon for combustion, shall be sufficiently free from volatile qualities to avoid premature ignition and consequent danger of explosion. Attempts have been made success in the neighbourhood of the oil wells and under boilers to use crude oil for fuel purposes, and these have had some of commerce and of safety it is not desirable to use crude oil and the surroundings of their stokeholds; but for reasons both of unusually good ventilation both as regards their chimneys where some distillation is possible. The more complete the constituents, the higher the flash-point, and the more turgid process of distillation, and the consequent removal of the volatile and viscous is the fuel resulting; and if the process is carried to ordinary process of spraying or atomizing mechanically at the an extreme, the residue or fuel becomes difficult to ignite by the moment immediately preceding combustion. The proportions which have been found to work efficiently in practice are as follows:

Carbon
Hydrogen
Oxygen

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flash-point are not yet finally settled, and are changing from time The standards of safety for liquid fuel as determined by to time. The British admiralty require a flash-point of 270° F., and to this high standard, and the consequent viscosity of the fuel used by vessels in the British fleet, may partly be attributed the low rate of combustion that was at first found possible in them. The German admiralty have fixed a flash-point of 187° F., and have used oil of this standard with perfect safety, and at the same time with much higher measure of evaporative duty than cantile marine Lloyd's Register has permitted fuel with a flashhas been attained in British war-vessels. In the British merpoint as low as 150° F. as a minimum, and no harm has resulted. The British Board of Trade, the department of the government which controls the safety of passenger vessels, has fixed a higher locomotives the flash-point as a standard of safety is of less standard upon the basis of a minimum of 185°. In the case of because the storage is more open, and the ventilation, both of the importance than in the case of stationary or marine boilers, storage tanks and the boilers during combustion, much more perfect than in any other class of steam-boilers.

The process of refining by distillation is also necessary to Vegetable oil is not used for fuel except for laboratory pur-bustion, i.e. water and sulphur. Water is found in all crude reduce two impurities which greatly retard storage and composes, partly because its constituent parts are less adaptable for combustion under the conditions necessary for steam-raising, but chiefly because of the commercial difficulty of producing it with sufficient economy to compete with mineral fuel either solid or liquid.

important quantities in oil from the Texas wells. Its removal petroleum as it issues from the wells, and sulphur exists in difficulty in this respect, and large quantities of petroleum fuel was at first found very expensive, but there no longer exists practically free from sulphur are now regularly exported fron

The use of petroleum as fuel had long been recognized as a Texas to New York and to Europe.

has since amalgamated with the Royal Dutch Petroleum Company controlling the extensive wells in Dutch Borneo, and together they supply large quantities of liquid fuel for use in the Far East. In the United States of America liquid fuel is not only used for practically the whole of the manufacturing and locomotive purposes of the state of Texas, but factories in New York, and a still larger number in California, are now discarding the use of coal and adopting petroleum, because it is more economical in its consumption and also more easily handled in transit, and saves nearly all the labour of stoking. So far the supplies for China and Japan have been exported from Borneo, but the discoveries of new oil-fields in California, of a character specially adapted for fuel, have encouraged the belief that it may be possible to supply Chile and Peru and other South American countries, where coal is extremely expensive, with Californian fuel; and it has also found its way across the Pacific to Japan. There are believed to be large deposits in West Africa, but in the meantime the only sources of supply to those parts of Africa where manufacture is progressing, i.e. South Africa and Egypt, are the oil-fields of Borneo and Texas, from which the import has well begun, from Texas to Alexandria via the Mediterranean, and from Borneo to Cape Town via Singapore.

Water mixed with fuel is in intimate mechanical relation, and frequently so remains in considerable quantities even after the process of distillation. It is in fact so thoroughly mixed as to form an emulsion. The effect of feeding such a mixture into a furnace is extremely injurious, because the water must be decomposed chemically into its constituents, hydrogen and oxygen, thus absorbing a large quantity of heat which would otherwise be utilized for evaporation. Water also directly delays combustion by producing from the jet a long, dull, red flame instead of a short bright, white flame, and the process of combustion, which should take place by vaporization of the oil near the furnace mouth, is postponed and transferred to the upper part of the combustion-box, the tubes, and even the base of the chimney, producing loss of heat and injury to the boiler structure. The most effective means of ridding the fuel of this dangerous impurity is by heat and settlement. The coefficients of expansion of water and oil by heat are substantially different, and a moderate rise of temperature therefore separates the particles and precipitates the water, which is easily drawn off-leaving the oil available for use. The heating and precipitation are usually performed upon a patented system of settling tanks and heating apparatus known as the Flannery-Boyd system, which has proved itself indispensable for the successful use at In England, notwithstanding the fact that there exist the sea of petroleum fuel containing any large proportion of water. finest coal-fields in the world, there has been a surprising developThe laboratory and mechanical use of petroleum for fuel has ment of the use of petroleum as fuel. The Great Eastern railway already been referred to, but it was not until the year 1870 that adapted 120 locomotive engines to its use, and these ran with petroleum was applied upon a wider and commercial regularity and success both on express passenger and goods Progress scale. In the course of distillation of Russian crude trains until the increase in price due to short supply compelled of liquid fuel. petroleum for the production of kerosene or lamp oil, a return to coal fuel. The London, Brighton & South Coast large quantities of refuse were produced-known by railway also began the adaptation of some of their locomotive the Russian name of astatki-and these were found an incum-engines, but discontinued the use of liquid fuel from the same brance and useless for any commercial purpose. To a Russian oil-refiner gifted with mechanical instinct and the genius for invention occurred the idea of utilizing the waste product as fuel by spraying or atomizing it with steam, so that, the thick and sluggish fluid being broken up into particles, the air necessary for combustion could have free access to it. The earliest apparatus for this purpose was a simple piece of gas-tube, into which the thick oil was fed; by another connexion steam at high pressure was admitted to an inner and smaller tube, and, the end of the tube nearest to the furnace being open, the pressure of the steam blew the oil into the furnace, and by its velocity broke it up into spray. The apparatus worked with success from the first. Experience pointed out the proper proportionate sizes for the inlets of steam and oil, the proper pressure for the steam, and the proportionate sizes for the orifices of admission to the furnaces, as well as the sizes of

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air-openings and best arrangements of fire-bricks in the furnaces themselves, and what had been a waste product now became a by-product of great value Practically all the steam power in South Russia, both for factories and navigation of the inland seas and rivers, is now raised from astatki fuel

In the Far East, including Burma and parts of China and Japan, the use of liquid fuel spread rapidly during the years 1899, 1900 and 1901, owing entirely to the development of the Borneo oil-fields by the enterprise of Sir Marcus Samuel and the large British corporation known as the Shell Transport and Trading Company, of which he is the head. This corporation

cause. Several large firms of contractors and cement manufacturers, chiefly on the banks of the Thames, made the same adaptations which proved mechanically successful, but were not continued when the price of liquid fuel increased with the increased demand.

The chief factors of economy are the greater calorific value

Steam

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FIG. 1.-Holden Burner

of oil than coal (about 16 lb of water per lb of oil fuel evaporated
from a temperature of 212° F.), not only in laboratory practice,
but in actual use on a large scale, and the saving of labour both
in transit from the source of supply to the place of use and in
the act of stoking the furnaces. The use of cranes,
hand labour with shovels, wagons and locomotives, Economy
of liquid
horses and carts, is unavoidable for the transit of fuel
coal; and labour to trim the coal, to stoke it when
under combustion, and to handle the residual ashes, are all
indispensable to steam-raising by coal. On the other hand, a
system of pipes and pumps, and a limited quantity of skilled

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