ECURE A BETTER DAY'S WORK EACH DAY BY USING ALBANY GREASE. There is dered by Albany Grease relieves you of this detail and permits you to turn your thoughts to big things about your plant. There will be no slow downs because of seized bearings if ALBANY GREASE is used. You will secure cool, easy working bearings, improved operating conditions, practical automatic lubrication with Albany Grease. Your engines, motors, dynamos, line shafting, pumps, and every machine in your plant should be lubricated with Albany Grease. Start turning out a better day's work now by using Albany Grease. A sufficient quantity to test, together with an Albany Cup, and our book on Friction will be sent you. No charge, of course. Write NOW! York Refrigerating Machines have a distinctive character all their own-in Workmanship, Durability, and Efficiency. They embody many features not found in other Machines, and yet they are sold at a conservative price-by reason of our large output. If you are looking for a reliable Machineone that will give satisfactory results under the most exacting conditions-you cannot afford to overlook the YORK line of Ammonia Compression and Absorption and Carbon Dioxide Machines. We are prepared to give you the type of Plant best suited to meet your local needs. Write for information and prices. YORK MANUFACTURING CO. IN COMMUNICATING WITH PATRONS KINDLY MENTION THIS MAGAZINE Table of Contents: Frontispiece-Labor's Economic Platform... Electrically Operated Underfeed Stokers (by Frank C. Per kins)... Hand Firing Soft Coal Under Power Plant Boilers. Practical Arithmetic for Engineers and Apprentices. Calol Fuel Oil for Oil Injection Engines.. Editorial ... . . Communications Engineer (Poem) A. F. of L. Building Dedicated. Ladies' Auxiliary to Entertain 6 7 13 18 19 23 27 33 39 40 42 42 Ups and Downs of Prohibition Large Uniflow Engines for Youngstown Sheet Tube Co.... 44 The Tariff 46 Vulcan Soot Cleaners for B. & W. and Sterling Type Boilers. 47 From Committee on Industrial Relations.. 50 LABOR'S ECONOMIC PLATFORM Following is the Economic Platform adopted by the American Federation of Labor: 1. The abolition of all forms of involuntary servitude except as punishment for crime. 3. Free schools, free text books and compulsory education. 3. Unrelenting protest against the issuance and abuse of injunction process in labor disputes. 4. A work day of not more than eight hours in the twenty-four hour day. 5. A strict recognition of not over eight hours per day on all Federal, State or municipal work, and not less than the prevailing per diem wage rate of the class of employment in the vicinity where the work is performed. 6. Release from employment one day in seven. 7. The abolition of the contract system on public work. 8. The municipal ownership of public utilities. 9. The abolition of the sweat-shop system. 10. Sanitary inspection of factory, workshop, mine and home. 11. Liability of employers for injury to body or loss of life. 12. The nationalization of telegraph and telephone. 13. The passage of anti-child labor laws in States where they do not exist and rigid defense of them where they have been enacted into law. 14. Woman suffrage co-equal with man suffrage. 15. Suitable and plentiful playgrounds for children in all cities. 16. The Initiative and Referendum and the Imperative Mandate and Right of Recall. 17. Continued agitation for the public bath system in all cities. 18. Qualifications in permits to build of all cities and towns, that there shall be bathrooms and bathroom attachments in all houses or compartments used for habitation. 19. We favor a system of finance whereby money shall be issued exclusively by the Government, with such regulations and restrictions as will protect it from manipulation by the banking interests for their own private gain. 20. We favor a system of United States Government Postal Savings Banks. Volume XXX COLLEGE CAMBRIDGE MASS. THE INTERNATIONAL CHICAGO, ILL.. JULY 15, 1916 Electrically Operated Underfeed Stokers By Frank C. Perkins No. 1 The accompanying illustrations show the electrically driven under-feed boiler stokers at the plant of the Roanoke Railway and Electric Co., at Roanoke, Va., while the drawings show the details of construction of these Westinghouse underfeed stokers as applied to various types of boilers developed at East Pittsburgh, Pa. It is pointed out that all modern power plants are equipped with mechanical stokers because by their use the cost of labor is reduced, less fuel is required, smokeless combustion is secured, and the boiler capacity is materially increased. One man with a good stoker and proper facilities for handling the coal and ash, can fire several thousand horse-power of boilersa result clearly impossible with handfired furnaces. It is desirable to employ a higher grade of labor than in a hand-fired plant, because the work is mainly one of supervision. Nevertheless, even in the smallest plants, the greater reliability and smaller cost of furnace repairs warrant the use of stokers. It will be seen that in a stoker-fired plant the fuel is continuously fed into the furnace without the opening of doors or undue agitation of the fuel bed. This uniform feeding results in a higher efficiency than can be obtained. with hand-fired equipment. Another distinct advantage of stokers is that the lower grades of coal may be burned ast high an efficiency as can be obtained with the better grades in hand-fired plant. Smoke is the visible evidence of incomplete combustion. With suitable stokers properly set, it is an easy matter to avoid the production of smoke. because complete combustion is readily obtained. The importance of proper stoker setting and correct combustion space cannot be overestimated if the best results are to be secured. It is well known that the capacity of a properly designed boiler depends almost entirely on the amount of fuel which can be burned in the furnace. A stoker-fired plant will produce combustion rates several times those obtainable in a hand-fired plant. The boiler capacity is therefore correspondingly increased. Stokers may be divided into three classes the under-feed, the overfed, and the chain-grate. Just as there is no one type or prime mover which will best serve for all kinds of purposes so is there no one type of stoker which is the best for all kinds of fuels and all operating conditions. It is obvious that in many modern power plants it is necessary to carry high peak loads for considerable periods. For such service the underfeed type of stoker is peculiarly suited, as it is capable of efficiently burning enough coal to evaporate three or more times the rated amount of water in a given boiler. When bituminous coal is introduced into a furnace, its temperature must be raised to the kindling |