Chapter 10

A curious impression seems to have gained ground to the effect that the Standard Oil Company does not want to sell oil for fuel. It may be stated authoritatively that the company is not only able but willing to sell and deliver oil for fuel purposes in any quantity that may be desired. It is now delivering oil for fuel purposes in fourteen States of the Union. For its sales in Chicago and the West and Northwest, the delivery is by tank cars from the terminus of the pipe line at South Chicago, to which point it is pumped from Lima, O. The Chicago price is 1-2/3c. per gallon, or 70c. per barrel of 42 gallons, f.o.b. cars at Chicago.

A great many of the brick manufacturers here and throughout the Northwest are beginning to use crude petroleum as a substitute for soft coal. It is smokeless, for the fine spray of oil which comes from the injector consists of such minute drops of the liquid and is so thoroughly mixed with oxygen that when it burns the combustion is complete, and only steam and carbonic acid gas go out of the top of the kiln. Not a speck of soot comes from the kiln or the smokestack or soils the whitewashed purity of the boiler room. Oil fuel is absolutely clean. It is labor saving, too. No fireman has to keep shoveling coal, there are no ashes to be dragged out from under the furnace grates, and there are no clinkers to clog up the bars. One man, by turning a valve, may regulate the heat of a kiln containing one million brick.

Not only is it cleaner than coal and calls for less labor, but it is actually cheaper as a fuel. A barrel and a half of crude oil is equal for furnace fuel to a ton of the best Illinois bituminous coal, and at 70c. a barrel any one can easily calculate the advantages petroleum has over its smoky rival. Theoretically, two barrels of oil equal in heating power one ton of best Pittsburg coal.

An examination into the relative cost of the Pittsburg and Chicago coal to the oil consumed shows that the price of oil at Pittsburg is 59c. per barrel of 42 gallons, and slack coal can be purchased at from 70c. to 80c. per ton, and the best quality of lump coal at from $1.10 to $1.25 per ton, while the same quality of fuel can be bought in Chicago at about 70c. a barrel, as against coal at from $2 to $3.50 per ton. It would, therefore, look as though there could be no question whatever as to the economy and advantages to be derived from the use of oil as a fuel in this vicinity.

The weight of oil required is less than half that of average coal to produce the same amount of steam.

A great advantage in using oil as fuel in brick burning is that the fires are always under the absolute and direct control of the man in charge of the burning, who can regulate the volume of flame to the nicest degree and throw the heat to any part of the arches that he may desire.

From present indications, oil will be the fuel adopted generally for generating power and for brick burning in Chicago, as it saves the boilers, avoids grate bars, saves dirt and cinders, and reduces running expenses, etc.

Much skepticism was at first exhibited in Chicago only a few years ago when one of the leading brick manufacturers attempted to burn a kiln of brick with coal for fuel. Nearly all the brickmakers then in business put on wise looks and predicted the failure of the experiment with coal. But coal proved to be a better and cheaper fuel than wood, and in five or six years wood was used only for the kindling of the coal fires.

Then came the attempt to burn brick with crude oil, and the experiment having proved a success, coal has been banished from the leading brick yards in Chicago and vicinity.

The Purington-Kimball Brick Co., Adams J. Weckler, Weber & La Bond, the May-Purington Brick Co., the Union Brick Co., and the Pullman Brick Co., all having headquarters in Chicago, as well as the Peerless Brick Co. and the Pioneer Fireproof Construction Co., both of Ottawa, Ill., are using crude oil fuel for brick burning.

Lima crude oil is used, and it is atomized by means of steam in small furnaces extending about two feet from the face of the brick kilns, and in which furnaces combustion occurs, and the conversion of the oil and steam into a gaseous fuel is secured. There is little doubt that the fuel employed in the future by the successful brick manufacturer must be in the gaseous form. Owing to the enormous cost of handling coal, wood, and other crude fuel, and of removing the ash resulting from such fuel, it has been demonstrated in practice by the use of crude oil that the expense connected with the burning of brick can be reduced fully 60 per cent. This large saving is made by converting crude petroleum into gas and utilizing this fuel, either directly in the arches of the kiln or by converting the crude oil into gas in a gas producer, and drawing this fuel gas from the producer and burning the same as required in kilns of suitable construction.

Crude oil fuel must in the future play an important part in all branches of manufacture requiring high, constant heats, and in which the cost of wood, coal, and other solid fuels, together with the labor cost of handling them, forms a considerable part of the cost of production. Where coal is required to be hauled in carts from the wharves, or from a line of railway to the brick yard, located a mile, more or less, from the places where the coal is received, the cost of handling, haulage, and waste is an important item. Added to these costs, the deterioration of soft coal under atmospheric influences and the waste from imperfect combustion and from the particles which fall from the grate bars into the ash pits, all eat a large hole in the brickmakers' profit.

Mr. D.V. Purington, of Chicago, Ill., in speaking on this subject, says:

"I will say that my fuel bill for oil is cheaper than it would cost me for coal. There is a very wide difference in the cost of unloading, hauling away ashes and cinders, and getting my coal around to the kiln, or boilers, or drier, or wherever I use it, and I get very much better results by being able to put the heat from oil fuel just where I want it."

In order to secure the best results with any fuel it is not only necessary that a cheap fuel should be used, but that it should be always obtainable, and that all of it should be burned and turned to commercial account in the operations of brick manufacture.

Owing to the losses which we have previously mentioned, and resulting from the use of coal, this fuel is destined to be superseded by some form of fuel which will avoid such losses, and which will dispense with all of the inconveniences now encountered in the handling of coal and of the ashes resulting from combustion. Wood is rapidly becoming too scarce and high near the great centers of man's habitation to be regarded in the present discussion.

Fully two hundred million of brick a year are being burned in the city of Chicago with crude oil fuel, and a clamp kiln containing one million brick can be burned with crude oil in Chicago at a labor cost of less than $100, and at a total cost for labor and oil of about 40c. per thousand brick.

There are not, however, many places in the world where brick can be burned with oil at such a low cost as in the city of Chicago; the reason being that oil is not everywhere obtainable so cheaply as in this city, and because few clays in the world are so easily burned into brick as are the clays of Chicago. In Milwaukee, Wis., and in other places within a distance of 100 miles from Chicago, the time required to burn building brick with crude oil fuel averages from sixteen to twenty-one days, whereas the time of burning the Chicago clays averages only about five days, and splendid "burns" have been secured there with crude oil in three and one-half days. It is evident, therefore, that the advantages of using crude oil fuel for the burning of brick will vary in different parts of the United States.

Where circumstances and the nature of the clay permit of its use, crude oil is, next to fuel gas, the brickmakers' ideal fuel.--_The Brickmaker_.

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INVESTIGATION OF A MOUND NEAR JEFFERSON CITY, MO.

By A.S. LOGAN.

Recently, a party consisting of engineers and employes of the Missouri River Improvement Commission began an exploration of one of the mounds, a work of a prehistoric race, situated on the bluff, which overlooks the Missouri River from an elevation of one hundred and fifty feet, located about six miles below Jefferson City.

This mound is one of about twenty embraced in a circle one quarter of a mile in diameter.

The above party selected the mound in question apparently at haphazard; all the mounds presenting nearly a uniform outline, differing only in size and mostly circular in form, and from twenty to twenty-four feet at the base, rising to a height of eight feet and under. A trench was cut on a level with the natural soil, penetrating the mound about eight feet. A stone wall was encountered which was built very substantially, making access in that direction difficult, in consequence of which the earth was removed from the top for the purpose of entering from that direction. The earth was removed for a depth of four feet, when the top of the wall was exposed. Further excavation brought to light human bones, some of them fairly well preserved, especially the bones of the legs. On the removal of these and a layer of clay, another layer of bones was exposed, but presenting a different appearance than the first, having evidently been burned or charred, a considerable quantity of charcoal being mixed with the bones. In this tier were found portions of several skulls, lying close together, as if they had been interred without regard to order. They were, in all probability, detached from the body when buried.

The portions of the skulls found were those of the back of the head, no frontal bones being discovered. Some jaw bones with the teeth attached were among the remains, but only that portion of the jaw containing the molar teeth.

A few pieces of flint weapons were found in the upper layers, and nothing else of any significance.

At this juncture the diggers abandoned the search, and some days later the writer, desirous of seeing all that was to be seen, resumed the work and removed the earth and remains until the bottom of the vault was reached; several layers being thus removed. All of these had evidently been burned, as charcoal and ashes were mixed with the bones of each succeeding layer. The layers were about an inch in thickness, with from two to four inches of earth between, and small flat stones, about the size of a man's hand, spread on each different layer, as if to mark its division from the next above.

Between the bottom layers, mixed with charcoal, ashes and small portions of burned bones were found what gives value to the search, numbering about fifty tools and a smoking pipe.

The material of the tools is the same as the rock forming the vault, locally known as "cotton rock." I would consider it a species of sandstone.

Overlying the edge of "cotton rock" in the bluff is flint in great quantities, and in every conceivable shape, that these people could have resorted to had they been so disposed, and why they used the softer material I will leave to some archæologist to determine. The tools themselves are made after no pattern, but selected for their cutting qualities, as they all have a more or less keen edge which could be used for cutting purposes, and were no doubt highly prized, as they were found all in a pile in one corner of the vault and on top of which was found a stone pipe. The pipe is made bowl and stem together, and it is curious that people of such crude ideas of tools and weapons should manufacture such a perfect specimen of a pipe. It is composed of a very heavy stone, the nature of which would be difficult to determine, as it is considerably burned.

A description of the vault will be found interesting to many. The wall of the vault rests upon the natural surface of the ground, about three feet high and eight and a half feet square, the inside corners being slightly rounded; it is built in layers about four inches in thickness and varying in length upward to three feet, neither cement nor mortar being used in the joints; the corners formed a sort of recess as they were drawn inward to the top, in which many of the stones were found. The stone for constructing the vault was brought from a distance of about a quarter of a mile, as there is none in sight nearer.

I assume from all these circumstances that these people lived in this neighborhood anterior to the age of flint tools, as the more recent interments indicate that they were then entering upon the flint industry, and it may be that the "cotton rock" had become obsolete.

These people buried their dead on the highest ground, covering and protecting them with these great mounds, when it would seem much easier to bury as at the present day; but instead, they, with great labor, carried the rock from a great distance, and it is reasonable to suppose, also, that the earth was brought from a distance with which they are surrounded, and piled high above, as there is no trace of an immediate or local excavation.

In my view from the mounds and their surroundings I would unhesitatingly say the water, the foot hills of the glacier and the swamps left in its wake were but a short distance to the north of them, and during the summer months the melting ice would send a volume of water down this valley that the Missouri River of to-day is but a miniature of, and therefore the highest hills were the only land that could be used by that ancient race.

In this connection I would make the following suggestions that may lead to more important disclosures: My object is the hope of a more thorough investigation at some future time. Nearer to the top of the mound was found, certainly, the remains of a people of more recent date than those found in the vault, as their bones were larger, which would indicate a more stalwart tribe, and also their mode of burial was different, as there was no indication of fire being used, as was the case with the lower burials. I would pronounce the upper interments those of Indians of the present day; the tools found with these were weapons of the chase. On the other hand, those found in the vault were of a peaceful character, and their surroundings would readily comport, in my opinion, to the glacial period. The entire absence of flint in the bottom of the mound would show one of two things, either they were unacquainted with the use of flint or at that time there was no flint to be had. It is there now in great abundance, in such forms for cutting purposes that would render the "cotton rock" almost useless. The flint is found in a hill close to the river bank, about half a mile from the mound, and the upper portion of the ledge has the appearance, to me, of glacial action and probably forms a moraine, as it has, evidently, been pushed over the underlying ledge, and been ground and splintered in a manner that could not have been without great crushing force. It would be reasonable enough to suppose that the action of the river may have uncovered this flint by washing away the softer material since the occupation of the older race.

In relation to the Indian interment in the examined mound, I could not say distinctly whether the Indian burials had been such as to make them aware of former burials or not, but I think from the thickness of the clay between the two that they were ignorant of former burials. The mounds of the modern Indian, so far as my investigations are concerned, would indicate a more rudely formed structure which would appear to be an imitation of the older mounds, as they are not finished with like care nor have they the ulterior structures.--_The Scientist_.

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ACTION OF CAUSTIC SODA ON WOOD.

By M.H. TAUSS.

The researches of the author upon the action which water exerts upon wood at a high temperature have shown how much of the incrusting material can be removed without the aid of any reagent.

In connection with the manufacture of cellulose, it is also interesting to prosecute at the same time experiments with solutions of the caustic alkalies, in order to study the mode of action upon both wood and pure cellulose. The manufacture of cellulose has for many years been an industry, and yet little or nothing from a chemical point of view is known of the action of caustic soda upon vegetable fibers.

Braconnot, in 1820, obtained alumina by treating wood with an alkali, but the first application of wood to the manufacture of paper was due to Chauchard. By boiling vegetable fibers with caustic lyes, Collier and Piette obtained cellulose. Again, in 1862, Barne and Blondel proposed to make cellulose in a similar way, but employed nitric acid in the place of soda.

The first cellulose made exclusively from wood and caustic soda was produced at the Manayunk Wood Pulp Works, in 1854, in the neighborhood of Philadelphia, by Burgess & Watt. The operation consisted in treating the wood for six hours at a pressure of from six to eight atmospheres, with a solution of caustic soda of 12° B.

Ungerer noticed that it was sufficient to limit the pressure from three to six atmospheres, according to the quality of the wood, and advised the use of solutions containing four to five per cent. of caustic soda. He employed a series of cylinders, arranged vertically, in which the wood was subjected to a methodical system of lixiviation. The same lye passed through many cylinders, so that when it made its exit at the end it was thoroughly exhausted, and the wood thus kept coming in contact with fresh alkaline solutions.

According to the account of Kiclaner, the disintegration of wood may be effected in the following four ways:

1. By heating direct in boilers at a pressure of 10 atmospheres. (See Dresel and Rosehain.)

2. In vertical boilers heated direct or by steam, and kept at a pressure of from 10 to 14 atmospheres. (Sinclair, Nicol, and Behrend.)

3. In revolving boilers, maintained at a pressure of 12 atmospheres by direct steam.

4. By means of a series of small vessels communicating with each other, and through which a lye circulates at a pressure of six atmospheres. (Ungerer.)

This latter process is preferable to the others.

Researches have also been made by the author in order to ascertain the loss which wood and cellulose suffer at different temperatures or in contact with varying quantities of alkali (NaHO).

The following is a _resumé_ of the experiments, giving the loss in per cent. resulting from a "cooking" of three hours duration:

I. Ordinary pressure: 10 grms. cellulose, with 580 c.c. of caustic soda solution, sp. gr. 1.09 21.99 10 grms. of soft wood, treated as above 49.19 10 " hard " " " 53.68

II. Pressure of five atmospheres: 10 grms. cellulose, with 500 c.c. caustic soda solution of sp. gr. 1.099 58.02 10 grms. of soft wood, treated as above 75.85 10 " hard " " " 69.80

III. Pressure of ten atmospheres: 10 grms. of cellulose 58.99 10 " soft wood 81.80 10 " hard " 70.39

IV. Ordinary pressure: 10 grms. of cellulose, with 500 c.c. caustic soda solution of sp. gr. 1.162 21.88 10 grms. of soft wood 35.45 10 " hard " 46.43

V. Pressure of five atmospheres: 10 grms. of cellulose, with 500 c.c. caustic soda solution of sp. gr. 1.162 77.33 10 grms. of soft wood 97.13 10 " hard " 91.48

VI. Ordinary pressure: 10 grms. of cellulose, with 500 c.c. caustic soda solution of sp. gr. 1.043 12.07 10 grms. of soft wood 28.37 10 " hard " 30.25

VII. Pressure of five atmospheres: 10 grms. of cellulose, with 500 c.c. of caustic soda solution of sp. gr. 1.043 15.36 10 grms. of soft wood 50.96 10 " hard " 55.66

VIII. Pressure of ten atmospheres: 10 grms. of cellulose, with 200 c.c. caustic soda solution of sp. gr. 1.043 20.28 10 grms. of soft wood 70.31 10 " hard " 65.59

From this it is evident that by increasing the temperature and pressure the solvent action of the alkali is increased, but the strength of the lye exercises an influence which is even more marked. Thus, at a pressure of five atmospheres, the loss of cellulose was 0.75 with a caustic lye containing 14 per cent. of NaHO, while it was only 0.05 with a lye of 8 per cent. NaHO.

To further elucidate the action of the alkali under the conditions given above, the author has estimated the amount of precipitate which alcohol gives with the soda solutions, after boiling with the wood:

1. 2. 3. Specific gravity of NaHO solutions 1.043 1.09 1.162 Soft wood, ordinary pressure 1.043 traces 4.8 " pressure of five atmospheres 1.043 2.0 26.8 " " ten " 1.043 1.7 -- Hard wood, ordinary pressure 11.10 27.40 30.80 " pressure of five atmospheres 1.10 25.70 15.8 " " ten " traces 5.20 15.8

The estimation of the precipitate, produced in the soda solutions employed in the experiments cited above, gives:

Soft wood, ordinary pressure 1.31 traces 2.0 " pressure of five atmospheres 15.94 16.0 24.80 " " ten " 17.00 25.4 -- Hard wood, ordinary pressure 5.40 6 5.60 " pressure of five atmospheres 9.40 15.40 33.60 " " ten " 14.00 18.40 33.60

As a general rule manufacturers employ a greater pressure than that which was found necessary by the author. As a result, it appears from these experiments that the wood not only loses incrusting matter, but that part of the cellulose enters into solution. As a matter of fact, the yield obtained in practical working from 100 parts of wood does not exceed 30 to 35 per cent.--_Le Bull. Fab. Pap.; Chemical Trade Journal._

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NEW BORON COMPOUNDS.