Coal, smoke, and sewage, scientifically and practically considered : with suggestions for the sanitary improvement of the drainage of towns, and the beneficial application of the sewage : being the substance of a paper read before the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester / by Peter Spence.

  • Spence, Peter.
Date:
1857
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Coal, smoke, and sewage, scientifically and practically considered : with suggestions for the sanitary improvement of the drainage of towns, and the beneficial application of the sewage : being the substance of a paper read before the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester / by Peter Spence. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

    19/36 (page 17)
    from the coal as a distillate, through the affinity of the hydrogen gas, but again precipitated by the hydrogen from its greater preference for oxygen. That this theory of the decomposition in the close furnaces is not only sustained by the known affinities of the bodies but by fact and observation, must be evident to any one who will not merely compare the appearance of the smoke from our domestic fires with that from our manufactories, but will compare the ordinary appearance of the smoke from the latter with that which it exhibits when the boiler fires ai'e newly lighted, after being a sufficient time out of work to cool the internal brickwork. When the fires in this case are lighted up and coaled, instead of the black vapour we have a dense yellow- white mass issuing from the chimney, being the tarry vapours uu- decomposed; and this continues till the brickwork assumes its ordinary power of radiation to assist the decomposition. Assuming then the correctness of this theory, we h^ve, during the time that the distillatory process goes on vigorously, all the products of the coal flying oflP in an uncombined condition except the hydrogen, and as much carbonic oxide as escapes decomposition, by the hydrogen being all satisfied with oxygen. What then are the economical and sanitary bearings of the process during this period of the combustion ? Economically we are obtaining the full equivalent of heat from the hydrogen gas, but in most cases aU the volatile carbon is escaping without yielding any heat at all; and wherever the deficiency of oxygen is so great as to necessitate the decomposition of the carbonic oxide, to that extent a portion of the fixed carbon is also escaping, without yielding any equivalent of heat, while the other portion of fixed carbon volatilised by combustion during this period of the process is escaping as carbonic oxide gas, and thus yielding less than half the heat it would yield as carbonic acid gas. Thus far the economical position. But what are the results in the sanitary department at this period of the process, which solely and exclusively engages the attention and anxiety of the sanitary smoke consumer, and to the improvement of which all his efforts are directed? Decidedly and considerately I hazard the assertion, that this period of the process of combustion in our manufacturing operations is the very point where the least mischief is dune to the sanitary