SECOND DAY--MORNING SESSION.

OCTOBER, 17, 1901.

The Association met at ten A. M.

The Secretary read a letter from the President of the New England Gas and Coke Company, inviting the Association, as a body, to visit the works of that Company at Everett and stating that a special train would be provided for the use of the Association, if the invitation could be accepted.

On motion a vote of thanks was extended to the Company for its courteous invitation, although it could not be accepted owing to lack of time.

The Secretary read letters and telegrams of regret from Jas. W. Dunbar, Henry G. Morris, J. M. Rusby, S. S. Stratton and J. A. Drake of Halifax, England.

The President appointed as the Committee to award the Beal Medal:

C. J. R. Humphreys,

George G. Ramsdell,

William H. Pearson.

And as the Committee on Final Resolutions:

James Ferrier,

John P. Harbison,

Isaac C. Baxter.

The President then called for the reading by Mr. E. H. Earnshaw, of Philadelphia, of his paper entitled "Further Notes on Retort House Practice."

(For Paper see Appendix page i.)

THE PRESIDENT:-It strikes me that the title given to Mr. Earnshaw's paper is somewhat of a misnomer. It should have been "A Text Book upon Retort House Practice." The paper is now open for your consideration. For the benefit of the stenographer I would like to say that unfortunately there are a few gentlemen in the hall whose names I do not happen to know, or possibly, if I know them, I cannot speak their names quickly enough for his benefit. So I will ask you, as you rise to speak, to wait until your names are announced. If you will do so, I will appreciate it. I will call upon Mr. W. A. Miller of Cincinnati, to open the discussion on this subject.

MR. W. A. MILLER (Cincinnati, Ohio):-This is a very interesting paper, and the instruction as regards the stoking of fires in furnaces of benches, the manner of working same, care of lids, pipes, etc., are in accord with the best practice; but I cannot understand why Mr. Earnshaw advises "forcing the fire in furnaces to a white heat just after the brick work has become thoroughly dry," or at any time thereafter.

As stated, too much care cannot be exercised in the adjustment of dampers and the slides controlling the supply of primary and secondary air to benches to obtain the best results.

In the number of men employed to attend to benches on the operating floor, I am particularly interested, as the cost of labor is a factor not to be overlooked, even in works where all of the retorts are drawn and charged by mechanical means.

Mr. Earnshaw states that the work of each man is the duty of attending to two benches of 9's, a total of eighteen retorts, which on four-hour charges represents the work of opening and closing an average of 4% retort-lids per hour, together with the incidental cleaning of lids, pipes, etc., in connection therewith. As the men work eight hour shifts they therefore attend to a total of 36 charges per day each. In the closing paragraph of the paper there is a statement that "they have no trouble with stopped stand-pipes," and if that is the case why is so little work set apart for each man? In the works under my charge, the lid-men are not actually engaged to exceed twenty-five minutes per hour, yet they attend to the charging of forty per cent. more charges per man per hour, and to more than double the number per shift. other words, Mr. Earnshaw's men attend 41⁄2 charges per hour, or 36 per shift, of 8 hours, while our men can attend an average of 63 per hour and a total of 76 per shift of 12 hours.

In

Mr. Earnshaw's lid-men each attend to the cleaning of six bridge-pipes, six stand-pipes, to the filling of two furnaces with the fuel necessary to maintain heats on retorts and sweep the floor in front of two benches. Our men each attend to an average of nineteen bridge and stand-pipes, to the filling of five furnaces, and the sweeping the floor in front of five benches, working six-hour charges.

Occasionally we have a stopped stand-pipe, but whether one has them or not depends altogether on the amount of labor ex

pended to keep them open, whatever may be the condition; and, if it is necessary in any works to give to the pipes the attention outlined in the paper, it would to me be an indication of a case of stopped stand-pipes, prevented from becoming chronic by the frequent application of the basket-bull and other pipe cleaning tools.

The yield of gas per mouth-piece is given as 12,000 cubic feet. I would be pleased to learn the yield per man in retort house, including machine men, lid-men and the men clinkering furnaces and removing the coke to yard or bins.

Mr. Earnshaw states that he is using a coal which makes a pitchy tar. I would like to ask if, when the conditions are favorable, there is any coal that will not produce tar of said character.

I do not agree with the statement that the candle power of the gas produced from six-hour charges is necessarily less than that obtained from four-hour charges.

Mr. Earnshaw's paper manifests close observation and careful attention to detail while operating the regenerative benches in a large retort house; his notes are valuable, and in the light of an experience covering a period of eighteen years in works manufacturing coal gas exclusively, I commend it for the careful perusal of all members of this Association, and particularly those who are inclined to experiment with high and low heats, and charges of coal of various weights, in regenerative benches.

THE PRESIDENT:-Has Mr. Greenough something he would like to say upon this subject.

MR. M. S. GREENOUGH (Cleveland, Ohio):-I am obliged to to you, Mr. President, but I was not expecting to make any remarks. I have listened to the reading of the paper with interest, and also to the criticisms which have been made by Mr. Miller. Most of us who experimented with the benches which have been described, twelve or fifteen years ago, discovered the true path by the unfortunate accidents which happened at our various gas works. Mr. Earnshaw has also discovered that the only way of ascertaining just what a retort will carry is by rule of thumb, seeing what you can get into a retort and what you can work out of it. I do not find my own experience agreeing entirely with that which he has stated with regard to the heat which it is advisable to carry. I would like to ask him what percentage of free carbon he finds in his tar when he is producing from a retort 11,500 feet

per day? It is not difficult to make retorts carry that weight of coal; it has been done in the works I am caring for, for a considerable period of time; but having regard to the quality of tar produced, I may say that we do not find it advisable to carry such a temperature on those retorts as will enable us to work off that amount of coal. I think there is something to be said in favor of longer charges, although the men do not seem to take to it absolutely kindly. It may be an interesting fact to state that after hearing of the good results, such as Mr. Miller has given the his tory of at Cincinnati, I tried similar experiments in Cleveland, and then had the pleasure of a strike in the entire works. The men were not in favor of the longer charges, and refused to work in that way.

I have not studied this paper sufficiently to warrant me in making any furthur criticism upon it; nor do I carry in my head some of our data regarding retort house practice as accurately as I used to do. The superintendent of our station, who had charge at the time, is here, and he might possibly be able to give some further information later.

I am obliged to you, Mr. President, for calling on me.

MR. WILLIAM R. BEAL (New York City):-I had not expected to say anything on this subject, but I feel that it is due to the managers of smaller gas works that something should be said about retort practice with manual labor. About fifteen years ago we built a house and put in it four or five types of regenerative benches. After an experience extending over three or four years we arrived at the conclusion that for our purpose a full depth setting with an outside generator, was very much the best; and we have since been using such an apparatus. I have listened with a great deal of interest to what has been said about the difficulty with tar. Before we went into this new house we had had a great deal of trouble from making pitch in the main. At that time I designed a hydraulic main with a pocket at the back which would enable us to take the thick tar and pitch from the main while the retorts were still in action. For this new house I made a very wide main, and put in the centre of it a slot through which a tool might be passed the whole length of it, so as to liberate the tar. Mr. Earnshaw is quite right in the statement that there is really no necessity for having many stopped stand-pipes. He says that in

his practice stopped stand-pipes are a thing of the past. I will say that in our practice we have very few of them; and that is because we have found that as our business has grown we have been able to give to retort house practice that sort of conscientious, intelligent and constant care which it really needs. When I had to do everything myself I found that it was very difficult to do everything thoroughly well. One point of Mr. Earnshaw's statement, and of Mr. Miller's remarks is, that as business grows, each department may have such intelligent care as to make good results possible, and make the absence of them inadmissible. In our practice we now have very little or no difficulty with tar in the main, or with stopped stand-pipes. We are very careful in selecting the material with which we put up our benches, and we find that while we get as good results probably as Mr. Earnshaw does, we are able to keep these benches in continued use for quite three years. We have some benches of 9's which have been in continued use for three years this month, and which are still too good to be replaced. They will probably last us until next Spring. After I got here I sent word to our superintendent asking him to take from the books the results for the month of September; and he writes me that we made 11,410 feet for the average per retort, and per man 39,170 feet. This includes the work of four men who are employed in bringing coal from the adjacent coal-shed into the retort house, and the putting of the coke from the retort house into the cars when it is taken to the pocket. I do not think there is any question but that these results can be obtained without machinery by any intelligent man who is also careful in the selection of the apparatus and of the material, and who every day gives intelligent attention to the care of the apparatus.

MR. CARROLL MILLER (Chicago):-I agree with Mr. Miller that Mr. Earnshaw's retort house labor seems to be very high, and I should say that the principal reason is on account of cleaning the pipes out so often. In my experience in works with which I was recently connected I found that with full depth regenerative benches, retorts 16" by 26" by 9 feet, we ran for about thirty days and never touched the pipe at all, except in cleaning the standpipe at the mouth-piece with what we called an auger.

Mr. Earnshaw says on page vi, that "an accurate record should be kept at all times of the amount of coke charged into the furnace, so that a deficiency or an excess of coke will be promptly