Engineer-Technologist A. P. Shakhno

Brief Report

on a Scientific

Trip Abroad

in the Summer of 1914

Tomsk
Steam Printing House of I. K. Orlova, Yamskoy Lane, own building.
1916.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Purpose of the trip.

Route: Berlin, Munich, Zurich, Karlsruhe, Mülhausen, Osnabrück, Malmö.

Plans and reality.

In Berlin: “Pfingstferien.” With Prof. Cuntz.

Leipzig Exhibition.

Munich. “Moosbach” Gas Works.

Fuel Testing Station of the Bavarian Boiler Inspection Association.

Munich Polytechnic.

In Zurich, with Prof. Constam.

Swiss National Exhibition in Bern.

École de Chimie de Mulhouse. Characteristics.

Organization of the work.

Alsatian textile factories.

Comparison of them with Russian ones.

Musée de dessin industriel.

Baden-Baden. Gas Works.

In Karlsruhe. Polytechnic. Conversations with Prof. Bunte.

Inspection of laboratories. Organization of research. Lectures.

Excursion to a gas works.

In the Ruhr Basin. Coke ovens with utilization of the products of dry distillation.

Forced return.

Results of a two-month stay abroad.

Swiss National Exhibition in Bern.

To the report: Gas Works in Baden-Baden.

The newest coke ovens with utilization of by-products.

Engineer-Technologist B. P. Shakhno.

Brief Report

on a Scientific Trip in the Summer

of 1914

In February 1914 I asked the Tomsk Technological Institute to grant me, from May 1 to September 1, a scientific unpaid trip to inspect foreign testing stations, laboratories, and factories.

I wished to examine the organization of work at several model stations for fuel testing, to become acquainted with their equipment, to speak with authorities in this field, to visit several gas plants, and, finally, to visit textile factories in Mulhausen. The latter interested me because, after completing my course, I worked for 1½ years at the first-class factory of the N. N. Konshin Manufacturing Company in Serpukhov, and, as a student, served as a trainee at the factories of the E. Zindel Company, the Nikolskaya Manufactory of Savva Morozov, and the Bogorodsko-Glukhovskaya Manufactory of Z. Morozov¹. Since Russian textile factories are considered among the best in the world, I wished to see the Mulhausen factories and to have material for comparison. Along the way, I intended to inspect the Baltic Exhibition in Malmö, where the staff of the journal Engineeringstechnik wished to set up a section on fuel.

On the advice of Professors A. M. Krylov, S. I. Langovoy, and K. K. Blacher, I marked out the following places for inspection. In Berlin—the municipal gas plant; in Tegel—the Borsig works; the refrigeration laboratory of the Higher Berlin Agricultural School.

The gas plant had recently been built and was excellently equipped. The laboratory is managed by the well-known specialist in gas analysis, Prof. Drehschmidt.

At Borsig and at the Agricultural School I was expected to familiarize myself with refrigeration installations, which is of interest in view of the possibility of setting up a refrigeration laboratory at the Tomsk Technological Institute.

In Munich: the gas works at Moosbach near Munich, built according to the latest word in science and equipped with all the novelties of technology; the fuel testing station of the Bavarian Society for the Supervision of Steam Boilers.

In Zurich: the Swiss fuel testing station. It is directed by the well-known worker in methods of fuel investigation and combustion—Prof. Constam of the Zurich Polytechnic.

In Mulhouse: the École de Chimie—the school for colorists, headed by Prof. Noelting. The school has produced outstanding workers in coloristics (among us, for example, F. Binder, P. Wilhelm, Frossard).

Textile factories, insofar as possible of various types.

In Karlsruhe I wished to speak with Prof. Bunte (hardly not the foremost authority on questions of fuel and gas engineering) and to inspect the fuel laboratories at the Polytechnic.

In Osnabrück I intended to visit an extraordinarily interesting station for obtaining producer gas from semi-dried peat (with a water content of 50%) by the method of Frank and Caro. This method, a modified Mond process, makes it possible to utilize, in the form of ammonium sulfate, up to 70% of the nitrogen contained in the peat.

In Malmö—the Baltic Exhibition.

Such were the plans.

In reality it proved necessary to depart somewhat from the program and, in some cases, to broaden it, while in others to shorten it somewhat.

Owing to the delay in receiving authorization for the assignment from the Ministry of Public Education, and then because of the delay in the issuing of the foreign passport in Moscow, I arrived in Berlin only on May 18, old style. At this time in Germany the so-called Pfingstferien (the holidays after Trinity Day) had begun, which according to the schedule last 3 days, but in reality stretch out for a week or more. Therefore in Berlin I visited only the Higher Agricultural School, spoke with Prof. Zuntz, and visited the refrigeration laboratory.

Having inspected instruments and laboratory supplies at various firms (Vereinigte Fabriken für Laboratoriumsbedarf, Hartmann und Braun, etc.), I went to Leipzig for the international exhibition on book printing.

At the exhibition, attention was drawn by the division of paper production and paper research (exhibits of the Materialprüfungsamt in Gross Lichterfelde bei Berlin).

In Munich I acquainted myself in detail with the arrangement of the new gas works.

The gas plant has 18 chamber ovens, first built in Munich and bearing the name of that city. They are ovens with inclined retorts, differing from the usual type of such ovens by a considerably larger retort volume. The plant is designed for an annual output of 20 million cubic meters. The daily output of each oven is 6000 cubic meters. The process of distillation lasts 24 hours, so that the chambers are charged only once per day. The wagons with coal are unloaded automatically. Overhead cranes with self-gripping buckets take the coal from the store and deliver it to a conveyor belt running in a channel. Along it are laid iron 18-inch pipes with openings; into these pipes air and coal dust are drawn by fans (the latter is collected in bags and sold to foundries). From the belt the coal goes into crushers, and from them by elevator into bins above the ovens. Each bin holds the quantity of coal needed for charging one oven. Coke from the ovens is discharged into a movable tower, quenched, and goes either into a pit in front of the ovens or onto a conveyor belt, which delivers it into small wagons and into the upper coke bin; from there the coke, after weighing, is sent to the generators for heating the ovens.

The gas goes into air and water coolers, dropping to \(6^\circ\) in \(35'\) (not lower—otherwise the naphthalene washers will not operate); then into the Pelouze tar separators, the naphthalene washers, and into the scrubber. The exhausters are driven by special motors. The purifying material is regenerated in the purifiers themselves by drawing through 2% air.

The gas holder has a capacity of 75,000 cubic meters.

All the apparatus is provided in duplicate, so that damage to it does not cause delays in production. In general, the equipment of the plant may be called exemplary.

The testing station of the Bavarian Society for the Supervision of Steam Boilers consists of two parts: a laboratory for the chemical investigation of fuel and a boiler house (in the adjacent room), where fuel is burned. In the latter there are two boilers: a Cornish boiler and a water-tube boiler of the Babcock & Wilcox system. They produce about 25 kg of steam per 1 sq. m of heating surface. Firing is with the Munich stepped grate. Tests are also often made with other firing arrangements, which are then changed at the expense of the firm carrying out the investigation.

Next to the boiler house, in the machine room, stands Humboldt’s apparatus for purifying water by means of soda and lime. Con-

control of combustion is carried out with the aid of an Orsat apparatus, the flue gases being collected in a vessel over water. There is neither an “Ados” nor any other gas analyzer similar to it. In the laboratory the setup is ordinary. On the other hand, a good chemist works there and obtains accurate results.

On the advice of the director of the gasworks in the city of Riesa, I decided to visit Prof. Schulz at the Polytechnic.

The Munich Polytechnic was still housed in the old building, being about to move into the new one in the near future. Having kindly permitted me to inspect the laboratories, Prof. Schulz warned me, however, that they were cramped and far from fully equipped.

The investigation of fuel at the Munich Polytechnic is carried out superficially, not systematically. There is a special calorimetric room, but only a few interested persons work in it. Little attention is paid to the accuracy of the work. By contrast, one is struck by the abundance of collections and visual aids, especially tables, pictures, and drawings.

Since the professor has worked a great deal in the field of dyes, the assortment of dyes and organic preparations is especially good and complete.

Prof. Schulz alone lectures on both organic and inorganic technology and on the entire course of metallurgy.

In Zurich I was fully satisfied by my inspection of the Swiss testing station for fuel, which is under the charge of Prof. Bockstam (of the Zurich Polytechnic); splendidly equipped, supplied with all the newest instruments, and arranged according to a strictly thought-out plan, it is unique of its kind. The methods of testing are extraordinarily instructive, and the figures obtained even in technical analysis are simply ideal in their accuracy. In work with calorimetric bombs, deviations in two experiments of more than 20 calories call for a third investigation (whereas in Munich they are satisfied with an accuracy of 80–100 calories). The calorimetric room for scientific work has double frames and doors. The determination of the moisture content of coal ash is carried out constantly under identical, strictly defined conditions. Every detail is taken into account; everything is directed toward ensuring the obtaining of especially accurate results. To work otherwise (as is usually accepted in technical analysis) Prof. Constam considers “a pointless waste of time.”

In Zurich, also on the advice of Prof. Constam, I visited the Wohlroth factory of illuminating-gas instruments.

From Zurich I went to the All-Swiss Exhibition in Bern. I went with distrust toward it, with the preconceived idea of self-advertisement (for in their prospectuses the Swiss...

The Swiss indicated that their exhibition was in any case no less interesting than the last international one in Brussels, not to mention the Turin exhibition. The 4 days spent there showed me the error of my opinion. The exhibition leaves an enormous impression by its scale, diversity, and abundance of the material exhibited in all branches of the national economy, trade, and industry. A small nation of 3 million is able to produce everything necessary for itself and to depend little on the industry of neighboring countries.¹)

Having no coal of its own, it uses purchased coal with extraordinary economy, concerns itself with methods for making the best use of it, and strives to increase the efficiency coefficient of its machines and engines. Concern for cheap motive power compels it to turn to “white coal,” to build water turbines of the most varied types and sizes. The machine hall (area 14,000 sq. meters) is the finest adornment of the exhibition.

In Mulhouse my first duty was to go to the École de Chimie—an institution, among all those like it, the most interesting and deserving of attention. Not to mention our school of colorists in Ivanovo-Voznesensk, other foreign ones as well, such as the school in Krefeld, are inferior to the Mulhouse school. Its fame extends far beyond the borders of Alsace. Even in France those who have completed the school are highly valued; in Alsace itself one cannot obtain a solid position at any good factory without a recommendation from Noelting or other professors.²)

Although it is not an institution of higher education, the École de Chimie nevertheless requires of entrants a certificate of completion of a secondary-school course and, over the course of 3 years, gives its students, in addition to specialized knowledge, also the elements of higher mathematics, physics, and applied mechanics.

Maintaining constant ties with factories and serving the purposes of practical training, the school also engages in purely scientific questions. Thus, that summer a spectroscopic method for the investigation of organic dyes (proposed by Formanek) was being developed there.

Many who have completed the Mulhouse school and are working in factories continue to do research. And about their discoveries

¹) See my article, “A Few Words Concerning the General Swiss Exhibition in Bern,” in Bull. of the Circle of Technologists of the Moscow Region, 1914.

²) After my one-month practical training at the Zindel factory in Moscow, the director (Binder) told me: “At our factory all the senior employees are Alsatians. But we would gladly take Russian engineers as well, on the condition that they have completed the École de Chimie de Mulhouse. We do not trust any other brand.”

or new combinations are usually reported in the Bulletins de la Société Industrielle de Mulhouse—an institution so widespread both in manufacturing factories and in the dyeing laboratories of polytechnic schools.

I shall not give more detailed information on the curriculum and organization, since it is available in N. N. Vorozhtsov’s report. Since the time of his inspection, little has changed. Russian students even now make up 40% of the total number. Among them there are also some who had studied at other polytechnic schools and transferred to Mulhouse. Although there is no close unity between the Russians and the local students, the attitude of Professors Nölting and Schmidt toward our compatriots is quite good (the exception is Prof. Grandmougin). The press, as in the rest of Germany, is quite definitely disposed against the Russians.

Among the factories I inspected were: Koechlin Frères in Mulhouse, Schäffer und C° in Dornach, and Manufacture Rogelet in Cernay, not far from the Gebweiler station.

Not having their own spinning and weaving mills, they process goods belonging to various customers, and this determines their particular character. In terms of both size and equipment they are inferior to Russian ones. The multitude of small orders entails an abundance of sorts and “articles”; it is impossible to specialize, and one has to scatter one’s efforts. Having been short of orders in recent years owing to market conditions, the factories have been striving vigorously for cheapness of production and are economizing on the costs of reorganization and the acquisition of new machines and apparatus. In comparison with the Alsatian ones, our large manufactories are sometimes even luxuriously equipped; this is especially striking if one compares the machinery and boiler rooms. I take as an example the boiler rooms and engine rooms of the Nikolskaya Manufactory at Orekhovo (Vladimir Province). In the boiler rooms the sole fuel is peat from the factory’s own bogs. The furnaces have movable grate bars (Kovalsky’s). In the boiler room there is continuous monitoring of the correctness of combustion by means of self-recording instruments—econographs.

Alongside chimney draft, smoke exhausters are also used. Daily, an analysis is made of average samples of the peat burned during the day; the amount of water fed into the boilers, the weight of the fuel and ash, the pressure, etc., are measured. Having data on the temperature and on the composition of the combustion products, the senior engineer, from the figures obtained, daily calculates the evaporative capacity of the peat (which, incidentally, is very high there—about 4 and even 4.5 with skillful combustion and a CO₂ content in the flue gases of 17%).

The boiling departments and bleaching departments here possess a greater variety of kettles, especially for boiling for printing. There is (for example, at Pindel) bleaching by an electrolytic method. I did not have occasion to see linen of such a bright white color as at Savva Morozov’s (although at S. Morozov’s the bleaching plant is located in Gorodishchi, several versts from the manufactory, owing to the high quality of the Gorodishchi water); and the boiling itself is carried out slowly and carefully. Dyeing is done in the usual type of barques and jiggers.

The calico-printing machines are for the most part 2–4 rollers, rarely 8-roller. Koechlin has a 12-roller machine. They have no engraving shops of their own.

In the boiling section I saw a concrete chamber. Among the mercerizing machines I shall note a Jeanmaire-system machine, for light fabrics, a type unknown here, but not representing anything particularly special. (Width without holders.) Here the types of Gruschwitz, Haubold, and especially Mather & Platt are widespread. Cooling with caustic soda has everywhere been abandoned; as with us, there is a widespread tendency to use fast dyes, but only with a greater pursuit of cheapness. Vat dyeing is not disappearing; only artificial indigo has displaced natural indigo (as could have been foreseen.)¹ Black aniline has survived (they even showed a chamber for ageing—“wet”) both in dyeing and in printing. There is much alizarin. The use of sulphur dyes, despite the cheapness of the latter, is limited. At the time of my visit I saw few ice dyes in calico printing.

The first of the factories produces first-class goods, in quality not inferior to our best. The abundance, elegance, and beauty of the samples make an impression.

The second corresponds in type to a good Ivanovo factory. Finally, at the third there are woolen and half-woolen goods of good quality.

At the Schaffer factory, from the mercerizing machine, the weak alkali partly goes into vacuum pans, where it is heated and concentrated. I had occasion to see Takie apparatuses for the first time. I was able to obtain samples of the goods at the first factory; they gave me only the new articles of 1914.

At the Dollfus und Mieg factory, which is considered by many to be the best, not only foreigners but also students of the Mulhouse school are not admitted.

I saw the mass of samples for all the years, including 1914, at the Musée de Dessin industriel.

This institution is known to few, but it contains much of interest. There are also samples from our factories (Tsindel, the Prokhorov Manufactory, etc.) and from Alsatian and French ones. The samples of the last year are predominantly in pale, not bright tones, with a small pattern.

On the way to Karlsruhe I stopped in Baden-Baden, where I inspected a very interesting municipal gasworks and boiler house of an electric station.

The plant, though small in output, is richly equipped with mechanical devices for transport, crushing, loading of coal, unloading, quenching, and sorting of coke.

In addition, it is refined and elegant (exactly in keeping with Baden-Baden).

In Karlsruhe I went to the Higher Technical School (Kaiserstrasse).

The Polytechnic has 7 departments: 1) mathematical, 2) architectural, 3) engineering, 4) mechanical, 5) electrical-engineering, 6) forestry, and 7) chemical. I was interested only in the last, renowned for the names of Engler, Bunte, Eitner, Ubbelohde... It was precisely to this polytechnic that the ministry assigned many of its scholarship holders. My first task was to see Prof. Bunte, to discuss with him many subtleties of fuel testing and to clarify for myself some tangled questions.

An hour-long conversation the first time, and another of almost two hours a few days later, helped me extraordinarily in sorting out questions about the limits of necessary accuracy in fuel testing, about the variability of coals when stored in air, about testing stations, etc.

Of interest was the professor’s account of the evolution of his views over 40 years of work. In 1879 Prof. Bunte set up in Munich his famous station for determining the calorific value of hard coals, burning them under boilers and, by the amount of steam of a definite temperature formed, measuring the number of calories obtained. Many difficulties had to be overcome, and still the results were not obtained with the degree of accuracy that would have been desired. Having noticed a connection between the calorific value of coals and their elementary composition, the professor thought to determine it by calculation from formulas, of the kind of Dulong’s. Finally, the development of precise methods of calorimetry resolved this question, and the construction of such stations as the former Munich one (it was already destroyed in 1888), the professor now considers superfluous.

In the gas field, however, the insufficiency of laboratory data still compels one to resort, to a considerable extent, to trial distillation. And the pilot plant (at the municipal gas works in Karlsruhe) is not being abolished, but is being rebuilt and expanded.

With his extensive knowledge, erudition, and clarity of thought, despite his advanced age, the professor makes a positively charming impression.

I had conversations also with Prof. Eitner concerning the sampling of coal and flue gases and their investigation¹. I became acquainted with the laboratory for testing fuel and water, and illuminating gas.

In the laboratory there is much that is interesting and new (for example, Hofsäss’s apparatus for determining the specific gravity of illuminating gas, Ubbelohde’s electric furnace, etc.). The equipment is good; there is a mass of apparatus, much of it new. (The premises themselves are old and cramped; the lecture rooms leave much to be desired.) There is a separate calorimetric room (with bombs by Bunte, Eitner, and Langbein). The preparation of coal samples is carried out in the same way as with us. Fuel testing can be performed in exemplary fashion. But in ordinary student work no serious demands are made and even, for example, in determining the yield of volatile substances and coke from coals, only one method is given, while the others are passed over in silence. A bias is also noticeable: gas analysis is recommended to be done exclusively according to Bunte, whereas many find Hempel’s method more to their liking.

The general impression is this: outstanding leaders, a wealth of apparatus, a mass of new things, and the last word of science comes precisely from here; cardinal questions have either been solved or are in the stage of solution or investigation, but not ignored... But... all this exists by itself; little is imparted to the students. Hence dissatisfaction, and in some even irritation.

I was told (by a professor in Moscow) that two of our compatriots went to “have it out” with Prof. Bunte, saying that they were wasting time and learning little, that the laboratory was old, cramped, and so on. The professor replied that the best and most important inventions had been made precisely in poorly equipped laboratories; that the supervisors were not in a position to devote more time to the students; that each person was free to find for himself a place where the work would suit him. Others complained in my presence that for more than a month already

back they had been promised an opportunity to work at the municipal gas plant... In response, they were taken to the plant that very same day.

During the delivery of the course the lecturer himself demonstrates various experiments, drawing the listeners’ attention to the smallest details. In the practical work these experiments are repeated by the students, and usually the supervisor does not keep watch over them. Only the results are reported to him.

We have a distorted notion of the diligence of German students. Not only in the first year, but also in the senior years, they are often absent both from lectures and from the laboratories. Russian acquaintances had told me this earlier as well; I became convinced of it myself after attending lectures by Eitner and Bunte. I do not remember the exact figures, but in any case no more than half were present; among them almost 40% were Russians—ministerial scholarship-holders, the most conscientious attendees of lectures and classes.

Prof. Bunte lectures excellently. A two-hour lecture without a break passed unnoticed, despite the terrible heat and stuffiness (28° C.). The abundance of visual aids should be noted: at the lecture 62 wall charts with drawings, diagrams, and figures were demonstrated. The manner of showing experiments is very effective. Speaking of the porosity of building materials, the professor showed the following experiment: he passed illuminating gas through a brick and ignited it (at our lectures, in such cases, air is usually passed under pressure, and it extinguishes a candle placed before the funnel).

Next to the auditorium, in a spacious room, tables and pictures are stored. The room resembles a storage place for theater decorations—so great is the mass of charts in it.

Together with the excursion I visited the municipal gas plant. Explanations were given by the plant engineer and Prof. Eitner. The plant is old, its furnaces of the usual type, with horizontal retorts, but the abundance of instruments for control¹ and research shows the proximity of the Polytechnic and its directors. Much effort is being made to cheapen production. The city pays 14 pfennigs per 1 cubic meter, whereas in Baden-Baden it pays 18–20. There is a department where water gas is produced.

I did not have occasion to go to Osnabrück: from Prof. Bunte I learned that the peat station there had been stopped. After many failures it became clear that its operation with the desired degree of productivity cannot proceed; a whole series of

experiments to clarify the details, it is better to carry out on a small scale, since, with a station capacity of 1000 horsepower, such experiments are very unprofitable. As early as last year Karo admitted to Prof. Blacher that the matter was going badly². More successful proved to be the method of the Görlitz machine-building works: obtaining generator gas from semi-dried peat, which, after purification, is then fed into engines. On the advice of Prof. Bunte I therefore decided to inspect in operation coke ovens with the utilization and processing of by-products, and the mining of coal in the Ruhr basin.

On the way to the Ruhr basin I stopped in Cologne to see the Exhibition of Arts and Crafts organized by the Union of Craftsmen. The exhibition is large in size and in the number of exhibits, but there proved to be little on it that was instructive or even interesting. Nor did the public favor it with their attendance.

Thanks to substantial recommendations, I was able without difficulty to get into the coal mines and to inspect in operation the new coke ovens at Essen: Zeche Helene—Amalie; at Gumbert Rhein Preussen; in Bochum, Act. Gesellschaft Schacht Konstantin der Grosse; and in Kolonia Mansfeld.

After the old Koppe ovens, so widespread in the Donets basin, these ovens, with recovery and utilization of by-products, make an enormous impression. Even when coking coals with 17% volatile matter, half of the gases released during coking (after the removal from them of NH₃ and C₆H₆) is sufficient for heating the ovens—the other half can be used under steam boilers or in engines. And when one sees whole mountains of the valuable product—ammonium sulfate, used for fertilizer—it becomes clear what riches are being thrown from ordinary coke ovens into the atmosphere.

The coal tar obtained as a by-product (in an amount of 3–4%) is either sold to dye and briquette works, or is subjected to processing and distillation into light oil (b.p. up to 170°), middle oil (b.p. 170°–230°), and heavy oil (b.p. 230°–270°).

From the first are obtained benzene with its homologues—toluene, xylene, etc.; from the middle oil—phenol, naphthalene; from the heavy oils—anthracene, anthraquinone; the residue, pitch, also goes into briquetting. In recent years such ovens have appeared in our country as well (by the end of 1913 there were .

at 10 plants, 1,027 units, or 17% of all furnaces). But all of them are built in the Donets Basin; in Siberia there are none at all.

Along the way I inspected the extraction of coal, its sorting, washing, and transportation. In comparison with Russian mines, the abundance of mechanical devices is striking.

The coal business is concentrated in the hands of the Rhenish-Westphalian Syndicate, whose management is located in Essen on the Ruhr. Not wishing to burden this brief report with figures, I shall say only, to characterize the syndicate’s activity, that it produces per second 3,900 kg of coal, 670 kg of coke, and 180 kg of briquettes.

The sorted coal from the Ruhr Basin is sent along the Rhine (mainly through Duisburg) or by railways. The coking fines are converted into coke; the non-coking fines into briquettes. Low-grade fuel is burned, and its energy is converted into electrical energy, feeding an entire network of electric railways (among others, from Düsseldorf to Krefeld) or used for lighting, etc.

In Mülheim on the Ruhr, the dedication of the new experimental station “Kaiser Wilhelm Kohlenforschungsinstitut” took place on July 14 of this year (the Kaiser Wilhelm Institutes for Chemistry and for Physical Chemistry had been built near Berlin already in 1912). Since the new Institute, according to Emil Fischer’s proposals, was to undertake the development of many interesting questions concerning fuel (for example, the investigation of the coking process in general and under pressure and in a vacuum, in a hydrogen atmosphere in particular; the production of water gas and producer gas; the direct production of electricity, etc.), I expected to inspect the laboratory apparatus. However, apart from several rooms with glassware and reagents, there proved to be nothing there.

Carried away by my work and everywhere meeting with a good reception, I did not notice the ominous clouds gathering on the political horizon of Europe.

The street demonstrations that began everywhere, the manifestations of hatred toward Russians, and rumors of mobilization compelled me urgently to leave for Berlin, where I still hoped to have time to complete the last items of my program: to visit Borzig and the gas works in Tegel. However, the mood in Berlin was such that I had to abandon this intention and hasten to depart for Russia, where I went, after the declaration of war, via Denmark, Sweden, and Finland. Together with other refugees I had to endure the hardships and ordeals that would have been described in detail—

or in our press. I shall mention only that from Berlin to Moscow it took almost two weeks to travel.

Unfortunately, part of my notes, working notebooks, books given to me as gifts, and separate offprints were in a suitcase checked as baggage in Germany and have not yet been delivered to me. Therefore much of what I saw had to be described from memory, without written sources. While passing through Malmö I had neither the time nor the inclination to visit the exhibition, which, according to the reviews of many acquaintances who had seen it, proved to be of little interest to fuel specialists.

After physical privations and severe moral shocks, I made use of a two-week stay in Moscow for treatment and rest, and by September 1 returned to Tomsk.

What, then, are the results of two months spent abroad—of a stay involving considerable expense and unexpectedly ending in a hurried departure because of the war?

First of all, it was extremely important and useful to speak with such authorities as Prof. Bunte, Constam, Schulze (Uebigau), Ettinger (Zurich).

It is valuable that those with whom I spoke about methods of fuel testing definitely pointed to the need for the greatest possible precision.¹

Inspection of fuel testing stations gave me much material for comparing them with ours and indicated in what direction it must be improved and with what instruments it must be supplemented.

Comparing our fuel station with those seen during the business trip and on previous journeys, one can definitely say that it is equipped no worse than many foreign ones, unquestionably yielding only to the laboratories of Bunte and Constam.

The program of fuel work in our country is broader than abroad, and its organization is more solid than in some German polytechnic institutes.

How important it was for me to become acquainted with gas works and with the operation of the new coke ovens¹ needs, I think, no explanation.

In conclusion, I express my gratitude for advice and guidance to Professors K. K. Blacher, A. M. Krylov, and S. P. Langovoy, and to the Tomsk Technological Institute for sending me on this assignment.

2 Oct. 1914.

Toward the Report on the Trip

A. P. Shakhno.

THE ALL-SWISS EXHIBITION IN BERNE.

Swiss industry is advancing by giant strides. Already now, per 1,000 inhabitants, there are:

Without touching on the other departments, I shall briefly discuss the machine hall and the mining department.

Swiss machine building devotes the greatest attention to power machines. Efforts are evident to increase the coefficient of useful action—for steam engines by superheating the steam, for internal-combustion engines by obtaining a higher pressure and by gradual combustion (the replacement of instantaneous combustion by slow combustion).

Among the steam boilers exhibited: by the firm of the brothers Sulzer in Winterthur, a Garbe boiler with 150 square meters of heating surface. The furnace has movable grates, forced draught, and mechanical coal charging.

The temperature of the outgoing gases was maintained all the time at about 250°–230°.

Escher Wyss.

A water-tube boiler with 270 square meters of heating surface (91 sq. m. superheater). The furnace has a movable grate and mechanical charging. Beside the boiler is “Ados.” The boiler was not operating during my visit to the exhibition.

Models of Garbe boilers.

Of interest are drawings of an installation for burning refuse in the Kurhaus of Davos. The generator furnace was made by the firm Didier (Stettiner Schamottefabrik vorm. Didier), the boiler by the firm Escher Wyss. The heat from burning refuse sets a whole series of machines in operation. The slags are poured off daily, cooled, wetted, crushed, and used for making bricks and stones from them.

Waste incineration has been implemented in Zurich. Not only the collection of dust from the streets, etc., but also the maintenance of the refuse-incineration plant fully pays for itself. Part of the current obtained at the plant is transmitted to the municipal electric station. Each month 600–800 tons are burned.

Steam turbines—Escher Wyss (among them, one of 7,500 horsepower).

A four-stroke vertical Diesel engine of 1,000 horsepower is coupled to a Brown Boveri generator (and two Diesels of 500 horsepower each).

I cannot pass over in silence the water turbines of Piccard & Co., Geneva.

Exhibited:

A Pelton turbine of 3,000 h.p. The number of revolutions per minute is 500; the height of the water fall is 1,630 meters—the greatest in the world. Intended for the electric station at Fully (Valais).

A Francis turbine of 1,350 h.p.; number of revolutions 750; height of water fall—69 meters. (For the electric station of the city of Neuenburg).

A Pelton turbine of 16,400 horsepower; number of revolutions 250. (For the Norwegian Rjukan Company for the extraction of nitrogen), etc.

In the mining section, almost entirely equipped by the Rhenish-Westphalian Syndicate, the underground extraction of coal is very interesting. An adit has been arranged in full natural size, and the roof supports, coal seams (in places), implements for coal extraction, carts for transport, etc., are genuine.^1

The Rhenish-Westphalian Syndicate is a joint-stock company for the purchase and sale of coal, coke, briquettes, and for the conduct of enterprises engaged in extraction, storage, and other handling of products of the mining industry in general.

Founded in 1893, it has not disintegrated, and the scope and scale of its activity keep expanding. Coal production, which in 1893 was 33,539,230 tons, had increased by 1913 to 101,652,297, of which the Ruhr district accounts for 88.75%. In addition to the “workings,” the Syndicate exhibited:

1) A model of modern mines. Exit from the mine, transport; sorting, washing of coal, coking, shipment of coal and coke.

2) A map of the Ruhr basin.

3) A cross-section of the Ruhr basin. All seams and rocks are made of actual materials. Most seams are 0.7–0.8 meters thick.

4) A map of the Saar basin.

^1 This working—one of the “highlights” of the exhibition—was visited especially often by the public.

5) Collection of coals.
6) ” ” from the Ruhr basin.
7) Model of Otto ovens with utilization of the by-products of distillation.

The wall chart shows coal consumption per person per year:

Brown coals and briquettes are exhibited by Ob-wom in Dortmund. Of interest is a display case with an enormous piece of raw brown coal (with 60% water—which is quite unnoticeable to the touch). There is an entire collection of impressions on coal of leaves, etc.

Switzerland has no coal of its own and is compelled to use imported coal. Approximately \(3/4\) of the coal comes from Germany (from the Ruhr basin and somewhat less from the Saar); the remaining \(1/4\) from Belgium, France, England, and even America. True, there are in Switzerland insignificant deposits of bituminous shales near Lugano, anthracite near Lugano, in Salva and Wallis (near Lausanne). For the last deposit an analysis is also given: water 3.15%, ash 28.5%, calorific value 5582, evaporative capacity 8.76! (The implausibility of the last figure is striking, for which I informed the head of the section, and he agreed with me.)

There are also samples of peat and asphalt. In the section on illuminating gas there are neither ovens nor apparatus for cooling or purifying gas. On the other hand, there is a large selection of gas meters (for example, those of the firm Wohlgroth Zürich, dry and wet), gas lighters at a distance, self-recording instruments for registering gas pressure, etc.

Very interesting is an apparatus for uniform, continuous taking of samples of flue gases throughout the entire experiment (made according to the instructions of Prof. Constam) and an experimental precision meter for it.

One may note woven mantles for incandescent gas light. Physical apparatus and instruments for chemical laboratories are exhibited by 2 firms. Of these, Bender und Hobein

I was interested in Schlepfer’s apparatus for determining moisture in fuel.\(^1\) A weighed portion of peat or coal is poured over with xylol and heated in a flask connected to a condenser and a graduated cylinder; distillation takes place, and the water is collected under the xylol; from the number of cubic centimeters, its percentage is calculated.

I shall add a few more data characterizing the Union of Swiss Owners of Steam Boilers.

The Union was founded in 1869; it numbered 115 members (with 211 boilers). In 1914 the number of participants had increased to 2,901, and the number of boilers to 53,750. In 1913 about 700 tests were carried out.

The municipal gasworks in Baden-Baden has 4 furnaces with inclined retorts, 9 retorts in each. The furnaces are of the system and construction of the Stettin fireclay factory (formerly Didier). Usually 3 are in operation, one under repair or in reserve. Daily output is 8,000–10,000 cubic meters. Charges are made after 5–6 hours, 225 kg into each retort. Coal is purchased crushed, or the crushing is carried out at the plant by disintegrators. The latter is considered less convenient.

Mostly Saar coal is used, yielding 70% coke; partly English gas coal. Since they do not keep large stocks of coal, it is stored in heaps under the open sky. The feeding of coal, crushing, charging, the transport of coke by conveyor to the tower, sorting through screens, lowering into special wagons, and delivery to the boiler room—all are carried out by mechanical devices, from electric motors. The furnaces are heated with coke generator gas. Unloading the retorts is very simple—the coke comes out by itself, falls onto the belt of a conveyor sprayed with water, and is conveyed to the sorting tower.\(^2\) The gas passes through the hydraulic main into air coolers (2) and then into a water cooler. There are tar separators and exhausters.

Gas purification is carried out with Lux mass; regeneration is in boxes, for which 2% air is pumped by means of a special pump. They could not point out any special advantages of the Lux mass to me and agreed that it merely acts quickly. On the other hand, the spent mass is sold for more than the fresh mass is bought for.

All the devices are not only practical and convenient, but elegant and interesting from an aesthetic point of view. Everywhere there is cleanliness, everything is covered with lacquer paints, and in the cooling department—

\(^1\) The idea of using xylol for this purpose belonged to Marcusson.
\(^2\) From the middle retorts the coke falls into the generator shaft.

coolers, exhausters, tar separators, and in the scrubber and purification room, not to mention the hall where the pressure regulators, meters, etc., are installed.

Self-recording pressure gauges have been installed, as well as sampling tubes for taking gas samples from all departments. The gas is stored in gas holders of two usual types: of 12,000 cubic meters and of 2,000 cubic meters.

In the gas yard there rises a structure which, from a distance, resembles a telescopic gas holder. In fact it is a device for cooling the condensation water from the steam turbines of the nearby electric station. The air-cooled cooler, enclosed in a metal shell, is a ring-shaped tank into which tar is pumped for settling and for separating water from it.

Thanks to mechanical devices and rational organization, there are only 32 workers in the entire plant. And yet the plant also has a dining room and a bath room for the workers, not counting the dressing room and corridors.

Perhaps because of the luxurious character of the installation, the city charges somewhat more for the gas than neighboring cities: 20 pfennigs per 1 cubic meter, whereas Karlsruhe, for example, charges 14 pfennigs.

Part of the coke goes to the generators, part is sold; the remainder is sent by overhead railway to the boiler house of the electric station, where the fines are burned in furnaces with forced draft.

At the electric station I was interested in the Perret-type boiler furnaces for burning coke breeze and waste.

The newest coke ovens with utilization of by-products. I was able to see similar ovens in operation at Zeche Helene—Amalie in Essen-Ruhr, Rein Preussen in Homberg, and Konstantin der Grosse in Bochum. They were built in recent years by the firms Koppers and Otto.

I shall speak briefly about the ovens in Essen. Eighty-two ovens were built only in 1913, according to the latest model. The capacity of the chambers is about 10 tons of dry coal. Ten tons of coal are charged, with a moisture content of 9–12%, since the coal ordinarily used is washed coal. Charging is carried out through 3 openings from above by means of a moving hopper, which receives coal from the elevator and is mounted on a large car. Coking lasts 24–36 hours. The pushing of the coke is carried out by means of a ram with a shield, driven in reciprocating motion by a motor. The gradually advancing mass of incandescent coke, onto the inclined platform in front of the ovens, is quenched from a distance by 2 workers with a stream of water from fire hoses. The heating of the ovens is carried out by gas from the coke—

…ovens after the removal from it of NH₃ and benzene. The coal used (from their own mines), with a volatile-matter content of 17–18%, gives so much coke-oven gas¹ that half of it is sufficient for heating the ovens; the other half is burned under the steam boilers. The gas is burned in special burners resembling Bunsen burners, but of larger dimensions. The draft in the furnace is 3 mm; in the common flue for all the ovens before the outlet into the chimney, 10–13 mm, at a temperature of the outgoing gases of 250°, whereas in the ovens the temperature is 1200–1300°. For half an hour the combustion goes in the front part of the oven, for half an hour in the rear; the change of direction is effected by simply turning a lever at the side of the ovens. Under each oven there is its own regenerator.

The air, passing through the hot channels, is heated; therefore the combustion gas develops a very high temperature. The hot gases go into the hydraulic main, but do not pass through the layer of liquid; in the pipes there is tar, which flows slowly and retains particles of tar from the gas; the excess tar runs down into a special reservoir and is pumped into a settling tank, where it is separated from water; the latter is drained into a column (for the recovery of NH₃).

The gases pass through four vertical water coolers, without coming into contact with water, are cooled to 25–35°, are pumped into a tar separator (of the Pelouze type), are heated with live steam to 70–75°, and are introduced, together with NH₃ vapors (from ammonia water: liberated by lime), into a saturator with sulfuric acid (42° Baumé). The saturator is a vessel lined on the inside with sheets of lead. NH₃ with H₂SO₄ gives ammonium sulfate, which is squeezed on a centrifuge from the liquor. A powder resembling lime is obtained. Its yield, calculated on coal, is 1.1% (7 tons per day). The gases, at a temperature of 60–55°, are directed into water coolers, are cooled to 25°, pass through three oil scrubbers, the boiling temperature of which is 200–300°; benzene and homologues are retained in it (about 0.6%, calculated on coal).

The coke obtained in large pieces is very hard and dense. Its yield is about 7 tons from an oven. It is sorted according to the size of the pieces.

1. From a ton of coal, 9000–10000 cubic feet. ↩↩↩↩↩↩↩

2. Germany in general has not been lucky with peat. The method, much talked about, of Ziegler (conversion of peat into coke with utilization of the products of dry distillation) was tested at a plant in Oldenburg and in Russia at the Rykov State Plant on the Nikolaev Railway, and proved unsuccessful. Insulating slabs made of peat have not become widespread. ↩