Custer Weekly Chronicle

To put smoke to profitable use has been the aim of Tobiansky, the Belgian engineer. In his process the smoke is forced by a fan into a filtering tower charged with coke or other porous absorbent, sprinkled with naphtha or alcohol, and the soot is retained by the coke, while the filtered gases, mixed with vapor from the naphtha or alcohol, are collected in a gasometer, to be fed to Welsbach burners, stoves or gas engines. This gaseous mixture, which has been named pyrogas, burns with a bright flame and an entire absence of smoke. The value of pyrogas even makes it profitable to burn fuel of low grade for its smoke alone, and it is computed that plants of small cost will enable cities to derive a material income from the conversion of their garbage into purified smoke for light and power. Large factories and small establishments in Belgium are making experiments both in saving and in producing smoke for its combustible gas.