The Hydrogen Content In Producer Gas
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AS one who is anxious to exchange a state of depressing ignorance for one of moderate knowledge in the matter of producer gas, I have been struck by the difficulty of acquiring accurate, unbiased and comprehensive information on this subject. I pay grateful tribute to much which has been published in The Co;i2mercaal Motor, "but I ask for still more enlightenment, knowing that when it becomes available your journal will publish it.
The particular puzzle which evokes this letter occurs in "Producer Gas Compromises" by " Azote." (Only lately have war conditions permitted me to study your issue dated Novernber 29.) Two statements appear to contradict one another. At one' point " Azote " says that dynamometer tests of plants using water, compared with those which do not, fail to show any increase in b.h.p. due to water injection, and he goes on to state that the complication of water injection does not appear to be justified on this score.
Elsewhere in the same article he shows that the calorific value of producer gas falls away during" a 100-mile journey, concurrently with.a reduction in the hydrogen content. He admits that the source of this A28 hydrogen is the moisture in the fuel, and he points out that all the fuel for the journey is stored close to the fire. Its warmth would naturally dry the fuel, and the reduction in hydrogen content is thus easy to understand, A point which remains to be explained is why moisture introduced by injection should be valueless, whereas moisture introduced by accident should be so very beneficial. Perhaps we could get nearer to an understanding of the matter if " Azote " would supply just a little more • information. For instance, in the analyses of gas at different times in the same run, was the producer one in which water is injected? If (as I suppose from the general statement) it was.not, have similar results been observed to the same extent in a water-injecting producer? And, again: if not, does this suggest that water injection may be worth while in spite of those dynamometer tests?
• That raises another point : Was dry fuel used in the dynamometer tests or was there perhaps even more than 10 per cent. of moisture? It is true that some moisture is permissible and, in fact, unavoidable in fuel as tipped into the producer, but, it being also true that such moisture is likely to be driven oft long before all that fuel has been :...onsumed, it is relevant to ask whether water injection has been shown to give no more power when dry fuel is used.
This letter may seem to be a plea for water injection, so I would emphasize that I have no connection of any sort with the gas-producer industry and have no predilection one way or the other. All I want—and I trust it is a modest request—is the whole story. E.P.W. Coventry.
A DRIVER WHO CANNOT FIND WORK rIN two or three occasions you have referred to the shortage of men to drive buses and lorries. Is this shortage really so great?
Personally, I have applied to London Transport for
a bus driver's job and have not even received the courtesy of a reply. I have also written in connection with several advertisements which I have seen in the papers, and, again, have not received replies. Although at present in Yorkshire, I have driven in and around London for over 18 years, am 36 years of age, have a clean licence, and first-class references. H.G.D. York.
[The writer of the above letter, although he asked us to communicate with him, did not include his name and address—it is perhaps for this reason that he has received no replies to his applications. If he will let us have this information, we are sure that we shall be able to help him to obtain a position, as there is undoubtedly a grave shortage of men, particularly of those with the experience which he appears to possess.—En.]