Pittsburg and Chicago
coal to the oil consumed shows that the price of oil at Pittsburg is
59c. per barrel of 42 gallons, and slack coal can be purchased at from
70c. to 80c. per ton, and the best quality of lump coal at from $1.10
to $1.25 per ton, while the same quality of fuel can be bought in
Chicago at about 70c. a barrel, as against coal at from $2 to $3.50
per ton. It would, therefore, look as though there could be no
question whatever as to the economy and advantages to be derived from
the use of oil as a fuel in this vicinity.

The weight of oil required is less than half that of average coal to
produce the same amount of steam.

A great advantage in using oil as fuel in brick burning is that the
fires are always under the absolute and direct control of the man in
charge of the burning, who can regulate the volume of flame to the
nicest degree and throw the heat to any part of the arches that he may
desire.

From present indications, oil will be the fuel adopted generally for
generating power and for brick burning in Chicago, as it saves the
boilers, avoids grate bars, saves dirt and cinders, and reduces
running expenses, etc.

Much skepticism was at first exhibited in Chicago only a few years ago
when one of the leading brick manufacturers attempted to burn a kiln
of brick with coal for fuel. Nearly all the brickmakers then in
business put on wise looks and predicted the failure of the experiment
with coal. But coal proved to be a better and cheaper fuel than wood,
and in five or six years wood was used only for the kindling of the
coal fires.

Then came the attempt to burn brick with crude oil, and the experiment
having proved a success, coal has been banished from the leading brick
yards in Chicago and vicinity.

The Purington-Kimball Brick Co., Adams J. Weckler, Weber & La Bond,
the May-Purington Brick Co., the Union Brick Co., and the Pullman
Brick Co., all having headquarters in Chicago, as well as the Peerless
Brick Co. and the Pioneer Fireproof Construction Co., both of Ottawa,
Ill., are using crude oil fuel for brick burning.

Lima crude oil is used, and it is atomized by means of steam in small
furnaces extending about two feet from the face of the brick kilns,
and in which furnaces combustion occurs, and the conversion of the oil
and steam into a gaseous fuel is secured. There is little doubt that
the fuel employed in the future by the successful brick manufacturer
must be in the gaseous f