A German Suction-Gas Tractor.
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Communicated by Our Berlin Correspondent.
'I send an illustration ot a suction„gas tractor, made at the Ruhrwerke ' Aktiengesellschaft's shops, Duisburg. The trailed vehicle is fitted with threshing plant, for the driving of which the tractor possesses the requisite machinery. In the main, the suction-gas machine consists of two parts only, viz., the special motor, and the long, cylindrical boiler serving as its bearer. In this boiler are mounted the producer generator,generator, with vaporizer
and fuel-feeding apparatus, the producer-gas scrubbers and the containers for the washed gas. Its method of working is, briefly, as follows. In the generator, which, generally speaking, resembles an ordinary firebox, a fire is kindled by means of wood and sawdust, and then, after anthracite has been added, fanned up to a glowing mass with the assistance of a hand-fan. The gases generated are forcedto pass over a vaporizer, and so to produce the required steam. In some twenty minutes the gas-production is sufficiently advanced to start the motor. But before it passes into the motor, the gas is conducted successively through the scrubbers and the container. Further production of gas is effected by the motor itself, a certain volume of it being drawn into it, via scrubbers and container, with every suctionstroke. The Duisburg firm builds these tractors up to 40 h.p.”