[D0330AAE], Letter from William Appleton Warren to Thomas Alva Edison, March 7th, 1903
https://edisondigital.rutgers.edu/document/D0330AAE
Transcription
Letterhead of the Laboratory of Thomas A. Edison Orange, N. J. March 7th, 1903 Mr. Thomas A. Edison, Fort Meyer, Florida. Dear Sir: I have had the new charcoal stove for the gas engine experiment set up and find that it works perfectly. The gas generated is excellent. The time required to start up is very short. There is very little dust given off, most of it settles in the large upper portion of the stove. There is no trouble from the charcoal not feeding down and leaving air holes through the fire. And although all together the stove requires absolutely no attention from the time the fire is lighted until the charcoal is all consumed down to within (6) six inches of the bottom, that is until there is not enough coal left to connectrect the carbon dioxide which is first formed in the engine due to poor design. Most of the trouble has been with the spark. Wednesday I got a run of (6-1/2) six and one half hours without a stop and lit (10) lamps to full candle power for that time. which is equal to (4-1/2) four and one half electrical H.P. hours and burned only (15) fifteen lbs. of charcoal. I am sure I could do much better with a larger engine. In the cellar under the machine shop I found an old style Otto gas engine of about five (5) H. P. The engine is in bad shape and Letterhead of the Laboratory of Thomas A. Edison Orange, N. J. 3/7/03 To Thos. A. Edison, Esq. is equipped with the old Otto slide valve which was abandoned over fifteen years ago. I asked Mr. Bachman for his estimate for putting the engine in good order and equipping it with poppet valves according to modern practice. He said that $80.00 was a very safe estimate for patterns and machine work. I am sure that this old Otto engine rebuilt as I have described would be as satisfactory as a new engine. Very truly yours, Wm A. Warren.