Soda Engines | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Sep 30, 1886

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 38.

Soda Engines.

THERE are being constructed at the Baldwin Locomotive Works, Philadelphia, four locomotives which are to be run by soda, which takes the place of fire. Soda has much the same power as coal without any of the offensive gases. The engines are nearly finished, and are to be shipped to Minneapolis, Minn., and run in the streets of that city where steam engines are forbidden. The engines look like ordinary passenger cars. Inside the boiler is placed five tons of soda, which upon being dampened by steam produces an intense heat. When the soda is thoroughly saturated, the action ceases, and then it is necessary to restore it by driving the moisture from it, when it is again ready for use. These engines are the first of their kind built in this country. They have about the same power as those of the New York Elevated roads, and will readily draw four light cars. Soda engines are used in Berlin and other European cities successfully, and traverse the St. Gothard tunnel under the Alps, where steam engines cannot be used, because the length of the tunnel renders it impossible to devise a system of ventilation which will carry off the foul gases generated by a locomotive.—Christian at Work.