It is nothing unusual to hear of a Swede making good as an inventor. Our people seem to have received their full share of the inventive spirit, and in proportion to population the number of notable inventions made by Swedes is remarkably large.

This article introduces a fellow countryman, Nelson J. Russell, who has just put the finishing touches on a fuelsaving device which has been named the Crown Fuel Saver. It may be attached to the inside of the door of any furnace. The apparatus is capable of separating the oxygen from the nitrogen in the incoming air, and conducting the oxygen directly to the fuel; this results in a more complete utilization of the fuel as well as of the gases and smoke produced within the furnace. During a series of carefully conducted 2tests it was demonstrated that a twenty-five to fifty per cent saving on fuel is obtained by this method. In some instances the saving amounted to sixty-three per cent. If it works out as well in practice this invention is bound to have far-reaching effects.

Nelson J. Rossell was born May 18, 1865, in Hogsby parish, Smaland, Sweden, and came to America with his parents and two sisters when he was fifteen years old. The family settled in Woodhull, Illinois, where he remained for two years. He then went to Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he found employment in the building and loan association established and managed by Colonel Hans Mattson. Later on he went to Des Moines, Iowa, where in 1890 he married Miss Kitty B. Kimball who died last fall, shortly before his latest invention was perfected.

By 1904 Russell had become interested in the oil and mining industry, and in that year he moved to Rockford, Illinois, where he devoted himself to the improvement of a newly invented machine used for the manufacture of matches.

The patent for this invention was later sold to a company formed by him in Elkhart, Indiana--the Star Match Company--and he still owns this patent.

In the spring of 1911 Russell began experimenting on a method of obtaining a gas from air and gasoline which would be suitable as a heating and lighting gas for country homes. The result was the Russell Automatic Gas Machine, which has been patented; the patent has been sold to a concern in Watertown, South Dakota.

Early in 1914 Russell came to Chicago. He is now living with is brother-in-law, Dr. O. A. Toffteen, the director of Scandia Academy. Last fall he began his experiments on the fuel saver, and at the beginning of this year the perfected models were completed at the foundry. Results so far obtained exceed the fondest expectations of the inventor. A company, the Crown Fuel Saver Company, headed by the well-known real-estate broker, C. A. Tyden, of 30 North La Salle Street, has been formed to put the apparatus on the market.

At the present time Russell is experimenting for the purpose of making certain changes in the fuel saver, so that it can be applied also to locomotives and high pressure power plants.

Considering the present high prices of coal and other fuels, it is readily seen that this invention is going to mean much to both large and small consumers.