NEW FUEL TESTED

Dominion, Volume 25, Issue 278, 19 August 1932, Page 9

NEW FUEL TESTED

Oil and Coal Formula CONSIDERED PRACTICABLE Details of the test of the new colloidal fuel —a combination of coal and oil—in the Cunard liner Scythia were revealed recently when the liner returned to England from the United States. In an official statement the Cunard Company said: “It is too soon to say

what the next step will be now that the burning of coal and oil in combination has been demonstrated as a practicability.” Mr. A. W. Perrins, the company’s combustion expert, who was in the Scythia during the test, said: "The new fuel did all that we expected, and nothing unexpected. I do not see any. reason why it should not come into general use. "We burned 150 tons of it in a fourfurnaced boiler in the Scythia, and it lasted as long as we anticipated. “It has a slightly lower heating value than oil alone, but it is cheaper than oil. No ash came from the funnel to fall

on the boat deck, and no slag formed in the furnaces.” Mr. R. A. Adam, the assistant superintendent engineer of the Cunard Company, said: “We are most pleased because we have found a way in which we can use British coal again. That is quite as important as the economic benefits that may come from the fuel.” Mr. Isaac Foot, Minister for Mines, speaking of the new fuel in the House of Commons, said he would like to congratulate the Cunard Company on its enterprise, but he asked the House to remember that the experiment was only as yet in the early stages.