COMPRESSED GAS FOR MOTORS.

Evening Post, Volume XCV, Issue 140, 13 June 1918, Page 10

COMPRESSED GAS FOR MOTORS.

The enforced substitution of gas lor petrol, and the possible further limitations of the use of the latter fuel, call for a quicker; ed decision in regard to containers for large vehicles (states the London Daily Telegraph). Already this change in fuel has been effected to an extent calculated as the equivalent of 3,000,000 gallons of v petrol saved per year. The choice between the now familiar flexible holder and the more compact steel container carrying gas under pressure is mainly dependent at present upbn the size of the vehicle and the difficulty of obtaining steel. It was soon obvious that tho flexible holder ■would come into extended use for small cars as a wartime expedient. The extension of the application of gas to larger vehicles seems :at once to demand the. use of compressed gas. Becently an illustration has been provided in the conversion of a 36h.p. wolseley 3-ton military lorry. The gas, stored in cylinders of the type usual "for compressed gasses, is contained at a pressure of 120 atmospheres or 18001b per square inch. The complete battery comprises 9 cylinders in three units.. Each cylinder has a capacity of 150 cubic feet, the volume of gas thus carried being 1350 cubic feet, which is equivalent to about 5£ gallons of petrol, and to a 56-mile drive. The division of the battery into units of three avoids the whole installation being affected through mishap to any one cylinder. The cylinders are conveniently stowed away transversely under the' car, the weight being well distributed, and are easily' interchangeable and replaced. The necessary reduction of pressure of the gas is attained by_ passing through a redubing value, which lowers the pressure to about 151b per square inch. At this pressure it passes into a, small container, from which the motor draws the gas according to the requirements of the varying load. The use of gas under even this high pressure should present no insuperable difficulty. For many years similar pressures have been employed on gas-driven trams, and would," in all probability, have had more attention but for the advent of electric traction.

Steps are also being taken to substitute gas for petrol in motor-buses. Here again it is obviously impossible, on account of.the large capacity and the encroachmr-- . . upon, seating accommodation, to .. ._■ the flexible container. Experiments are, therefore, being conducted by the Eastbourne Corporation with gas under both low' and high compression, the former representing about 300 1b per square inch, or 20 atmospheres, and the latter. 13001b pev square inch, or 120 atmospheres. The form of container selected for the low pressure is that used by railways for carrying illuminating gas. Three \or four, each of which will hold gas equivale.it to 14 gallons of petrol, will, constitute a. battery, the total capacity thus being the equivalent of about six gallons of petrol.