IS GOAD DOOMED?

Evening Post, Volume CXIV, Issue 15, 18 July 1932, Page 7

IS GOAD DOOMED?

CHANGING ENGINES

PRESENT TYPE PASSING

THE RISE OF OIL

Will there be a steam liner or a petrol car left in 1942? Developments Jh fuels have made such astonishing progress in the last four years that a ton'year forecast is hazardous (■writes H. C. McKay in the Sydney "Daily Telegraph").' Probably every motor-car driver thinks he will be pulling up at bowsers for the same ration of benzine in 1942, and driving a car -whose engine is. substantially the same as now installed. But he is now in t»e same position, as old-timo sea captains, engmoers, and stokers faced with the ■ rise of oil burners, motoK .'.ships, and the electric drive. "* ■ : ; _ Slowly, steadily, heavy oil is cutting into the domain of coal and petrol. ■■ ,-^ill recently economy has been its r draw-card; but now efficiency and speed ' 7 ,are added, which may gain in the ascendancy ■within a decade. Coal has reigned supreme for heavy traction since the steam engine was invented. Even the development of electric railways and tramways did not disturb, :it, for coal is used to drive the generating plant. Yet even here it got a. setback'from hydro-electric' installations. ~.,-.-.• .... " . . : • Coal's first thrillof fear canie f rom the rise of the petrol motor. - ' .', The New South Wales's recent Transport Act is an expression of this fear )—r-the competition of the' motor lorry against -the steam railways and of the motor bus against the coal-generated tramways. But both coal and petrol have a far more dangerous foe-in. the Diesel engine. WHERE IT SUCCEEDS. The great advantage of. the latter is that it burns, crude oil, cutting out the cost of refinement, and gains more efficiency for the price. .'..,• , The engine has to be heavier, but in big steamships (its chief use to date) this is- more than offset by the cheapness, 'ifaeeht improvements have eliminated, even thia drawback of weight. A Diesel motor-car recently completed a,2500-mile.-trip at'a cost (at 3d per gallon) of :255. A Diesel racing car touches 100 miles an hour, and ran 1200, miles non-stop on a single tankful of crude' oil. A Diesel aeroplane completed a 1200-mile non-stop flight (Detroit' to Miami, U.S.A;) in ten and a.quarter-hours, at alcosf of the equivalent of-£ 2. ;, ; • : - '- *' ,■ ' \,** The Diesel engine has no ignition and no spark plugs (those bugbears of motorist-and aviator), and, of course, the heavy, oil is'1 far, less inflammable than benzine. ",'.. .. / A-half-way ,house jfcq the leavy-oil ■ motor* -is the oil-fuel 'steam engine. Many Wiayies modern liners have adopted this combination to the exclu-sion-of co&l. ;'.: ; / v Tjie'Europaj fastest liner afloat, has oil-rfired boilers driving; steam turbines. . It i«\'this'development which' has led to^aH'the'endeavours to turn coal to oil_vby ; "cracking"-or other processes.But for one development, coal as a iiiel^.-w^dV'ije "already.''Idodme'di,'*" vThi3 'f.life'rsaViet|? is pulverised coal.; First, •tried bjit^in'a: German: *steaniship ) tho Dohatij' in;J92B,s iir-ji^s! proved wonderfully efficient. : The 'coal is fed to a pulveriser, >which? grinds'it" as fine as talc powder;;the .powdori'is then; spray- • ed into it buriier (just like oil) by com-. pressed air..>C!ompared_with ordinary coal; filers, the ipulyeriser: develops Jiea^rly'twieethe horse-pQWeiC*■: '"■' . COMPROMISE POSSIBLE. /Recently,: , Ty-hcn tho matter was" discussed in our . State Parliament, ■"/' opinion. : -was divided between;: oil-from-eoal processes and powdered coal^as methods for re- . riving the New South Wales coal industry. •:■;'.:,,,..', !;';--^';'. "'--'y i Judging .by recent London. cables,' a, compromise is possible. .'The Cuhard Company is using a mixture of oil'and powdered coal^i which is said to save £950,000 ayear-in fuel costs. But it yet remains to .be seen whether this combination; drivingl a steam ' ■engine, can .compete with the straight-out oilfuel motor. ~", \ ■ .", 1 ; There is ; ;yot another . competitorselectricity. The world still awaits the high-power, light weight storage battery. But in the meantime a halfway house 14 possible. Ship, railway, and motor-*' iia.v builders are experimenting with ."electric drive.'.' In steamers this, is already.; past , the experimental stage. Several : freighters,.such.'l as tho world's largest oil tanker, the' Brunswick, use Diesel; engines to run generators, which in turn run eloctric motors; which again , run the propellers.,:.,. '_-';'[ ;.;* Theoretically, this looks like waste of enorgyy but in ■practice- the smooth, flexile drive, as in an electric train, offsets this:, A liner,1, the California, has the: Batn'O'drive, using, steam; tur- - bines to drive the generators;. Several other liners have since adopted electric drive for,flexility.of control. : ; USED, IN INDIA. - Electric-drive; Diesel-oil raihvay trains are in operation in India. Elec-tric-drive petrol cars have been experimented with, but at present are too es- : pensive. (The advantage , fo*r mbtorr cars is absence'of ; gears and the quick pick up.) .* ' ..." :'.;-.' *' ;*.■ *:'-' ;: ■'*■ V; ■As / >f or straight-out electricity, the Drumm .storage battery, is claimed' to equal the steain-plus-eleetric or'oil-plus-oleetric. drive; It is at ■present*: bdinjj tried out oh the Irish .'Freo State; rail-ay?.;(filni-§oers. have seen records of these'tests in'■tee'ent gazettes).; ' Amid all this welter of new methods, who scan forecast what fuel will be victor in 1942? Talking to < one of tho last hansom cab. drivers in Sydney the , other day, the old chap said, "When motorcars .first came out on the city streets, we laughed.- ourselves sick at ■ '«m. • The number of registered hansoms was then over two thousand. Now there's taxis everywhere, and as for tabs-^well, there's me." He never dreamt that benzine could supplant the horse. Even oil and coar will go, as tho fcorge has gone; if not supplanted by a; new discovery, then naturally when the coal ami oil fields peter out. It will then be the turn of synthetic fuels, ■or alcohol. Maybe a new force will be discovered. Meantime, wo are in transition days, and • nothing is sure* than that before- A.D. • 2000 comes in all our present types-.of -engines will be . obsolete. ' ' ~-.. . ...;.. ... ...