COAL GAS CARS

Hokitika Guardian, 12 July 1940, Page 3

COAL GAS CARS

' •C alternative fuel. , GENERATING PLANTS. ■(P^r"Press Association—Copyright). AUCKLAND, June 11. As’ the rationing, of petrol becpnn more severe, interest in motor vehie coal" gas producers increases. Yesterda; for instance, the Auckland Aiitomobi, Asspcifttipii's engineer, M r G.;P. Itober son, had inquiries from Horahora, Kat kati and Wljangarei. A number of city cars have /bee equipped with producers, and tl owneps of commercial fleets have , bet -making inquiries. 1n ■ England, bust with elaborate gas generators on trai ■ers. are now a familiar sight, but so fr in New Zealand the plants, in pperatio are of the., small compact kind wide can be .carried on,the running board ( on brackets at the back of the vehiqb Dismissing the general question, 3VI Robertson, said that, in- any countr faced with a prolonged shortage of pc rol, there was no doubt the gas prc ducer would' receive more and more a tention, particularly by those who? means of livelihood was affected. It%a to be realised, however, that the adap' ation of the, gas producer to the mote was still in its infancy, and for a inoto: ist ,io obtain the best results possible it was necessary for him to have tli zeal of an entlmsiast. One of the major troubles in th use of eoal gas was the extraction r Die tar content. Crushed coal, processed at the milieu to reduce tlie -tai content, was readily obtainable; bin from the point of view or a regular user the problem was that of obtainin'! an even grade of the fuel. But with fuel supplies, provided wicjc : lv' at an even standard. there always was; the difficult question ; of v the dll ming medium, ft was clear that generators fitted with th(> most efficient filters would command the market. Motorists' must further bear in mind Ibe fact that there was a considerable difference in the combustibility of petrol gas and eoal gas. The drop from the driving power of Petrol amounted to Jo or 40 per cent. Thus in a small car which never had a wide margin of power the efficiency of coal gas was lower than it was in a car which had a large margin under ordinary circumstances. Some time ago, Mr Robertson made a test run of 179 miles in a powerful ear which carried five adults. Its generator hsed 113 Bn of crushed prepared coal, and in addition to the ga.s~t.bus produced, five pints of petrol were used in running the motor in the engine to suck up the fire in the coal generator. J f petrol were, not available for this purpose, hand blowers, could be used. Numbers of English models bad band blowers. A point of some importance'"!:!- connection with a change over to gas producer fuel is that a tax of two shillings for every lOf) miles is imposed on coal gas running. Naturally, some rosen+’'mnt has been expressed, against this impost.