LIQUID FUEL.

Northern Advocate, 23 February 1911, Page 6

LIQUID FUEL.

FOR MARITIME PURPOSES

IN PEACE OR WAR,

Liquid fuel is to be the next great Lt.ep in maritime development and a future source of naval and commercial power. As sails gave way to steam, says a recent magazine article, paddlewheels to screws and reciprocating engines to turbines, the present tendfncy is toward a more effective, more compact, more easily handled and in every way more desirable generator of power. The value of petroleum as a substitute for coal has been proved beyond peradventure. The navies of the world, always alert to aids for efficiency, are adopting it either as an emergency aid to coal on larger ships or exclusively in torpedo craft. The oil burning merchant marine steadily

grows. Every year opens a wider prospect for its use.

Briefly, the problem of navy officials and designers the world over is the development of a warship combining the greatest range of action, the greatest speed, the greatest facilities for armament and ammunition and the greatest projective power with the most easily handled and least expensive hull. It is pointed out as the basib of arguments for the military necessity for liquid fuel that it vitally affects the calculation of at least foiu of the six elements.

Whatever definitely incr?asog the range of action of fighting shins is being seized upon without delay. No watchful nation feels she can afford ro lag behind any inventions or improvements that add appreciably to the efficiency of a rival power. Liquid fuel, it is declared, constitutes such an improvement. The first great point in its favor lies in the fact that it extends the steaming radius of a vessel, without replenishment. BIG SAVING IN STOKING. Reductions of weight and stowage rooms are continually sought, because they tend to increase the range of action. Liquid fuel makes possible a decided cutting weight and bulk of supplies as well as in complement. Two tons weight of oil are roughly equal to three tons weight of coal, reckoned in calorific value or heat units. A ton of oil requires about thirty-eight cubic feet for storage, while a ton of coal occupies about forty-four cubic feet of allotted bunker space. This means an increase of fifty per cent, in range of action upon the bunker weight and •■bout twenty per cent, increase upon' the bunker space.

The saving in stoking is very great. Liquid fuel furnaces are operated by a fraction of the boiler room force necessary to coal furnaces. Not only is the essential number of men thus decreased, but the room utilised for tin ir accommodation, sustenance and equipment is gained. A crew of thirty-six stokers and trimmers with a coal fueling furnace has been cut to eight with a liquid fuel plant. Every non-com-batant eliminated in a war vessel is a count of one in the vast,.complicated game of war. Liquid fuel thus serves the two points of more space available for the storage of propelling power and for the storage of ammunit.on. OTHER ECONOMIES. As to economy of consumption: whiclr has a direct bearing upon the range of action, results obtained with destroyers in the British navy are cited. A thirty-knot coal-burning destroyer of 335 tons displacement requir-f-d twenty-five tons of fuel in a fourhour run of 120 nautical miles, a record of 139 pounds consumed a 100-ton a mile. A new thirty-four-knot oilburning destroyer of 890 tons displacement used sixty-eight and one-quarter tons of fuel in a six-hour run of 207 nautical miles, a record of only 83 pounds a 100-ton mile. This in spite of the fact that the power developed by the oil-burning craft was nearly

three times that of the one that used coal.

It was contended by early opponents of liquid fuel that its use would leniove the protection afforded by the coal against shells in vital parts of i.he vessel. It is believed that permanent defence is better than that vdrich depends upon the fluctuation of .he craft's fuel supply. Empty bunkers are no protection under the coal system. Another objection was found in the j supposed danger of explosion from leakage of liquid fuel tanks, but liquid fuel—such as is used in the British navy—has a very high flash point and is difficult to ignite until it has been 1-eated. It was further held that such tanks would be riddled in a fight, but this would be obviated by the use of j the double bottom in lieu of tanks for the storage of the liquid fuel. The double bottom is practically wasted space in a coal-driven vessel except, for water storage and ballast in merchant ships. PRESERVATIVE ACTION. The preservative action of oil upon the structure of the vessel is urged. Stokehold and double bottom plates, boiler fronts and other parts are exposed to corrosion from the action of the water and the practice of dampenin? ashes before dumping them. With liquid fuel there are no ashes, and corrosion in many important places is rendered impossible.

With petroleum a boiler room is a quiet, airy part, occupied by comfortable men, who regulate the fires by the turning of valves.. There is no excessive labor, no manual handling of ihe fuel, and no furnace doors thrown cpen every few minutes, allowing the waste of heat, and, consequently, of power.

One of the questions in regard to liquid fuel which have been solved most satisfactorily, according to its friends, is that of its perfect combustion. By improved methods it can be used ordinarily without smoke or flame from the funnels, while even under forced draught the degree of faulty combustion is very slight. In the British navy, where the oil system has been worked out most carefully for destroyers, a secret process has given almost absolute freedom from smoke fiid gases. At night the lithe, shadcwy destroyer under liquid fuel is practically invisible.

Many of the arguments advanced in. the present discussion of possibilities of oil in which the naval authorities of> the world are keenly interested aie applicable to craft of peace as well as of war. The chief factor in the commercial practicability of liquid fuel is, of course, the cost. Here the saving of storage space, which means additional cargo room, is to be set off immediately as a.gain in favor of the new process. The price of liquid fuel is a little over a penny a gallon. There is lttle difference between its cost and ihat of coal.