SHIPPING NOTES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20338, 21 February 1928, Page 13

SHIPPING NOTES.

RECOVERY IN GERMANY. PULVERISED FUEL. SOLUTION OF AN ECONOMIC DIFFICULTY. (From Ouk Own Correspondent.) LONDON, January 10. In an article in the Daily Telegraph, Mr Archibald Hurd reviews the situation in regard to the use of pulverised fuel. It will be remembered that the steamship Mercer, the first seagoing vessel to be suitably equipped, has just crossed the Atlantic, using pulverised fuel instead of either oil or ordinary coal. The economy ns compared with ordinary coal was upwards of 30 per cent., while the consumption compared favourably with oil. The vessel encountered heavy seas during the voyage, but the plant developed only slight and easily remediable defects. “If pulverised fuel can be used instead of oil,” says Mr Hurd, “ at any rate in ordinary cargo ships, which constitute about one-half of the tonnage under the British flag, not only will the payment of several million pounds overseas be avoided, thus assisting to adjust the trade balance of this country, but an impetus will be given to employment in the coal mines. The effect will be experienced, not necessarily entirely in the districts which produce the best steam coal, but also in those which raise lower-grade coal, for inferior qualities can be successfully treated. Consequently both ship owners and coal owners stand to gain. “ The cramped furnace conditions of the Scotch marine boiler made it literally a physical impossibility to burn pulverised coal in the necessary amount, by any known methods. It was not until the inventive genius and pertinacity of some American engineers evolved a new idea—or a new application of old ideas—that this difficult problem in combustion was solved. It is a new development in combustion engineering, and that alone, which has brought about the sailing of a vessel equipped for the burning of pulverised coal. APPARATUS DESCRIBED. “ The success which has now been achieved has been due to the combined efforts of private engineers, officials of the Shipping Board, and research workers under the Navy Department at Washington. It has been due, however, in largest measure to the work of Mr Ernest Peabody, who devised a burner which has satisfied all demands. The coal is taken on board the ship in the usual way. It is then carried up an endless belt elevator and passes through a small crusher, which breaks up the larger lumps. When' this operation has been completed the coal goes into the ready-bunker. The next process is pulverisation. There is a null for this purpose, and when the coal has been reduced to dust it goes to the burners at the furnace front. It is, of course, impossible to give a full description of the equipment without entering into many engineering technicalities. It must suffice to state - that the extremely difficult problem of dividing a stream of coal Suspended in an air current into smaller streams in order that an equal amount of fuel may reach each of the furnaces has been solved, CHALLENGE TO OIL. “ The installation on board the Mercer having proved a success, engineers are about to tackle a further problem. Is it possible to pulverise coal at or near tha pit’s mouth, convey it by pipeline to tha water’s sidej and thence pump it on board a ship as though it were oil, with an immense economy of labour and expense? It is believed that this will eventually b» possible. But when this has been dona there will remain another obstacle, for coaj in the form of a fine powder is very inflammable under certain conditions. The risk of explosion cannot be run. But tha engineer and the chemist are convinced that they can surmount this difficulty. In the meantime, as the voyage of the Mercer proves, the use of pulverised fuel on board ship, with an immense gain in efficiency and lessening of expense, is no longer a dream. The rivalry, between coal and oil is likely to become ificreasingly keen as the coal engineer triumphs, step by step, over the obstacles which are stiff in his path. There is some confidence that he will be able eventually to offer a successful challenge to oil for use at least in the tramp ship.” GERMANY’S PROGRESS. Gorman shipping, ruined during and after the war, will face 1028 with the achievement of having brought the total registered tonnage to two-thirds of the pre-war strength. At the outbreak of war the tonnage of the German mercantile marine was estimated at 6,400,000. After the war it recovered slowly to 717.000 tons in ■ 1021. To-day it has reached 3,500,000 tons. The upward climb of German shipping has been phenomenal. In a report issued in 1921 the North German Lloyd Steamship Company declared: “Our company has been robbed of every ocean-going steamer, and after the war wc found ourselves at the point where we began in 1857.” The North German Uoyd now operate! ships with a total tonnage of 840.000. while the Hamburg-Araerica Lino owns 1.023.000 tons. German competition with British tonnage is facilitated by the fact that the bulk of the latter now operating is 10 years, old or over, whereas German tonnage is all new. A further impetus will be given to the progress of German shipping when sequestered German property now held in .Washington is released or indemnification paid for German vessels which tha I.nitcd States took over during the war. The value of those ships is put at £0,800.000 by American’ experts, and at £16,000,000 by the Germans themselves.