NEW POWER SUPPLY.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIII, Issue 8, 7 May 1912, Page 8

NEW POWER SUPPLY.

REVOLUTION IN COAL ENERGY DR. DIESEL'S VIEW. ENGLAND AND PIER OIL RESOURCES. Dr. Rudolf Diesel, the German engineer whose, oil engine is revolutionising mechanical engineering, was in London on March 16th. Although he crossed fr.om tile Continent merely to deliver a/long promised lecture before the Ins ritute of Mechanical Engineers and fcjs presence in this country had ther <>sflre no direct connection with the co A strike, the visit was singularly well-timed. For Dr. Diesel's work has a more practical bearing upon i n great fuel problem which this conn: rj will have to face than that of alm ; :;. any other living man. , - The inventor of the Diesel engine—the engine which is to do the bulk o:i the world's work some day if exp.-r.i opinion counts for anything—is t, small, neat, white-haired gentiomai: of fifty-five or thereabouts. His clear, keen eye?; (behind the finest pos3> -It pa.ir of rimless pince-nez) hold your) unflinchingly as he talks in an uni apassioncd way of the wonderful thir,g>: he sees in the not far distant future. Health of body and quiet confidence of mind are liis chief outward characteristics. He gives you the imp:- fusion of a man foretold by H. G. Wells or George Bernard Siiaw. "The importance *6f the Diesel c ■■!•■ gine lies in the f.,t-t that it can. bi"j' any kind of liquid fuel, whether ve;;> table or mineral,?' Dr.. Diesel told s Daily News interviewer in his ma'tV'r-of-fact far,nion. "For power generati :g purpose.,-: oil will entirely displace solid substance before many years have pa. ed."Ths Ship o? the Future. True, he foretells the "scrapping" of our Dreadnoughts, but that is ;; fate which! must overtake impartially, the navies of all nations. He hoi Is beyond a shadow of doubt tiiat t liner Selandia, of which much 1; ;. been written in the press of late, is the forerunner of 'huge, funnelled •ships, swift and smokeless, with o igines from 40,000 to 50,000 horse-po 7er r,nd vastly greater carrying cap .:■- ity,-'than existing, vessels of the same r jize. i Asked if there were any fundamental j difficulties in the way of building tnu'L ■ ships, either for . war or cornnierca, | Dr. Diesel replied: "Absolutely norj. The difficulties are simply matters of detail. Naturally many problems present themselves when dealing for the first time with new machinery, of such great size and power. < But success is very near at hand. The naval arcs i~ tects of all the great Powers are at work upon the question and any d.:y may see the designs of the first'motor Dreadnought completed." , ~,-, Though the subject is not quite .; o far advanced in relation to land traction, the day of the Diesel locomotive is also drawing near. An experimental engine 1200 horse power is now,undergoing its trials in Germany, and; in a few months, to quote Dr. Diesel, "we shall know just how many mistakes wo have made." , / Then will come a time when, coal .and smuts are no longer associated .with railway travelling . In replace of steam engine and tender will be a sort of additional saloon carriage, filled with compact and practically noiseless machinery, fed with oil by an engineer Who, though he may still be greasy, will at any rate be innocent of grime. . Dr. Diesel, in his lecture last night at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers on "The Diesel Oil Engine an:! its industrial importance, particular";'' ■for Great Britain," said that the engine had broken the monopoly of coal, and had solved the problem of u*ing liquid fuel for power production in its simplest and most general form. It had become for all natural liquid fuels what the steam engine and gas cr.g'ne were for coal, but in a much f-impkr 1 and more economical way .