The Stratford Evening Post. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER WEDNESDAY, MAY 14, 1912. 0IL FUEL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIII, Issue 15, 15 May 1912, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER WEDNESDAY, MAY 14, 1912. OIL FUEL.

Tiie great coal strikes which have recently so seriously affected .industry in .Britain and Europe have at least awakened engineers and scientific men to the necessity lor finding some other fuel than coal. Naturally oil presents itself as the best substitute* and practical tests of every description are being made. Much is being written with regard to this subject, and we now learn from late files that the ( nited States Navy is taking *up the question seriously. Orders for two now battleships, to he completed in three years, have just been placed by the American Government. These vessel’s will he more thickly armoured than any Dreadnought yet built, and they will lie driven solely by oil fuel, the one being equipped with Curtis turbines and the other with reciprocating engines. Being thus able to dispense with coal bunkers, which occupy a great space in other ships, it lias been possible to put the whole of the boilers into a lengthspace of only Gdft., enabling the uptake to he concentrated in a single tunnel. The double bottoms will store no less than 2000 tons of oil fuel. Those are the first single-fun-nel Dreadnoughts designed with the exception of the 16,000 ton ‘baby Dreadnoughts’ building for Spain. It is also worth noting that at the Institute of Naval Architects, M. Sigaudy asked why Channel vessels should not bo fired with liquid fuel. Channel steamers had, lie said, to start under a full head of steam, with the fires already forced, and they must keep tin's head of steam up to the moment of arrival. That waste of .coal was reproduced at each departure and arrival, which might be several times a day. With' liquid fuels these wastages did not exist. The economical advantages of this system of firing were the greater the less the duration of the trips and the greater their number.