EDITORIAL.

Thames Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 10200, 2 May 1912, Page 4

EDITORIAL.

OIL AND POWER.

One result of the coal strike in Britain was to call attention forcibly to the advantages o^ oil fuel, and it seiemg not improbalblei that New Zealand will reap an indirect, gain from the desire of capitalists and manufaieitiurei-s to devtelop the petroleum fields <yH the Elmpire as quickly as possible. Thie Mother 1 Country was found to b© practically without stocks of oil, partly as a, result of a lack of transport facilities, so that the businesses ■which depended on coal were unable to turn toi the liquid fuel. - Thie moral was easily read and it was 'emphasised by the arrival in the Th&mies of the first oil driven steamship. Later in M.arch Dr Rudolph Diesel, the inventor of the oil engine known by the name, paid a visit to Lnndoai. By the way Mr P. Black, electrical engineer, rtv commends the Diesel oil engines as the motive power for the Thames eleatria lighting scheme. It is sard that the' Diesel engine is a. power producer of extrardinary efficiency, capable of using any oil at all, ri.ineral or -vlegeifcaible, and exports believe that it is going to render the steam engine obsolete. Certainly it >s making winderfuilly rapid strides in' the engineering world. Its inventor states thai large groups of oil engines will be used within the n.ert (teoaide to generate electricity in bulk, preferably in the neighbourhood of the oil wiells or the cc .1filds, which can be made to yJfrV a, suitable oil by a simple process of distillation. He is quite sure thn.it this arrangemient will gke cheaper power than cam l>ei produced by hydraulio installations except under particularly favourable conditions. D'r Diesel may be optimistic, but he is a,n authority of the very highest standing.