FUEL FIVE SLICES A PENNY.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLVII, Issue 21, 22 May 1912, Page 61

FUEL FIVE SLICES A PENNY.

That the coal w’ar will give a tremendous impetus to the “ solid oil fuel ” industry is as certain as that night will follow day. Already our great railway companies are carrying out exhaustive experiments with fuel • made of crude oils and various kinds of waste products such as grain husks, coal slack and other substances which have hitherto proved either a nuisance and an expense to get rid of, or of such a low value as to. be hardly worth handling with gratifying results. Bakers, laundrymen and other tradesmen are doing the same, and now a vigorous crusade is being undertaken to prove to the housewife that it is to her own advantage, financially and otherwise, to render herself independent of the coal merchant or peripatetic vendor of “ black diamonds” by the use of oil fuel. For the home a different form of fuel to that made for ordinary steam and heat-raising purposes is being exhibited at the International Smoke Abatement Society’s exhibition at the Agricultural Hall. This new fuel takes the form of thin, oblong, dark-brown slabs, 3} in. long, 2Jin. broad, and half an inch thick. To sight and touch, nt least, these slabs closely resemble thin slices of moist gingerbread. The slabs arc practically pure slices of crude oil, solidified under a new process.

Every one of these little “ slices of oil" is guaranteed sufficient in itself to boil a kettle, cook a breakfast for one person, or to light a fire. Each slice burns with a strong, steady flame, for not less than fifteen minutes, and demonstrates to all who try it the tremendous heat, light, and power possibilities of this new alternative for coal. The sections of gingerbread oil, as well as the oil briquettes composed of oil solidified with 80 or more per cent of waste products, will be placed on the British market before the shadow of the coal strike passes away. The slices of oil will be obtainable at Id. per box of five. The slabs of oil and the oil and waste-produet briquettes together will enable housewives to dispense with coal without even the cost of an oil stove. Henceforward the housewife or domestic who makes use of these oil sl.crs for the initial cooking-stage in the morn ng will not only spare herself the unpleasant and exasperating task of trying to light a fire by means of damp wood, but will be able to light any fire within a few seconds. As for the briquette tests on the railways, they have proved uniformly successful in spite of the unfamiliarity of the firemen and drivers with the new fuel. One particularly convincing teat was that made in connection with tha

Great Western Railway’s Swindon-Ox-ford service, the train selected being th? 2.20 p.m. from Swindon, which runs to Didcot (24} miles) without a slop, ami thence to Oxford (10} miles) with stops at Culham and Radley. The engine, an ordinary “ 2-2-2 ” passenger type, was not altered or adapted in the slightest particular for the consumption of the new fuel, but with its full complement of six passenger coaches and four heavily laden trucks, it accomplished the non stop run to Didcot in exactly 25 min utes -— two or three minutes quicker than the best average coal-driven time—and the two-stop inn mi to Oxford in 27 minutes. The whole journey was done on half a ton of oil briquettes, though Hie train stopped nearly an hour at Didcot, during which period a small head of steam had to b? maintained. Apart from economy on fuel, this and other test runs give as the principal advantages of solid oil over coal for driving locomotives, the driver’s ability to secure greater speed than formerly from Iris engine, the increased celerity with which a high speed was obtained, and the driver’s ability .to maintain a steady head of steain continuously, owing to tlw absence of cinders and ashesp th? complete elimination of sparks from the chimney, and a reduction of the fireman'* labour by fully fifty per cent.