STEAM AS FUEL

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 1, Issue 61, 11 September 1939, Page 5

STEAM AS FUEL

A PETROL SUBSTITUTE EXPERIMENTER'S IDEA Hopes that he can develop a substitute for petrol by the vise of steam in internal combustion engines ave advanced Mr W. Wilson who recently gave a brief outline of his plans to the BEACON. Mr Wilson, who claims considerable experience in steam engine work, plans to use superheated steam Avhieh, he saj's, at high temperatures and under pressure becomes a gas and can be ignil. ed. He says that American experiments have shown that this can lie done and lie plans to take the work out of the laboratory into the workshop and by actual application of the process demonstrate the soundness of his idea. If his idea can be proved to be practical it will undoubtedly of great value, and Mr Wilson,, Avho seeks an engineer as a partner is con. jvinced that it can be done. How he will do it is, he says, his own secret. SUITABLE ENGINE. He says that an engine of the Anderson type should be very suitable for the preliminary experiments At first it will be necessary to raise the steam in a separate boiler, but eventually he thinks he can combine boiler and possibly nsing a boiler of the flash type. It will always be necessary to start the engine on changing over to the steam which has been raised by the use of some other fuel. Mr Wilson, as has been said be. fore, claims that steam superheated to about 1700 degrees can be ignited. He thinks that by the use of pressure, as is done in a diesel engine, its ignition point can be lowered, possibly to 1400 or 1500 degrees. Whether it will be necessary to use a sparking plug is a point he has not fully but he says it i ; ; really immaterial. Mr Wilson is a New Zealander and the holder of a steam ticket. He served on the railways and has had considerable experience on steam plants in bush sawmills. He says he has done considerable patent work in the direction of engine and has had inquiries from overseas in some instances. Some of his ideas have not been successful, but he says that he does not regret the labour put into them as they have all meant experience. His present idea, though fantastic at first glance, may prove of value and we can at least wish him luck in his experiments.