ENGLAND'S PETROL

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 5, Issue 99, 2 September 1942, Page 5

ENGLAND'S PETROL

USEFUL CUT IN OCEAN TANKERS' CARGOES Twenty of London's giant passenger buses will soon Joe trailing behind them miniature anthracite furnaces so that they can run on pro-ducer-gas instead of petrol. In their million miles a year of road service the 20 buses will save something like 175,000 gallons of petro'l; and, if the whole of the 800 London Transport buses suitable for conversion are fitted up for the new fuel, deep-sea tankers will be relieved of the job of carrying 7,000,000 gallons of petrol a year.

But this Is only one item in Britain's campaign to save petrol. Already 1000 commercial vehicles are burning proclucer-gas", ancl the Government recently announced plans for 10,000 more vehicles equipped with the system, which will save 30,000,000 gallons of petrol a year.

The launching of this great fleet of vehicles producing their own carrbon monoxide gas is the successful result of continuous research into fuel problems since the war began.The first producer-gas was made by an Englishman during the last war but* subsequent development has been principally in 'Europe, where, however, it centred rather upon the charcoal fuel to be had there rather than on the coke or anthracite used in Britain. The present success of British chemists and engineers has therefore been achieved from an entirely fresh start.