THE COMING OF OIL.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1908, 17 November 1913, Page 5

THE COMING OF OIL.

AND THE PASSING OF GOAL. [By Alfeed Stead.] It was recently announced that Lord Murray of Elibauk, on his journey to Central America, had concluded contracts with the Government of Ecuador by which the great firm of S. Pearson and Son obtains the right of exploiting the whole of Ecuador for oil. The oil age is coming, not because the oil producers want it or becausethe coal producers do not want it, but simply because it has, to come. The age. demands progress, and there can be no question that oil spells progress over coal. It >s, perhaps, difficult for. people in Greit Britain, the country of coal, to realise clearly the coming of oil and the many advantages of the change. But go to a country without coal and yet possessing factories and growing industries. Oil is that country's

salvation. Cheap coal in Great Britain has been one of the great reasons why oil fuel has not come to 'ts own before now —and yet it is the decision of the British Admiralty which has definitely opened tho doors of the new era. ' /. Steam Without Stokers. Pending the "final experiments, wo may assume that the British Navy will shortly be burning altogether oil and raising steam without stokers. lu'Gcrmany, the United States, and Japan thore exist to-day many warships burning exclusively oil. An oil-burning fleet needs never to rnn to harbour to replenish its supply of fuel. At all points of the seas it can meet tramp oil-car-riers ; in fact, it will be one of the most lucrative of for neutral vessels during a naval war to hang about with cargoes of oil waiting a good sale chalice. The warship comes up to the tanker, passes a hawser over, and after that a flexible tube, through which the new supply of oil flows into the warship's tanks. This process can be continued while both vessels are under way. The questiop of tho stokehold is of supreme importance. An oil-fired vessel needs thirty greasers, as against the 3UO or more stokers and trimmers needed for coal furnaces. This means in the entire British Navy a saving of many thousands of men, who will then he available for other branches of the service. Anyone familiar with the prevailing conditions in the stokehold of a vessel using coal as a fuel will not easily •forget the first visit to the boilerroom of a ship burning oil in the furnaces. As a comparison of the same results obtained by different methods nothing can bo more striking. In the Engine-room. <■ How different is the picture which presents itself in a steamer using oil as fuel in place of coall From great tanks placed at different stations the oil is brought by a pipe-line to the space devoted to the storage of the material serving as fuel in the steamer. This

from the commencement does away with transport, which takes time, is very costly, and produces so_ much ■ dirt and dust. In a mere fraction of the time 'necessary to coal a steamer this is fully charged /with oil fuel by means which are exclusively mechanical. From the oil-tanks of the vessel the liquid fuel is brought under pressure by pipes to the steam boilers. Onco the oil has been ignited the regulation of the flame which plays upon the lower portion of the steam boiler and tho surveillance of the temperature of the steam are the only occupation of the stoker, who can easily look after several boilers without further assistance. Thus there is no longer need of hand stoking, the furnace doors are no longer opened, tho ashes and clinkers of coal are not cleaned out, and there exists no more in the stokehold that heat so dangerous to human health. In fact, it is not an exaggeration when an English specialist compares remaining in such an 11. fuel stokehold to a paradise, while m a stokehold where steam lias to be raised by coal ho .could not describe it save as literally hell. Where oil is used as fuel, one man, comfortably clad and m clean surroundings, does the work or ten grimy firemen and coal-passers. One of the principal reasons, perhaps tho chief, why oil must supplant coal on sea or on land is the increasing cost of labour and tho never-diminishing difficulties in controlling it. Fow more effective answers' to syndicalism could bo imagined than tho adoption of a system which would at onco.cut down the numbers employed by nine-tenths.. It does not matter whether oil bo derived from wells, from shale distillation, or from treatment of coal, tho advantages of its use aro too great to admit of'any idea that it will not bo made use of. Coal-burning in ships or in factories, with all its attendant disadvantages, is a survival of habit, and cannot hope to stand against the ■ advantages of oil fuel. , i Enormous though the consumption ot oil in tho navies of tho world will be it dwindles into comparative insignificance beside the demand in connection with tho mercnntilo marino; warships may have coal fuel', cargo-vessels must; that is Hio situation in a. nutshell. Though practicallv unnoticed by the general public, the fact remains that the conditions of fishing along the east coast of these islands has been wellnigli revolutionised in the last two years. Another three or four years will seo a completion of tho process and the absolute conouest of- the marine motor.— "Daily Mail."