PETROLEUM AS STEAM FUEL.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume I, Issue 65, 19 May 1866, Page 3

PETROLEUM AS STEAM FUEL.

The London Standard gives the result of some experiments at Woolwich by Mr. C. J. Richardson, a civil engineer, who has strenuously advocated the use of petroleum in the capacity of steam fuel. The matter has now, passed into the hands of the Admiralty. There is reason to hope we shall shortly witness a very appreciable amount of efficiency added to the already extraordinary powers of our modern steam engines: — The French Committee (on the subject) found that four pounds and a quarter of crude petroleum would raise as much steam in seventeen minutes as nine pounds and a third of coal would raise in thirty minutes. It was calculated that in sea-going steamers the adoption of this oil as fuel would save 250 per cent, in bulk, and that where fifty men were employed in tending a boiler heated with coal, ten would be sufficient if the fuel were petroleum. It was proved that in the latter case the fire could be raised to a blast in one minute and a half, and extinguished with like celerity. The American Commissioners reported, as the result of their inquiries, that the steam-generating power of petroleum was more than twice that of anthracite coal, and that the steam itself could be raised by the use of petroleum in less than half the time which was necessary when coal was consumed. To this evidence we may hope to see an encouraging addition when the facts of the Woolwich experiments become officially reported. Of the importance of these investigations the reader may form an idea by reference to a statement made, by a very good engineering authority to this effect — that were it possible to devise some method by which a good steam boiler now working up to 200-horse power could be made to work up to 220, each pound of coal evaporating eight pounds of water instead of seven, the fortune of the inventor would be made By the use of oil instead of coal in the Woolwich experiments, it would seem that an engine of 100---horse power becomes exalted into one of 140, and even beyond that; the gain, therefore, being 40 to 50 per cent, instead of 10. Three pounds of water Avere evaporated at the speed of 500 pounds every twenty minutes, every pound of oil serving to evaporate thirteen pounds of water. Not only petroleum, but all the hydro-carbons are said to be utilized by the Woolwich apparatus The danger of petroleum as an article in store on board of war ships has been urged with some pertinacity. But "petroleum "is a term of several significations, and as employed in the Woolwich experiments it has little or nothing to do with the volatile explosive liquid which is generally associated with the name.. l....As stored in tanks the fuel is not to be ignited even though a red-hot cannon ball went through the mass. In fact the furnace has to be " warmed," as it were, with a more inflammable compound, in order to prepare the way for the regular fuel. Among the advantages of petroleum as a steam generator, may be reckoned the very compact form which is given to the furnaces. It requires comparatively but a small fire-box, no iron gratebars, and no ash-pit. Two of its fire-boxes, with a water space between them, can be constructed within the area necessary for one fire-box in a steamer worked by coal. When used as fuel, petroleum re 1 quires very little air, and if this is properly regulated there is no smoke and no waste. It is conducted iuto the furnace under the most perfect control, and admits of a remarkable degree of cleanliness. In fact it promises to accomplish for the steam engine what gas has conferred upon us in the illumination of our cities.