CREOSOTE OIL

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 410, 20 December 1932, Page 7

CREOSOTE OIL

SUBSTITUTE FOR PETROL BELIEYED TO BE PERFECTED. BELFAST CHEMIST'S CLAIM. According to the correspondent of the Daily Express, three chemists in the laboratories of the Belfast Corportion gas undertaking have ndw perfected the discovery they made fifteen months ago, of a creosote oil substitute for p'etrol, which they claim will reduoe by half Britain's motor , fuel bill. Even since June last year the corporation has been producing for eager . customers thousands of gallons of this fuel , and an annual output of half a million gallons can be attained. The local bus conipany, after testing the fu'31 over 400,000 miles of Ulster roads, has declded to convert for its ' use more units of its fleet, and has engaged into a contract with the gas ; undertaking for a five years' supply. One hundred private motor cars in Belfast are running on the fuel, which costs the owners sixpence a gallon. The London General Omnibus Company is carrying out exhaustive tests, Salford Corporation is running an experimental vehicle satisfactorily, and the formula has been broadcast throughout the Empire. ; A north of England concern is producing the same fuel for omnibus traffic in. the Manchester area, and a , representative of the Australian Go- j vernment, sent sp'acially to Belfast for | information, is on his way back to advise the Commonewalth to encour- ( age its manufacture and use there. Produoed from Tar. It is claimed that any gas undertaking can manufacture the fuel with- ' out any capital outlay on additional plant. The chemists produce the creosote from the residual tar after the gas has been extracted from the coal. The fuel, because of its high flash point and non-inflammable qualities, cannot be used for starting up or idling, and this necessitates carrying a reserve tank of petrol. But once the engine is started it automatically switches over to creosote, which, it is stated, eliminates knocking and contains such a quantity of carbolic acid that the exhaust gases are ren- : dered highly disinfectant. Mr. James Courtney, the engineer- • ing expert of the Belfast Omnibus company, said in an interview: "Over ! a period of fifteen months omnibus , buses running on creosote show a substantial saving over those running on petrol alone. All the vehicles need for cmiversion is a special manifold and anotlier carburetter, the operation of which is purely automatic." Mr. James McCrea, managingdirector of the comp'any said: "The saving on creosote is one penny per mile, and if we convert our whole fleet we shall save approximately £20,000 a year."