ROCK OIL AS STEAM FUEL.

Southland Times, Issue 566, 21 September 1866, Page 3

ROCK OIL AS STEAM FUEL.

A n series of experiments with a^ view to the practical application of mineral oil as a steam fuel was completed on the 7th inscanfc, at the "Woolwich Dockyard, with success, and results have been obtained unequalled iv importance in respect to the raising of steam for maohinery since the first and original application of coal for that purpose. About eighteen months ago Mr C. J, Richardson, suburitted his method of burning petroleum through a porous material (such as loam, charcoal or coke, lime, brick, and the like, which formed, as it were, and incombustible floor or continuous wick) to the consideration of the Admiralty, and shortly afterwards, upon the favorable report of the officer who was directed to inspect the illustrative apparatus, Mr Eichardson received permission to make practical trials at his own expense in the dockyard. At first the oil was burnt^ in a moveable grate, the patentee having been deterred from trying the use of a steam jet through the unfavorable reports of the American savant, Dr Fisher j but subsequently Mr Eichardson, having succeeded in convincing the Admiralty authorities of the practicability of effectively burning mineral oil through a porous material, further facilities were afforded him to perfect and apply his method to steam boilers. In the course of these trials it became evident that a super-heated steam jet could be employed with advantage, and this means was resorted to in various ways with more or less promising effects ; but very recently the suggestion was made of conveying the steam jet continuously along the whole porous floor of the furnace, and the result has been a perfecb combustion of the oil, and an all but entire absence of smoke; iudeed, so equably can 'ciunijustment of the quantity of oil to the furnace and the superheated steam admitted to insure its entire combustion be made, that a movement of the oil tap or steam tap the breadth of a line will destroy the equilibrium, and cause a generation of smoke greater or less according to the divergence from the proper register. The captain on the deck of a ship could thus, by a glance at the top of the smoke funnel, tell at once whether the engine fires -were in proper order, for generation of smoke, with rock oil, indicates loss of power, and does not, like the clouds from our coal steamers, show a rapid, but, on the contrary, an imperfect, combustion of the fuel. In the case of the oil, in Mr Eichardson's method, a glass tube like that of the steam register allows the height of the inflow to be seen and to be regulated to any height, so as to admit just the right quantity to the furnace. Whether we regard the advantage which oil will give to our war ships, of raising above 181 bof water into steam by a pound of oil, instead of 10 lb by a pound of coal, and which practically means that they can do nearly twice the work, or keep twice as long at sea with no more weight of fuel on board, by burning oil, instead of coal ; or whether we regard she diminished requirements of stowage for fuel, and the consequent profitable application of the balance of ship-space to the freightage of additional cargo in the vessels of the Mercantile Marine ; or the general cleanliness and effectiveness of the oil fuel over the dirty smoky coal, there is equal reason for congratulation in the results of these decisive trials. The actual work yesterday under all temporary difficulties was, with Torbane-hill oil, 37051bs of water evaporated by 2081bs of oil in six hours and ten minutes, or 18.041bs of water evaporated per lb of oil. Considering the circumstances under which, this important result was obtained, it may be possible that with a new boiler and furnaces of sufficient strength and dimensions, from 221bs to 26lbs, or even more, may be done with the Torbane-hill oil ; and, further, from the very great rapidity with which it could evidently be burnt, that a volume and pressure of steam could be got from this material far beyond any competition oti the part of coal. — Mitchell's Steam Register, June 15th.