The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. TUESDAY, APRIL 30, 1912. DR. RUDOLPH DIESEL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIII, Issue 3, 30 April 1912, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. TUESDAY, APRIL 30, 1912. DR. RUDOLPH DIESEL.

That very remarkable man, Dr. Rudolph Diesel, the German enginee}' who invented the oil engine which hears his name, was recently in London, and while there was interviewed. In his matter-of-fact fashion ho told his interviewer that the importance oi the Diesel engine lies in the fact that it can burn any kind of liquid fuel, whether vegetable 'or mineral, and for power-generating purposes oi

would entirely displace solid substance before many years have passed. Asked if- tin’s would not mean that the day of England’s commercial greatness was over, Dr. Diesel said: “Not at all. I said oil, not petroleum. England possesses a vast oil reservoir in her coalfields.-Have you never heard of such a substance as coal tar, which is manufactured in enormous quantities at every gas work;;? Well, the coal tar now being produced in Great Britain, and very largely wasted, contains enough oil, 1 believe, to keep the entire British Navy supplied with fuel if the ships were engined on my principle. England will live by her coal in the future as in the past—only with this difference; she will get every wince of power out of her coal instead )f recklessly casting vast quantities if it to the winds. I can foresee the day when all coal brought to the surface will lie converted, probably at the pit-head, into gas, coke, and oil. The oil will be largely used for driving engines to generate electricity in hulk. An immense economy in tire use of the nation’s limited coal supply will thus he effected—an economy equivalent in the lopg run to centuries of commercial, activity.” Asked later how all this boro upon the coal strike, Dr. Diesel said that instead of having one main source of, power, namely, coal, the nation will possess several. Certain countries will undoubtedly find their support in crude petroleum. Others, such as England, will continue to use coal, though in u new form. Others, again, will he able to fall hack upon the abundant supplies of vegetable oil. Thus there will he no possibility of a monopoly in the control of power. Each nation will he selfdependent, yet in times of emergency it will he able to supply its fellownations. For a Diesel engine can burn any kind of fuel so long as it is in liquid form. He also went on to say that there would come a time when coal and smuts would no longer ho associated with railway travelling. In place of steam engine and tender there would he a sort of addition;;! saloon carriage, filled with compact and practically noiseless machinery, fed with oil by an engineer who, though he may still he greasy, will at any rate lie innocent of grime. All those virions have been slowly shaping themselves in the brain of the engineer since ho was a lad at school. “The idea of the Diesel engine came to me one day when, as a young student, I was listening to a lecture on mechanics. For ten years—from the age of 2 a to the age of .‘ld—l worked steadily on the theory of the matter, and for fhe next live years 1 war, engaged in practical experiments. The irct Diesel engine, quite a i’tfle thing, was put on the market. There was a

time' when 1 thought progress woulil hire hoi'll much quicker, hut now i see that that could not In 1 so. i am well satisfied, for the aba is wire to he triumphant.” So rays tiu great engineer himself, and his words seem prophetic. The oil-driven shop ha;; made her appearance and is a success, and ;n our own town toe Electrical Supply Company is installing a big Diesel engine which is to he driven hy crude oil from the wells at New Plymouth. In this direction science is marching rapidly forward.