WAR NOTES

Taihape Daily Times, 31 December 1917, Page 6

WAR NOTES

"INVISIBLE SHIPS."

Mr Thomas Edison proposes by marine "camouflage" to create a steamship without a skyline. Shippmg circles in America are keenly interested in the announcement that preliminary tests have proved successful, and it is maintained that any freighter can be quickly and easily converted. A vessel so equipped is Sosolutely invisible at a short distance, and the difficulty of a black smoke tfail is overcome by vessels carrying 300 tons of hard coal, or sufficient to take them across the danger zone. Many ships of this character are said to have got back safely to America from Europe without any evidence that they were observed by a submarine. According to an American compiled table based upon official figures of sailings and sinkings, the present odds against British ships being attacked are 105 to 1, French 166 to 1, Italian 242 to 1. Odds against sinkings: Britisn 181 to 1, French 314 to 1, Italian 333 to 1. Hopes are expressed that The general adoption of the scheme will effectively thwart German piracy.

ECONOMY IN COAL. How to stop the waste of burning coal in open fires, and how to get far more power and use out of it by concerting it into gas or oil, is being considered by the Fuel Research Board, of which Sir George B'eilby, F.R.S., is director. Among the objects are the provision of home suppliesi of fuel oil for the navy, cheaper and more plentiful electrical power by the carbonisation and gasification of the coal now used for steam-raising, cheaper and cleaner heating in the home by the similar treatment of the 35 to 40 million tons of ,raw coal now burnt annually in Great Britain for domestic purposes, cheaper town gas. The board states that to distil 1,000,000 tons of fuel oil for the navy it would be necessary to carbonise 20,000,000 tons of coal. The coke produced would amount to 15,000,000 tons. A matter under consideration is the use to which this coke could be put. A research station is to be built at East GAS-BAG MOTORS. The scarcity of petrol has brought into prominence the use of ordinary coal gas for motor power, and it is a common thing now to see motors of all descriptions careering about with excrescences on top or at the back like half-inflated balloons. In the great majority of the vehicles the gas is stored at atmospheric pressure in flexible containers or gas-bags, made of balloon fabric or similar material and carried on the roofs of vehicles like closed delivery vans. A variant of this method is to mount the gasbag on a two-wheeled trailer towed behind the vehicle. Though coal-gas Taries considerably in quality Ih different places, roughly 250 cubic feet may be taken as equivalent to one gallon of petrol, and in comparison, therefore, it is an extremery bulky fuel. Still, sufficient storage capabilities can be contrived to enable respectable distances to be fun without re-charging, even by the heaviest vehicles. A large flexible container bad a capacity of 930 cubic" feet, and, as the lorry on which it - fitted consumes a gallon of petrol for every 10 miles, the range of action per charge is about 35 to 40 miles. Even when peace returns motorists oT~SII •classes will find it very convenient to have a fuel which will render them independent of. petrol, and which can be procured at a price equivalent to petrol, Is a gallon.