IMPENDING OIL ERA.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 302, 14 May 1913, Page 4

IMPENDING OIL ERA.

DRIVING BIG, SHIPS. There is no doubt that .the internal combustion engine is so far advanced that it is quite possible it will be driving big ships within a few years (writes the London correspondent of the Sydney Morning Herald). It .is true that the largest marine oil engine so fur built has a cylinder .'Win in diameter, and develops only about 1000 to 12(10 horse-power per cylinder. It would hardlv be feasible to engine the most powerful ships with oil engims at present—to get the horsepower of the Australia or the Xew Zealand, for example, they would need 40 cylinders. The Queen Mary is of 70,000 horse-power, and would need about 60 cylinders; and the very latest British cruiser, the Tiger, is to have engines of 110,000 horse-power, which would mean about 100 cylinders. These big battlecruisers must be driven from steam turbines until the cylinder of the internal combustion engine is able to produce much more power than at present. But a fast hiotor-cruiser of fair size is quite within the range of possibility even now. She will be able to carry enough oil to keep the sea for a great time, and range over huge distances, independent of coaling ports; and it is quite possible that she may be provided with an armament which will put Dreadnoughts out of date. It must be remembered that the last year or two have seen such improvements in the torpedo that it lias now a range almost, if not quite, as bip 'as that of the largest guns. They can fire torpedoes now at a fleet 10,000' yards away. And if that fleet is in anything like close order the chances atfe only two to one against the torpedo hitting. Oi course the chances in favour of a shell from a big gun hitting its target at that range in moderate weather are very much greater than that. But one torpedo does far more damage than one shell. The torpedoes of to-day carry three times as much explosive as they did in the Russo-Japanese war. And, therefore, i whilst it is believed that the Dreadnought class is still the strongest to-day, mid the Admiralty is still building them if possible fftronsjer and more unsinkable, it is quite possible that within four or five years the Dreadnought class may have passed out, and a much lighter class of motor battleship may have talcen its place. The possible imminence of that change is one reason which made the Admiraltv advise Canada against laying down all the expensive plant for building Dreadnoughts. If that change does occur, and the lighter ships come into vogue, it will make the task of the British Dominions in the Pacific very much easier, The huge expensive ships, in which other countries in this ocean have tied up their capital, will lose value; and we shall be able to start level with the foremost of them. But it is hot difficult to realise the anxiety of the Admiralty, The anxiety is not made any less by the fact that now, when the reign of oil is about to begin, those in authority in England realise only too well tliat Great Britain, which was one of the richest countries in the world in her coal supply, is one pf the poorest in her oi! supply. The Admiralty cannot be charged with not having appreciated this—because it is a matter in which it really has shown great foresight. It has seen the change from conl to oil fuel coming for years ,and it has easily led the world in experiments. It has "laid down immense storage tanks at Portsmouth and elsewhere, and is laying down many more. It has built special steamers to carry their oil oversea. But this does not niter the fact that the British Empire is weak in oil fields. Even if the geared turbine engine (which has not yet reached perfection, and with wlu.ih the Admiraltv is exiierimenting in TT.M-S. Badger) continues to lead the oil engine this docs not in any way dispense with the need for oil. It must lie used increasingly as fuel for the production of steam —the space which it saves and the ease with which it is handled make that 1 certain.

The result of all this is that tlio Admiralty staff has all that it can do to look six months ov a vear ahead at the present moment, anil the miestion of what will ultimately happen in the Paeiin apt to be shelved. Tn fact, it is Canada ami Australia and Vow Zealand which will have to settle that question, which they can do as soon as Canada and Xew Zealand have come to their respective decision to start upon some permanent policy. It is all the r>'ore important that they should get the First Lord of the Admiralty to a conference. When they have him seated there between the three of thera, he will have to think their questions out to a conclusion. The First Lord himself has asked the Commonwealth Ministers to mention the proposal for a conference again a little later.. He is favourable to it—probably more so than some of his technical ad-V<-rs—lmt he is human, and it is natural to postpone remoter questions, however important, when so lriuch urgent business presses.