OCR Text |
Show TESTING LIQUID FUEL Naval Officer Trying It for the Warships. IT IS OF GREAT IMPORTANCE Commander John H Edwards Is Conducting Con-ducting tho Experiments With the Utmost Thoroughness and Economy Heport of Them Will Soon be Printed for Oencrnl Distribution-Whatever Distribution-Whatever Ke3Ults Are Beached Will Be Open to the Public, With No Patents on Them Washington Oct "O-The experiments experi-ments that hive been under headw ly foi the past two months In rharpe of i I.leut Commander lohn n Fdwardsof Ihe navy to determine the efile lency of liquid fuel for warships hive on Importance Im-portance hardly supperled bv the average av-erage cltlsen Thene experiments were I authorized by Congres on Ihe sugges- i lion of the ecrctniy of the Navj slm plv for the purpose of studying oil as fuel for the uses of the navy It was not Intended thit the scope of the Inquiry In-quiry or the experiments should neces mllv ro beyond this and enter the 1 ron I economic field In which the man ufacturer households or the managers of transportation companies by land and water are concerned I'navoldablj however It Ins been neeeary to traverse tra-verse the whole field of facts In regard to mineral oil as a sour e of light nnd heat 1 ha appropriation for the ex lerlments was 2"000 but the work i clone If conlucted under private man agement would have cot ptobablv five time? this sum Numerous cxpeit olllccrs of (he navy have been detailed to aselu In the experiments nnd when ever machinery of onv kind was required re-quired lecourse has been had to the n ivy yatds and the Government shops In this way wlnt would under ordinary ilrcumtane,os have caud a lirge ex pen llture has really con little Com mnn lei niwards has from the first given the Inquiry n broad scope Ho has sought ndvlce nnd co operitlon from all parts of the worll and from every person it nil Inteiested nnd com let nt In Ihe general theorv nnd prac the of the ue of oil as fuel Sevenl expeilmeuts hive been suggested by Pilule Individuals who"? Ideas were found to have espeel il pertinency Men hive come from every oil producing region re-gion in the country ind prominent rallroid men and manufacturers who have token up the stu ly of oil as a source of rower hive been Invited to come to Wnshlngtoh and witness the experiments nn I con'rlbiite from their experience to the general knowledge of the subject The report of the experiments will soon be printed for heneral distribution and cannot fall to stimulate Interest all over the country In the use of oil for pow er While the original scope of the In-vestlgallon In-vestlgallon was limited the discoveries npply to the general ue of petroleum as fuel for power There will he no patent on the methods or the meins of use devised by the Government They will be open to ndantatlon nnd use hy Ihe public genernllj In this under Commander Fdwards's able manage, mint of the experiments, the determinations determi-nations that have been reiched have a klgintlc value, which tan hardly he tcallzed now In the Infancy of the cf. fort to use oil for pn ver Probably the most Importnnt fundamental funda-mental dlexoverj Is that the oil is not Itself to be used directly us a eombiistl hie but Is first tn be ntomlzed or va-porlzed va-porlzed This Is done under pressure either of compressed nlr or steam I'p to this time nearly the whole expendl ture of effort to devlso a method of burning oil has been along the line of direct combustion There are over 3000 patents and clilnii for patents on file III the patent olllce In which this is the base of the supposed Invention an 1 not one of them Is of any value whitever In the light of the Government experiments experi-ments The manufacturer or shipbuilder ship-builder who woull endeavor to apply any one of them practically woull reach only failure ind the Ims of his Investment In the experiment The measure of tfilrlenoy from oil Is yet under Investigation lhiough has been determined, however to Inillcnte that oil Is far moie elllclent than coal for making steam In either warshlrs or merchant vessels It Is not unlikely tint when the report of the piesuit ex lerlments Is concluded It will uppear that oil will product anywhere from .0 to 40 per cent more steam than the same quantity or weight of the best Pocahontas toal l!.'Uumont oil has been given n lirge share it attention In the experiments for the reason that Its preponderinre of curoon as romp i red with the pirif. Hue of the Pennsylvania petroleum would seem to indicate thut It Is bettei tvallnhle for combustion to produce powet than for Illuminating purposes The dllllculty exi erlenccd lu n fining It and the cost of tnnsportutlon are added furtors In the way of the general introduction of the Ileaumout outlut throughout the country for lighting imposes The ellli lency of llcnumnnt oil for lower will he demnnstr lied un questionably Iho problem then ic malnlng will be to ascertain the stahlll tv nt production In the lleaumont Mill At present lu the sjcculatlve peilod ol the divelopmeni of this new tlcl I there may natuiully bo some solicitude on this point bleinmhlp tompnnles man ufacturrrs and the t.ov eminent will not commit theniMlves to the expending of millions to provide the necessary hollers and machinery to lonsume mi as fuel with any uncertainty existing is to the permaneiiiy of sii 1 1 It is true that othei del 1m have been dlecnv tied as at Hvonston W yo but thev ore for Ihe most inn wholly unirlHi , It may be thai one well may drain the whole field It Is thn fart that at pres ent ihe mallet for nude etroleum or the. Beaumont grade Is so limited that there are more wells plugged an I mak Ing money in the stock market than there are prodmlng dividends from in tual operation This Is a condition that will mike necessary further Iwiulrv later by Ihe fiovernment before we shall see oil taking the place of coil even In part In Ihe navy Of course It Is not Intended that oil hall entirely displace coil Thnt probi bly will never happen Hut oil will un doubtedly have a most valuable duty to perform In naval warfare hereafter Its greater efficiency Is nt on' e ap parent In the case ( f an emergem Its nilvantagee In the mitter of coal Ing In rough weather or nt seu at om.e sutgedts Itself I'nn If oil nunot he used on equal terms with coal in th matter of roi it will be used by the nuvj for the advantage there Is In It There Is some question of safety in the use of the llmutnont oil nn vessels tint will be looked Into It seems to le the fact that while It Is superloi to th other known virletlei of petroleum ns a lubricant It is its i under some con dltlonr ss of pressure more volatile and mo e penetrating l or Instance the versel owners meiied n trans porting oil from Cipe S ibine to New York or Norfolk have hue! trouble in making the tanks thit held other grades of oil carry nenumont nil it s ems to penetrate lion and stel Plates that always, held tho stair oils without nny trouble In cne Instance It was founl that the shaking of Ileau mont nil In the tanks by the action of the sea volatilized it so that the vapor penetrated a deck and made a large soaked spot The Incident, while seemingly seem-ingly unimportant, had Its alue In Indicating In-dicating the peculiar charactet of the oil and assisted In determining how to handle It In the boilers during the ex-peilments ex-peilments here In Washington The use f oil for the pierent Is Influenced not n little by the mitter of transportation transpor-tation Inquiry Into that phase of the question so far its the Government ls concerned shows that the price of lleaumont oil might be reduced about one hilt If a reasonable rate of transportation trans-portation could be established This In the event of permanent use may settle Itself |