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8 MARINE Petroleum Fuel for Vessels. Experiments undertaken recently by the United States navy have resulted in considerable 'discussion regarding the substitution of liquid fuel for coal aboard steam vessels. Several articles written by naval officers who have had charge of this work point to the conclusion that the advantages which would follow the adoption of naphtha fuel for use in torpedo boats are many and are more marked than would be the case with larger vessels. Principal of these advantages are the rapidity with which the bunkers could be filled; the storage of oil in such parts of the boat as were unfit for cargo.; diminution in the number of men necessary to tend the fires and of the physical fatigue of the firemen and greater power of the evaporation of liquid fuel, the proportion being seven to four. A modern torpedo boat, which at a given speed could go 4,000 miles, would, if she had in place of coal the same weight in oil fuel, steam 7,000 miles. Thus by this means her sphere of action would be nearly doubled. There is total combustion in oil fuel, hence ashes and cinders do not occur and there is no need of cleaning furpaces and sweeping flues. Finally, there is the complete absence of smoke. Could all these advantages be safely and surely secured there is no doubt that petroleum fuel would become univer- sally adopted. But there are disadvantages which have not yet been overcome. One of these is the uncertainty still existing, in spite of all that has been said to the contrary, of the safety in storing and handling petroleum. Again, no thoroughly satisfactory furnace has yet been devised for burning it. Again there have been reports that as afuel petroleum is not so efficient as coal, and finally that it is more expensive than coal. These last two reasons, if clearly established, would condemn naphtha fuel. An article in a recent issue of the Iron Age explains, very clearly, the kind of petroleum fuel that is suited to ships and the methods adopted in using it. The writer has evidently had something todo - with the experiments conducted by the navy department. He says: '"'Tn the first place it is well to bear in mind the fact that what is often called kerosene fuel, or naphtha fuel, in speaking of liquid fuel, is neither the one nor the other. These two are inflammable, contain- ing volatile hydrocarbons; and in the second place they emit an odor and when consumed make smoke. The naphtha used by ships in the furnaces of their boilers is the residue or crude petroleum after the. volatile oils have been distilled from it, the kerosene, benzine and other derivatives with low ignition points having been expelled; it is deodorous and can be burned without making smoke. This residuum isa yellowish brown, thick, oily liquid, resembling somewhat light colored molasses. It is perfectly non-inflammable up to 350 degrees, can be carried safely in large quantities, does not deteriorate by being stored or exposed, does not evaporate, and is not detrimental to metal tanks or to the inside of the skin of a ship. The name of this petrol- eum fuel is residuum, or astaki, naphtha fuel, or mazut; perhaps the last is the one most commonly used to designate this liquid fuel. A Russian report states that mazut can not be set on fire by burning sub- stances thrown on its surface; even when drops of molten metal are dropped into it inflammation occurs only around the stream of metal, and when the drops disappear below the surface of the fluid the fire is extinguished. Firing into the residuum with bursting shells does not ignite it. In order to consume the whole it is necessary to raise the entire mass to its ignition temperature; without contact with flame, this produces evaporation. Liquid fuel is extensively used in steamers plying on the Caspian sea and in locomotives employed near that region. Of course, the whole country thereabouts being an oil well, the naph- tha is cheap and very easy to obtain, and the conditions governing its use are far different from those which hold in other portions of the world under different circumstances. Russia, therefore, has had more practical experience in the use of liquid fuel than any other country. She has further made the most extensive experiments in the burning of petroleum fuel in war ships, and especially in torpedo boats, where the success has been sufficiently marked to decide the government to use it almost entirely in this small craft and to some extent in their coast defense vessels. 'In our country the use of liquid fuel was attempted experiment- ally last year in a small torpedo boat, and the results, all things con- _ sidered, were in the main quite satisfactory. Such, too, has been the reported experience everywhere, for all naval powers have experi- mented more or less with liquid fuel. Italy has adopted petroleum fuel for use in her torpedo boats, and is introducing it as an auxiliary fuel in some of her larger vessels. Germany has -also decided to sup- ies tien eta REVIEW. ae ply it to her torpedo boats and has constructed large reservoirs at Wijl- helmshaven for its storage. France has made many attempts look- ing to its employment, though she has not yet definitely adopted it. "Many different ways of using petroleum fuel have been put to the test and have been found wanting in some particular. It should be stated, however, that since in nearly every case the boiler to be fired with residuum was one which was originally designed to be fired with coal, undoubtedly many drawbacks resulted from this cause. Again, the boiler and steam fittings were for controlling the ordinary feed ~ water, drafts, etc., common to all coal burning furnaces, and these makeshifts must have interferred, more or less, with the success of the experiments. The method which has been most experimented with, and which has given most satisfactory results, is that in which the' oil is sprayed into the furnaces by means of steam or air blasts. This method has in fact, superseded the other methods. The primary ques- tion to be settled is whether in order to pulverize the naphtha fuel jt is better to make use of air or of steam. The objection urged against the use of air is the amount of space the compressors would occupy in the vessel and their weight. On the other hand, the objection raised against the employment of steam is that an undue quantity of it would have to be constantly supplied to overcome that which must be un- avoidably lost by escape, no condensers having yet been devised capa- ble of supplying this loss. "In the equipment for burning liquid fuel fitted to the Maine's torpedo boat, fire bricks partially grooved across one face were laid on the ordinary gratebars at an angle of 45 degrees, thereby forming air ducts over the entire surface of this corrugated bed. The liquid fuel was distributed over this bed in a fan shaped spray and was there heated to incandescence, the air passing through the grooves and unit- ing with the gases of the oil spray, making a perfect oxyhydrogen flame. The pulverization of the oil was effected by compressed air, In the Russian experiments, which were more thorough and comprehen- sive than those made in our country, the torpedo boat Wiborg was used and steam was employed for breaking up the liquid fuel, a spec- ially designed evaporator giving highly satisfactory results. In firing with naphtha fuel in Russia, using steam as a pulverizer, the steam entered the burner at a pressure greater than forty-five pounds, and, passing into the furnace, was dispersed; upon its exit it met the stream of naphtha, pulverized it, and the mixture of steam, naphtha dust and air burned."' Stocks of Grain at Lake Ports. The following table, prepared from reports of the Chicago board of trade, shows the stocks of wheat and corn in store in regular eleya- tors at the principal points of accumulation on the lakes, May 22, 1897: Wheat, bushels. Corn, bushels. CINCAGO nected Meee ares. es -. 6,208,000 4,857,000 eee ee ne Oe Me 4,262,000 8,000 IMG aC Cenc) soles lees 170,000 3,000 er et es 76,000 1,000 POLO MONA sii fees Pale coalesce Pate OE sae 829,000 223,000 Bannon Ween aie 625,000 214,000 12,170,000 5,306,000 As compared with a week ago, the above figures show, at the sev- eral points named, a decrease of 1,214,000 bushels of wheat and 1,254,000 bushels of corn. Within the past three years, lake vessels to the number of twenty- nine have been fitted with steam towing machines, 'all of the type made by the American Ship Windlass Co. of Providence, R.I. The list includes the steamers Aurora, Italia, Bulgaria and Caledonia, owned by John and James Corrigan of Cleveland; steel tow barges Martha, Malta, Manda, Marcia and Magna owned by the Minnesota Steamship Co. of Cleveland; steel barge Constitution, owned by the Interlake Co., Cleveland; steamers Rappahannock and Sacramento, owned by James Davidson, West Bay City, Mich; car ferry barges Nos. 1 and 2, owned by Lake Michigan Car Ferry Transporation Co., Chicago; steel oil barges Nos. 58 and 81, owned by Standard Oil Co.; steel tow barges Tyrone and Antrim, owned by American Transpor- tation Co. of Fairport, O.; steel barge Geo. K. Hartnell, owned by Northwestern Transportation Co., Detroit; steel barge Carrington, owned by C. W. Elphicke & Co., Chicago, and steel barges Alex. Holley, James Nasmyth, Sir Isaac Lothian Bell, Geo. H. Corliss, Alfred Krupp, W. LeBaron J enney and Sidney G. Thomas, owned by Bessemer Steamship Co. of Cleveland. * a