The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1886-06-26 00:00:00

USE OF PETROLEUM AS FUEL.

Colonel C. E. Stewart, Bengal Staff Corps, read a
paper before the Royal United Service Institution on
"The Use of Petroleum as Fuel in Steamships and
Locomotives, based on its employment in that way on
the Caspian Sea and in the Trans-Caspian Region."
The lecturer said that for the last twelve
years most of the steamers running on the
Caspian Sea or Volga river have burned
astatki, which is the refuse left after the
more volatile oils have been distilled off from
crude petroleum. All factories and refineries at
Baku, nearly 100 in number, burn astatki for fuel
for the heating of their steam boilers. Besides this,
the very numerous factories at Zaritzin and other
places on the Volga use this fuel, and also some
factories at Moscow, and at least one at St. Peters.
burg. The following is a description of what is
known in Russia as astatki. When the crude oil is
.aken from the wells at Balakhana, situated some
eight miles from the port of Baku, it is first pumped
hitt., shallow basins, where it stands for a short time
to deposit sand, with which it is largely mixed.
It is then pumped into close reservoirs, and
delivered by the pipe lines (of which there are
twelve belonging to different companies) to the re-
fineries situated on the Bay of Baku. The crude oil
is then run into great iron boilers, and is distilled
either by fire alone, or superheated steam is introduced
into the boiler, while the outside of the boiler is at the
'same time heated by the direct action of a petroleum
fire. First the volatile oils, known under the name of
benzene and gassolene, are taken off, then kerosene a
much less inflammable oil, and also solar oil. The
Baku practice is to consider all oil between 0.780
and 0.860 specific gravity (water being taken
as 1) as kerosene. This is a much higher
specific gravity than American oil. All refuse
having a higher specific gravity than 0880 is
run off into the astatki or refuse tank. This
is the substance adopted for burning in lecomotives
and in the furnaces of marine boilers. Owing to the
extent to which the inflammable portion of the
original crude oil had been taken off, the astatki
could be carried with perfect safety in the hottest
climate. The lecturer exhibited a specimen of the
burner that is generally adopted in Russia. Through
a straight pipe ending in a slightly flattened orifice a
jet of steam is driven. Astatki is allowed to flow
from a small tank through a curved pipe tc
meet the steam, which pulverises it or divides
it into fine spray. This fine spray of mixed steam
and astatki is driven by the force of the steam jet
into the furnace, in which a fire of wood or cotton
waste has already been kindled. This fire is continu-
ally fed by a spray of mixed steam and astatki. It is
necessary, before starting a steam engine by this
method to get up steam with either a wood or coal
fire tc supply the steam necessary for using the pul-
veriser. The lecturer then proceeded to consider the
obtainable supply of astatki, together with its probable
cost in the event of a great demand, and recom-
mended it for vessels—first, because it required rather
less room than coal for its stowage; secondly,
because it could be stowed on board vessels in spaces
that could not possibly be availed of for coal, for in-
stance, between the inner and outer bottom of a ship;
thirdly, because it was cleanly in use, there being no
cinders or ashes; fourthly, because it almost did away
with the necessity for a fire crew beyond the number-
necessary for cleaning the machinery and superin-
tending the steam; and fifthly, because of the greater
facility it afforded for loading. If we had large reser-
voirs containing astatki in Cyprus, at Malta, Gib-
raltar, Aden, Ceylon, Singapore, and .Hong-Kong,
our vessels which needed that fuel would have an
immense advantage over the ships of any nation burn-
ing coal.