The Sun.
London, England, 1868-06-26 00:00:00

PETROLEUM FOR iVA VI GA TION.

The Moniteur gives an account of some interest'
ing experiments which took place some short time
back on board the small yacht the Puebla, which
the Imperial family use for their excursions on the
Seine. The Emperor and Empress were both on
board, the former having, a few months pre-
viously, recommended MM. Sainte Claire'
Deville and Dupuy de Lome to examine the
question of substituting petroleum for coal in
steam navigation, and being therefore desirous
of witnessing their first attempt in that direc-
tion, those made in England and America havitig
been practically failures. The apparatus employed
on board the Puebla was a vertical grate fixed t°
the mouth of the ash-pit The door of the fire-
place was blocked up, and its horizontal grate re-
placed by a vaulted ceiling of refractory bricks rest-
ing on the floor of the ash-pit, slightly inclined
inwards. The petroleum, contained in a special re-
servoir, passes through a main tube provided with!
stop-cock, which can, at an instant's notice, cut 01
the supply of oil from the smaller tubes, 13 in number,
which terminate the bars of the vertical grate ahr°
described, each letting out a thin jet of the infisal"
mable liquid, and being provided with a separate
, stop-cock to regulate the emission. The oil 111
down each bar in the shape of a thin stratum, a°
thus reaches the floor, where it has to feed tile,
flame. The old grate of the Puebla, measuring
square metres, could, when heated with coal, pre'
duce a 63-horse power with 240 turns per minute,
under a pressure of 5 atmospheres. \Vitli
petroleum, the number of turns was 242, and
the horse-power 65, the liquid consumed beil
2 kilos. per hour, or 1.47 kilos. per hour, a° a
horse set down at 75 kilos. As the correspoodillPo
consumption in coal would be 2.25 kilos., the ratl
of combustion of the petroleum to the coal is rePrei
sented by 0.66. The former will turn 13 litres °
water into steam for every eight vapourised by c°3l.
All danger of an explosion is obviated by the elf:
cumstance that the reservoir in which the petroleuw
is kept is of iron. Were it kept in a wooden taul'a'
it would gradually ooze through the pores, a°
thus, by impregnating the air with its emanations'
prepare the way for an explosion at the slight°
contact with a flame.

DEMOLITION IN TIIE STRAND.— Yesterday sever'.
of the houses on the north side of the Strand, lying bei.
tween Wellington-street and Catherine-street, were close 0
prior to demolition, for the purposes of the new dila
which is to be erected there. The building known as t-a
Strand Music Hall is to be in a great measure rebuilt, 3/13
yesterday a largo body of workmen were busily et:181'58o
on that part of it which forms a large portion of the 'Wed
side of Catherine-street. On the site which the 1105i0
closed occupied, a grand entrance to the new circus W"
be erected.
THE BIRMINGHAM HORSE SHOW.—Amon" tb:o
prizes awarded for horses at this show iu addition g
those published there are in Class 18—stallions for get°ll,, •
hacks, &c., first to Captain Barlow, Castle Doningt'°;p:
second, to Mr. John Edwards, Sudbury Paddocks, Mldof
sex. An extra prize was awarded to the Marchioness
0,
Hastings for the most entire pony, "Bobby." With ro
ference to the classes for Foxhounds, " rnentered
pies," the awards were the reverse of what wo gay' .0.3c,r1
terday. Mr. C. Colemore obtained :the first and the "-
of Yarborough the second prize.

London : Printed and Published by WILLIAM Atitr it!
of No. 112, Strand, Printer, at THE SUN odic), '
Strand, in the Precinct of the Savoy, in the Og-
Uiddlesta.--Fritiay,funv 261 um