New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1871-09-18
PETROLEHM rs FUEL.

Certain experiments with petroleum rs fuel
oro attracting great attention ut tho West
Tho Illinois Central Railroad is using gas
obtained from refuse petroleum oil to heat o
stationary boiler and in fcrgo at its works
in Chicago; and within few days an cxcnr-
sion party from that city was taken down the
river out upon the lake in q steam-tug using
petroleum as fuel. There are certain great
advantages in using the oil; absolute free
dom from smoke and cindcrs being prin-
cipal item. There is less labor and cost in
handling such fuel no deposit of SCOT in the
boiler fines no acid gases from locomotives In
long tunnels, and, with ocean going steamers,
it is possible to lay in the liquid'fuel for much
longer voyages than is practicable with coal.
1t is roundly stated that in the Chicago cx-
pcrimcnts the cost of petroleum is less than
coal as fuel, tho saving being estimated on
the stcam-tug as from 80 to 80 per cent.
Similar announcements of success in such
experiments in different localities, have been
made from time to time during several years.
In 1865, at the Woolwich Dock Yard. England,
it was found that one pound of fuel was re-
Quircd to vapOrize 1871 pounds OF petroleum,
which raised steam in a boiler holding 3OOo
pounds Of water. Locomotives burning COM
mcrcial naphtha alone have made successful
trips, and in France, on the Strasbourg Rail
way, two engines were fitted with furnaces
for kerosene the consumption being from 1Oi
TO IS pounds per mile. But the most extended
of these experiments and most suitable Tor
comparison with those at Chicago, because the
process was very similar, if not exactly the
same, were those of our Navy Department IN
June, 1867 with the U. 8. gunboat Palos, at
Boston, and in the following August at the
Brooklyn Navy-Yard Tho difficulty in previ-
ous experiments was that the vapors of petro-
lcum do not readily mix with common air
sufficiently for thorough combustion, and hence
produce much smoke in burning. But IN
these experiments supcrhcatcd steam was IN
troduced into tho vapOrized petroleum; the
compound vapor being capable of burning
thoroughly and without smoke, because of its
capacity for mixing with air while IN tho act
of combustion
In all the cases enumerated except the pres
ent ones at Chicago, the ultimate objection has
been the extra cost of this fuel. On this point,
and on this alone, there was an unfavOrable
report to the Navy Department on the exper-
iments in 1867. Aud although the cost of coal
at Chicago may DO somewhat greater in pro-
portion to petroleum than in some other 10
calitics of these experiments it is difficult to
understand how so much difference rs to show
q profit in the use of petroleum could have
been obtained there. The prObem was thus
stated, probably with correctness, some years
ago, by The American artisan: The absolute
theoretical evaporating power of a pound OF
| anthracite is 10, aud of pound of petroleum
| % pounds Of water. The average cost OF crude
petroleum is about 81 cents gallon, equal to
| 8 cents per pound that of coal S. per tun, or
1-5 to / of a cent per pound. The petroleum,
therefore, costs 10 times as much as tho coal !;
and the evaporating power obtained from the
| former costs seven times as much as that
from the latter. 1t may be said that in practice
we do not get more than a small proportion Of
the evaporating power of coal, owing to the
imperfection of our furnaces; but surely al equal
OF greater loss of theoretical power must take
place in burning petroleum, when it is con-
sidered that the process includes the Vaporiza-
ton of the petroleum and the aGI itIon TO 1t o. Q.
superheated steam before the compound yapor
is fit for ignition under the boiler.
If burning petroleum as fuel on locomotives
and steamboats, were found practicable and
economical, it would be difficult to prevent
such use of that dangerous fluid. However
safe it may be so far as tried with the appli-
ances used for experiment, the conditions are
entirely reversed in case of accident; and it
needs no prophet to foretell what increased
horrors would be added in cases of collision
on railway train or of steamboats, taking
fire, if for the fuel ordinarily carried an equiva
| 4 IL.