Los Angeles herald., 1892-09-04

fuel article than to refine for purposes
of illumination. The Mattole oil wells
have never as yet enriched anybody con-
nected with them, while the progress OF
the oil traffic of Southern California has
gone ahead on the slow and sure princi-
Pile, expanding year by year, and be-
coming daily more popular.
| FOR ALL MANUFACTURING PURPOSES,
this article of ,crude petroleum pro-
duced here is great desideratum, as it
enables cities to become great centers of
manufactures without any of the smoke
which 80 often overhangs them like a
fall. Ali the power-houses in this city,
both for the cable and the electric tram
ways, are fed with this sort of fuel. and
no smoke is emitted from their Chin
neys. At the present prices the best OF
Wellington coal, which is the only thing
approaching bituminous coal found on
the coast, can be laid down for
81 per ton at San Francisco,
and $3.50 at San Pedro; and
yet, with all the advantage of owning q
mine near Como, and getting their coal
at probably less than Sc per ton on their
Oakland wharves, the Southern Pacific
folks raised the very old scratch when
informed by Capt. HI. s.. Lubbock,
United States district inspector of steam
ers, that they must cease using it as fuel
on their ferry boats. This grew out of
the explosion on the steamer Julia,
lying at the South Vallejo wharf, in
1887. This order has since been modi-
fed by the secretary of the treasury, to
admit of petroleum fuel being used on
steamers engaged exclusively in freight
ing business. So what it's profits must
be, can be readily inferred from the fact
that the railroad folks preferred it to
coal at $6 per ton.
GREAT RESULTS WERE ATTAINED,
so far as economy was concerned, in the
matter Of fuel, but whether they did not
waste in boiler iron all that they saved
in heat, is very doubtful, as there were
big jobs of boiler repairs on the steam
ers Oakland, Piedmont and Amador
Immediately afterwards. My own idea
of the matter is like this: The Southern
Pacific is railway corporation, in which
the advice of a steamboatman goes for
about nil. Mr.. Stevens, their master
mechanic, was railway man, and
good one, but as soon as he
came to tackle steamboats,, he got into
water that was over his head. I shall
die in the belief that his way OF feeding
petroleum blew up the Julia, and that
the Oakland and Piedmont were both in
danger of similar mishaps. Whenever
some man gets into that concern who
understands feeding petroleum 90 as not
to burn out the boilers, there will be no
more danger of petroleum as fuel than
of pine wood or Wellington coal. The
experiments of the Southern Pacific, as
embodied in the report of Mr.. John
Birmingham, who has since succeeded
Captain Lubbock as district supervisor,
are very we'll worth reading by any man
interested in
PETROLEUM LANDS HEREApoUTs.
From that report I CLEAN the follow
ing items of interest: He first shows the
work of the big ferry-boat Solano. the
largest in the world, on Carquines straits
DEC, 's3, to FEB. '85, Is MONTHS WITH COAL
1027l& tons Carbon Hill coal, at
5724H tons Empire mine coal, at
2oSoX tons Carbon hill COAL at $5 SO 12,017 Is
Wage. of a.em.n sssssS s,ssS 7S 7S
Miles run in that period, 1904.
Cost per mile in fuel (cents) )..........518 Is
Cost per mile in hremen's wages (cents). 1l.96
63I.Os
MARCH, 's5, TO AUG, 'S6. 1s MONTHS, WITH OIL.
23O5L barrels of oil. at 81 .65. ....$ 1852 16
16,909 barrels of oil, at $l.70....... 2S,745 80
ss2,ee7 46
wages Tato1 81 npemen. npet 4sS 20 90
Niles uesar run Hoii in that period 1908 i'4 81
Cost per mile in cents (fueD. .44742
Cost per mile in cents (wages). ..........1 1925
563.6s
GREAT SAVING is EFFECTED
in the wages of fremen between oil
burning and coal-burning boats, as the
deck hands will handle the oil on the
boat at no extra expense whatever,
while on the Oakland and Piedmont the
handling of coal from the supply bunk
ers to the steamers hold, cost Sc per
day, and ON the Solano about So, her
consumption being go tons per day,
against about % tons for each of the
others. The saving, as shown by the
foregoing table, is 81 2-5 cents per mile
in favor of oil over coal, giving
the result of 94.16 gallons Of
oil equal to ton of good
ordinary coal. It would not be equal to
Wellington, however. The Oakland
and Piedmont having but few minutes
of lay-over time at each end of their
route, were obliged to keep their fires
constantly going while lying at the
dock. This made a much greater con-
sumption of oil than in the case of the
Solano, vet in the case of these boats it
took 1885 gallons of oil to equal ton
of Carbon Hill coal worth $3.50, which
was a saving of As per cent in favor of
oil, not counting the Sc per day saved on
each boat by not having to take coal on
board. Mr.. Birmingham, who was ap-
pointed to make this examination py
GooDALL, PERKINS & co.,
agents of the Pacific Coast Steamship
company, reported against the use of
petroleum on account of diminished
speed, as that corporation has to run all
it's boats. except the potato droghers
between Monterey and Point Arena, on
a schedule that requires almost railroad
promptness. Hence they did not adopt
it; but there were other good reasons.
The Pacific Coast is controlled in New
York, and it's stockholders growl fright
fully at every item of expenditure on
this western shore, and the cost of
altering the boilers 80 as to burn
oil would have entailed an ex-
pense that would have set the Knick-
erbockers crazy. Again, their COM
manders are nearly all men who had
grown gray in their employ, were gem