Los Angeles herald., 1892-09-04

the reason that she has no tires 10 clear,
and ber pressure of steam is uniform
from one weeks end to the other. She
was built in 1887, and is one of the most
profitable coasters in the trade. Now,
suppose that an oil-burning ship, OF the
capacity of the Ormuz. should be built
at San Francisco. The Ormuz is the
largest of four vessels built in 1887 for
the Orient Steamship company, by
Harlan, Wolf & Co., of Belfast, Ire
land. Her gross tonnage is 1886 tons,
and her net tonnage 1924 tons. She
has triple expansion engines OF AS, 6S
and 92inches bore of cylinder, and eight
feet stroke of piston. She can steam
$50 miles per day with 80 tons of coal. in
good weather, and was on board other
once when she made 462 miles, ona con-
sumption of 127 tons, in "a hours. Take
a ship like that and build her with
double hull, go as to form tanks for the
reception of this oil, and 80 separated as
to enable the tanks to be filed with
water as fast as the oil became exhaust
ed, and the ship could be kept in per-
feet trim and run at least 410 miles per
day on 1900 gallons OF oil, as she would
WORK THE STEAM THREE TIMES
where the Solano only worked it once;
and hence it might not be unlikely that
she would make 440 miles per day in
good weather, on less than 1000 gallons
of oil. The voyage from San Francisco
to Sydney is 7,240 miles and occupies
twenty-three and half days. the rate
being 1877 miles per hour. At this rate
the Alameda and Mariposa lose about
thirteen miles per day while the fires
are being cleaned. Take a ship the size
of the Ormu and she has ten boilers, of
which only eight are in use simulta-
neously. There are always two laid off
for cleaning. There yet exists vast op-
portunity for the petroleum ship. OF
course, it is matter that is yet in its
infancy. and we have, therefore, good
right to expect greater developments as
the years advance and the world grows
older. A glance at the detentions on
the route from San Francisco, oc-
casioned by coaling up the ship, will
show one advantage of petroleum over
coal. The detentions are IL hours at
Honolulu, 6 at Apia and "a at Auckland,
making AZ hours in all, which might
easily be reduced to 12 if oil were
used instead of coal. But science is Wig
liant, and marches in the van of progress
with lighted torch and tireless step, so
we can look to
THE PETROLEUM STEAMER OF 1900.
as a positive certainty, filling her
tanks at each end of the route between
San Francisco and New York, and max
ing the Nicaragua canal her thorough
fare between the two oceans. With that
canal once completed, the competition
will be 30 great as to necessitate the
least possible number of men on the
payroll and it will be in the saving of
firemeu's wages, as shown by the ex-
hibit OF the big ferry.boat Solano, that
the efficacy of petroleum will begin
to come in. My own idea is
that the present appliances for
burning oil are yet very imperfect, and
therefore l deem Captain Lubbock's
action, above referred to, as worthy
move made in behalf of the travelling
public. Having served long appren-
ticeship on river steamboats, in subordi-
nate capacities, before reaching a cap
taincy, can appreciate the-discrimina-
tion which prompts competent COM
mander always to take the safe side of
any question in which the least danger
is involved. America is the cradle of
and the tireless brain of
science will yet devise something which
will render OF; as safe steam fuel as
coal.
THE CHEMICAL RELATION
of the substance burned on these oil
fred steamers is not generally under
stood. 1t is not crude petroleum, as
is generally supposed, but refuse or
residue left after extracting the four
lighter oils from the petroleum that
issues from the rock. The first of these
oils is gasoline, of 81 degrees specific
gravity; the second is naptha, of "a
degrees the third benzine, of 63 de-
grees; and the fourth is the water.col-
ored white Illuminating oil, of 48 degrees.
The refuse, which has specific gravity
of 26 degrees. is then sold for fuel, and
this is the oil upon which the computa-
tions above given were made. By the
time that the perfect oil-burning boiler
is completed, there will be an iron ship
building yard either at Redondo or
Santa Monica, and then we shall show
the world how fast and how economi-
cally the Southern California ship can
run. L. b. nj.