Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1900-01-26
OUR NEW YORK LETTER.
William Barclay Parsons, Chief En-.
gineer Of the Big Tunnel,

and the Antithesis of Contractor
Mcdonald - oil Not Likely TO he
Used us Steamships Fuel.
New YORK. Jan. % Special. AL
though Johnny Mcdonald, the con
tractor who is about to undertake the
digging and construction of the great
underground rapid transit road in Man
haitian, is more sought after just now
than any one else connected with the
enterprise, particularly by men who
wish to be subcontractors, there's an
other man who is going to be almost
as important throughout the continu-
ance of the work.
This is William Barclay Parsons,
chief engineer of the rapid transit COM
mission, who will pass upon the work
as it is completed and whose word will
sometimes mean the difference between
profit and loss to the subcontractor
william Barclay Parsons.
William Barclay Parsons is type
quite as much as is Johnny Mcdonald,
though of an entirely different sort.
McDonalds like is to be found almost
everywhere among contractors who I'M
dertake extensive works. He is an
Irish-American of the pushing, self
contained, self confident type. Natural
| ly voluble and open hearted, the ext
gencies of his business have made him
retcent to all but few. He has all
the daring of the most progressive
| American and all the impulsiveness of
the son of the Emerald Isle, albeit the
latter trait has been got well in hand
| and rarely shows itself except in eX-
! ceptional circumstances. He is rath-
er portly man physically, bald as to
head informal, often abrupt, as to
manners. and the ncatness of his attire
is absolute
Parsons is a New Yorker born and
bred. Unlike Mcdonald, he has had
the advantages of all the training in
the schools that money can buy. lie
is a living reputation of the oft repeat
ed statement that all the good things
in New York 20 to outsiders y birth
and training. His manners are pol
ished. his person is slender and thin,
his speech has the peculiar accent of
the cosmopolitan New Yorker which
beSpeaks extensive travel as well as
careful metropolitan training. He is
familiar with society and its ways
and, like so many of his class. he adds
the ability to write well to his other
accomplishments. His travels have in
Guided Il trip to Europe, and just be
fore the opening of the rapid transit
bids he had completed an exhaustive
article on our trade possibilities will
China for one of the better known mag
aznes. Mr. Parsons is yet some year,
under 40.
Oil as Steamship Fuel.
Much interest has been rearoused o
late in the possible use of petroleum
for steamship fuel by the publication
of paragraph that steps were abou
to be taken to make extensive use o
the same in a branch of the United
States governments marine service.
Maybe so. but that petroleum viii
ever be used extensively as fuel 70
ocean going ships is an exceedingly re
mote probability. This prediction
/ based on the statement of big steam
ship man to the writer only n few day
ago. According to this man, ther
isn't enough petroleum produced amt
ally to more than make beginning a
! supplying the demand that would 70
low its general Introduction as n steaI
maker on ocean vessels.
: This was discovered years ago by til
: Pennsylvania Railroad company.
was at that time decided by that con
pany to substitute oil for coal in its Il
comotives if practical tests shoul
! show its adaptability as railroad fue
With this in view, n locomotive wa
changed from a coal burner to an o
burner and for some months was ru
regularly on the road. The result
. were highly satisfactory in many way
= Not only did the machine do its wOI
as effectively as when it burned Goa
but it made no smoke, and the hard i
r bors of the fireman were dispense
d with almost completely. But calcul
II lions showed that, after all, oil cou
not be generally used on railroads.
Q Not OIL Enough to Go Round.
It These calculations had to do wi
il the amount of oil used by the engil
in continuous service for a number
II months. When this was multipli'
e by the number of engines on the Pen
= sylvania system alone, it was foul
II that it amounted to almost as mu
y as the entire output Of oil at that tin
~ 1t needed only the slightest consid'
q alton of the question to show that su
+: a proportion of the total output Won
utterly demoralize the petroleum mi
z. ket. First of ALL 1t would increa
\ the price to such an extent that
20 use on locomotives would be far me
costly than the use of coal. That alo
i would have spoiled the plan, but
= other considerations which prevent
80 its adoption were of even greater }
80 portance to the world at large.
Or You will understand this read
er when | say that the increase in pr
Sc and the decrease Of the available C
at rent supply would have made Ike
c. sene. 1.-The light Of the poor the wo
over, quite out of the question by a
-, but the rich. Indeed, 1t would ha
~ revolutionized things to an ext
HI, hardly understandable by any one W
re has not studied the subject deeply
II need hardly be added that the I