The professional world. (Columbia, Mo.) 1901-192?, 1902-11-14
THE USE OF OIL AS FUEL
Railroads and Manufacturing Plants
Replacing Coal With It.

IsSpldCluB SOdl Will IL.
While New York is without an ade-
quate coal supply, San Francisco is
comparatively at ease. The reason for
the difference is that in San Francisco
the use of crude oil for fuel is general.
Other cities are also heavy users of oil
fuel, and in consequence are suffering
much less than New York because of
the coal strike.
The use of crude oil as fuel is at this
time of special interest. There are a
thousand facts bearing upon the sub
ject well known in the oil trade, but
little known to the general public. Dur
ing the past ear railroad and steam
ship lines, factories, electric plants,
public buildings. schools and apartment
houses which formerly burned coal
changed to the use of oil.
as companies in the East and South
are replacing coal with oil. At the wa
terworks in Buffalo, Providence and
Galveston, oil is being used. In New
York the Rapid Transit officials have
begun to consider the use of oil for
generating electricity in their plants.
Cities as far apart as London and
Jersey City are using oi%l-buTning fire
engines. In California briquettes of
crude oil pressed solid, are used in hun
dreds of homes for cooking purposes.
The oil %briquette is as yet chiefly a
French idea, but it is rapidly forcing
its way into domestic economy on the
Pacific slope. The briquettes are blocks
which are said to burn better than coal
and without smoke.
The following statements cleaned
from copyrighted articles by Raymond
l.. Bernier in the aNtional Oil Report
er, and used in the Sun by permission,
throw a flood of light on the increase
in the use of fuel oil.
I'm 1901 more than $40, 900, 900 was ex-
pended in San Francisco alone for coal
DR.. G. T. Deane, secretary of the Cali
fornia Petroleum Miners association,
after a careful investigation, reports
that at the present rate of consump-
ton of fuel oil, the total cost of coal to
San Francisco will be only about S.
000, 600, a reduction in the use of coal
of one-half in one year. More than $50
manufactures in San Francisco have
discarded Goa for OIL"
The Southern Pacific railroad has 210
locomotives converted to all burners
and it has let contracts for eight oil
tanks along it's lines, the tanks having
q NupoNlIs VI -O,DOu " OO,uUU jail
rels. The company has decided to equip
it's entire system for fuel oil, includ-
ing it's railroads, steamship lines and
~ferryboats.
Last April, on the western division of
the Southern Pacific, thirty-nine en-
gines Travelled o total distance of 1O0,-
600 miles, using oil for fuel. If coal had
been used in these engines, it would
have required 1000 tons at a cost of
$40 600. The amount of oil used was
10000 barrels at a cost of $4,000. The
saving to the company was more than
SIG, 000-more than four-fifths.
The Dutch steamship company uses
oil for fuel. The Hamburg-American
line has recently built four steamships
using liquid fuel. The North German
Lloyd line has two steamers of the
kind.
The Santa Fe road is using more than
twice as much oil as the Southern Pa
ciic, or about $4,000 barrels a month.
In all the company has seventy-throe
engines using oil, and thirty others
will shortly discard coal.
An oil-burning locomotive is being
used by the Northern Pacific road with
a view to burning oil on every locomo-
tive on the system. Instead of the cal>
being in the rear, it is in front, giving
the engineer an unobstructed view and
reducing the possibility of accident.
The engineer controls the supply of
oil and water by a twist of the valves
in his cab, and so no fireman is need
ed, another great economy in addition
to the decreased cost of fuel. Accord
ing to the Chicago officials of the
road, the cost of fuel oil is about one-
half that of coal.
Fuel oil is coming into favor with
steamboat men and several Of the
steamers now plying the Mississippi
and it's tributaries are burning it.
All the state institutions in Texas
use fuel oil, and the great smelling
plant at Ell Paso and similar smaller
one throughout the state are doing
likewise.
In the west and southwest, where oil
is plenty and coal scarce, it is natural
that oil fuel should make great prog
ress, yet what is being done in Cali
foria and Texas and the southwestern
states is reflected all over the globe. In
Russia the great railroads are run by
oil-burning~ locomotives, while the use
Of oil fuel is general.
In Philadelphia the United as I'M
provement company is using oil at the
rate of 1900, 00J barrels a year. Many
manufacturers have substituted oil for
coal since the anthracite strike began.
In Newark there are n hreWerv an