The Washington times., 1902-06-16
Rear Admiral Melville
Pleased With Recent
EXPERIMENTS.
MORE STEAM GENERATED
Board of Engineers Has Made Salts
factory Tests Unde: Many Conditions
Some Defects to Be- Overcome-To
Continue Trials.

As the outcome OF experiments which
have recently been conducted by cfhc. lis
of the Navy Department. Admiral Moi
| vile announced Saturdav that II has
been shown conclusiyely that oil will
make much better fuel for warships
than coal. and it would appear that at
no distant date it may be substituted for
coal in the entire naval fleet.
In using a standar,!ziag boiler, naval
engineers have succeeded in gcnerat-
ing more steam by one-thi-d while using
oil for fuel than was accomplished by
the use of coal. The results of the ex-
periments have aston;shed skilled en-
gineers.
! The problem of coal supply for naval
vessels is altogether different frcm that
encountered ashore. IN the crowded
complication CT a warship mere cubic
space and weight are the all powerful
considerations. the aim is to cvaporate
the greatest quantity of water in the
smallest boile- with the least weight OF
| fuel. and usually without regard to
expense. The water tube boiler adopted
three years ago. cut down the weight
and volume OF the steam producing ap
paratus. and it's higher pressures On
| abled some saving in the reia tive weight
and size of Dropelling engines; but the
size OF bunkers and the weight OF coal
| were increased until coal was not sue
cessfully burning under forced draught.
~ 8, =
have compelled the adoption of larger
| and heavier boilers, greater bunker ca
paciiy. and other prohibitive conditions.
Objections to Oil Overcome
Admiral Melville announced Saturday
the disappearance OF most of these OBJ
jections to oil, and the tests Just be-
ginning in Washington become OF the
greatest interest to naval officers, ma
rine engineers and all steam users afioat
in the world. With the remarkable re-
suits achieved by Admiral Melvilles as
sistants with oil under forced draught, |
several new Objectionable features re-
veloped
One of these. an intensity of heat
which existing fireboxes will not stand. |
will doubtless be remeiied by Ameri- !
can inventors in short order. Another
is the deafening noise of combustion
which will probably prove to some ex-
tent irremediable. but as oil would be
burned under natural draught with great
regard TO economy under cruising con-
ditions, the noise could be avoided OK
cept in emergencies. and in battle this |
would not operate against its use in |
warships.
Admiral Melville Pleased.
In general it may be said that there
has been no difficulty experienced in
burning some liquid fuel. Admiral Mel
vile has never despaired OF satisfac
torily solving the oil fuel problem for
naval purposes before he retires from
office. 1t has been his desire to have an
American battleship cross the Atlantic
Ocean burning only liquid fuel in her
furnaces. He has always realized that
by reason of the United States possess
Ing an almost inexhaustible supply OF
crude petroleum. the navy ought TO pos
sess a great military and strategic ad-
vantage if oil fuel could be adapted for
naval purposes. 1t is an advantage OF
considerable Importance to have the oil
fuel used under natural draugh:. As
the warship, however. is primarily built
for few hours of battle, it is under
forced draught conditions that the use OF
oil would be most advantageous. In
fact. it may be said that oil fuel is val
heavy forced draught conditions.
Experiments of Board
About year ago water tube boiler
of the Hohenstein design was turned
over. complete in ali respects, to the
Bureau OF Steam Engineering for ex-
perimental purposes. The limitations
of this boiler as to weight. floor space.
and height were identical with the re-
qulrements of the Denver class of cruis-
ers-requirements that are probably
more severe in their Limitations than any
others demanded in any warship of the
navy. For one year board of naval
officers. consisting of Lieutenant Com
manders John X. Edwards. W. NJ. Parks.
and F. Ii. Bailey, has been experiment.
ing with this boiler.
Draughtsmen of the Bureau OF Steam
Engineering were employed to collect
data in the various tests. These tests
lave been under all sorts OF practical
oonditions-natural draught and forced
draught of one inch two inches, and
three inches OF air pressure. The best,
as well as the average, quality of coal
has been used.
Coal Consumption Varied.
The coal consumption has varied from
eighteen to seventy pounds a square
foot OF CRATE. The detailed results of
these tests will eventually be published
by the Bureau of Steam Engineering
The experimental boiler has been OF
such design that it has been possible
to make the furnace volume as large as
possible. and this gave the opportunity
for Admiral Melville to determine whe- /
the. he character of the steam genera 4
tor had anything TO do with the burn I
ing of liquid fuel. In order to settle
this question every test that has been
made under the experimental boiler with
coal will be duplicated with oil fuel
Preparations for the oil fuel tests
have been under way for several months.
Two official trials were conducted last
week under the supervision of the same
board of naval officers who carried on
he coal tests. The first test was under
forced draught conditions, where an air
Of inch was uSpl All the | \