Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1902-10-25
NAVY OFFICER REPORTS
Personnel Act Has Been a Fail
ure-Oil as Fuel Partially
Recommended
GOOD FOR SOME TORPEDO BOATS

Come - Burning of Oil Not Thor
oushly Understood as Yet-Experi.
ments Necessary.
Washington, Oct. 25-The annual re.
port to the secretary of the navy of the
ensineer-in-chief. George Melville, is
of unusual interest this year. Mr.. Mel
Vile says with the greatest frankness
| that the personnel act has proven to be
a failure as it is administered and he
declares that one half of the officers OF
| the navy have yet to be convinced OF
| the benefits of amalgamation. To use
his own words, in reference to the per-
sonnet act:
1T was rather a revolution than
progression in naval development when
congress enacted a law whereby every
naval officer of the line had the future
to become a fighting engineer Euro
pean experts declared that either their
own navies We're not properly organ
lied or that the United States had made
Il mistake from which it would not re-
cover for at least twenty years. Still,
Admiral Melville thinks that if the law
were administered with desire to
make it a success it would give the
most efficient navy in the world. To
that end he wants an engineering lab
liS ~ a
lottenburg, Germany, for experiments
and the education IN engineering OIL
young line officers.
The proposed use of petroleum as a
substitute for coal on ship board is
treated at a length and in such detail
as thoroughly to meet the innumerable
demands that have come to the navy
department for the special information
collected by the engineering board,
which for months has been working
testing a multitude of oil-burnlng de-
vices. The greatest manufacturing
concerns in the United States and even
abroad have been seeking to learn the
results of the boards work.
The details OF the report on this sub
ject will be of great interest to special
classes. For the public perhaps they
are summed UP, as far as the navy is
concerned, in the following extract
from the report:
THE more this question is investi-
gated, the more intricate seems the
problem of successfully installing an
oil fuel appliance on board OF a battle
ship. 1t ought to be successfully useu
on the torpedo boats, as well as upon
auxiliary naval vessels that steam be-
tween regular ports. For the army
trans port service it might prove very
desirable. since supply OF OIL could be
maintained at the several calling ports.
In regard to the installation on the
large powered hattleships and armofeu
cruisers there are three distinct lea
lures which must be considered, viz:
the mechanical, commercial and the
structural. Regarded from two or three.
rcints it seems as if it would be some
time before "cOaling ships ceases TO
be an evolution upon the war vessels.
While both the naval and mercantile
vessels traverse the ocean, there is
wide difference in their construction as
well as in the nature Of the duty per-
formed, and this must be taken into ac-
count in designing the motive plant"
The first line of inquiry by the board
was the engineering or mechanical fea-
ture, involving the possibility of sue
cessfully burning oil for steam pur-
posses, and it said that this problem is
nearing solution. 1t has been found
necessary to atomize the oil ct can not
be completely gasi1ied) instead Of using
4. without pressure. The blast should
be heated by some simple device.
Treating of the commercial aspects
of the question. the report makes the
following important statements:
1T may be regarded as certainty
that, except where unusual conditions
prevail, the cost of oil for marine pur-
poses will generally he greater than
that Of coal. The cost may be less for
vessels departing from the gulf and
California sea ports, but the rule will
hold elsewhere
1T is then shown that 1t would be
more expensive and difficult to store oil
than coal, and that the fumes are dam
gerous in places like the small bunk
ers and double- bottom spaces aboard
ship where being heavy they can not
be easily blown away. But in spite of
these and other objections the board
says:
"The bureau has no hesitation, how
ever, in declaring that in view of the
results already secured by the liquid
fuel board an installation should be eff
fected without delay on at least a third
OF the torpedo boats and destroyers.
This would permit competition to be
established between the boats using
coal and those using oil and this would
be another incentive to cause a sys-
tematic and careful study of the sub
ject upon the part of all connected with
the torpedo fleet"