The Washington herald., 1908-02-16
OIL USED As FUEL IN NAVY
Gradually supplanting Coal on All
British Ships Of War.
Carried on All Their Latest Ones,
hut Not Yet Adopted by the
United States.

The fact that the British destroyer
Tartar. recently built by Messrs, Thorny-
croft. has steamed thirty-seven knots for
a run Of one mile on her official trials
with turbine engines, driven by steam pro-
duced by oh fuel. calls attention to the
greatly increased speed which IS obtained
i'm the modern war ship by using oil
All the new ocean-going class Of de-
stYoyers. 10 which the Tartar belongs.
burn OH IN their furnaces and carry no
coal The weight thus saved enables
them to run at a prodigious speed. -Four
of the class have already been tried and
ali have done from thiTty-thTCe TO thirty
five and one-half knots ON an official run
of six hours under conditions which are
practically those of war and with a
strictly limited consumption OF oil.
The advantages Of oil as a fuel are in
numera Bile the only disadvantage from
the British point of view being that there
are no large oilfelds in the British Isles
so that in war our navy would have 20
rely for IT'S supply Of motive force upon
an imported product, says the London
Mail
The first and greatest advantage is the
elimination of the waste weight in coal
COAL NLth lt II NAiit, A'af'o ~ NNL tAilA
amount Of ash and ClinkeT which repre-
sent useless weight. and which has from
time to 'uEia TO be removed from the
stokehold. With oil there is no such waste
material that has 20 bee removed.
A second point Is the reduction OF labor
with oil fuel Fewer stOkers are needed.
for ali that is required is 10 turn on the
valve which sprays the oil on the fur
naces.
Thirdly. oil can be pumped from ship to
ship. ana can thus ne easily transferred
M sea I'm any but rough weather. whereas
coaliug at sea is extremely difficult and
dangerous in anything but perfect calm.
The one disadvantage Of oil is that It
does not offer any resistance to a projec-
I tile Coal, when the bunkers are full, will
protect the ships vitals, and this oil
/ fuel can never do
The way in which oil is burnt is the
/ following: The oil. which is a heavy,
/ treacly looking stuff, is sprayed with "a
current Of air through burners SO placed
that Jets Of flame from them impinge upon
/ fire. bricks IN the furnaces Of the boilers.
All that the st0ker has 20 DO is 20 ma
nipulate his feed and burner valves. and
/ the pressure Of steam can be maintained
with perfect steadiness and ease.
OIL fuel alone Is burnt in all the thirty
! six new torpedo boats which have been
/ recently built, or which are now building,
for the British navy. In these vessels it
/ gives excellent results.
( In larger ships it has been slowly intro
duced during the past eight years, and all
modern British battle ships and armored
/ cruisers carry a supply Of oil, in addition
/ 20 coal.
The oil is usually conveyed in the double
/ bottoms of the ships. though there is
some risk from fire should a ship run
/ aground and have her double bottoms
pierced, as in that case the oil might be
carried up 10 the furnaces in the boiler
rooms. which happened in the German
/ battle ship Friedrich III
/ The Dreadnaught carries several hun
dred tons Of oil fuel. and all the King Ed
ward class of battle ships 400 tons apiece
while the large new armored cruisers have
/ from 4C0 20 700 tons each.
! If IT is desired suddenly to !ncrea Sc
speed in one of these battle ships Or cruis-
( ers. the oil fuel in brought into play and
sprayed on the furnaces through special
! burners. In the manoeuvers of 1905. the
/ King Edward class of battle ships at once
drew away from their puTsuers when they
turned on their oil fuel.
! Tanks for the storage Of oil are now
being installed at all important British
naval bases. and there is every Indication
( that I'm the near future oil will be more
and more used, and will gradually sup
/ plant coal as the main fuel for warships
/ Most foreign navies. notably the French
! German, Russian. and Italian, already
make large use Of it to supplement coal
None of the United states ships carries
| it, for. IN this matter America is behind
other progressive navies.