The San Francisco call., 1910-08-03
STATE MAKES PLEA
FOR NAVAL OIL Use
Big Producers Point Out SpIen-
did Advantages of Petro-
leum Over Coal

the Pacific coast has. been inaugurated
among the big producers and will be
carried forward with vigor.. Already
much headway has. been made. The
. most important- announcement in this
particular is to-. the effect that the
cruiser. West Virginia will soon be
:. converted into, an oil burner. The spe-
cifcaisons have been. prepared and the
changes. Will be made under the super
vision of the federal authorities at Mare
island.
- AT the same. time six torpedo boat
r. eStroy yers'e on the Atlantic are being
fitted for oil This gives assurance
E. that the government VIII install the
Necessary Oil stations on the Atlantic
,.@shore. -. = ......
- The statement has frequently been
> hazarded. that the government would
: be unable to so extensively into oil
: for the navy until stations had been
equipped on The Pscific shores. and this.
Z. il: was" animated. would be a question
. .of yea RS. 1t appears however, that
tfere are at the present time stations
: 10a the coasts of the states OF California,
Oregon ana washington, on the terri
?, tory of Alaska; and Panama. 1t would
reqUire less than year to equip a suffi-
.cient number of stations i'm the orient
70. give the government assurance of
facilities practically as complete az
those il has for coal
The prediction is made in some quar-
.ters that with the opening OF the Pana-
ma canal the. government will ship
= California oil to the Atlantic sea board
fer naval use. 1t is. predicted further
that n due time. and that not so far
away, the propellers of the Atlantic
merchant marine win dance to the mu-
sic OF oil fed furnaces.
: That greater progress has not been
made TO date is explained by Lewis
AubIrry In the accusation that the gov
: ernment had disseminated against Cal
ifornia. oil, just as it had against Cali
fornia stone.
1--WE are up against the same problem
on Oil as we are on stone, said Au-
bury. The trouble is that too many
OF the Influential men at Washington
. are Interested In Pennsylvania and
other coal mines. It was the same way
! with building stone All specifications
for. buildings in this state called for an
eastern marble. Try as we might, we
could not get the federal officials to
permit the use of OUR own and better
stone. The real secret is the fact that
some Of the senators were interested in
5 Vermont marble quarries.
Now with all the facts to show
3. the: economy Of oil as fuel with full
demonstration that it is cheaper. bet
ter and more available. for the war
: vessels: and stations on the Pacific
.: coast. we find the government shipping
hundreds of thousands of dollars worth
+: of coal. to California. I attribute this
= to. the fact that some of..the influential
: persons in Washington have an in
: teFest Of one kind or another in these
- eastern: coal mines
BIG ORDER RECENTLY
. ..Just recently an order was placed
for the shipment. of between $4,000
= and $5QQ.0OO. werth Of coal to California
for vessels of the navy. Now, for a
price. very much smaller. .oil could be
obtained: right here in this state TO
do the work, to do it. better. to do it
cleaner more effectively: and much
cheaper. This thing has been going on
IN spite. of the fact that the govern
ment has made tests out here. and has
proved. absolutely the superiority of oil
After much work, we did finally get
the government to use oil on the Chey-
enne, but We have not been able to
make the headways that the value Of
foil deserves,
Aubury called attention to the con-
tents Of his report OF the use of oil as
substitute for coal. Following are ex-
tracts taken. from this report:
The loading Of q. steamship with
coal requires days where an equiya-
lent quantity of oil may be loaded in as
many hours, and entirely without labor
p By modern devices oil may be pumped
into or out of vessels at points where
it would be impossible to dock and
discharge or take on cargo of coal
while vessels art sea may transfer
supplies of oil in weather which would
quite prevent. transferring of coal.
OIL TAKES LESS ROOM
Where a. supply of fuel must be
stored a. second advantage in the use
OF liquid fuel is shown. If we assume
as a basis that four barrels of oil are
equal" IN fuel value to one ton C2.24o
lbs.). Of: good -bituminous coal the oil
occupies a space less than three
fourths as great as would be required
for coal.
The Increase in steaming capacity
: ef boilers is considerable 1t would
certainly be conservative to claim that
with the proper oil Installation. the
boiler may be MADE to deliver 80 per
cent to 50 per cent more steam than
could possibly: be. gotten from il with
!. the use of coal, without. the use OF
forced draught .-~:*
Theoretically, the saving realized
from the. use of liquid fuel depends
on three facters:s- First the less cost
of the fuel per unit of heating value:
?. second, the greater. efficiency of the
fuel, that is, the greater proportion of
the ultimate heating. value. which NAV
be actually developed around or about
the object 70 be heated, or in other
words the possibility of more perfect
combustion; third, the avoidance of
loss Of heat in various ways.
The first point is by far the most
important, as 1t can be shown that.
theoretical heating values being equal
oil costs only from one-half to three
fourths as much as coal
OIL vs.. COAL
1T has been pretty well proven in
practice that under average conditions
four barrels of California oil would do
the work OF one ton of average coast
coal
ITO sum up, we have in favor Of
LIQUID fuel the following points:
i. Ease of transportation and hand
=. Reduction of storage hulk.
''3. Increased cleanliness both inside
and outside. of boiler room.
a. Reduced cost per unit OF heating
value.
'.5- Increased percentage of EN-
cheney
g increased heating. capacity of
r,oa.,,a.s 49,. - ct