The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-01-06
NEW INVENTION FOR CREATION OF POWER Gas Created Directly From
 Crude Petroleum MEANS MUCH TO WEST Adaptation to Reclamation of Land in the Arid Sections Will Be
 One of the Chief
 Applications
MEANS MUCH TO WEST

1 Milwaukee, January 5.-(Special)- The Milwaukee Journal tomorrow will say:
 l A Milwaukee company has perfected a
 plan for producing power from crude pe-
 troluem, unrivalled in cheapness and ef- heiency. An epoch-making discovery in
 gas engineering has thus been brought
 to a practical, commercial basis
 l The invention is the adaptation of the | producer gas engine to gas created from crude petroleum by a method so simple as to commend itself, at sight, to every
 practical engineer
 l It means nothing less than revolution in marine power, and next in usefulness will be its application to the reclamation l of land in the arid sections of the world l For several months there have been mysterious whisperings in manufacturing and financial circles of some impending | sensation in the scientific world, but no real clew could be grasped until it leaked out yesterday as the consummation of a transaction involved hundreds of thou sands of dollars for the value of patents and the capital to create new mechani- cal power from an oil producer using crude oil.
 Edward T. Adams, who is one of the foremost engineers in America, well known in California as well as the east the man wEo built the mammoth gas en- 1 zine plant of the Steel corporation at Gary, Ind and now president of a Mil
 waukee company, and his assistant, Nes- l 1 t Lattl, are the men responsible for | bringing to commercial efficiency, by Q l system of eoiI.iol, the oil gas making m I vention of Californian, Arthur Crime l No problems remain doubtful because the l oil producer gas system is so simple that l like most great discoveries, it demon strates itself.
 | The benefits of such a discovery are beyond computation Like telephony and telegraphy, 1t is epoch making. It means l an increase of available fuel supply and an upift of efficiency in the production of power; low cost, such as no previous com bination of elements has introduced into the equation of human progress since the discoveries of steam and electricity 1t is elemental in it's magnitude.
 Lew grade oils some of them so poor as to be valueless for refining, and even the residue of refined oils, are all made available at once for human assistance
 and support. The highest authorities esti- mate that the heat value of oil in known oil fields is as great, and probably great CT, than the, resources of all the known
 coal fields of the world. A uniform sup
 ply of crude oil at moderate price IS
 therefore promised for us and for many
 future generations.
 The application of this new power to
 marine uses will alone suggest its won
 derful possibilities The same bunker ca
 pacity required to store coal to drive
 1psxr
 miles would hold oil enough to drive the
 same ship 6c0O miles with an oil producer gas engine. A vessel will be able to run alongside dock, drop a pipe into her hold and fill her fuel tanks as locomo- tive takes water. Under the steady worS- ing conditions common aboard snip, one gallon of these low grade oils will produce from eight to ten horsepower hours which is ;. greater horsepower per gallon than is produced from gasoline. The best steam engine can produce but about hsiiI this horsepower for a gallon of oil fired under a boiler and the best steam turDlns uses about three times the oil per horse 1 power The producer itself is simple, I would require less space. would be of Tar 1 less weight than steam boilers, ana IS Tar l less dangerous to have aboard ship. Naval constructors have for year or nore turned toward the gas engine but | mp to the producer under discussion. none 1 could be built to exceed 400 or 800 horse power capacity Ten thousand horsepow- l CT has be,n reached by the Wisconsin pro ducer .e 1 Next m importance, probably, will cone l the field of land reclamation. The san 1 Joaquin anl Sacramento valleys in Cali 1 fornia alone contain 100000 acres of arid | or semi-ard land Under much of this l land are 10th oil and water. Similar con ditions obtain in the entire southern tier I of states. from California east, including | Texas California is now the greatest 1 p-oduccr of low grade oil and is the state where coal is most costly. In Louisiana | and at coast points in Texas and Cali i fornia, 1rainage as well as arid reclama- | tion, demands cheaper power. The acre i age of arid land upon which water can i be carried by gravity is comparatively l small Water must be pumped to such i land for irrigation purposes. Under old methods pumping became prohibitive be- l cause of the expense, even at a lift of 3' or 40 feet With oil producer gas, water
 may be raised 100 feet at the same cost | as % pr D foot lift under the old meth | od. Such a cost difference will add hum 1 dreds of thousands of acres to the land available fer irrigation. Water is usually | to be found under all arid lands. and tho
 new me,hodl will make it available from depths heretofore utterly impracticable.
 This is story enough to open.a vista for
 dreams. Tho gas producer will make q new record of low cost. even for eles trtc lighting and transmission The field Is l the world
 Capital is ready to put this new power
 l'into immediate commercial use. some
 kof the largest financial interests or the
 country Will be back of it.