The sun., 1919-09-12
by BARoN FISHER of Kiiverstone

by BARON FISHER of Kiiverstone
Special Cable Despatch TO The Sun from the
London Times Service.
Copyright, 1919 all rights reserved.
LONDON, Sept. 1.-The future of sea
war and the future of sea commerce ap-
solutely rest on the internal combustion
engine and the internal combustion en-
CINE cannot exist without oil. Now there
are some idiots who say that oil is lin
tied. Oil is not limited. 30 long as a
pound Of coal exists.
Sir George B. Beilby, one of the great
est living chemists, in his own labora-
tory has turned twenty-five tons of coal
In day into all its constituent parts Of
OIL ammonia and other things, leaving
residue which was capable OF being
made into combustible for the poor of
Glasgow, of the size and shape of ones
fist, at a cost OF so per cent less than
coal, without leaving any ash and smoke
was annlhllated when i first heard of
II. 1 exclaimed, vote for Beiiby and
smokeless England
But here are a few words more on oil
This is for the benefit of those pigheaded
individuals who talk Of the scarcity OF
and say that oil is the doom Of England
because we have to send for it from
abroad.
Millions have been spent In the past
on the acquisition and terrifying of
coaling stations all over the world, to
which we send our golfers from Cardiff
with the best Welsh coal. I am not a
scientist, but l know 1t is a practical
fact that from the moment coal sees
4 rlNerlaN a NA 14NA AWoN
when you send il to some of our coaling
stations, such as Perrin in the Red Sea,
1t is only a short time before 1t loses all
its calorific goodness.
OIL Is Like Port Wine.
Now oil is extraordinarily like port
wine, the longer you keep II the better
II becomes, because there evaporates
from 1t what is not conductive from its
maritime use. However. that Is not the
point want TO make. The point l wish
to develop Is that the Almighty arranged
for the lost ten tribes of Israel being the
fixed coaling stations to which we had
to carry coal from Cardiff with contin-
uous deterioration, the union should be
covered with fueling stations, bringing
oil from Borneo, Mexico, Trinidad, We
nezuela, Persia. Egypt and heaps of
other places.
The position of every one OF these
peripatetic fuel stations these oil ships,
shortly called oilers, is known at Lloyd's
every day On charts is the position Of
every other vessel over 10000 tons, so
that the captain OF an oil fuelled ship,
wien his chief engineer told him he was
running short OF fuel, could consult his
information book and say "Steer south
east ten miles; we will find an oil
tank" And whether 1t was calm or
whether 1t was a gale, he could take in
his oil. The India rubber hose fioated
on the grass rope and taken on board
an oil ship towing astern only wants a
tap to be turned on and oil will flow in
as many seconds as II would take por-
ters for coal to be got on board in ne
cessitated calm harbor, requiring ener-
gieS of the whole crew to get II on bo lrd,
masSing the ship as dirty as a coal mine,
incapacitating them from fighting
through fatigue and incapacitating the
ship through dirt for twenty-four hours.
Not only that, but this is really very
significant.
An Admiral had always TO have a 33
per cent. bigger force than was neces-
sary when he was watching the enemy's
fleet like Nelson off Toulon say, be-
cause one-third of his fleet had to be
pend, say, 1900 miles of coal in going
there and coming back TO the Admiral
to and fro, from a fixed coaling station,
say 600 miles off, and that coaling sta
ton had to be fortified and garrisoned
and n train of golfers had to go to and
fro, replenishing the store of coal and
other vessels taking stores for the garri-
son. 1t was endless.
Such are the blind leaders of the
blind who disparage oil and when got
back 10 the Admiralty on October 8,
1914, after the three first months of the
war. to my endless amazement 1 found
eight new battleships just laid down to
burn coal only. And destroyers also
Many Attacks FOreseen.
Tt.may be vital not only to provide
against the attacks of hostile sub
marines and air attacks, but to avoid
fierce attacks of the Almighty. Thus
the future commerce vessels will go
along the surface while it is calm and
go under when II Is stormy
The internal combustion engine is the
engine of the submersble. A shore
going person does not recognize this.
Some expert, when he reads this, will
bring against me the same argument as
the principal continental idiots did when
forced into the navy the adoption Of
the water tube boiler. They said, You
have got to have forty-eight boilers in
stead of only six The poor idiots did
not realize that II one boiler went wrong
only one-forty- eighth OF the power went
wrong. They did not realize that IL one
boiler out of forty-eight blew UP it would
not send the ship to the bottom as it
would If one OF the six blew up. They
didn't recognize that II one of our boilers
went wrong you did not have to take
the deck of the ship up as you would
haye to do II one Of the six went wrong.
man could take one of the forty-eight
boilers to pieces, II being so small, and
carry it up on his shoulder, and in addi-
ton the ship could still fight efficiently
as If she had only lost .one-forty-eighth
of her power.
But these wonderfully clever men
often make great mistakes and often