The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1919-08-17
A New Fuel
Copyright, 1919.


| Robert G. Skerrett, in Leslie's.
! Yesterday the geologist told US that
our native sources. of petroleum would
! probably be exhausted in the course OF
the next 20 years. Today, the scientist
! ventiveness, gives US a respite OF two
more decades, at least.
Ever since 1859 when petroleum was
, discovered in Pennsylvania, we have
been using more more and more OF this
! bounty of natures providing, and in
! the past is years the rate of the drain
upon our oil wells has been speeded up
! tremendously To be exact, in 1900 we
| mined" from our petroleum reservoirs
! substantially 100000 barrels; in 1910 the
withdrawal amounted to. 100000, 900 bar
| rels and last year, so it is officially stat
ed, we tapped from our underground
| store total OF 345,0 10000 barrels. TO
| meet increasing needs in 1918, we had to
supplement this by 20, 100000 barrels which
we took from the reserve tanks of our
great pipe lines.
And now what has the scientist done
to postpone the seemingly inevitable day
of shortage of petroleum here? How
| has he made it possible for each re-
naming barrel of mineral oil to go much
| further than heretofore? He achieved
this in the final months of the war as
climax of his efforts to checkmake the
| U-boat which was grimly demiating the
| fleets of tanlSers carrying liquid fuel from
this side of the Atlantic to the forces
battling on land and sea against the
central powers. The aim was to enable
England and our other allies to use less
| straight liquid fuel by combining with
| the oil pulverized coal and other forms
! of carbon which were to be had locally.
| in relative plenty.
| This new source of energy for steam
raising plants is technically termed 'col-
loidal fuel because the carbonaceous
ingredients are so subdivided that their
fine particles partake of the nature OF
fluid and are held in suspension by the
portion of oil with which they are COM
bined That is to say. the mixture re-
mains fixed for suitably protracted pc
riod-jn short, defies for the time being
the law of gravitation which would nor
mally induce in a brief while the precipi-
tation of the minute bits of coal, the
molecules of tar. etc. BY reason of this
perfect admixture, colloidal fuel can be
stored in the tanks of oil-burning in
stallations and can be fed. without
change of equipment, to the existing
burners within the furnaces. Volume for
volume, it will actually generate more
heat than the usual fuel oil!
others have tried to obtain these re-
suits off and on for years, but success
of a practical character proved elusive
until the problem was attacked by the
submarine defense association OF New
York city less than two years ago under
the leadership of Mr.. Lindon w. Bates,
the well-known engineer Months OF
laboratory research was devoted to the
subject. and the thing desired was
woodworking chemical compound, it.
self combustible. which would impart
to the heavier bodies sufficient buoy
ancy to sustain them in the mass of oil
This was discovered, and Mr.. Bates calls
the stuff ''dxateur." Beyond the amaz-
ing action of this the combined fuel.
looks for all the world like common axle
grease, the public is purposely left in tie
dark The process of it's preparation IL
secret.