The sun., 1919-10-19
NEW YORK MAY SOON
BE OIL BURNING CITY
Many Big Buildings Prepared to Use
Liquid Fuel if Fire Prevention
Rules Are Not Too Drastic

New York is on the threshold of a
remarkable transition from a coal burn
ing to an oil burning city. Already
several companies operating downtown
skyscrapers and the biggest power COM
paDS in the city are preparing to heat
their buildings and run their elevators
and generate their electricity with oil
burning furnaces. and the space now
taken up by great coal bunkerS will
hereafter be devoted to more profitable
use.
1t is safe to say that within three or
four years practically all the electricity
and gas will be generated by energy
from distant oil wells, and when big
Office buildings are consuming enough
fuel oil to make It paying proposition
the great oil producing companies will
at no distant time be prepared TO dis
tribute fuel oil through the streets of
New York by means OF pipe lines Just
as water and gas are now brought to
the consumers door.
How far distant that Iday may be
will be largely determined by the enter
Prise and foresight of the real estate
owners and operators of New York To
some extent 1t depends also on the wis
dom and foresight of the city govern
ment In Its formulation OF laws govern
ing the storage and distribution of oil
Harsh and unnecessary regulations will
make its use more costly and therefore
delay its adoption by smaller consumers
1t is safe to say that within ten years
fuel oil will become more popular taan
gas and electric lights were a decade
after their introduction for illumination
purposes. Cheapness and economy in
handling oil as compared with coal will
impel Its ultimate adoption, experts de-
clare. and the expense of converting
plants from coal to oil burners. II Is
! agreed, will be covered almost the first
year by the difference in cost of opera
ton.
The New Edison Company, the Wool
worth Building, Singer and Equitable
buildings, in addition TO more than
twenty manufacturing concerns, have
declared their intentions of installing oil
burning plants.
Possible Means OF Distribution.
There are three ways of supplying
| fuel oil to New York The first is by
barge to plants on the waterfront, sec
ond by tank trucks operating from sub
terminals, and third by piping the oil
through the streets.
| One of the big producing companies,
the Sinclair Oil Company, which recently
-
| at Nassau and Liberty streets, has an
I'nounced It's readiness TO apply for n
franchise to pipe oil through the city.
| 1t has been suggested that one OF the
most economical ways TO go about this
| extensive operation would be through an
! agreement with n concern like the New
| York Steam Company, whose franchise
| permits 1t to use its pipe lines in the
business district for the distribution OF
/ anything from steam TO molasses.
An official of the Sinclair OH Com
pany In championing the use OF oil
says 1t is bound to come about. because
coal is getting more expensive every
| year. On the other hand, this official
points out, distributing oil in New York
| requires an expensive and highly eff
Client plant. To what extent the oil
interests are going TO concern them.
selves with encouraging this embryo
market win tAerefore depend to some