MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 55 



let in the oil, regulated by a cock, is one-eighth of an inch in di- 

 ameter around the end of the tube, and extending barck 4 inches 

 there was a larger pipe connected with the boiler. The tip of both 

 these tubes, one within the other, and both not more than three- 

 quarters of an inch in diameter, projected into a copper tube 6 

 inches long, one end within the furnace, the other without. This 

 was the entire apparatus. The way it worked was this: The 

 cock was opened in the oil-pipe ; at the same time the steam was 

 admitted into the other pipe surrounding the end of the oil-pipe. 

 This steam passing out of the tube around the oil-pipe produced 

 a suction, in obedience to which the oil began to flow. The steam, 

 in passing through the copper tube which conducts it to the 

 boilers, creates a strong current of air within it, and the oil, in 

 passing out of it, goes into the furnace in the form of vapor; 

 and when in this state it takes fire from wood previously placed 

 there and ignited for the purpose. Yesterday only 5 pounds of 

 steam were required in the boilers to work the apparatus. So 

 soon as the oil is, in its vapory state, once lighted, it is self-sus- 

 taining, and so complete is the construction that no smoke at all 

 is produced. The boiler used is an ordinary 200 horse-power 

 gunboat boiler, with 2 furnaces. To each furnace there were 5 

 of the pipes admitting the oil, as already described. A barrel of 

 petroleum was consumed in an hour, and 17 minutes were re- 

 quired to get up a full head of steam. It is claimed for this ap- 

 plication of petroleum to steam boilers that it dispenses with a 

 great part of the complex machinery usually necessary to raise 

 steam, and by so much is a gain of power added directly to the 

 propulsive force; that it obviates the friction, the loss of power, 

 and the liability to explosion, as well as the wear to material, 

 which the retort system of applying petroleum is likely to pro- 

 duce ; that the fire can be extinguished at a moment's notice, and 

 produces no smoke by which an enemy can tell the course and 

 the approach of a vessel ; finally, that it requires for an engine of 

 200 horse-power but the labor and presence of one man. The 

 commandant of the yard and the other officers on duty witnessed 

 the experiment, and pronounced *t an undoubted success, whose 

 results are at once to be brought to the attention of the depart- 

 ment. 



The experiments of Mr. Richardson and others in England 

 afford similar encouraging results. In view of these and those 



^^ ^j 



in America, a correspondent of the '* London Times" sa} 7 s : 



" I think there is little doubt that the fuel of the future will be 

 liquid, and not solid. At present petroleum is dearer than coal ; 

 but the production will be constantly on the increase, and the cost 

 will lessen. As steam-fuel, a pound of petroleum will produce 

 double the steam that can be got from a pound of coal, and it can 

 be burnt as neatly as a paraffine oil lamp by proper adjustment, 

 without smoke and without waste ; and, what is more, in steam 

 vessels without dirt or labor, or the need of roasting the stokers 

 alive, and, moreover, needing only half the stowage space in pro- 

 portion to the steam-power. The firing a steam boiler with 

 liquid fuel will reduce it to a process as simple as that of lighting 



