BY P. L. WESTON, B. SC, B.E. XIII. 



There are other advantages, such as the ease of 

 jiandling liquid fuel and the instant readiness for start- 

 ing of the Diesel, as compared with the time required to 

 ;get up steam in a boiler. It seems improbable that the 

 steam turbine Avill be superseded by the internal com- 

 bustion engine for some time to come where very large 

 powers are concerned, but the present limits are bound to 

 be exceeded, and the present rate of the development of 

 the latter engine is surprisingly rapid. Perhaps here in 

 Australia we can hardly realise the progress being made 

 on the other side of the world in this direction, and 

 .especially on the Continent. It is a remarkable fact that 

 in Germany the manufacture of steam engines has almost 

 been abandoned, and the works are turning out instead 

 ;gas and Diesel engines, the latter mostly adapted to 

 operate on tar oil. There are approximately 30 German 

 firms manufacturing Diesel engines, while Britain has 

 only three makers. 



Much work remains to be done in connection with 

 investigating the best means of utilising various classes 

 of fuel in internal combustion engines. In Germany a 

 State commission has been constituted to deal with this 

 problem. This is an example which might well be fol- 

 lowed in every country, since each locality has its own 

 particular kinds of fuel. Ordinary bituminous coal can 

 be prepared for use in internal combustion engines in 

 several ways. It can be gasified in various forms of pro- 

 ducers, which turns both the fixed carbon and the vola- 

 tile constituents into fixed gases, or other forms of pro- 

 .ducers may be used, which leave the tarry vapours to 

 be condensed into creosote, benzol and other distillate oils. 

 Tlie benzol will no doubt very largely replace petrol for 

 motor car engines and similar purposes, while the heavier 

 .oils can be used in Diesel engines. It is obvious that 

 liquid fuel can be transported with much greater ease 

 than coal, so that the tendency of the future will be 

 to abandon the present wasteful method of mining only 

 the choicest portions of the coal seams and transporting 

 the solid fuel over long distances. Instead, the whole 

 of the seam will be utilised for the production of power 

 ,at the pit's mouth, and for the various liquid fuels and 



