The use of petroleum as fuel on steamships Is of great importance 

 from a commercial standpoint, but involves considerations beyond those 

 which are determinative of its adoption in stationary plants and on ioco- 

 motives. 



When a vessel travels over a route where it can obtain fuel oil at both 

 terminals, the storage space required is limited to that required for the 

 trip one way, but if oil can be obtained at only one terminal, she must 

 carry oil for the round trip. The same space cannot be utilized alternately 

 for storage of oil and coal, so the extent to which oil will become the fuel 

 for marine use will be determined, in a great measure, by the ports of call 

 where petroleum is carried in storage. 



A great number of the steamers running on San Francisco Bay and 

 its tributaries, and those doing a coastwise business, are using oil fuel 

 with great success. Fuel oil is now kept in storage at Los Angeles, Port 

 Harford, San Francisco, Portland and at points on the Hawaiian Islands. 



Relative cost for equal heat values is not the only consideration gov- 

 erning its adoption. The oil for equal heating value occupies only about 

 50 per cent of the space taken by coal and weighs about 65 per cent as 

 much. Tanks for its storage can be built In spaces not otherwise utilized. 

 For these reasons, an oil-burning steamer has available cargo space and 

 displacement in excess of a coal-burning one, making voyages of equal 

 length between ports at which both fuels can be had. 



An additional advantage in favor of the fuel oil lies in the fact that 

 fewer firemen are required, and these work under more favorable condi- 

 tions as regards comfort. 



The steamers now plying on the Yukon River, between St. Michaels 

 and Dawson, are using oil fuel, which is shipped up to that section in 

 ocean going tank steamers from California. This has proven a measure 

 of considerable economy over the old system of using coal and wood. 



Relatively few ocean going steamers are at present using this fuel, 

 but It is quite probable that plans now under consideration will be carried 

 out to establish oil storage at a number of points on trade routes, with the 

 certain result that the market for our crude oil can be expanded indefinitely. 

 That our production can be largely expanded is well known to those 

 familiar with the situation, and the promise of the near future is bright 

 indeed. 



In connection with the project of reaching out for the world's market, 

 a pipe line is contemplated across the Isthmus of Panama, so that our fuel 

 oil may be made available at Atlantic ports, without the necessity of the 

 long trip around Cape Horn. 



The commercial significance of the use of oil for marine power is 

 shown by the fact that there are now running out of San Francisco 189 

 vessels using oil for fuel, the gross tonnage being 132,391. 



The Manufacture and Uses 

 of asphaltum. 



By JOHN BAKER, Jr. 



TO the ordinary individual asphaltum is almost an unknown substance; 

 pitch and similar materials are all the same to the common observer. 

 Seeing asphaltum as used on the street, the layman conjures in 

 his mind visions of tremendous chemical action in the bowels of 

 the earth, wherein a vast caldron is used by nature in the creation 

 of asphaltum, which is afterwards brought to the surface by mighty 

 convulsions and volcanic eruptions. Trinidad pitch lake represents te the 

 average person the source of supply of asphaltum for the worid. 



The extended use of the so-called "natural" asphaltums for various 

 purposes demonstrated years ago the urgent necessity for an asphaltum 

 composed of practically pure bitumen; an asphaltum which might be 



10 



