274 



REVIEW OE REVIEWS. 



THE FUEL OF THE FUTURE. 



Slowly but surely the public realises 

 the importance of oil as the source of 

 future power '.' F.S.S.," in the Westmin- 

 ster Review, gives some interesting fig- 

 ures in his article, " Oil Fuel versus 

 Coal." The position is put in a nut- 

 shell:— 



The progress made of late years with petro- 

 leum fi.s a moijive jiower is remarkalih*. The 

 question of its development in future Ls a 

 serious quotstion in more \\\aTO than one. 

 Since the application of .st<>am as a motive 

 power coal has be«n indispens.ible. But now 

 oil aspires to be more efficient and therefore 

 beconip.s a serious rival to tiie other mineral. 



The advantages of oil for use on 

 ship-board are now generally reco-g- 

 nised : — ■ 



Oil, as a motive power, its said to be three 

 times as great in its efficiency or pro])elling 

 force. In a .steam vessel a InTge jjiart of tlie 

 crew can be di.s])ensed with. The si)ace for 

 "bunkers'' can be diminished and utilistnl 

 for the storage of more cargo, bo that, given 

 a siifficient supply, coal must be driven to the 

 wall. And here tiie problem has to be faced. 

 ITp to the advent of the Diesel engine, a year 

 or two ago, the advocates of coal were con- 

 ildenc. owing to the great di.sparity of pro- 

 duction, tiliat oil oould never be a serious 

 competitor. But it is found that coal can 

 be turned into oil by a process yielding, in 

 some kinds, as mucli as 3.5 per cent, of work- 

 able oil fuel; moreover, tlvat the <'oal waste 

 from this i)rocess can 1k> utilised to a ver.v 

 large extent. In fact, a factory has been 

 jxiojected for the purpose. If sucli a scheme 

 should succeed, tlie u.se of oil as a " pro- 

 peller'" can go on to a much larger extent 

 than at present. 



This invention will be of peculiar 

 benefit to Britain, whose natural supply 

 of oil is practically nil, as the writer 

 points out : — 



England will not be plactd at a disadvan- 

 tage compared to other countries, such as 

 the U.S. America and Russia. It is evident 

 that, in case of a war, tlie countrs" wliich 

 had no petroleum resources would suffer in 

 the contest. The same may be .said in the 

 caise of competition in trade, wiiether on 

 snore or afloat. Britain has had a great 

 " pull " over others for nvany years owing to 

 the i>ossession of tlie great South Wales 

 Steam CcaHield — so accessible and .so near 

 the ports of shipment. Of cHHirSiiN foreign 

 nations have made use of the same coal, as- 

 no restrictions are imjKxsed by us \\\yo\\ its 

 exportation to ports abroad for such a pur- 

 pose. But, necessarily, the cost of freight 

 and insurance had to be incurrecl ; wiMrens 

 our .ships, at least those in the expcut and 

 coa.sting trades, had not that extra cost to 

 pay. It wcas otherwise, no doubt, where Bri- 

 tish vessels had to coal their bunkers at the 

 depots oversea. In the event, however, of 

 oil being u.sed universall.v, or even to a langi-r 

 extent, our steam coal advantage will dis- 

 appear. All will de|)end on the cost of pr:- 

 ducing crude oil from coal and the way in 

 which machiner.v can be adapted to the new 

 prmlucb. The probability is that the ii^^e 

 of the Diesel engine will become general by 

 and by; and tliat the cost of the li(|ui<l fin 1 

 will also be pnxluced at an average ]>ri;T. 

 unless tlie monopolist bars the Ava.v. Barrii^; 

 him out, the fleets of tlie leading nations, 

 whether naval or mercantile, will be put on 

 an ecjual footing. In that ca.s<» the Briton 

 will, doubth'ss, hold his own in the contest, 

 as he has done for centuries in the past, in 

 all nuxles of c"ompetition. 



The great manufacturers have not yet 

 given the subject the attention that its 

 imj:^ortance demands, and to them 

 " F.S..S." suggests that : — 



It cannot, however, be out of place for 

 men of business, who have t^o much capital c;t 

 .stake, bo get all the information possibh'. 

 especially that of a reliable and authorative 

 character, and to discuss it and ponder over 

 it. 



A SHAKESPEARE MINIATURE. 



The place of honour in the Connois- 

 seur is accorded to Mr. M. H. Spiel - 

 mann, who contributes an article on 

 what is known at the W'elbeck Abbey, 

 or Harleian, Miniature of Shakespeare. 

 Ths story seems to stand thus. The 

 miniature in question is not a portrait 

 of Shakespeare, but apparently that of 

 a gentleman of the period of James I. 

 Nevertheless, the artist, George Vertue, 



palmed off on Pope for his edition of 

 Shakespeare a line-engraving made 

 from this miniature as an original por- 

 trait of the poet. The engraving was 

 executed in 1721, and the portrait of 

 Shakespeare by Angelica Kauffmann in 

 the Shakespeare Memorial Gallery at 

 Stratford-on-Avon was painted from 

 this plate. 



