MIRACLES OF SCIENCE 



trusted, her construction marks a new era in mari- 

 time annals. It is within the possibilities that craft of 

 this new type are to supersede the steam-propelled 

 ship in the near future much as the steamship has 

 superseded the sailing vessel. 



A STEAMLESS STEAMSHIP 



The explanation of the mystery is this: The 

 Selandia is provided with engines of a new type, 

 the motive power for which is supplied by sprays of 

 oil instead of by steam. The oil spray is not burned 

 in a furnace, but is injected into the cylinder of the 

 engine itself, and, igniting there, expands explosively 

 and drives the piston forward exactly as steam drives 

 it in an engine of the familiar type. The exhaust 

 consists of a practically colorless vapor which escapes 

 through a tube in one of the masts that carry the 

 wireless equipment of the ship. The exhaust from 

 all the engines working at full speed is said to pro- 

 duce less visible vapor than often emerges from the 

 motor of an automobile. 



If we contrast this with the volleys of smoke that 

 belch from the funnels of an ordinary steamship, we 

 have a rough measure of the efficiency of the new 

 engine, which consumes and utilizes its fuel instead 

 of sending it up the chimney. 



The oil engine which thus threatens the supremacy 

 of the steam engine is the invention of Dr. Rudolf 

 Diesel of Munich. The inventor has had the usual 

 amount of difficulty in bringing his invention to the 

 attention of the commercial world. But the success 

 he has now achieved justifies, in a measure at least, 



280 



