CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 



the glowing predictions in which he indulged in a 

 recent lecture before the Institute of Mechanical 

 Engineers in London. 



The lecture was given at a time when the coal 

 strike was at its height; when two and a half million 

 men were out of work in consequence; when British 

 railways were running on half schedule; when many 

 ships were tied up at their docks for want of coal; 

 and when the entire industrial activity of England 

 was temporarily in check. 



Dr. Diesel declared that his invention would make 

 a repetition of this disaster impossible. His engine 

 would permanently break the monopoly of coal. He 

 had solved the problem of using liquid fuel for power 

 production in its simplest and most general form. 

 Any of the natural liquid fuels could be used, and 

 what was more, used simply and economically. 



He declared that there is probably as much liquid 

 fuel as coal on the globe. New petroleum sources 

 are constantly being discovered. The world's pro- 

 duction of crude oil increases and may be expected 

 to increase. Even at present, forty per cent, of the 

 production of mineral oil, it was declared, would 

 supply the whole naval and mercantile fleet of the 

 world with ample power were they equipped with 

 Diesel engines. 



Of course inventors are proverbially sanguine; 

 but in the present case the predictions of Dr. Diesel 

 have back of them a record of accomplishment that 

 insures them very serious consideration. The 

 Diesel engine has passed through a period of pro- 

 bation during which it has been used successfully in 

 19 281 



