RECENT ADVANCE IN OIL BURNING. 
By Ernest H. PEasopy, Esg., MEMBER. 
[Read at the twenty-eighth general meeting of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers, held in New 
York, November 11 and 12, 1920.] 
In the few years which have passed since a paper on the subject of oil fuel was 
presented before this Society, the great World War has been fought and won by 
the powers opposed to barbarism—won so recently, in fact, that the question 
“who will win the peace’’ is still debatable. 
During this war the use of oil for the generation of steam has assumed an 
unprecedented importance, and I do not think it wide of the mark to say that the 
next great war will be won by the nation most plentifully supplied with oil fuel; 
at least it cannot be won by any nation whose supply of oil will not successfully 
meet a stupendous demand. It must be hoped that our own government will 
immediately and adequately recognize this condition. 
But it is not with the supply of oil that I intend to deal, except to say that I 
am reliably informed by those in a position to know that the American driller, the 
American tanker and the American dollar will assure this country of the oil it needs, 
if they are properly backed by the American people. 
In speaking of the next war I may be charged with being a reactionary. I 
hopefully share the view that some day international warfare may be controlled 
to a degree proportionate to the success with which private warfare has already been 
reduced in civilized nations, but the whole scheme of nature shows that to survive 
one must be prepared to fight, and preparedness to-day largely signifies the ability 
and readiness to organize and use natural forces to the limit of skill and ingenuity. 
Regret it as we may, the competitive necessity of warfare inspires more rapid 
scientific progress than times of peace. It is not strange, therefore, that we may 
look to the military arm of our government for the first signs of advance in the use 
of naturalforces. In time of war they face the keenest competition of other nations, 
and in time of peace this competition is in no way lessened even if it be potential 
in character. Nowhere is this leadership better illustrated than in the now uni- 
versal use of the mechanical atomizer on oil-burning ships. First exploited in 
vessels of war, it has found a fertile field in the merchant marine. 
The United States Navy is again pointing the way to future development 
in oil burning. In cooperation with leading mercantile interests who are manu- 
facturing equipment for the Navy, they are experimenting not only in the use of 
heavy viscous oil but are demanding larger units and greater individual capacity 
both in boilers and in oil burners. I predict that this increase in size and rate of 
forcing will mark the trend of future development in the merchant marine. To-day 
there has been no marked advance along these lines in the merchant service, not- 
