282 DEVELOPMENTS IN OIL BURNING. 



CONCI.USION. 



In the preceding pages I have tried to show that while the problem of 

 oil burning presents some difficulties, particularly as regards admission of air, 

 there is very far from being any mystery about the matter. A strong leaning 

 toward simplicity, "horse sense," and some experience, are a combination 

 reasonably sure of giving good results, and I am not one of those who believe 

 in very much abstruse reasoning or higher mathematics as a necessity. On 

 the other hand oil is not water, and the manufacturers of water sprinklers 

 who have recently, under the stimulus of the times, entered the field of oil 

 burning and steam generation, will find something more required than a table 

 of steam properties and a few analyses of oil, and will certainly learn the 

 fallacy of the theory that " It's all in the nozzle " — and a poor one at that. 



Improvements will be required and will be forthcoming, particularly in 

 connection with spraying the heavier oils, and I look to the flat spray atom- 

 izer as a promising field for development. Meanwhile the results already 

 attained are certainly encouraging. 



In closing I want to say one word of appreciation of the v>rork of my asso- 

 ciate, Mr. David J. Irish, who made so many of the tests referred to above. 

 It was through his ingenuity and originality that our flat impeller plate was 

 developed, and his enthusiasm and industry in carrying out the long and 

 arduous series of experiments undertaken by The Babcock & Wilcox Com- 

 pany were a most important factor in the success of the work. 



DISCUSSION. 



The Chairman: — Gentlemen, the paper on "Developments in Oil Burning," 

 by Mr. E. H. Peabody, is now open for discussion. 



Mr. Wai^ter M. McFarland, Vice-President: — I do not intend to dis- 

 cuss the paper, but merely to say a word which Mr. Peabody's modesty has 

 kept him from saying. As his associate I have known of the work which he has 

 done, and have a great deal of admiration for the skill, ingenuity and ability 

 which he has displayed in developing this oil-burning apparatus. The point I 

 wish to make is simply for the benefit of the Society — it may seem to some on reading 

 this paper that in some cases he has dismissed certain methods in a very cursory 

 way which was rather too brief a treatment. The fact is that Mr. Peabody has 



