ECONOMY IN USE OF OIL AS FUEL FOR HARBOR VESSELS. 185 
work, but I think one has to go a step farther. In order to get the full advantage 
of oil burning to-day, you have got to go to the oil engine. There is a paper coming 
up which will describe that subject on which I shall, perhaps, have something to say, 
but there is one thing I have found with the oil engine, however unreliable it may 
appear to be, the economy of consumption is something astounding, which you 
cannot realize until you try it. 
However, to convert an old vessel into an oil burner, unless you have a very 
large margin of safety, especally if you are going to be cruising somewhere some day 
when you want to get oil cheaply and conveniently, and you cannot do it, is rather a 
dangerous game. 
THE PRESIDENT:—Are there any further remarks upon this paper? 
Mr. Epwarp P. Ropinson :—There is one thing that occurs to me in this con- 
nection. I think as a matter of fact that tow-boats about the size of the Golden 
Gate, referred to by the author lie at the dock a large portion of the time. That 
fact has led owners in many cases to give up the more economical compound con- 
ensing-engine, and go back to the old fashioned high-pressure non-condensing 
engine, which has no auxiliaries, because they claim that, while the boat is actually 
in use, the question of fuel economy is not so important as is the ability to stop all 
steam consumption while the boat is tied up at the dock waiting for a tow, and it is 
a fact that there are a good many boats of about this size that do that very inter- 
mittent work. 
THE PRESIDENT:=—Are there any further remarks upon this paper? 
ENGINEER-IN-CHIEF MCALLISTER (Communicated) :—I have read Mr: Reid’s 
criticism with considerable interest. He inadvertently has fallen into error when 
he assumes that 49.0 tons of coal were used in the 101.50 ‘“‘hours underway”’ during 
the month of October, 1909, and then by inference assumes that this boiler when 
using coal did not have proper care. Had his understanding been correct (and it is 
admitted that Table I is not very clear on that point) his criticism would have been 
well taken, but the fact is that 49.0 tons of coal is the total amount used under 
“banked fires” as well as ‘“‘underway”’ during that month. It will therefore be 
seen that this is not a “high rate of coal consumption” by any means. Assurances 
are also given to Mr. Reid that as much care is given to the management of 
boilers using coal, in the vessels of the Revenue-Cutter Service, as is given to any 
vessels of similar type afloat. 
THE PRESIDENT:—Mr. Reid called attention to a very peculiar thing, if it is a 
fact, and I have heard it too, that the price of oil seems to vary so as to keep it just 
within a certain point of the price of coal. 
