TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION G. 781 



experimental installations have followed, and in Russia its general employment 

 may be said to have commenced about 1870, when the development of the 

 enormous oil supplies of the Apcheron Peninsula became an accomplished fact, 

 and the first oil-fuel steamer appeared on the Caspian Sea. 



In the United States, where the crude oil of the Pennsylvanian field contain? 

 a larger parcentage of light oil, the use of liquid fuel until recently has been on a 

 less extended scale; now, however, the discoveries in California "and Texas have 

 provided enormous supplies of crude oil, practically only suitable for this service 

 and great advances have consequently been made in its use. 



In this country many attempts have been made, but owing to the absence of 

 regular supplies progress has not been so rapid as in the cases mentioned above. 

 The manufacture of oil gas and carburetted water gas has, however, thrown on the 

 market products of a character only suitable for fuel, and rendered its adoption 

 possible on a limited scale. 



The different methods of burning oil fuel may ba summarised as follows : 

 (l) those wherein it is burned in bulk form ; (2) in a sprayed or atomised condi- 

 tion ; and (3) consumed as vapour or gas. The first mentioned procedure has 

 received most application in Russia, whereas the last has enlisted most attention 

 in the United States owing to the lighter character of the oils available. Gene- 

 rally, however, the second or spraying system may be looked upon as the 

 favourite, most generally adopted, and probably the most successful : hence the 

 chief attempts at improvement appear to have been devoted to it. The most 

 effective device is doubtless that requiring the least quantity of the atomising 

 agent (steam or compressed air) for operation, and until recently the attention 

 of workers in this direction has been centred on the burner employed, the con- 

 struction of the furnace, which is of as much importance for a good' result, beino- 

 somewhat neglected. Further, a due consideration of the admittance, distribu" 

 tion, and temperature of the air for combustion is absolutely essential to success. 



The latest developments of spraying apparatus point to the employment of oil 

 fuel under pressure, heated to a high temperature, sprayed with dry steam, and 

 the fire fed with heated air for combustion. 



For steamers the use of oil fuel possesses advantages over coal in excess of 

 those which can be urged in its favour when employed on land : reduced storage 

 space, less number of men required, an increased steaming capacity from a given 

 supply of fuel, are points of the greatest value from the marine aspect of the 

 question. 



For locomotives the assistance of oil fuel is valuable on the long runs without 

 stopping, now becoming common, the difficulties of firing and the trouble from 

 dirty fires being no longer present. The application in this direction has been 

 much improved and simplified during the past few years with a view of securing 

 the reliability of the apparatus under all conditions of service, and the method 

 devised by Mr. Holden, of the Great Eastern Railway, of arranging the apparatus 

 has been extensively adopted owing to the opportunities it afl^ords for the use of 

 solid or liquid fuel, or both, at will or as circumstances may make most desirable. 



In Russia and the United States some hundreds of locomotives are reo-ularly 

 running, using oil as fuel ; and numerous examples are to be found in this and 

 other countries where coal has become an expensive commodity. 



For furnace work oil fuel offers unique advantages, and many interesting 

 applications have been made to meet the special requirements of annealing 

 tempering,_ metal melting, brazing, &c. In glass making and enamelling oil fuel 

 has met with considerable adoption, and portable furnaces of all kinds are success- 

 fully operated with it ; in bridge-work, shipbuilding, &c., oil-fired rivet furnaces 

 are to be preferred to any form of solid fuel-heating device. 



In storage oil fuel has many fiivourable features. It occupies a minimum of 

 space, does not deteriorate by exposure, and is easier of transportation and distri- 

 bution. 



In the Far East and many Oriental countries the importation of oil fuel has 

 now become a regular undertaking, and supplies are guaranteed in many cases 

 where wood has become scarce and imported coal an almost prohibitive article. 



