OPINIONS ON OIL FUEL 163 



Copt of Letter from the Director of Mines and 

 Report by Edgar Stansfield 



Department of Mines 

 Canada 



Ottawa, Jan. 17th, 191 3 

 Dear Sir, — 



In conformity with your request of the 13th instant, the sample 

 of carbonaceous scale was analyzed by Mr. Edgar Stansfield, our 

 fuel testing chemist, and submitted by him to certain tests. 



It seems to me that the formation of this scale could to a very 

 large extent, be avoided by a mixture of the oil spray with air in such 

 proportion as to ensure complete combustion. 

 I enclose Mr. Stansfidd's report. 



Yoturs very truly, 



Eugene Haanel, 



Director of Mines 

 James Ogilvie, Esq., 

 Asst. C.O.O., B.R.C., 

 Ottawa. 



[copy] 



Report of Examination of Material from Inside of Fire Box of Oil Burn- 

 ing Locomotive. Sample received from Mr. J. Ogilvie, Operating 

 Department, Board of Railway Commissioners for Canada 



Analysis showed that the sample was a very hard, impure form 

 of carbon, almost free from hydrocarbons. A proximate analysis carried 

 out in the manner customary for coals, showed 88.8 per cent fixed 

 carbon, 5.0 per cent volatile matter, 5.7 per cent ash, and 0.5 per 

 cent water. 



The sample was in the main combustible, but only burned with 

 considerable difficulty. Small pieces heated in a quartz tube to the 

 ignition point burned very readily in a current of oxygen, and con- 

 tinued to bum after the external heat was removed. If air was passed 

 through the tube instead of oxygen the pieces tested burned slowly as 

 long as the tube was kept hot, but combustion ceased when the external 

 heating was discontinued. 



A larger sample strongly heated in a blowpipe flame burned very 

 slowly while the flame was actually impinging on it ; when the flame 

 was removed, the material appeared to cool as rapidly as it would have 

 done had it been non-combustible. 



