12 W. H. WARREN. 
generators on similar vessels should definitely settle the 
question as to the most suitable boiler for our war ships ; 
meanwhile the results obtained appear to point towards 
the adoption of some form of water tube boiler. 
The use of petroleum oil as a fuel for raising steam has 
come again to the front mostly in the mercantile marine, 
and it has been proposed to build vessels for the Atlantic 
mail service using oil as fuel, and steam turbine engines 
of sufficient power to deliver mails from London and Paris 
to New York in four anda half days. The Red Star liner 
Kensington has crossed the Atlantic with one of her boilers 
using oil all the time, and oil fuel is now used on the 
Alamedi of the A. and A. line. The first voyage of the 
Ventura between Sydney and San Francisco proved also 
very successful. The advantages consist in a considerable 
saving of labour in stoking, the running of the burners is 
exceedingly simple, and present numerous advantages over 
coal. The fires can be rapidly extinguished and re-lighted. 
In an official report on the use of oil in the United States 
Navy, Admiral Belleville states that the efficiency obtained 
was 40% greater than with coal. 
The advantages in oil fuel over coal has been long known, 
but the cost of oil has prevented its more extensive use; 
this objection, however, is very likely to be removed by 
the extension and development of oil trading companies. 
Messrs. Armstrong and Whitworth have been making 
extensive experiments on the best methods of applying oil 
fuel to war ships, and Sir Andrew Noble states that it takes 
16 times as long to coal a battleship as to re-fuel it with oil. 
_ Automatic stokers possess features that can undoubtedly 
make water tube boilers a success, for regularity of fires 
and uniformity of the same are essential requirements of 
successful working. Mechanical stokers and liquid fuel 
will assist the water tube boiler in its future development, 
