THE 
AGRI67/ 
MONTHLY. 
Vol. VIII.] 
COLOMBO, JULY 2nd, if 
[No. 1. 
THE FUEL QUESTION IN CONNECTION 
WITH TEA CULTURE: PROGRESS IN 
THE USE OF PETROLEUM. 
The following paragraph appears in the London 
Globe of May 4th:— 
" Petroleum as a Substitute for Coal.— The 
sittings of the ordinary general meeting 
of the° Institution of Mechanical Engineers were re- 
sumed this afternoon at the Institute of Civil Engi- 
neers, 25, Great George-street, Westminster, Mr. 
Edward H. Carbut, president, occupying the chair. 
—A paper was read by Mr. Thomas Urquhart, 
locomotive superintendent of the Grassi and Tsantsin 
Railway, South-Eastern Russia, on .The Use ot 
Petroleum Refuse as Fuel in Locomotive Engines. 
He stated that since November, 1884, the 14d 
locomotives under his superintendence had been 
fired with petroleum refuse, besides 50 stationary 
boilers, two brass melting and other furnaces. 
Petroleum was, in fact, the fuel used for all steam- 
generating purposes to the complete exclusion ot all 
solid fuel except a very small quantity of wood for 
, ting the fires in horizontal boilers of pumping 
For all metallurgical operations also at 
the central works petroleum was used as fuel 
except for the smiths' fires and the foundry cupolas 
and it was thought that the present difficulties in 
its application to these two remaining exceptions 
would be overcome. With a locomotive in first- 
class order and in the hands of a skilful driver 50 
tons of petroleum refuse were equal to 100 tons of 
first-class coal, while in special trains this ratio 
had even been exceeded. Now that petroleum seemed 
destined to occupy a prominent place in India, as 
well as in many other parts of the world, its value 
as a lubricant, as well as its use as fuel, was of 
especial interest to engineers.— A discussion followed. 
The information thus conveyed is interesting to 
us, beoauso while it is not very likely that petroleum 
fuel could ever bo prepared so as to render it 
suitable for use in tea factories, yet if it comes to 
be employed on our railways, in the brewery and in 
the projected cotton factory, that would help tea 
plantors groatly by lessening the pressure on the 
limited availablo supply of w ood fuel. The cost of 
bringing petroleum fuel to Colo mbo might seem a 
strong objection, but from tho fact stated by Mr. 
Urquhurt that the refuse from the Baku wells 
yields doublo tho forco derived from coal, and, 
therefore, probably twice that given by wood fuel- 
On our railways, therefore, an experiment 
ought at once to be instituted. We shall be 
anxious to see the paper in detail, and meanwhile 
we may glance at a few points in a paper read and 
discussed at a meeting of the Society of Engineers 
in November 1886. It was prepared by Mr. Percy 
F. Tarbutt, who had, in the estimation of the able 
President, Mr. Perry F. Nursey, been largely sue 
oessful in adapting marine steam engines and 
furnaces for the use of liquid fuel. That is scarcely 
the term to employ, however, for our readers will be 
interested to learn that the Russian petroleum wells, 
which are now supplying Colombo so largely with 
oil for lighting purposes, differ essentially from 
those in America, by yielding 75 per cent of thick 
residual stuff suitable for fuel against 25 per cent in 
the case of the North American "borings. Mr. Tarbutt, 
in the course of his paper, said 
" The quality of the crude oil in different localities 
vanes greatly ; the Pennsylvania pptroleum yields 
about 75 per cent, of lamp oil and 25 per cent, of 
heavy oil suitable for fuel, whilst at Baku, on the 
Caspian, tbe proportions are reversed, only 25 per 
cent, being obtaiuable as lamp oil, and 75 per cent 
as residue. The petroleum now being worked at Sibi 
in Boloochistan, contains scarcely any lamp oil, and 
is suitable only for fuel. The second source of liquid 
fuel is derived from the distillation of coal. From 
tbe gasworks of the United Kingdom alone there is 
now an annual production of tar amounting to about 
llo,000,000 gallons, and this is increasing at the rate 
of from 5 to 7 per cent, per annum. The employ- 
ment of tar and its products in the arts has been 
decreasing for some years, and unless some new 
commercial products in it, or applications of if, are 
discovered, there seems every prospcetof itscontinue- 
iiifr to decrease. Tar and the green oils and creosotes 
obtained from the refineries are not substances which 
can be stored with ease or without expense, and con- 
sequently any _ profitable method of utilising the 
surplus production is of importance, even in countries 
where coal is cheap and plentiful, as is the case in 
England. Other sources of present supply of liquid 
fuel are coke ovens, shale oil works, and blast-furnaces 
in which the adoption of systems for abtaining the 
bye-products (including creosote oil) is increasing. 
The author has not yet had any opportunity of.studying 
the question of the supply which will be obtainable 
from the immense shale deposits of the south of England; 
but according to Admiral Selwyn, who has given 
many years' attention to this subject, a practically 
inexhaustible supply of cheap oil may be obtained from 
this cource when it is needed." 
Admiral Selwyn, above referred to, took an active 
part in the discussion which followed the reading 
of Mr. Tarbutt'a paper, and indicated his belief in 
the uso of oil fuel even in war ships, but he natu- 
rally objected to the British navy being depen- 
dent on foreign nations for a supply of such fuel, 
and advocated the use instead of the products 
