July 2, 1888.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
3 
ranging from 5 horse-power to 30 horse-power, that 
the average consumption was 181 lb. per horse-power 
per hour, the highest being 27'5 lb. and the lowestil'Glb. 
"Now, iu firing with liquid fuel, the supply of fuel 
to the furnace being constant, and the fuel itself 
being homogeneous — that is to say, not consisting 
of volatile and non-volatile portions, as is the case 
with coal — the supply of air required is constant 
also, and the right amount is readily ascertainable 
by observing the chimney and so regulating the air 
inlets as to allow a thin transparent smoke to be 
evolved. If there is no smoke, too much air may 
be passing, and carbonic oxide may be escaping ; 
if, on the other hand, there is not enough air, the 
thick volumes of smoke given off indicate the fact 
in an unmistakable manner. With these advant- 
ages, it is not surprising to find that when properly 
consumed liquid fuel yields in practice a higher pro- 
portion of its theoretical value than coal. The 
author has carried out a great number of trials with 
various classes of liquid fuels in different kinds of 
furnaces during the last two years, and has now 
some fifty furnaces working on his system in this 
country. The system has been successfully applied 
to marine, locomotive, Cornish, Lancashire, and 
vertical boilers, with and without cross tubes, and 
to vertical boilers with Field tubes, to gas retorts, 
tar stills, steam superheaters, and brass melting 
furnaces, the average duty performed by the liquid 
fuel employed bein<r from one aud a half to two 
and a half times that of coal." 
No wonder if the President and others, in view of 
such facts, predicted a great future for oil fuel. Prom 
the very comprehensive and interesting observations 
of Admiral Selwyn we must give an extract:— 
"He believed that the first person to use jets of any 
kind for liquid fuel was a certain Major Schapooski iu 
Russia ; but his patent was simply a table apparatus, 
and he had never carried out the operation on a large 
scale. The first persons, according to his knowledge, 
who had used the jet in a form in wbich it was really 
a success were Messrs. Wise, Field, and Aydon. He 
believed that t'.ie next person was a Mr. Grow. Mr. 
Crow used one pipe over the other, one carrying steam 
and the other carrying oil. This apparatus had been 
in use ever since 1W71, at the establishment of Messrs. 
Johnson and Matthey, the great metallurgists in Hat- 
ton Garden. By means of it they were able to melt 
platinum like lead. The next person who made an im- 
provement was Mr. Donald, of the firm of Donald and 
Miller, chemical manufacturers, of Glasgow. This firm 
introduced the fire-brick furnace which was an absolute 
necessity for the thorough burning of the hydrogen of 
the steam, which required a te mperature of 4,000° Pabr. 
The question of the production of oil in the couutry 
wjs ot the greatest importance. Shale existed in this 
country in greater quantities than coal bad ever been 
found. It existed right across England iu beds 650 feet 
thick, and in some cases 1,100 feet thick, and it lay 
close to the surface. The development of a sufficient 
supply of oil to take the placo of coal for the commer- 
cial marine would, however, be a slow affair. He 
proposed to turn his whole attention to the obtaining of 
Knglish oil, so that everybody might rely upon being 
able to obtain a sufficient quantity, aud until this was 
ih ne he would not allow his apparatus to be used." 
Admiral Selwyn takes the patriotic view of the 
question, but commerce is cosmopolitan, and will 
not reject foreign oil while the distillation of our 
home supplies is delayed. Again : — 
"Admiral Selwyn said that there had been an experi- 
ence of twenty years of the use of oil iu every kind 
of 1) iler, and in no case had any damage been done to 
the boilers. The matter was one of constant experi- 
ence, and not at all one of theory. Por ten years the 
Russians had been running their ships acrcgi the 
Caspian i\nd Black Sea, with oil fuel, and they all said 
that they would never go hack again to coal. They 
used a much lighter class of oil than wo had iu Eng- 
land, and the results showed that the oil fuel was only 
oue-fotirth tho cost of coal, when space uud weight 
saved, as well as other minor consequences, wore takeu 
iuto account. 
"Mr. Mackie said that for about two years past he had 
seen the experiments which were carried out in London 
by Admiral Selwyn, and he could confirm what had been 
said as to the perfect combustion which had been ob- 
tained. Rock oil and other liquid fuels required a 
philosophical mode of stoking. The rough method of 
throwing on the fuel, which was common in the case of 
coal, was not suitable for oil. There was no doubt that 
there was a quantity of shale in this country which 
would yield rock oil. There was no reason to doubt, 
either on account of the supply of oil, the perfection of 
the combustion, or the results obtained, that liquid fuel 
would be the fuel of the future." 
Mr. Tarbutt, in his reply, said : — 
"Steam was certainly the most handy way of diffusing 
oil into the furnace in the state of spray ; but unfortu- 
nately iu the case of sea-going vessels, in which salt 
water had to be used to replace the steam so employed, 
there would be a danger of salting up the boilers, It 
was for that reason that be preferred the use of heated 
compressed air. He had been delighted with Admiral 
Selwyn's remarks as to the amount of oil which could 
be produced from the shale deposits in England. He 
was sure that Admiral Selwyn must be right in what 
he stated, as he had given much study to the subject, 
and that the oil would become available when it was re- 
quired. He had had some experience in the use of tar 
for firing gas retorts. At some works the tar could not 
be sold for more than 3s a ton, and as it would do double 
the work of the same weight of coal, that would be 
equivalent to getting coal at Is 6d a ton, which, he 
thought, was a desideratum. 
" No doubt Eugland owed her greatness to the fact of 
her iron deposits and her coal deposits being near to 
one another ; but if liquid fuel was comiug to the front 
it was of no use for Englishmen to bury their eyes in 
the sand, and say that oil was of no use because they 
had got coal. If shipowners could not run their ships 
at remucerative rates with coal, engineers must look be- 
yond the selfish question, and see whether they could 
not make both ends meet by means of liquid fuel." 
The President, in closing the discussion, dwelt on 
the importance of the large supplies of oil and 
residual matters becoming available in our own and 
other countries, but he evidently believes that 
coal has not yet shown all it can do, for he said : — 
"Science was progressive, and means would doubtless 
be fouud for using coal to increasingly greater advant- 
age. In the Engert boiler the coal was bt ing used under 
a new set of conditious. So, he took it, it would be 
with liquid fuel, just as indeed it had been with gas. 
The more scientifically perfect the conditions the better 
would be the result, and although theoretically a fuel 
might only have a given value, yet practically by ex- 
traneous aids it might be made to give a higher result 
than that for which theory would be responsible." 
Whether more oil is used or less coal is re- 
quired for the production of the vast amount 
of force needful for the world's work, we 
who use wood fuel until we oan get lignite 
or coal at prices which we can afford must 
benefit as science progresses in the direction 
indicated by Mr. Nursey. We submit that 
it is the duty of the Ceylon authorities, 
now that petroleum is abundant in the co- 
lony, to institute experiments with reference to 
the use of this subbtance instead of coal and 
wood in the furnaces of the railway and the 
Government Factory. The Gas Company might also 
find it worth while to try experiments with 
petroleum refuse. 
SNIPE SHOOTING IN CEYLON. 
(Itaihfs Alujaziur (or April.) 
If the question were put to a meeting of Ceylon 
sportsmen—" What do you consider to be the best 
shooting in tho island? " the answer would be almoat 
unanimously, "Snipe." 
Not the most dangerous, certainly, nor perhaps 
the most exciting, but taken all round, undoubtedly 
the best. 
