Water mixed with fuel is in intimate mechanical relation, and
frequently so remains in considerable quantities even after the
process of distillation. It is in fact so thoroughly mixed as to
form an emulsion. The effect of feeding such a mixture into a
furnace is extremely injurious, because the water must be decomposed
chemically into its constituents, hydrogen and oxygen,
thus absorbing a large quantity of heat which would otherwise
be utilized for evaporation. Water also directly delays combustion
by producing from the jet a long, dull, red flame instead
of a short bright, white flame, and the process of combustion,
which should take place by vaporization of the oil near the
furnace mouth, is postponed and transferred to the upper part of
the combustion-box, the tubes, and even the base of the chimney,
producing loss of heat and injury to the boiler structure. The
most effective means of ridding the fuel of this dangerous
impurity is by heat and settlement. The coefficients of expansion
of water and oil by heat are substantially different, and a
moderate rise of temperature therefore separates the particles
and precipitates the water, which is easily drawn off—leaving
the oil available for use. The heating and precipitation are
usually performed upon a patented system of settling tanks
and heating apparatus known as the Flannery-Boyd system,
which has proved itself indispensable for the successful use at
sea of petroleum fuel containing any large proportion of water.
The laboratory and mechanical use of petroleum for fuel has already been referred to, but it was not until the year 1870 that petroleum was applied upon a wider and commercial scale. In the course of distillation of Russian crude petroleum for the production of kerosene or lamp oil, Progress of liquid fuel. large quantities of refuse were produced—known by the Russian name of astatki—and these were found an incumbrance and useless for any commercial purpose. To a Russian oil-refiner gifted with mechanical instinct and the genius for invention occurred the idea of utilizing the waste product as fuel by spraying or atomizing it with steam, so that, the thick and sluggish fluid being broken up into particles, the air necessary for combustion could have free access to it. The earliest apparatus for this purpose was a simple piece of gas-tube, into which the thick oil was fed; by another connexion steam at high pressure was admitted to an inner and smaller tube, and, the end of the tube nearest to the furnace being open, the pressure of the steam blew the oil into the furnace, and by its velocity broke it up into spray. The apparatus worked with success from the first. Experience pointed out the proper proportionate sizes for the inlets of steam and oil, the proper pressure for the steam, and the proportionate sizes for the orifices of admission to the furnaces, as well as the sizes of air-openings and best arrangements of fire-bricks in the furnaces themselves; and what had been a waste product now became a by-product of great value. Practically all the steam power in South Russia, both for factories and navigation of the inland seas and rivers, is now raised from astatki fuel.
In the Far East, including Burma and parts of China and Japan, the use of liquid fuel spread rapidly during the years 1899, 1900 and 1901, owing entirely to the development of the Borneo oil-fields by the enterprise of Sir Marcus Samuel and the large British corporation known as the Shell Transport and Trading Company, of which he is the head. This corporation has since amalgamated with the Royal Dutch Petroleum Company controlling the extensive wells in Dutch Borneo, and together they supply large quantities of liquid fuel for use in the Far East. In the United States of America liquid fuel is not only used for practically the whole of the manufacturing and locomotive purposes of the state of Texas, but factories in New York, and a still larger number in California, are now discarding the use of coal and adopting petroleum, because it is more economical in its consumption and also more easily handled in transit, and saves nearly all the labour of stoking. So far the supplies for China and Japan have been exported from Borneo, but the discoveries of new oil-fields in California, of a character specially adapted for fuel, have encouraged the belief that it may be possible to supply Chile and Peru and other South American countries, where coal is extremely expensive, with Californian fuel; and it has also found its way across the Pacific to Japan. There are believed to be large deposits in West Africa, but in the meantime the only sources of supply to those parts of Africa where manufacture is progressing, i.e. South Africa and Egypt, are the oil-fields of Borneo and Texas, from which the import has well begun, from Texas to Alexandria via the Mediterranean, and from Borneo to Cape Town via Singapore.
In England, notwithstanding the fact that there exist the finest coal-fields in the world, there has been a surprising development of the use of petroleum as fuel. The Great Eastern railway adapted 120 locomotive engines to its use, and these ran with regularity and success both on express passenger and goods trains until the increase in price due to short supply compelled a return to coal fuel. The London, Brighton & South Coast railway also began the adaptation of some of their locomotive engines, but discontinued the use of liquid fuel from the same cause. Several large firms of contractors and cement manufacturers, chiefly on the banks of the Thames, made the same adaptations which proved mechanically successful, but were not continued when the price of liquid fuel increased with the increased demand.
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| Fig. 1.—Holden Burner. |
The chief factors of economy are the greater calorific value of oil than coal (about 16 ℔ of water per ℔ of oil fuel evaporated from a temperature of 212° F.), not only in laboratory practice, but in actual use on a large scale, and the saving of labour both in transit from the source of supply to the place of use and in Economy of liquid fuel. the act of stoking the furnaces. The use of cranes, hand labour with shovels, wagons and locomotives, horses and carts, is unavoidable for the transit of coal; and labour to trim the coal, to stoke it when under combustion, and to handle the residual ashes, are all indispensable to steam-raising by coal. On the other hand, a system of pipes and pumps, and a limited quantity of skilled
