San Francisco Call, Volume 108, Number 50, 20 July 1910 — A New Property of Fuel Oil [ARTICLE]

A New Property of Fuel Oil

THE uses of crude oil are already multifarious and seem likely, to increase. As a help to the road builder for solidifying surfaces the crude' petroleum has proved its efficiency. Its use as — fuel for making steam is being extended from' day to day and its many and .varied properties in this relation receive fresh illustration in; practice. The Rochester Herald draws atten-; - * tiori to one quality ,pf fuel oil that supplies 1 another reason, for its use in locomotives for making steam. We quote: V: . "l , "' * Twenty locomotives have been turned out of the Northern Pacific, shops at South Tacoma converted from coal to oil burners. In the course of a short time; all the Northern Pacific* engines in operation between Portland and Puget sound will : use oil. for fuel. /The road passes through a heavily^wooded section, and the. object: of the change in fuel is to reduce to a minimum the danger of forest fires. - The crude oil is received from the California field, and each; tank will hold 3,000 gallons,> which is sufficient for a round trip between Tacoma and Portland. In, order to put an.end to the fires which annually sweep over the Adirondack forest preserves, the railroads which penetrate the territory might well be compelled to adopt oil as fuel. The supply of this fuel is as convenient of access as coal, and there remains only the changing of the engines to accommodate them to the new ; conditions. The waste. of the natural resources of the state could be stopped in this manner, and it ought to be so ordered. Fuel oil does not throw off sparks and cinders from the smokestack of the locomotive and therefore its use on the railroads of the west should be prescribed for all forest regions or where the roads pass through fields of growing grain. The supply of oil from the California fields appears to be practically unlimited and assured. Its economy as" fuel has Ion?. a^6 been 'dernnnstratpr!