Enrichment of Coal-gas During
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Use in a Commercial Motor.
The prospects for the successful application of coalgas as a fuel for internal-combustion engines in commercial-motor vehicles will not be as good as they deserve in the absence of sustained effort to make the necessary adaptations. Everything at the moment is in some senses against the prospects of the extended use of coal-gas as a propulsive agent, whilst in other senses everything should be in its favour. We class with the adverse factors : (a) the difficulty of obtaining a priority certificate for either boiler plates or complete steel vessels ; (b) lower power from any .internal-combustion engine when using the present-day attenuated coal-gas, as compared with power on petrol, the loss being from 15 to 20 per cent. ;. (c) low mileage on the contents of any flexible container holding • gas at atmospheric pressure ; (d) considerable weight of any rigid storage installation and connections. The current factors in favour of persistentattention for the claims of coal-gas include the following: (a) saving on cost of fuel compared with petrol (a mean of 300 cubic ft. of coal-gas is equal to one gallon of petrol); (b) comparative crudeness of attempts to date to adopt coal-gas as a fuel for use in road vehicles, and the potential scope for both detail an d general improvements ;' (c) readiness with which. coal-gas can be enriched by allowing it to bubble through petrol, solvent naphtha, solar oil, or other hydrocarbon, before it reaches the induction pipe of the. engine; (d) convenience with which any storage vessels can be refilled on the road from a steel bottle of gas (here, of course, the higher cost of gas when compressed to a large number of atmospheres has to be admitted).
We are aware of reports from business users as to their feelings of disappointment about the poor quality of coal-gas in certain Parts of the country. • We must confess, ourselves, that we are equally disappointed to hear that they have not persevered even to the point of trying to enrich the gas, which course is an obvious and simple one. We put forward the claims and benefits of enrichment, for the attention of our friends in the industry, both manufacturers of vehicles and users, and it has afforded the writer pleasure investigators to communi cate the idea to the expert of ,the Gas
Light and Coke Co. It is clear that, adopting a "pot type ?' of reducing valve, such as was illustrated in our issue of the 29th March (page 100 ante), the same vessel lends itself to combination as a regulator of pressure and an enriching chamber, although it iS probably expedient to allow the gas to bubble through the enriching liquid at a point in the series where it is not in communication. with the storage 'vessel. Seeing that in, gas-making practice coal-gas is enriched merely by passing it over shallow trays which contain the enriching liquid, the action.of•bubbling through a small column of such liquid before entering the engine on any Vehicle must bring about thedesired results, and might conceivably raise the
calorific value of some of the poor coal-gas which is now being sold in this country by as much as 25 per cent. That improvement should make all the difference between mediocre and outstanding success. Pressure behind the coal-gas is not a condition precedent to enrichment in course of use in a motor vehicle ; suction flog, the engine, applied above the surface of the liquid, will draw the gas threugh. column of sufficient depth.
Unity Is Strength: Join the C.M.U.A.
The Commercial Motor Users Association, affiliated to the Royal Automobile Club, of which body it is the heavy-traffic "arm," continues to make excellent progress. Our summary of the Association's annual report for the year 1916 (pages 142 to 144) bears testimony to this fact. One of the most-gratifying features in connection with this organization, so far as we can observe, is the staunchness of the considerablesections of its older membership. Many members in these categories lost practically their whole fleets of commercial motors by impressment in the years 1914 and 1915, but they did not allow this occurrence to interfere with' their renewal of support for the national body which looks after their interests. That renewal of confidence has in many cases been rewarded by benefits, due to the work which the Association has been able to accomplish during 1916. The present conditions of stress are not less trying for any mercantile associationas such than they are for its individual members. Opportunities to "keep the wheels of industry turning' become fewer and fewer, by reason of the curtailment or withdrawal of labour and ;supplies, whilst those opportunities which remain are each month harder and harder to embrace. The discharge and fulfilment of war-time duties and obligatiens makes civilian life more and more strenuous, but only. so in keeping with the essential preference for militarlt and naval demands, inclusive of munitions manufacture and transport. The future of users of internal-combustion-engined commercial motors is not likely to be eased for many .months to come ; fuel difficulties alone are sufficient to give cause for continuing anxiety. The possibility of relief from home-produced fuels has finally, to be relinquished, the Petrol Control Committee having decided that any surplus Of home-produced shale sKtirit,' solvent naphthar or other petrol substitute, over and above the rationed quantitiesfar cornmercial-haulage pniposes, shall be delivered for consumption in the Services. User. of steam tractors arid wagons are, _ relatively, happy and unrestrained. They, none the less, have troubles of their own.
The future, expressed in terms of the next five or ten years, will additionally be one of difficulty, i particularly n regard to the resistance of proposals for taxation and unfair traffic regulation. Users must also make co-ordinated representations with regard to the extra maintenance and improvement of roads. Isolated effort is foredoomed.
Those of our readers who have not joined the
C.M.T.Y.A., and we know there must be many who have failed in that duty to themselves, will, we hope, not defer taking this course of action. They have merely to send a letter to the Secretary, Commercial Motor Users Association, 83, Pall Mall, London, S.W. 1, enclosing a remittance for 22 12s. lad. to cover entrance fee and first annual subscription, upon the receipt of which the secretary, Mr. F. S. Bristow,
F.C.I.S., will return to them a card of membership and other germane forms and literature, covering provision for the free legal defence of the new member, and setting forth the other privileges and rights to which he will become entitled, inclusive of associateship of the Royal Automobile Club. In certain areas, too, the one remittance will, subject to completion of the local formalities, cover membership of affiliated societies. The owner of a single light van pays only half rates.