• OIL-FIRED STEAM WAGONS.
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The Story of an Interesting Conversion from Coke to Oil Fuel.
LICE SOME MONTHS now the Liver': pool Fire Brigade has had in eommission an oil-fired steam wagon—one of the earliest models of the Sentinel threeton type. The responsibility for the conversion lies with a Liverpool concern, Messrs. Kermode's, Ltd., one of whose systems, the pressure-jet system, was applied to this wagon with successful results.
With this burner neither steam nor air is required to ,disintegrate the eil, the pulverization being effected by pressure whichis brought to bear upon the oil fuel itself by means of a force pump.
The installataan of oil fuel proved a comparatively simple. matter. A hand pump, marked A in Fig. 2, was installed to pump air into theeeil tank above the oil and so create the head necessary for the pressure-jet burner. • In the Kermode burner oil under pressure enters at the side and travels forward in an annular space formed between the inner and onter cylinders. At the end of the annular passage is a cap with grooves, through which the oil passes to a leentral opening, through which it is discharged. This operation is controlled by a conically-ended spindle, which passes through the inner csylimdrical port. The' various fittings for installation shown in Fig. 2 are :—A, hand pump for supplying pressure; B, the relief valve on the oil tank; and C, the filling plug on the oil tank. D is the oil filter.
• control valve with its operating lever are shown at E and F and the shut-off'cock at K. The fitting marked H is the pressure gauge and El is the oil burner. The oil used requires no preheating. In an interview with Mr. Kermode, who devised this system, a representative of this journal was informed that he had experimented with the steam jet system for this work, but on account of the wastage of fresh water, and as the steam wagon had to carry its own feed of water, the pressure-jet method made for a. saving of probably 3.1 per cent. under this head.
The pressura-jet system covered about 80 per cent of the fuel power used, whilst with the steam jet it would be about 75 per cent.
Before this wagon was converted its speed was about five miles per hour, and this could not be kept up, owing to the fires becoming dirty. With oil the engine is now doing 18 miles per hour, loaded or empty.
This wagon, which is used for the transport of fire-brigade stores, is able to keep up an average of 14 miles per hour over difficult roads on an Oil consumption of between 3 and 4 gallons per hour. There is an entire absence of smoke and fumes, and a feature of the installation is that the engine and oil consumption can be controlled in circumstances where it is frequently necessary to pull up. .kpedal is fitted to the wagon, whioh, by being depressed, shuts off the supply of oil and just allows sufficient to pass to keep the jet alight. Immediately the pedal is raised the jet is in full flare again.
Asked how the running costs compared with the use of coke and coal fuel,
Mr. Kerrnode suggested that O. compari13071 would be hardly fair, because the rate of travelling of the oil-fuel wagon was greater than that usually done by the osclirsary steam wagon on account of the special work upon which it is employed. Oil for fuel purposes was admittedly very dear, but, added Mr. Kermode, for a wagon to carry 3 tons—
ton more than the legitimate load—at the rate of a, quarter of a. gallon to the mile, was, lee thought, a satisfactory performance. " Do you consider the oil-fuel steam wagon has a future?" we asked Mr. Kermode.
"if the war hid continued," he replied, "I believe that a great deal of the coal arid coke that was used for road vehicles would have been cut out and oil fuel used on a big scale. In foreign countries, where coal is twice the cost that it is in England, there are clients of the nietor wagon builders who would be glad to know that their steamers could be operated on oil fuel, insomuch as they have oil fuel cheaper, in some cases, than we have here. Coal and eoke will always have their day, but oil also
i has a place. One fuel s useful, but a great advantage would be to have wagons fitted. with alternative arrangements to bum coal and coke when they are cheaper and. more accessible, and oil fuel when this presents economic advantages." Folloiring the interview with Mr. Kermode, our representative had a conversation with Chief Engineer and Deputy Superintendent Oakes, of the Liverpool Fire Brigade. This Sentinel wagon, he said, was about 14 years old, Sand originally had an oil steam jet, but was subsequently converted to burn coke • but, when the war came, the abstraction of a greater heat power from the coke led to a reconversion to oil fuel, this time on the pressure-jet system. "We were practically the pioneers in the use of oil-fuel road vehicles," said Mr. Oakes, "but at the present time oil fuel, I am afraid, is too costly for much
progress to be made with the road vehicle. This wagon, which, by the way, is not much used new, bums four gallons per hour, and reckoning gas oil, which we -use, at Is. 11d., less barrelege, per gallon, the fuel rests for one hour would
be 7s. Even at the present enhasicecl values of solid fuels, these would not cost so much."
Asked what he thought of the prospects of the oil-fuel steam vehicle, Mr. Oakes adroitly evaded the query by declaring very emphatically in favour of petrol vehicles 'for all work in cenneetion with the fire brigade 'We have used, and are using, steamers, patrols and electric—but the petrol for us," he added.