Motor Spirit on its Way to the Engine.
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The following short account of an interesting trip which /as recently undertaken, at the invitation of the directors f the Anglo-American Oil Company, Limited, of 22, Billin. Street, E.C., by several members of the Press, was, as itimated, owing to pressure on our space last week, unvoidably held over. Leaving Temple Pier at ii a.m., le party embarked on a steam tug belonging LO the mpany, and proceeded down the river. The engines of this tle craft were of 35oh.p., and the necessity for such high wer will be readily understood when it is stated that, on casions, some 800 to goo tons of motor spirit have to be wed up the river : the barges, which are fitted with large mt tanks, have an average capacity of rso tons, and as rge a number as seven may form the tail to the tractor. ter a pleasant run of some eight or nine miles, the cornny's depot at Silvertown was reached, and here a stop
was made for about an hour while the handling of the spirit, from the time of its arrival in the tank barges at the wharf side to its delivery to the consumer, was explained by members of the directorate and the staff. The stages of work are briefly as follow. At the wharfside the spirit is pumped directly into the large storage tanks, which will be seen in the accompanying illustration of the works at Silvertown
(these tanks hold from 450 to 700 tons each). Front thence it is led by pipes, as required, down into the low-lying, boiler-like tanks, which are seen on the left of the picture, and it is then fed through to the distilling plant, which can be seen in the centre. The new vacuum still used for this process has a capacity of 20,000 gallons a day, and the spirit, having passed through it, is pumped back in its refined state into another capacious tank. Four pot stills are also employed; these can deal with some tb,000 gallons per day. While the process of distillation has been taking place, barrels and cans have been prepared for the reception of the purified spirit, and the 40-gallon, electrically-welded, steel barrels of the _ Steel Barrel Company, of Uxbridge, were much in evidence in this department, The well-known green cans in which Pratt's spirit is retailed to the motorist were also being treated here. The returned-empty cans are boiled in alkali, in order to remove the old paint, and they are then filled with compressed air and placed under water, when air bubbles would, of course, reveal the presence of any leakage in the cans. In their absence, however, the cans are next examined by means of electric, inspection lamps for rust or other internal defects; should any such defects be found, the cans are immediately thrown on the scrap heap, but, if none are present, they are sent to the painting benches, where they are given coats of paint in a wonderfully short space of
Preparing time. After this process, they are sent to the filling rooms. The petrol is led to this point by means of pipe lines, and a system of duplicate measures is employed, so that, while one can is being filled, an accurately-measured quantity of petrol is being automatically prepared for another. In this way, a largely increased number of cans can be filled compared with earlier methods. From 12,000 to 16,000 cans go through the chief filling room every day. From this point, of course, the filled cans of motor spirit reach the public through the ordinary means of delivery. Petrol in bulk is supplied in the steel barrels mentioned earlier. The two illustrations on this page show the preparing and filling of the cans.
The visit to Silvertown concluded, the party proceeded to the Company's depot at Purfleet, luncheon being served on the after part of the boat en route. At Purfleet little is done
in handling petrol, the bulk of the oil stored there being th for the purpose of ordinary consumption in lamps. Thi however, we understand is due to the action of the Thant Conservancy, which, up to the time of writing, has be unable to see its way to permit the handling of petroleu spirit at the admirably-designed wharfs in question. Eve facility has been provided for the safe landing of spirit bulk, and if permission were granted] the Conservators, the tank steatite would be taken up the river, all fir drawn, and the tanks emptied by mea of pumps driven by steam supplied fro the shore. It is to be hoped that ti Conservancy will see its way, at early date, to grant the permission I. this to be done, as the alternati methods of sending spirit to the co sumer undoubtedly entail a very mu. larger expense, and this, of cour e, h to be met by the consumer when pu chasing the petrol. NItich of intere was to be seen at the Pur fleet dept which covers some 35 acres, but this, course, dealing as it does with burnit oils, would not be of interest to la readers. Our inspection of the cot pany's worlss. and methods assured • that every precaution is taken to supp a spirit which is at all times consiste in quality both in its specific gravity al in its frash point. The hosts of the d: were Mr. George Barber, the Lon& Manager of the company, Messrs. Do ley, Pollock and Palk, members of ti Sales Committee, and Mr. Tapp, wl looks after the advertising of the cot pany, also assisted these gentlemen ensuring the comfort of the visitors, who were shown constant succession of interesting devices calculated to sa time in handling the material and increase the daily outp of the varied departments in the two depots. Such method when directed over the entire organisation of a trading co cern, cannot fail to result in a cheaper selling price am larger profits to the vendors.