334
guished. The furnace door is flanged, and fits air-tight, being further secured by means of a layer of fire-clay placed round the edge of the door space before closing to light up..
The bricking arrangement differs in this system to the arrangement of same in other systems. There are two bridges, the first is practically a wall closing the whole diameter of the furnace, with a circular hole exactly in the middle some 15 in. behind this hole is another bridge or pillar, the exact construction of which I am unable to give, as it conld only be seen from the front of the furnace through the hole in the first bridge.
The absence of a service tank containing more or less heated oil, fitted with gauge glasses, etc, distinctly minimises the risk of fire in the sokehold,
One drawback of the system appears to be the consumption, which is decidedly high. The Mossel is 1,500 horse power, but is usually run at 1,200 horse power.
To develop this power she burns according to the engineer 18 tons per day, but this does not quite agree with his further statement that the consumption is 78 of a kilogramme per i. h. p. per day.
This I make equivalent to 21.1 tons per day. The engineer also stated that her consumption of the best Australian coal was .85 of a kilo- gramme per i. b. p. per hour. Which is to 23 tons, a saving of 2 tons according to my figures, but a saving of 5 tons from the engineer's first statement.
She carries four engineers, and 14 engine- room hands, which includes men for working the deck winches.
Mr. Lambert concluded his paper by the following statements in connection with plate furnaces, and liquid fuel in use in the Colony :-
A
[April 20, 1001.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND ¡ and the brick work was heated up, it was all hole. There were one or two points which that could be desired. Petroleum oil was the struck him in the discussion as being worthy fuel used, and compressed air the spraying of notice, and he would like to ask sɔme of his medium. A number of inch rivets were put American friends who were present to tell into the forge, and wore heated up very quickly, them of the experience of Admiral Melville of Sixteen inch rivets were next put in and the United States Navy as to the trials which timed, and in five minutes the whole sixteen had been going on recently. They must be were hot enough for use. They were markably free from scale, and seemed to
re- very interesting. (Hear, hear.)
Mr. Smith, the chief engineer of the U.S.S. reach one temperature, and remain at that. Concord, said he had taken a great deal of interest There seemed to be no possibility of getting in the matter. He was sorry to say he had the rivet too hot and pieces of molten not studied up the subject much. He however metal dropping off, as is often the case with gave his idea of what the experiments amounted rivets which are heated in a coal fire, when the to, and said that the liquid fuel was frequently rivets have been allowed to remain too long and used in merchantmen and men-of-war. The re- get neglected. A much larger number of rivets sults of the Navy Department's labour had not can be heated in this forge than with the been made known, therefore he was unable to ordinary rivet forge. The brickwork was quite throw any additional light upon them. They incandescent, no smoke, and the flame was very had not got so far as to authorise the oil in use clear and bright, quite a white heat.
on torpedo boats, but if the funaces on those In conclusion I must express my indebted-boats became dirty they simply put a little oil ness for a good deal of matter contained in on the top of the fire, which burned sufficiently this paper to Messrs. Samuel Samuels, Holden, to take the boat out of danger. Wallis, Orde, Rusden and Eccles and others, Capt. Anderson said there was no doubt and I trust that my efforts have been the great credit was due to Mr. Lambert for the means of explaining the methods used in burn-able paper he had read, and he trusted it would ing liquid fuels and the apparatus pertaining be the means of eliciting more attention to the thereto.
subject in the future. He had been looking into the question of liquid fuel for the purpose of finding oat the reason of the non-adoption of liquid fuel by British shipowners in face of the very great use made of it by. Russians in the Caspian Sea. So far as he had been able to find out it seemed to him the question of supply had not been served. The question was whether they could get supply for their vessels. Another reason was whether they could keep up the price. As far as be conld ascestain the cost per ton of liquid fuel was twice the cost of coal. Messrs. Arm- · strong and Whitworth had made experiments with liquid fuel with beneficial results. The speaker then gave some statistics to show the benefits to be desired from the use of oil, and referred to Kitson's light, which he said would affect the lighting by and by. (Hear, Hear.)
The Chairman said they had all listened with very great interest to Mr. Lambert's paper. There were several good remarks in it, not only in reference to liquid fuel for boilers, but in burning it for other purposes, and he was sure Mr. Lambert had struck a very good note in bringing it before them that evening. He had not the least doubt but that many of the think- ing engineers would take the paper to heart, and endeavour to make good use of it. If there were any members present who would like to say anything on the subject they would be glad to hear it,
After a pause, Mr. Lambert said he believed there were one or two engineers in the room who, though they were not then using liquid have been doing so, and their opinions would be valuable.
The Chairman remarked that the discus- sion was not confined to members of the Insti- tution. If there were any visitors present, who had anything to say on the subject they were at liberty to express their views.
Mr. Soppet said he had been running with liquid fuel for the past 18 months, and found that it was very beneficial compared with coal with regard to cleanliness and saving of labour.
Of course there was the question of water, and he thought with vessels constructed for it he did not-see why it should not be universally adopted. With ordinary care and attention liquid fuel should supersede coal. He could not find any fault at all with what had been stated that evening. (Hear, hear, and applause.)
In course of research I have come across some interesting statements in connection with plate furnaces which perhaps may be of in- terest. At. Woolwich uuder ordinary circum-fuel, stances, the armour plate binding furnace was lighted some four or five hours before the plate was put in, the time occupied in heating the plate for bending depended upon its thickness, one hour per inch being allowed. Taking a six-inch plate they got from ten to eleven hours from the time of starting till the plate was ready for bending. Let us now see what liquid fuel will do. The cold furnace was lighted, and after one hour it was found to be sufficiently heated, and a six-inch armour plate seven feet six inches by three feet, was put in the furnace, and after one hour or one hour and a half it was ready for bending, thus in two hours and a half they had the work of ten or eleven hours completely and satisfac- torily performed. Nor did the advantages of this system stop there. The plate was remark- ably free from scale, which could only be ac- counted for by the absence of the deteriorating influence of the products of combustion in the ordinary furnace. This important feature was said to save 10s. per ton on the metal, which amount it would lose in deterioration under the ordinary mode of treatment. This method of supplying heat also offered an- other advantage: it could be applied to the whole or any portion of the plate. Thus if a plate required to be bent at one end only, then the heat was directed to that part. Further the rate at which the metal was heated could be regulated to a nicety by increasing or diminish- ing the number of jets in use. I am not aware whether steam or compressed air was used, but I would suppose that if liquid fuel was used in a blacksmith's furnace for welding, that steam could not be used.
23
I have been using liquid fuel as it comes here from Borneo, in the Well's lamps at the dock, which gives good results, and is a saving as compared with refined petroleum as formerly used. When the fuel oil comes too thick for use in these lamps and which it does sometimes, I have mixed it with a quantity of refined oil. I believe the same kind of lamps are in use at the Naval Yard extension here, and that the fuel oil is also used there with
Kuccess.+
Within the last few days, I have had a liquid fuel rivet forge sent to me for trial and report thereon, and I found it to work very well. A little trouble was experienced at first lighting up, but after the flame was going a little time
Mr. Stirling, Mr. Andrews, Mr. Murphy and Mr. Kirkwood continued the discussion, their remarks being principally as to the construction of the bridges referred to in the paper.
Mr. Kinghorn said it was a subject about which a great deal could be said, but as far as the discussion hal gone that evening nothing had been said about the economy of it. He had been looking at the technical papers which had lately.. arrived from home, and had found that. the subject was draw ing a great deal of attention, and as far as steamers were concerned the question was one. of econon.y. It seemed to be settled among tho profession that it was not safe to use the oil with anything else but steam in sowie form or other; that was to say, the oil must be vaporised before it was used or allowed to escape. They had tried compressing it in various forms, and tried to mix it with water, but with very little success, and up to the present the great difficulty had been the quantity of water required to use it. on board steamships. He thought he was correct in stating that two steamers which were out here on the coast had given it up for that sole reason, that it cost them more to keep up the fresh water supply than the difference between the cost of oil and the cost of coal (Hear, hear.) Then there was another point which concerned the members of the Institute in this part of the world. It would not do, to leave a matter of this kind in the hands of the native firemen, or at least it would not do to trust them en- tirely, and it would hardly be fair to ask the engineer to keep his watch in the stoke
Mr. Kirkwood went back to 1871 to show what was done with the second launch which was upon the waters of the Harbour in the matter of coal far. As soon as they found use for it up went the price.
The Chairman in conclusion sail that after what they had heard he must say that Mr. Kinghorn had struck the right note when he spoke of economy in burning the liquid fuel. In these days when the first thing to be thought of was economy in running a steamer, it was necessary to consider what fuel. or class of boiler it was best to use. He suggested the discussion be postponed for a fortnight.
This was agreed to and a vote of thanks to Mr. Lambert and to the Chairman brought the proceedings to a close.
MURDER OF MR. STONEHOUSE.
On
On Sunday last, says the P. & T. Times of the 30th March, it became known here that on the previous day one more name had been added to the long list of foreign victims to Chinese ignorance and prejudice.. Rev. Joseph Stone- house, of the London Mission, Peking, was visiting the country stations of his mission near Lo-fs, and reached the village of Wang. ho-lon-t'sun in the Yangching district. Saturday morning, 23rd March, he was on- ferry at Wang-ho-lou T'sun. On reaching his way to Tung-an and had to take the the boat he found it already occupied by several Chinese armed with rifles, He is believed to have remonstrated with them for their folly in going about armed in broad day- light, as should they encounter foreign troops trouble would ensue. They appear to have been alarmed at what he said, and putting down their arms stopped ashore and went away. They soon returned, however, with several of their friends, also armed, who deliberately came on board and fire at Mr. Stonehouse. They fired five shots into the helpless man as he crouched under his Chinese cart, which was on the ferry, and medical evidence, shows that the shots were fired at very 1. se-quarters. Mr. Stonehonse was remoșed the village and placed on a kang and was attended, by several native Christians up to the last, and he appears to have lingered for fully six hours
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