L. & N.W.R. Company's Successful Experiment Oil is rapidly coming into its own in our industrial life. One of the latest proofs of its efficiency is afforded by the London and North-Western Railway Company. For the last three months there has been running in the company's regular service a locomotive driven by oil fuel. Not until it had indubitably proved its success was it thought desirable to draw public attention to this innovation. All doubts as to the satisfactory character of the experiment having been set at rest, a demonstration journey was made from London to Birmingham and back, a distance of 226 miles. Two saloons were added to the ordinary 11.30 a.m. express from Euston for the accommodation of a party of leading railway and other engineers. _The Scarab Oil Burning Com-Pany's system, which was the one installed in the locomotive, is very simple. In the tender of the engine is a tank in place of the coal. The oil, which is the residuum of petrol, is fed by pipes to the burner in the firebox by force of gravity. It is atomized or vaporized by the application of steam as it falls from the feed pipe into a fan-shaped receptable. Not until it is thus vaporized is the oil inflammable. This method is a considerable modification of that employed 2 oil-burning ships, where the oil is forced at great pressure through very small orifices in the burners. It is a very easy matter to instal the Scarab system, as no structural alterations in the engine are required. Indeed, given the requisite materials, a locomotive can be converted from coal to oil-burning in four days, and the Scarab Company state that it can be as readily fitted to any heat-producing plant, from a kitchen range to a locomotive.
The advantages claimed for the system are that oil fuel is much more easily handled than coal. The furnace being fed automatically, the laborious task of stoking is eliminated. The engine emits neither smoke nor sparks, and as the combustion of oil is almost perfect, there are no ashes nor dirt to be removed after a run. As regards the consumption of fuel, a train, which requires the provision of, say, 70lb. of coal per mile, can be run on about 30lb. of oil.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.