From the Rolls-Royce experimental archive: a quarter of a million communications from Rolls-Royce, 1906 to 1960's. Documents from the Sir Henry Royce Memorial Foundation (SHRMF).
Article from 'THE AUTOCAR' discussing the fuel question, including petrol statistics, production methods, and potential alternatives.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 32\1\ Scan023 | |
| Date | 25th October 1913 | |
| THE AUTOCAR, October 25th, 1913. The Fuel Question. Some Criticisms on the Presidential Address to the Institution of Automobile Engineers. By W. R.{Sir Henry Royce} Ormandy, D.Sc. IT has become a settled custom for the presidential address of a learned society to deal with the broad aspects of whatever subject is under discussion, and as the presidents of such societies are, for the most part, men of general culture and broad learning, the general public looks forward to these addresses as offering some firm foothold amidst the quaking morass of unreliable information which the well-intentioned, but often technically ignorant, daily or weekly press serves out to them. It is true that the president's address is uttered under conditions which do not admit of immediate reply, but there is ample precedent for submitting such addresses to critical investigation as soon as they have been put into the hands of the public as published documents. No better support of this contention is required than a reference to the voluminous, and one might almost say acrimonious, correspondence and debate which is taking place upon the presidential address of Sir Oliver Lodge to the British Association. As a member of the Institution of Automobile Engineers I claim an additional right to discuss the subject matter of the president's address, fearing lest the opinions expressed in the address and the arguments leading up to these opinions might be taken as representing the views of the Institution as a whole. Contradictory Statistics. The address starts with a collection of statistics, obviously from a number of sources, dealing with the world's production of raw material and the world's requirements for petrol. On page 4 it is stated that "of this amount (47,000,000 metric tons of raw oil) it is estimated that about 10% is refined into petrol." A little further on an estimate by Prof. Magruder is cited wherein the total annual supply of gasolene in America is given as 1,500,000,000 gallons. Assuming that the average gravity of petrol is .75, the first estimate gives a world's production of 1,300,000,000 gallons per annum, that is, considerably less than the second estimate gives as the American production alone. An examination of the figures cited merely endorses the opinion which I expressed in a recent article in these pages, that the whole subject of the statistics of petrol production requires revision and study. All attempts to arrive at a probable petrol consumption of the average motor car engine based on an assumption of full load output are bound to lead to figures which convey little meaning. The facts are, that for a large percentage of their running life motor car engines run vastly below their full rated capacity. We expect a modern 16 h.p. car to run at least twenty miles to the gallon, which, on a basis of .75 pint per b.h.p. hour, points to an exertion of only 10 h.p. On the other hand, a large number of heavy private cars (limousines and the like) not only develop a higher proportional power but they are on the average probably more frequently employed than the smaller cars of which such numbers are owned by those who chiefly employ them for week-end service, and whose petrol consumption is probably in the neighbourhood of 200 to 300 gallons per annum. Liquefaction or Condensation? Further on occurs the following sentence: "In the States new methods of distilling are being brought into operation, and natural gas is being liquefied in order to increase the supply, 1,000 cubic feet of gas giving two to three gallons of petrol." The conjunction in one sentence of a reference to new methods of distilling and liquefaction of gas does not tend to lucidity. The latter portion of the sentence no doubt refers, not to the liquefaction of natural gas, but to the cooling of natural gas with a view to causing the condensation of the volatile liquid contents of petrol carried by the gas in the form of vapour. This treatment seems likely to produce considerable quantities of very volatile spirit which can be used to increase the value of motor spirits which are only just on the verge of suitability for the carburetters at present employed. In the very next sentence our hopes are raised by reference to the possibilities of cracking solar or gas oils, which, we are informed, have been a burden to the refiners for some time, but they are dashed at the end of the sentence by the statement that the total production of this oil in the United States is about 250,000,000 gallons. As the cracking will probably not result in the yield of much over 33% we cannot look for any serious relief in this direction; moreover, the control of these oils and the cracking process is in the hands of those who control the rest of the petrol supply. Although the president's conclusions as a whole, both by inference and otherwise, are adverse to alcohol, the fact that the Motor Union Committee of Inquiry into the fuel question in 1906 specifically asked the R.A.C. to organise and conduct experiments on the comparative merits of alcohol and petrol is referred to, as is also the fact that at the recent Imperial Motor Transport Conference Sir Boverton Redwood (the leading authority on petroleum in the world) and Prof. Lewes (one of the best known authorities on the treatment of coal by distillation) both pronounced strongly in favour of the necessity for immediate and thorough investigation into the possibilities of alcohol as being the only fuel which can be produced in limitless quantities without calling upon our national fuel reserves. "No Fire Test." It will be news to many to learn that petrol, as we know it to-day, has "no fire test," and that it will "flash at any temperature." During the coming winter many of us who use the ever denser-growing Taxibus spirit will have ample reason to discover that heavy petrols have a flash point which the temperature of a winter's day very closely approaches. I am in entire agreement with that portion of the address which states that we are a long way from finality with the paraffin carburetter, but it is not clearly stated that one of the great difficulties which the paraffin carburetter maker has to contend with is the fact that commercial paraffin oil differs even more in its physical properties than do the heavy and light petrols. Some of the paraffins distil between comparatively narrow and moderate ranges of temperature, whereas others contain a heavy percentage of very high boiling point constituents. The statement attributed to Prof. Hutton is quite ingenuous. We are informed that we can use paraffin oil subject to our being able to convert it into a mist so fine and so perfectly admixed with air that it shall burn practically instantaneously—in other words, that if we could achieve | ||