Oil Fuel & Jellicoe Specials

[Ghost]

The oil was sprayed on the burning coal.

Does anyone have a link to a more detailed description of this process. To the layman, this might sound as if the oil is sprayed onto the coal and it burns on the coal. In practice this does not happen. Try spraying a can of lighter petrol on to an open fire and watch what happens. Lighting an oil fire off a red hot furnace floor was a normal occurance, but the jet of oil burns, unless being bown hard into the furnace, where it just makes an explosive mess. As coal fired vessels around this period were only draughted by the uptakes, any jet of oil would have burned bad.

Alan

[ionia]

Does anyone have a link to a mor detailed description of this process. To the layman, this might sound as if the oil is sprayed onto the coal and it burns on the coal. In practice this does not happen. Try spraying a can of lighter petrol on to an open fire and watch what happens. Lighting an oil fire off a red hot furnace floor was a normal occurance, but the jet of oil burns, unless being bown hard into the furnace, where it just makes an explosive mess. As coal fired vessels around this period were only draughted by the uptakes, any jet of oil would have burned bad.

Alan

Closed stokeholds and forced draught were introduced for large ships in the RN in 1882.

[Stanley_C_Jenkins]

I know more about railway oil-burning systems than the marine versions, although I suspect that they worked in much the same way. On the Great Eastern Railway, a mixture of pre-heated air and oil was spayed onto a bed of ordinary coal by means of an oil injector - exhaust steam being used for the pre-heating. (The oil was of course heavy oil, rather than petrol).

[per ardua per mare per terram]

bearing in mind that maximum stowages are used throughout.

Also bearing in mind that the Navy in WWI did not operate the ludicrous 'just in time' ordering system.

[Terence Munson]

I’ve followed this topic with interest. My experience has been confined to machines driven steam turbines and in earlier years with duel fuel, oil and gas fired furnaces. It was a real pain to switch from gas to oil control when refinery conditions required it.

I’m just staggered by the quantities and the shear hard graft needed to power those war ships.

Try spraying a can of lighter petrol on to an open fire and watch what happens. Alan

Alan - No offence intended but this suggestion sets my nerves on edge. Even twelve years on, after having spent the best part of almost 30 years signing permits and writing procedures with safety as important as profit!

Cheers, Terry

[Ghost]

Closed stokeholds, forgot about them. Usual pressure in the stokehold at full steaming was about 1/2" I think. Not quite forced draught, as the stokeholds and not the furnaces were pressurised and the height of the funnel was still reguired to draw the fire. Can you imagine shoveling coal into a furnace that had F.D. fans. A Bit warm to say the least.

Terry, non taken at all. Never had to deal with those procedures till the mid 90s, which encouraged me to give steam up. Should have had some procedures for home bonfire makers, every year the addition of petrol was the cause of horrific burns.

Alan