Gasoline or naphtha and kerosene find a wide use in "oil stoves" of many sorts for domestic pur poses, principally for heating and cooking, the so called gas stove or "blue flame" stove, being un rivaled where economy of time, space, fuel cost, and maximum results are desired. Blast lamps of all kinds, particularly for plumbers' work and similar purposes, quickly secure a high degree of heat by burning one of the lighter petroleum oils.
The crude oil is used extensively in metallurgical process, in smelting and refining, in glass fac tories, in burning bricks and lime, in smithy fires, and many other industrial establishments. Only recently one of the largest copper companies in Mexico has signed a contract calling for the deliv ery of several million barrels of fuel oil to their refinery during the course of the next three years.
From the industrial standpoint, the introduc tion of oil fuel has been of tremendous importance where coal was hard to get. In the Volga districts of Russia hundreds of manufacturing establish ments have been located solely with reference to this supply of fuel. California industries have been stimulated by the local supply of cheap oil, where formerly all coal had to be imported, and, in South America, oil has been the salvation of the nitrate industry. The greatest of all the uses for petroleum for fuel is as a source of motive power, either as a substitute for coal in generating steam or as direct power in the gasoline or "naph tha" engine. The power in the former case de pends on the superior heat-generating capacity of petroleum—crude, residuum, or fuel oil—as the case may be, while the latter utilizes the explosive nature of petroleum vapor when mixed with air.
Beginning about 1860, experiments with crude petroleum or residuum as fuel were carried on al most simultaneously in Russia, France, England, and the United States, many devices being tried to facilitate burning of the oil in a fire box similar to that used for coal. Open pans and steplike series of grates and griddles, over which the oil flowed, gave fair results, but an Englishman's ex periments with a nozzle sprinkler for introducing the oil into the furnace in a jet of spray marked the real beginning of success. The old forms of oil furnace were rapidly displaced, the spray and jet being universally recognized as the only ef ficient burner. Improvements in the details of the
burner have been introduced from time to time, but the basic principle has remained practically unchanged since the first patent was granted in 1865.
The oil burner of to-day is essentially a simple affair. A jet of steam or compressed air from an injector drives the oil in the form of spray into the fire box, where air enough is supplied for com bustion. In some burners a second jet of steam entering the fire box at one side is directed across the current of sprayed oil so that it is spread out to a greater heating surface.
The mechanical perfection of the oil burner quickly led to the adoption of petroleum fuel in many European countries, especially for use in locomotives and steam vessels, while in Russia great numbers of industrial establishments fol lowed suit. At first the Russian fields were the chief sources of oil fuel supplies, and the enor mous home consumption, coupled with the poor transportation facilities, interfered with the proper expansion of its uses. But the later ex pansions of the industry in the Russian and Euro pean fields generally and the discoveries of great quantities of low-grade oils, more valuable for fuel than for anything else, in Texas, California, and Borneo, acted as a decided stimulus on the fuel-oil trade.
Oil-burning locomotives are now used in all parts of the world, and are increasing in number yearly. On the Russian railways, the astalki or residuum has largely replaced all solid fuels. In South Africa the development of modern means of trans portation was greatly retarded by the difficulty of securing fuel until oil fuel presented a means of salvation. In Peru petroleum fuel has performed a service for the railroads similar to its service in the nitrate fields of the Chilean deserts. In Persia the success of the new road to Bagdad hinges largely on the available supply of oil for fuel. There is a good reason for this importance of liquid fuel in locomotives, for it is said that, with a loco motive in good order and handled by a skillful driver, two tons of petroleum are equal to three tons of the best quality of coal.