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Aviation History
1933
1933 - 0185.PDF
FLIGHT, JULY 27, 1933 Seventh Day, Thursday, July 27.—Biarritz, Bordeaux, An?ouleme, Niort, Nantes, la Baule. 572 km. Eighth Day, Friday, July 28.—La Baule, Rennes, Dinan, Deauville. 335 km. Ninth Day, Saturday, July 29.—Deauville, Berck, Knocke-Zoute, Brussels. 420 km. Tenth Day, Sunday, July 30.—Brussels, Valenciennes, Buc Aeroport (Versailles). The Tour will terminate at the Bleriot Aerodrome at Buc. near Versailles, on Sunday, July 30, the planes being expected to arrive at about 3 p.m. Numerous fuelling stations along the route have been provided and the par ticipants are required to obtain visas of their log books at many of the above-mentioned places. A sum of 200,000 francs will be distributed in prizes for regularity. The speed of the participant, as obtained in his Service Technique homologation tests will be divided by the speed that he makes in each section of the Tour, with an allowance of 6 km. to take into account the alti tude above ground level at which he is obliged to fly. Each participant will thus receive a number of points for each section of the Tour. These will be totalled and divided into the sum of 200,000 francs, which will be divided pro rata among the participants. An additional sum of 100,000 francs will also be divided pro rata among the participants according to the number of passengers that thev carried in the Tour. R. C. W. PETROL FROM COAL By E. NUGENT HEAD T The Prime Minister announced in the House of Commons on July 17 that the Government had decided to introduce a Bill which will give a guaranteed preference in respect of light hydrocarbon oils manufactured in this country from indigenous coal, shale or peat. 'HE story of the development of petrol from British coal by the Low-Temperature process, or rather that of the carbonisation of coal, dates back several hundred years, for as early as 1681 there is record of a patent in the names of Becker and Searle, for the production of smokeless fuel, tar and pitch from coal. Many were the experimenters in this field who followed, but it was not until 1906 that a practical commercial process was developed. flic inventor of the process which produces the petrol now being supplied to the Air Ministry was Thomas Parker, of Wolverhampton, who, as a result of many years of research, took out a* master patent for the manufacture of " Coalite " smokeless fuel, and so founded the low-tem perature carbonisation industry of to-day. Go to the low temperature carbonisation works at Askern or Barugh, and you will see that his years of toil and disappointment have borne good and healthy fruit. 1 he problem Parker had to face in the production of a smokeless fuel—and it was in the production of such a fuel that he was solely interested—was one that had puzzled many of his predecessors. The common method of car bonising coal for the production of gas was to roast the coal in iron retorts at as high a temperature as possible, until all the volatile matter in the coal had been driven off as a gas, leaving a residue of hard coke which would only burn in specially designed furnaces. Parker's ambition was to extract from the coal just sufficient of the volatile elements to eliminate smoke, and to leave in the retort a partially carbonised fuel of uniform composition and high calorific value, which could readily be lighted in an open-fire grate, and whose combustion would yield a high temperature. 1 he obvious way to produce such a fuel would have appeared to be by roasting the coal in the ordinary way il just the desired amount of volatile matter had been stilled off, but it was found that in practice this method was not satisfactory. The temperature in the centre of the retort was lower than that at its edge, which conse quently carbonised the outer part of the charge more than that in the centre. This destroyed the homogeneity of the residue and nullified its value as a marketable fuel. Years of research solved this problem for Parker, and he found that it was possible to produce the fuel he desired by using batteries of small-diameter retorts in which the coal was roasted in the presence of steam at a temperature of 650 deg. C. This is the process that is in use at Askern and Barugh to-day. One of the great economies of the low-temperature car bonisation process is that small coal can be used. This commands a lower price than the large coals that are used for domestic consumption and operating expenses are thus reduced. Here is a typical yield per ton of coal carbonised : — Per cent. Cwt. yield Coal oil 1.60 8.00 Liquor 2.21 11.05 Gas 1.32 6.60 Smokeless fuel ... 14.58 72.90 Loss, etc 0.29 1.45 Each ton carbonised can be reckoned to yield about 1\ gallons of high-grade petrol and 18 gallons of heavier gravity oil. It is possible, however, by hydrogenation, to convert all of this heavier oil into petrol of great volatility with a very high anti-knock value, thus giving a total petrol yield of slightly more than 20 gallons per ton of coal carbonised. The annual petrol consumption of the Royal Air Force is about 6.000,000 gallons per annum, which means that Britain's air arm could be made self-sufficient as regards fuel by the carbonisation of 300,000 tons of coal a year, which figure has already been passed, and quite a small amount compared with the 40,000,000 tons that are burned domestically in this country annually! If only 50 per cent, ol these millions of tons were carbonised annually and the resultant oil hydrogenated, our petrol import would drop by 400,000,000 gallons, and many thousands of men at present unemployed would find work. Those Missing Wheels A MAN—who, though obviously keen on aviation, can- >iot be a reader of FLIGHT—was looking out of his window tacing that nice straight stretch of railway line which runs between Redhill and Ashford. Along came a low-wing m °B'»plane flying fast in the direction of Croydon ; our Prospective reader gave a gasp and then dashed to the telephone. " Hullo, is that Croydon Aerodrome? There's n aeroplane coming your way which has lost its wheels." f 'on bustled ; out came the fire engine and ambu lance all was ready for the inevitable crash ; willing ground staff standing by and the Control Officer watchful, real[St ex9ited probably, because commercial aviation is J getting very hum-drum nowadays. The look-out re read" >an Prcra^ approaching ; there she comes. All ne\ '< *^Sht, stand by. ... A few seconds later the land -i MonosPar " lowered its undercarriage into sight, eno and manoeuvring easily with its two " Pobjoy " n ?s, taxied into the General Aircraft Works! ESS (This is a true story, but we are unable to learn what the Control Officer said afterwards.) F. R. Walker's Progress WE are glad to learn that Mr. F. R. Walker, who met with disaster in the King's Cup Race, is now in a somewhat more satisfactory condition. His internal in juries have necessitated the removal of a kidney, which has stopped the haemorrhage and improved matters gener ally. Those who have seen the wreckage of his " Swift " (" Gipsy III ") say that he is extremely lucky to get out alive. His engine stopped, due to his forgetting to pump up his fuel, and when he realised that he had to make a forced landing he sideslipped steeply to lose forward speed but took a wing off in a tree in so doing. Luckily for him the fuselage opened in the region of the cockpit when it struck the ground, and thus saved his life. We hope that his injuries will have no lasting effect and that we shall have him with us again all straightened out, with a nice new " C. of A." and fit to fly before very long. 749
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