MR. FITZGERALD—All of the oil we get is obtained direct from the wells. Occasionally we get a car with considerable residuum. As a rule, however, there is very little, and the cars empty completely.

MR. JENKINS-We had some experience at San Antonio with Beaumont oil. Our first experience was that we ran the heats too high, and found in a very few weeks that our carburetor was full of coke; that is, it caked up entirely. Then we could not force the gas through at all. But after getting them refilled, we have had practically no trouble since that, except the difficulty of purifying, which fault was entirely due to the smallness of our purifiers. Our Company, being interested in the use of Beaumont oil, arranged with Mr. B. E. Chollar, of St. Louis, to have Mr. H. H. Thwing come down and make experiments. It was under his direction that some experiments were made. The Beaumont oil was taken from the tanks and burned in the experimental retorts. here is the result of the experiments, as follows:

And

Test of Beaumont Oil from San Antonio (Tex.) Gas Company. —Oil taken from Water Gas Tanks.—Oil Burned in Experimental Retort. Residual oil, 6 per cent., coke about 11⁄2 ounces per quart, or 6 ounces per gallon. Specific gravity of residual oil, 24° B. Calorific value of gas, 1,142 B. T. U. per cubic foot.

Sulphur by Eudiometer Test.-(1.) H2S, .7; CO2 .7; (2.) H÷S, .7; CO2, .8; (3.) HS, .6; CO2, .8.

Test of San Antonio Gas Made from Beaumont Oil for H&S and CO2, with a Chollar Eudiometer, using AS:Os and KOH.-We purified gas from water gas relief holder:

Average, HS, .8 per cent.; CO2 7.95 per cent.

Calorific Value of Beaumont Oil in Gas Made by San Antonio (Tex.) Gas Company.-Junker's Calorimeter.

633 630 620 625

630

636

625 630 625 635 633 642 625 630 630 630 630 635 625 Average of 20 tests, 630 B.T.U. per cubic foot.

B. T. U. per Cubic Foot.

636

An average of a large number of tests at Station B, Laclede Company, St. Louis, Mo., gives our coal gas, 710 B.H.U. per cubic foot, and water gas from 600 B.T.U. to 760 B.T.U. per cubic foot, which heating value is apparently governed by the` number of gallons per 1,000 of oil used. We had no special difficulty in the case, except for the first three months. We did have trouble last winter. When the houses were closed comparatively tight in the winter, from time to time we had trouble over sulphur, but we expect to be able to overcome that difficulty before next year. We are using the oil now with very great satisfaction.

MR. NORRIS-I feel some little hesitation in speaking from a rather limited experience in the use of oil, but there are a few facts that I would like to emphasize which have been brought out by the other speakers, and I would also like to give some definite figures showing the difference between Texas oil and ordinary oils. In making gas from Texas oil it is necessary to have a smaller range of temperature in the fixing chambers. The Texas oil, having a different base from the paraffine oils of Pennsylvania and Ohio, breaks up differently, and with excessive heat gives an unusual amount of lampblack and naphthalene. In regard to the permanence of gas, the two oils being of a different base, it is found that the illuminating value of the gas made from the Texas oil comes more largely from the benzine series of hydrocarbons. Analyses show that for equal candle powers the proportion of heavy hydrocarbons in gas from Beaumont oil is about 75 per cent. of what it is in gas made from Ohio or Pennsylvania oils. The result is that the gas made from the Texas oil loses its candle power more readily under the influence of low temperature.

THE PRESIDENT-Your reference to Texas oil is exclusively that from the Beaumont field.

MR. NORRIS-Yes, exclusively to Beaumont oil. The following figures are based upon experiment, but are not given as being anything but approximations. Now the ordinary gas oil contains about 2-10ths of 1 per cent. of sulphur; Ohio crude oil contains about 4-10ths of I per cent.; and Beaumont crude in the neighborhood of 134 per cent. The crude gas made from gas oil

contains, in the form of sulphuretted hydrogen, about 125 to 175 grains of sulphur per 100 cubic feet. In gas from Texas crude it is somewhere about 350 grains of sulphur to each 100 cubic feet of gas. These figures, while larger than in ordinary water gas, are not excessive. Coal gas made from West Virginia coal contains as high as 900 to 1,000 grains, or somewhere in the neighborhood of 3 times as much as gas made from Texas oil. There is another phase of the sulphur question which I will only touch upon for reasons that you will understand, and that is the amount of "sulphur in other forms" in the purified gas. Gas made from Texas oil contains considerable more of this sulphur, which is not removed by the ordinary methods of purification. A thing I would like to see brought out is whether there is available commercially any form of Texas oil which differs from the crude oil on the market; that is, a gas oil, or any form of distillate which contains less sulphur than crude oil. We hear frequently of "desulphurized oil,” and I want to know what is meant by it. If there is any such Texas gas oil on the market can anybody give me the amount of sulphur it contains, and the amount of sulphur in the purified gas made from it?

MR. DOTY-I would like to ask some questions. The figures presented by Mr. Jenkins, as to the yeld of gas and candle power of the Beaumont oil from the St. Louis experiments, are most surprising, because the yield per gallon in one experiment is 26.44, and the candle power is 53.54. Our product of oil gas is an average of 70 cubic feet per gallon of 60-candle power per cubic foot. That is something like 3 or 4 times the value of Beaumont oil gas is; 51⁄2 candles could not be obtained from Beaumont oil if this figure is correct.

MR. SHELTON-I think Mr. Doty had better question the figures! There is a great deal of truth in the saying that the "Proof of the pudding is in the eating of it." The simplest way for you, gentlemen, to satisfy yourselves of the characteristics of gas made with Texas oil is to go to the gas works; or, when you go to New York on your annual recreation trip, visit Staten Island and see them running for months in a cold weather climate, and take their results. In brief, the volume of make and the candle power is from 10 to 15 per cent. less than usual results. That is it in a nutshell. Add to your oil estimates 10 or 15 per cent. in quantity, for the use of Texas oil, and you will make the same quantity and quality of gas from the Texas oil as before. If that is so (and the facts show it), there is no such absurdity in the candle power produced, or the illuminating quantity, that

these figures from St. Louis would indicate. There must be some mistake in these figures now presented as to the value of the Texas oil producing capacity, because they are not within miles of it!

MR. JENKINS-The "proof of the pudding is in the eating," as Mr. Shelton says. We introduced it on a small basis, and on our moderate output it would average about 43⁄4 gallons of Beaumont oil on 19-candle power gas. The test of Mr. Thwing was not for gas produced or candle power, but to find out the amount of sulphur and the CO. We had trouble with the gas for a while which prevented us from using it, and these experiments were made to ascertain the impurities of this gas and not the candle power or the quantity of gas produced, but simply what we get out of a certain amount of oil in a small heater.

THE PRESIDENT-Mr. Jenkins may answer Mr. Doty's question with regard to desulphurized oil.

MR. BERKLEY-By reason of our inability to get other oil, and also desiring to try the Beaumont oil, we used some of it in a different manner than I have heard of it yet being tried; that is, as an enricher, using the ordinary coal gas retort. While we did not get the same results as from some gas oil previously used, we did get such results as would warrant it being used on a larger scale under proper conditions.

THE PRESIDENT-I will say to Mr. Norris that the Guffey people are installing a plant and are putting out a circular stating the different kinds of oil to be furnished. They are going to have gas oil among the others named. We would like to hear from Mr. Collins.

MR. CARROLL COLLINS-The main difference that we find is we cannot make quite as much per hour from Texas oil as we did with the other oil. Instead of using ordinary gas oil that we got from the north, we used the Texas oil in Corsicana, and the result was such that the candle power dropped and we have to use a little more oil. From our character of work at Corsicana, the output is very small. We run from 7 to 8 months before we change the work in the carburetors, and we make from 40,000 to 45,000 feet a day.

MR. NORRIS-One word in addition. The fact has been brought out that with our present methods and apparatus the Texas oil has a value of about 85 per cent. of that of the old oil. I do not regard this difference as necessarily final. I do not see any reason why, with further experience, and, if necessary, with re-designed apparatus we should not get as good results

from the Texas oil as from the Pennsylvania or Ohio oils. Everything that has been done in Beaumont oil has been done in apparatus designed for handling other oils and by methods necessarily based on experience with these other oils, so I do not think we should be finally satisfied until we get from the Beaumont oil results at least as good as those now obtained from the Ohio and Pennsylvania oils.

MR. GOODNOW-The question of using this oil in this part of the country is generally felt to be of great interest, and I would like to know whether it has been brought out. I understand that in California crude oil is used in a generator in lieu of coke and hard coal, but it never has occurred to me that the Texas crude oil could be used in that way. I would like to hear if that has been done.

THE PRESIDENT-You mean in a generator of coal gas furnaces?

MR. GOODNOw-No; as a water gas set. I understand in California such machines are made, and the oil used in that way.

THE PRESIDENT-A party in San Francisco claims to have a machine to do that, and I understand it is being installed in some places.

MR. GOODNOW-I understand they are making a water gas generator and using oil in the generator instead of hard coal.

MR. NORRIS-It seems to me that any gas suggested would be oil gas and not water gas.

THE PRESIDENT-You must understand their use, but they use oil in one way or the other.

MR. STEINWEDELL-I think that the thing meant to be brought out is that they use the oil to heat the carburetor and superheater during the blows.

MR. SHELTON-I think the understanding of Mr. Goodnow is not quite correct. I think he means an old semi-oil process in which, instead of heating the generator from anthracite, it is filled with firebrick which are made hot by burning oil underneath, with an air draught through, thus getting them red hot. Gas is made by shutting off the air and readjusting the oil supply, with which some steam is admitted. The stored up heat in the brick disassociates the steam and the hydrogen unites with the carbon from the oil instead of from the usual hard fuel. The result is carburetted hydrogen but made from expensive carbon; that is, oil. The process has been vamped and revamped for a number of years. The West has had its fingers burned by it the same as the East. The trouble with the process is that it