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II2
THE SUBMARINE TORPEDO BOAT
time. The gasoline engine afforded a relatively light com-
pact form of prime mover, and was structurally simple and
easy of repair. Its ailments were easily understood and
quickly remedied, and in fact, today it has become so
generally well known that almost any young boy can man-
age one. The gas engine however, had its drawbacks and
these were: the cost of operation due to the high price of
gasoline; danger of fire and explosion from gasoline vapor,
and danger of asphyxiation by escaping carbon-dioxide
gases. The first of these objections is real, but the others,
in so far as they can be easily remedied and eliminated,
cannot rightly be considered so. In fact there is no serious
accident of record due primarily to these causes. Gasoline
it must be admitted is a great “searcher,” but still it
should be possible to construct tanks sufficiently tight to
hold it, and in any event, by means of a proper system of
ventilation the probabilities of any such mishaps are at
once eliminated.
For these reasons however, in all of the later boats the
gasoline engine has been superseded by heavy oil engines
of the Diesel type. The main reason for this change, and
there can be no other, is on account of the great economy
of fuel consumption of the Diesel engine. This engine
burns a cheap fuel, almost any low grade oil which can be
vaporized, and will develop one brake-horse-power per
hour on from .55 to .63 of a pound of fuel. This is of
course a great feature in favor of it. Some of the engine
dealers guarantee a fuel consumption as low as .45 of a
pound of fuel per B.H.P. per hour, but I do not know of
any case where this economy has been attained under
actual service conditions.
Theoretically the Diesel engine is extremely simple, but