In the first place, the farmer uses power, as a rule, at short intervals, and also uses small power. Should he install a steam engine and wish power for an hour or two, it would be necessary for him to start a fire under the boiler and get up steam before he could start the engine. This would take at least an hour. At the end of the run he would have a good fire and good steam pressure, but no use for it, and would have to let the fire die out and the pressure run down. This involves a great waste of water, time and fuel. With a gasoline engine he is always ready and can start to work within a few minutes after he makes up his mind to do so, and he does not have to anticipate his wants in the power line for half a day. Aside from this, in some states, notably Ohio, the law compels any person operating an engine above ten horsepower to carry a steam engineer’s license. This does not apply to a gasoline engine.
Again, the gasoline engine is as portable as a traction engine, and can be applied to all the uses of a traction engine and to general farm use all the rest of the year. At little expense it can be fitted up to hoist hay, to pump water, to husk and shell corn, to saw wood, and even by recent inventions to plowing. It is as good about a farm as an extra man and a team of horses.
A gasoline engine can be run on a pint of gasoline per hour for each horsepower, and as soon as the work is done there is no more consumption of fuel and the engine can be left without fear, except for draining off the water in the water jacket in cold weather. A steam engine for farm use would require at least four pounds of coal per horsepower per hour, and in the majority of cases it would be twice that, taking into consideration the amount of fuel necessary to start the fire and that left unburned after the farmer is through with his power. If you know the cost of crude gasoline at your point and the cost of coal, you can easily figure the exact economy of a gasoline engine for your use. To the economy of fuel question may be added the labor or cost of pumping or hauling water.
The only point wherein a farmer might find it advantageous to have a steam plant would be where he is running a dairy and wished steam and hot water for cleansing his creamery machinery. This can be largely overcome by using the water from the jackets which can be kept at a temperature of about 175 degrees, and if a higher temperature is needed he can heat it with the exhaust from the engine. The time will certainly come soon when no farmer will consider himself up to date until he has a gasoline engine.
Some persons unaccustomed to gasoline may wonder if a gasoline engine is as safe as a steam engine. The fact is, they are very much safer, and do not require a skilled engineer to run them. The gasoline tank is usually placed outside the building, where the danger from an explosion is reduced to a minimum. The only danger that may be encountered is in starting the engine, filling the supply tank when a burner near at hand is in flame, etc. Once a gasoline engine is started and is supplied with gasoline, it may be left entirely alone without care for hours at a time without danger and without adjustment.
With a steam engine there is always danger, unless a highly skilled man is watching the engine every moment. If the water gets a little low he is liable to have an explosion; if it gets a little too high he may knock out a cylinder head in his engine; the fire must be fed every few minutes; the grates cleaned. There is always something to be done about a steam engine.
So here is another point of great saving in a gasoline engine, namely, the saving of one man’s time. The man who runs the gasoline engine may give nearly all his time to other work, such as feeding a corn-sheller, a fodder chopper, or the like.
Kerosene may also be used in the same way with a special type of gas engine.
The amounts of fuel required of the different kinds possible in a gas engine are compared as follows by Roper:
Illuminating gas, 17 to 20 cubic feet per horsepower per hour.