USE OF PETROLEUM OIL IN BOILERS.
The use of crude (unrefined) mineral oil in steam boilers is attended by risks caused by impurities and foreign substances mixed with it. These are likely to combine with the earthy matter in the water and tend to form instead of preventing scale; the tar and wax contained in crude petroleum combine with the sediment in steam boilers, and the paste prevents the water from reaching and protecting the plates. This is true particularly in shell boilers which have flat surfaces over the fire. Refined mineral oil has none of these disadvantages.
Kerosene oil has all the advantages to be derived from the use of crude petroleum and the above objections quite removed.
In one system of the application of steam the use of kerosene and petroleum cannot be recommended: that is when live steam is used for cooking purposes, the odor from the oil will impregnate the meat and other products designed for food consumption.
KEROSENE OIL IN BOILERS.
Under certain conditions, and with care and judgment, the use of refined petroleum has been found to be of great advantage in removing and preventing scaling in steam boilers.
There is no well authenticated case where a systematic, regular and uniform feed of pure kerosene oil to a steam boiler has failed to operate beneficially upon the scale formation.
The best results are obtained by the use of the oil under the same arrangement that cylinder oil is fed to an engine. The kerosene is sometimes introduced through a one-fourth inch branch to the suction pipe of the feed pump, leading to the vessel containing the oil, so that any quantity, large or small, can be put into the boiler simultaneously with the usual feed. The drawback to this arrangement is that when the feed water heater has to be cleaned, a gallon or more of the oil is often lost, which together with a very unpleasant odor, when used in this manner, tends to condemn its use. But when piped between the boiler and heater, these objections cease. We present an arrangement which is illustrated by cut on page [157.]
This is nothing more than a storage system with sight feed, by use of which the oil can be fed drop by drop as desired—for each drop of water entering the reservoir a drop of oil is forced down the small 1⁄4-in. pipe, up the glass tube and on into the boiler.