Coconut Oil As Engine

Fuel

Exhaustive tests of coconut oil as a fuel for heavy oil engines were made by the Government of Fiji recently. The comparison in each case was with Dieseline, at 1/- per gallon.

Coconut oil cost 12£d. per gallon.

The first test was on a ship’s auxiliary engine. The engine would not start on coconut oil; but, when started, ran satis factorily. It used 0.577 lb. of coconut oil per BHP hour, as against 0.508 lb. of Dieseline.

Then it was tried on a 100-miles hilly run, on a heavy lorry, with a 3-cyl. 27 h.p. Gardner engine, 31 LW type. The engine started easily on coconut oil, but did not develop quite the same power, so that low gear was more often needed.

Consumption for 100 miles was:— Coconut oil, 6.0 gallons, 16.7 miles per gallon (time, 6 hours 14 minutes).

Dieseline, 5.67 gallons, 17.6 miles per gallon (time, 6 hours 5 minutes).

Copra As Sheep Food

In an authoritative survey of the best fodders to use in sheep-farming in New South Wales, Mr. V. G. Cole, veterinary officer, of Grazcos, made the following observation on copra: “The value of copra as a stock food has been emphasised by the lack of other fodders and its comparatively low price.

Little information is available about it, but we know that because of its large oil content it is superior to maize in feed value. However, its low protein con tent makes its combination with other meals of high protein content essential before feeding to breeding ewes.”

Mr. Carl Joseph Storck, who was a member of Morris, Hedstrom, Ltd.’s Suva staff, died at the War Memorial Hos pital in December, aged 29.

Messrs. J. R. Rae, A. Magee and F.

Kirsten, of the Australasian Petroleum Co. staff in Papua, arrived in Australia recently on leave.