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After pointing out that although kerosene costs less than gasoline at the present time and is a cheaper fuel for the farmer to use, the author states that if the industry continues to construct tractors designed to use kerosene as fuel it will not be long before the cost of it is the same as that of gasoline. He argues that automotive engines should be designed to run on any liquid fuel and gives figures on the available supply of petroleum products and distillates in the world at the present time. The requirements laid down by the Government for gasoline are mentioned and it is stated that it is not possible for the oil industry to supply generally to the trade a gasoline meeting the recently adopted Government specifications which the author considers are very lenient.

A four-cylinder 4 by 5-in. truck and tractor engine, designed for either kerosene or gasoline fuel and having the very low volumetric compression ratio of 3.36, was used. Only by suitable adjustments was it found possible to make it show a fuel consumption as low as 0.67 lb. per b.hp.-hr.; but with a slight variation in power and only a different carbureter adjustment the fuel consumption at 600 r.p.m. increased to about 1.2 lb., or 70 per cent, emphasizing the importance of knowing what constitutes the best engine adjustment and of disseminating such knowledge. The engine and its dimensions, the experimental apparatus and the method of testing are fully described and discussed, the results being presented in charts showing performance curves. These are described, analyzed and the results interpreted.

Design factors are considered from the thermodynamic standpoint only, which excludes several factors affecting power and economy. The problem of air heating includes a consideration of its influence on pressure, the consequent lowering of pressure being counteracted to some extent by the resulting improvements in carburetion and distribution and by more rapid and complete combustion; the effects of delayed combustion, with a study of the thermodynamic conditions and possible improvements; and the results that are actually obtainable from lean and rich fuel mixtures. Fuel economy is difficult because its factors conflict with those of power. The benefit of the expansion of any elastic working medium to economy is emphasized. Charts from previous papers, showing the ratio of air to fuel by weight, are referred to and discussed, best economy being obtained with mixtures leaner than those giving maximum power.

A new type of automotive engine should be the quest of all designing engineers. Investigation has revealed the fact that 68 per cent of all tractor engine troubles occur in magnetos, spark-plugs and carbureters, the accessories of the present-day automotive engine. Four-fifths of the fuel energy supplied is regularly wasted, yet the fuel is a liquid meeting severe requirements of volatility, etc., and is already becoming scarce and costly. In an airplane, fuel is carried by engine power. In ocean-going cargo vessels it increases available revenue space. It is at once clear that for purely practical reasons the question of fuel economy, no less than the question of the nature of the fuel, becomes momentous. What fuel will do is entirely a question of what process it is put through in the engine; in what way combustion is turned into power.