Chapter 16 vision of an admiral

〖The rapid development of the German economy has broken the balance of power in the European continent.In order to encircle and suppress Germany, Britain carefully planned a series of geopolitical actions, and oil was an important consideration in deploying these actions. 〗 In 1882, this viscous black liquid we called petroleum had no commercial value except for lighting new miner's lamps.Mineral oil lamps are a new technology developed in 1853 by a lighting manufacturer in Berlin, Germany, Stowersell.Known at the time as "rock oil" because it seeped out of the rock, the fuel was found in Titusville, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., Baku, Russia, and Galicia, now part of Poland. In 1870, John Rockefeller founded the Standard Oil Company to develop the kerosene market for lamps in the United States and use all kinds of weird sludge to "treat" diseases.At that time, the development of the internal combustion engine had not brought the industrial revolution to the world.

However, at least one person at the time believed that oil was of great military-strategic importance for controlling the oceans of the future.At a public meeting in September 1882, the British Admiral Sir Fisher, who was still the captain of the navy at the time, said to everyone: Britain must change the status quo that the navy uses coal as a power fuel, and it should use a new type of oil fuel. Beginning in 1870, in the Caspian Sea, Russian ships used this viscous fuel oil called "black oil" by the Russians.Long-term visionaries such as Fisher are in favor of the new fuel, arguing that oil as a power fuel will give Britain a decisive strategic advantage in the future competition for control of the seas.

Fisher has done a lot of work on this.He cites a large number of facts that show that oil is superior to coal as a fuel, and he believes that these reasons are convincing.Oil-powered warships have no black smoke and will not expose their targets, while coal-burning warships have long smoke tails that can be seen from ten kilometers away.It takes 4 to 9 hours for a coal-burning power plant to reach its maximum horsepower, while it only takes 5 minutes for an oil-burning power plant to reach its maximum horsepower.It takes only 12 people to work for 12 hours to provide oil for a battleship, but it takes 500 people to work for 5 days to provide the same energy of coal.To get the same horsepower thrust, the fuel engine only needs 1/3 of the workload of the coal-fired engine, and the daily consumption is only 1/4 of the coal. This is very critical for a fleet, no matter the Whether the fleet is a merchant fleet or a naval fleet.An oil-powered fleet has a radius about four times that of a coal-powered fleet.But at the time, Fisher's ideas were considered far-fetched by his British peers.

At about the same time, German engineer Goliber Daimler developed the world's first practical fuel engine in 1885 for road transportation.By the turn of the century, the economic potential of the oil age was beginning to be recognized more and more, even though cars were still considered a toy for the super-rich.