Web Gallery - Transportation
	Liquid Fuels
		Liquid Fuel's Engineering Characteristics
	Perhaps the most successful transportation fuel in human history are liquid fuels. Liquid fuels are fuels that occur in the liquid state at most of the temperature and pressure conditions encountered on the Earth's surface. Liquid fuels have many practical engineering advances over gaseous and solid fuels. They are easy to transport over long distances through pipelines, an option not available for solid fuels but is possible with gaseous fuels. They can be pumped from storage to vehicle easily. This makes refueling a ship, car, train or airplane a relative easy task that can be done very fast and by only a few or single individuals. In many instances, fueling of the device itself, e.g. a furnace, becomes automatic. At the same time, the switch from a solid to liquid fuel eliminates the need to deal with incombustible, solid waste. Liquid fuel combustion results in gas production (mostly CO2 and H2O with other minor pollutants) that is easily vented to the atmosphere. Compared to gaseous fuel, evaporative losses are also less with a liquid fuel.
	Liquids occupy a fixed volume but conform to the shape of their container.
	Winston Churchill's decision to switch the Royal Navy from coal to oil between the world wars gave Britain a short strategic advantage than all naval powers ultimately had to follow. The move reduced the size of a warship's crew, cut refueling time dramatically, extended a ship's range and eliminated the need to acquire and man coaling stations around the world. Activities such as at sea or in-flight refueling are not possible with solid fuels and would be even more dangerous with gaseous fuels.
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