CHAPTER VI.

The AtlanticFig. 91.—The Atlantic, 1851.

Fig. 91.—The Atlantic, 1851.

The steam-vessels of the time are well represented in the accompanying engraving (Fig. 91) of the steamship Atlantic—a vessel which was shortly afterward (1851) built as the pioneer steamer of the American “Collins Line.” This steamship was one of several which formed the earliest of American steamship-lines, and is one of the finest examples of the type of paddle-steamers which was finally superseded by the later screw-fleets. The “Collins Line” existed but a very few years, and its failure was probably determined as much by the evident and inevitable success of screw-propulsion as by the difficulty of securing ample capital, complete organization, and efficient general management.This steamer was built at New York—the hull by William Brown, and the machinery by the Novelty Iron-Works. The length of the hull was 276 feet, its breadth 45 feet, and the depth of hold 311∕2feet. The width over the paddle-boxes was 75 feet. The ship measured 2,860 tons. The form of the hull was then peculiar in the fineness of its lines; the bow was sharp, and the stern fine and smooth, and the general outline such as best adapted the ship for high speed. The main saloon was about 70 feet long, and the dining-room was 60 feet in length and 20 feet wide. The state-rooms were arranged on each side the dining “saloon,” and accommodated 150 passengers. These vessels were beautifully fitted up, and with them was inaugurated that wonderful system of passenger-transportation which has since always been distinguished by those comforts and conveniences which the American traveler has learned to consider his by right.

Side-Lever EngineFig. 92.—The Side-Lever Engine, 1849.

Fig. 92.—The Side-Lever Engine, 1849.

The machinery of these ships was, for that time, remarkably powerful and efficient. The engines were of theside-lever type, as illustrated inFig. 92, which represents the engine of the Pacific, designed by Mr. Charles W. Copeland, and built by the Allaire Works.

In this type of engine, as is seen, the piston-rod was attached to a cross-head working vertically, from which, at each side, links,B C, connected with the “side-lever,”D E F. The latter vibrated about a “main centre” atE, like the overhead beam of the more common form of engine; from its other end, a “connecting-rod,”H, led to the “cross-tail,”W, which was, in turn, connected to the crank-pin,I. The condenser,M, and air-pump,Q, were constructed in the same manner as those of other engines, their only peculiarities being such as were incident to their location between the cylinder,A, and the crank,I J. Thepaddle-wheels were of the common “radial” form, covered in by paddle-boxes so strongly built that they were rarely injured by the heaviest seas.

These vessels surpassed, for a time, all other sea-going steamers in speed and comfort, and made their passages with great regularity. The minimum length of voyage of the Baltic and Pacific, of this line, was 9 days 19 hours.

During the latter part of the period the history of which has been here given, the marine steam-engine became subject to very marked changes in type and in details, and a complete revolution was effected in the method of propulsion. This change has finally resulted in the universal adoption of a new propelling instrument, and in driving the whole fleet of paddle-steamers from the ocean. The Great Britain was a screw-steamer.

The screw-propeller, which, as has been stated, was probably first proposed by Dr. Hooke in 1681, and by Dr. Bernouilli, of Groningen, at about the middle of the eighteenth century, and by Watt in 1784, was, at the end of the century, tried experimentally in the United States by David Bushnell, an ingenious American, who was then conducting the experiments with torpedoes which were the cause of the incident which originated that celebrated song by Francis Hopkinson, the “Battle of the Kegs,” using the screw to propel one of his submarine boats, and by John Fitch, and by Dallery in France.

Joseph Bramah, of Great Britain, May 9, 1785, patented a screw-propeller identical in general arrangement with those used to-day. His sketch exhibits a screw, apparently of very fair shape, carried on an horizontal shaft, which passes out of the vessel through a stuffing-box, the screw being wholly submerged. Bramah does not seem to have put his plan in practice. It was patented again in England, also, by Littleton in 1794, and by Shorter in 1800.

John Stevens, however, first gave the screw a practicallyuseful form, and used it successfully, in 1804 and 1805, on the single and the twin screw boats which he built at that time. This propelling instrument was also tried by Trevithick, who planned a vessel to be propelled by a steam-engine driving a screw, at about this time, and his scheme was laid before the Navy Board in the year 1812. His plans included an iron hull. Francis Pettit Smith tried the screw also in the year 1808, and subsequently.

Joseph Ressel, a Bohemian, proposed to use a screw in the propulsion of balloons, about 1812, and in the year 1826 proposed its use for marine propulsion. He is said to have built a screw-boat in the year 1829, at Trieste, which he named the Civetta. The little craft met with an accident on the trial-trip, and nothing more was done.

The screw was finally brought into general use through the exertions of John Ericsson, a skillful Swedish engineer, who was residing in England in the year 1836, and of Mr. F. P. Smith, an English farmer. Ericsson patented a peculiar form of screw-propeller, and designed a steamer 40 feet in length, of 8 feet beam, and drawing 3 feet of water. The screw was double, two shafts being placed the one within the other, revolving in opposite directions, and carrying the one a right-hand and the other a left-hand screw. These screws were 51∕4feet in diameter. On her trial-trip this little steamer attained a speed of 10 miles an hour. Its power as a “tug” was found to be very satisfactory; it towed a schooner of 140 tons burden at the rate of 7 miles, and the large American packet-ship Toronto was towed on the Thames at a speed of 5 miles an hour.

Ericsson endeavored to interest the British Admiralty in his improvements, and succeeded only so far as to induce the Lords of the Admiralty to make an excursion with him on the river. No interest was awakened in the new system, and nothing was done by the naval authorities. A note to the inventor from Captain Beaufort—one of the party—was received shortly afterward, in which it was stated that theexcursionists had not found the performance of the little vessel to equal their hopes and expectations. All the interests of the then existing engine-building establishments were opposed to the innovation, and the proverbial conservatism of naval men and naval administrations aided in procuring the rejection of Ericsson’s plans.

Fortunately for the United States, it happened, at that time, that we had in Great Britain both civil and naval representatives of greater intelligence, or of greater boldness and enterprise. The consul at Liverpool was Mr. Francis B. Ogden, of New Jersey, a gentleman who was somewhat familiar with the steam-engine and with steam-navigation. He had seen Ericsson’s plans at an earlier period, and had at once seen their probable value. He was sufficiently confident of success to place capital at the disposal of the inventor. The little screw-boat just described was built with funds of which he furnished a part, and was named, in his honor, the Francis B. Ogden.

Captain Robert F. Stockton, an officer of the United States Navy, and also a resident of New Jersey, was in London at the time, and made an excursion with Ericsson on the Ogden. He was also at once convinced of the value of the new method of application of steam-power to ship-propulsion, and gave the engineer an order to build two iron screw-steamboats for use in the United States. Ericsson was induced, by Messrs. Ogden and Stockton, to take up his residence in the United States.[84]The Stockton was sent over to the United States in April, 1839, under sail, and was sold to the Delaware & Raritan Canal Company. Her name was changed, and, as the New Jersey, she remained in service many years.

The success of the boat built by Ericsson was so evident that, although the naval authorities remained inactive, a private company was formed, in 1839, to work the patentsof F. P. Smith, and this “Ship-Propeller Company” built an experimental craft called the Archimedes, and its trial-trip was made October 14th of the same year. The speed attained was 9.64 miles an hour. The result was in every respect satisfactory, and the vessel, subsequently, made many voyages from port to port, and finally circumnavigated the island of Great Britain. The proprietors of the ship were not pecuniarily successful in their venture, however, and the sale of the vessel left the company a heavy loser. The Archimedes was 125 feet long, of 21 feet 10 inches beam, and 10 feet draught, registering 232 tons. The engines were rated at 80 horse-power. Smith’s earlier experiments (1837) were made with a little craft of 6 tons burden, driven by an engine having a steam-cylinder 6 inches in diameter and 15 inches stroke of piston. The funds needed were furnished by a London banker—Mr. Wright.

Bennett Woodcroft had also used the screw experimentally as early as 1832, on the Irwell, near Manchester, England, in a boat of 55 tons burden. Twin-screws were used, right and left handed respectively; they were each two feet in diameter, and were given an expanding pitch. The boat attained a speed of four miles an hour.

Experiments made subsequently (1843) with this form of screw, and in competition with the “true” screw of Smith, brought out very distinctly the superiority of the former, and gave some knowledge of the proper proportions for maximum efficiency. In later examples of the Woodcroft screw, the blades were made detachable and adjustable—a plan which is still a usual one, and which has proved to be, in some respects, very convenient.

When Ericsson reached the United States, he was almost immediately given an opportunity to build the Princeton—a large screw-steamer—and at about the same time the English and French Governments also had screw-steamers built from his plans, or from those of his agent in England,the Count de Rosen. In these latter ships—the Amphion and the Pomona—the first horizontal direct-acting engines ever built were used, and they were fitted with double-acting air-pumps, having canvas valves and other novel features. The great advantages exhibited by these vessels over the paddle-steamers of the time did for screw-propulsion what Stephenson’s locomotive—the Rocket—did for railroad locomotion ten years earlier.

Congress, in 1839, had authorized the construction of three war-vessels, and the Secretary of the Navy ordered that two be at once built in the succeeding year. Of these, one was the Princeton, the screw-steamer of which the machinery was designed by Ericsson. The length of this vessel was 164 feet, beam 301∕2feet, and depth 211∕2feet. The ship drew from 161∕2to 18 feet of water, displacing at those draughts 950 and 1,050 tons. The hull had a broad, flat floor, with sharp entrance and fine run, and the lines were considered at that time remarkably fine.

The screw was of gun-bronze, six-bladed, and was 14 feet in diameter and of 35 feet pitch; i. e., were there no slip, the screw working as if in a solid nut, the ship would have been driven forward 35 feet at each revolution.

The engines were two in number, and very peculiar in form; the cylinder was, in fact, asemi-cylinder, and the place of the piston-rod, as usually built, was taken by a vibrating shaft, or “rock-shaft,” which carried a piston of rectangular form, and which vibrated like a door on its hinges as the steam was alternately let into and exhausted from each side of it. The great rock-shaft carried, at the outer end, an arm from which a connecting-rod led to the crank, thus forming a “direct-acting engine.”

The draught in the boilers was urged by blowers. Ericsson had adopted this method of securing an artificial draught ten years before, in one of his earlier vessels, the Corsair. The Princeton carried a XII-inch wrought-iron gun. This gun exploded after a few trials, with terriblydisastrous results, causing the death of several distinguished men, including members of the President’s cabinet.

The Princeton proved very successful as a screw-steamer, attaining a speed of 13 knots, and was then considered very remarkably fast. Captain Stockton, who commanded the vessel, was most enthusiastic in praise of her.

Immediately there began a revolution in both civil and naval ship-building, which progressed with great rapidity. The Princeton was the first of the screw-propelled navy which has now entirely displaced the older type of steam-vessel. The introduction of the screw now took place with great rapidity. Six steamers were fitted with Ericsson’s screw in 1841, 9 in 1842, and nearly 30 in the year 1843.

In Great Britain, France, Germany, and other European countries, the revolution was also finally effected, and was equally complete. Nearly all sea-going vessels built toward the close of the period here considered were screw-steamers, fitted with direct-acting, quick-working engines. It was, however, many years before the experience of engineers in the designing and in the construction and management of this new machinery enabled them to properly proportion it for the various kinds of service to which they were called upon to adapt it. Among other modifications of earlier practice introduced by Ericsson was the surface-condenser with a circulating pump driven by a small independent engine.

The screw was found to possess many advantages over the paddle-wheel as an instrument for ship-propulsion. The cost of machinery was greatly reduced by its use; the expense of maintenance in working order was, however, somewhat increased. The latter disadvantage was, nevertheless, much more than compensated by an immense increase in the economy of ship-propulsion, which marked the substitution of the new instrument and its impelling machinery.

When a ship is propelled by paddles, the motion of the vessel creates, in consequence of the friction of the fluidagainst the sides and bottom, a current of water which flows in the direction in which the ship is moving, and forms a current following the ship for a time, and finally losing all motion by contact with the surrounding mass of water. All the power expended in the production of this great stream is, in the case of the paddle-steamer, entirely lost. In screw-steamers, however, the propelling instrument works in this following current, and the tendency of its action is to bring the agitated fluid to rest, taking up and thus restoring, usefully, a large part of that energy which would otherwise have been lost. The screw is also completely covered by the water, and acts with comparative efficiency in consequence of its submersion. The rotation of the screw is comparatively rapid and smooth, also, and this permits the use of small, light, fast-running engines. The latter condition leads to economy of weight and space, and consequently saves not only the cost of transportation of the excess of weight of the larger kind of engine, but, leaving so much more room for paying cargo, the gain is found to be a double one. Still further, the quick-running engine is, other things being equal, the most economical of steam; and thus some expense is saved not only in the purchase of fuel, but in its transportation, and some still additional gain is derived from the increased amount of paying cargo which the vessel is thus enabled to carry. The change here described was thus found to be productive of enormous direct gain. Indirectly, also, some advantage was derived from the greater convenience of a deck clear from machinery and the great paddle-shaft, in the better storage of the lading, the greater facility with which the masts and sails could be fitted and used; and directly, again, in clear sides unencumbered by great paddle-boxes which impeded the vessel by catching both sea and wind.

The screw was, for some years, generally regarded as simply auxiliary in large vessels, assisting the sails. Ultimatelythe screw became the essential feature, and vessels were lightly sparred and were given smaller areas of sail, the latter becoming the auxiliary power.

In November of the year 1843, the screw-steamer Midas, Captain Poor, a small schooner-rigged craft, left New York for China, on probably the first voyage of such length ever undertaken by a steamer; and in the following January the Edith, Captain Lewis, a bark-rigged screw-vessel, sailed from the same port for India and China. The Massachusetts, Captain Forbes, a screw-steamship of about 800 tons, sailed for Liverpool September 15, 1845, the first voyage of an American transatlantic passenger-steamer since the Savannah’s pioneer adventure a quarter of a century before. Two years later, American enterprise had placed both screw and paddle steamers on the rivers of China—principally through the exertions of Captain R. B. Forbes—and steam-navigation was fairly established throughout the world.

On comparing the screw-steamer of the present time with the best examples of steamers propelled by paddle-wheels, the superiority of the former is so marked that it may cause some surprise that the revolution just described should have progressed no more rapidly. The reason of this slow progress, however, was probably that the introduction of the rapidly-revolving screw, in place of the slow-moving paddle-wheel, necessitated a complete revolution in the design of their steam-engines; and the unavoidable change from the heavy, long-stroked, low-speed engines previously in use, to the light engines, with small cylinders and high piston-speed, called for by the new system of propulsion, was one that necessarily occurred slowly, and was accompanied by its share of those engineering blunders and accidents that invariably take place during such periods of transition. Engineers had first to learn to design such engines as should be reliable under the then novel conditions of screw-propulsion, and their experience could only begained through the occurrence of many mishaps and costly failures. The best proportions of engines and screws, for a given ship, were determined only by long experience, although great assistance was derived from the extensive series of experiments made with the French steamer Pelican. It also became necessary to train up a body of engine-drivers who should be capable of managing these new engines; for they required the exercise of a then unprecedented amount of care and skill. Finally, with the accomplishment of these two requisites to success must simultaneously occur the enlightenment of the public, professional as well as non-professional, in regard to their advantages. Thus it happens that it is only after a considerable time that the screw attained its proper place as an instrument of propulsion, and finally drove the paddle-wheel quite out of use, except in shoal water.

Now our large screw-steamers are of higher speed than any paddle-steamers on the ocean, and develop their power at far less cost. This increased economy is due not only to the use of a more efficient propelling instrument, and to changes already described, but also, in a great degree, to the economy which has followed as a consequence of other changes in the steam-engine driving it. The earliest days of screw-propulsion witnessed the use of steam of from 5 to 15 pounds pressure, in a geared engine using jet-condensation, and giving a horse-power at an expense of perhaps 7 to 10, or even more, pounds of coal per hour. A little later came direct-acting engines with jet-condensation and steam at 20 pounds pressure, costing about 5 or 6 pounds per horse-power per hour. The steam-pressure rose a little higher with the use of greater expansion, and the economy of fuel was further improved. The introduction of the surface-condenser, which began to be generally adopted some ten years ago, brought down the cost of power to from 3 to 4 pounds in the better class of engines. At about the same time, this change to surface-condensation helpinggreatly to overcome those troubles arising from boiler-incrustation which had prevented the rise of steam-pressure above about 25 pounds per square inch, and as, at the same time, it was learned by engineers that the deposit of lime-scale in the marine boiler was determined by temperature rather than by the degree of concentration, and that all the lime entering the boiler was deposited at the pressure just mentioned, a sudden advance took place. Careful design, good workmanship, and skillful management, made the surface-condenser an efficient apparatus; and, the dangers of incrustation being thus lessened, the movement toward higher pressures recommenced, and progressed so rapidly that now 75 pounds per square inch is very usual, and more than 125 pounds has since been attained.

The close of this period was marked by the construction of the most successful types of paddle-steamers, the complete success of transoceanic steam-transportation, the introduction of the screw-propeller and the peculiar engine appropriate to it, and, finally, a general improvement, which had finally become marked both in direction and in rapidity of movement, leading toward the use of higher steam-pressure, greater expansion, lighter and more rapidly-working machinery, and decidedly better design and construction, and the use of better material. The result of these changes was seen in economy of first cost and maintenance, and the ability to attain greater speed, and to assure greater safety to passengers and less risk to cargo.

The introduction of the changes just noted finally led to the last great change in the form of the marine steam-engine, and a revolution was inaugurated, which, however, only became complete in the succeeding period. The non-success of Hornblower and of Wolff, and others who had attempted to introduce the “compound” or double-cylinder engine on land, had not convinced all engineers that it might not yet be made a successful rival of the then standard type; and the three or four steamers which were builtfor the Hudson River at the end of the first quarter of the nineteenth century are said to have been very successful vessels. Carrying 75 to 100 pounds of steam in their boilers, the Swiftsure and her contemporaries were by that circumstance well fitted to make that form of engine economically a success. This form of engine was built occasionally during the succeeding quarter of a century, but only became a recognized standard type after the close of the epoch to the history of which this chapter is devoted. That latest and greatest advance in the direction of increased efficiency in the marine steam-engine was, however, commenced very soon after Watt’s death, and its completion was the work of nearly a half-century.

[58]“Steam and the Steam-Engine.”[59]“Odyssey,” Book VIII., p. 175.[60]Scientific American, February 24, 1877.[61]“Les Merveilles de la Science.”[62]“Some New Enquiries tending to the Improvement of Navigation.” London, 1760.[63]Lancaster Daily Express, December 10, 1872. This account is collated from various manuscripts and letters in the possession of the author.[64]Bowen’s “Sketches,” p. 56.[65]Some of West’s portraits, including those of Mr. and Mrs. Henry, were lately in the possession of Mr. John Jordan, of Philadelphia.[66]Figuier.[67]“Life of John Fitch,” Westcott.[68]Rivington’s Gazette, February 16, 1775.[69]Providence Journal, May 7, 1874. Coll., N. H. Antiquar. Soc., No. 1; “Who invented the Steamboat?” William A. Mowry, 1874.[70]Rev. Cyrus Mann, in theBoston Recorder, 1858.[71]Westcott.[72]This is substantially an arrangement that has recently become common. It has been repatented by later inventors.[73]“Nathan Read and the Steam-Engine.”[74]“Encyclopædia Americana.”[75]“A Lost Chapter in the History of the Steamboat,” J. H. B. Latrobe, 1871.[76]Vide“Life of Fulton,” Reigart.[77]Vide“Life of Fulton,” Colden.[78]A French inventor, a watchmaker of Trévoux, named Desblancs, had already deposited at the Conservatoire a model fitted with “chaplets.”[79]Woodcroft, p. 64.

[58]“Steam and the Steam-Engine.”

[59]“Odyssey,” Book VIII., p. 175.

[60]Scientific American, February 24, 1877.

[61]“Les Merveilles de la Science.”

[62]“Some New Enquiries tending to the Improvement of Navigation.” London, 1760.

[63]Lancaster Daily Express, December 10, 1872. This account is collated from various manuscripts and letters in the possession of the author.

[64]Bowen’s “Sketches,” p. 56.

[65]Some of West’s portraits, including those of Mr. and Mrs. Henry, were lately in the possession of Mr. John Jordan, of Philadelphia.

[66]Figuier.

[67]“Life of John Fitch,” Westcott.

[68]Rivington’s Gazette, February 16, 1775.

[69]Providence Journal, May 7, 1874. Coll., N. H. Antiquar. Soc., No. 1; “Who invented the Steamboat?” William A. Mowry, 1874.

[70]Rev. Cyrus Mann, in theBoston Recorder, 1858.

[71]Westcott.

[72]This is substantially an arrangement that has recently become common. It has been repatented by later inventors.

[73]“Nathan Read and the Steam-Engine.”

[74]“Encyclopædia Americana.”

[75]“A Lost Chapter in the History of the Steamboat,” J. H. B. Latrobe, 1871.

[76]Vide“Life of Fulton,” Reigart.

[77]Vide“Life of Fulton,” Colden.

[78]A French inventor, a watchmaker of Trévoux, named Desblancs, had already deposited at the Conservatoire a model fitted with “chaplets.”

[79]Woodcroft, p. 64.

[80]A newspaper-slip in the scrap-book of the author has the following:“The traveler of today, as he goes on board the great steamboats St. John or Drew, can scarcely imagine the difference between such floating palaces and the wee-bit punts on which our fathers were wafted 60 years ago. We may, however, get some idea of the sort of thing then in use by a perusal of the steamboat announcements of that time, two of which are as follows:[“Copy of an Advertisement taken from the Albany Gazette, dated September, 1807.]“The North River Steamboat will leave Pauler’s Hook Ferry [now Jersey City] on Friday, the 4th of September, at 9 in the morning, and arrive at Albany on Saturday, at 9 in the afternoon. Provisions, good berths, and accommodations are provided.“The charge to each passenger is as follows:“ToNewburgdols.3,time14hours.„Poughkeepsie„4,„17„„Esopus„5,„20„„Hudson„51∕2,„30„„Albany„7,„36„“For places, apply to William Vandervoort, No. 48 Courtlandt Street, on the corner of Greenwich Street.“September 2, 1807.[“Extract from the New York Evening Post, dated October 2, 1807.]“Mr. Fulton’s new-inventedSteamboat, which is fitted up in a neat style for passengers, and is intended to run from New York to Albany as a Packet, left here this morning with 90 passengers, against a strong head-wind. Notwithstanding which, it was judged she moved through the waters at the rate of six miles an hour.”

[80]A newspaper-slip in the scrap-book of the author has the following:

“The traveler of today, as he goes on board the great steamboats St. John or Drew, can scarcely imagine the difference between such floating palaces and the wee-bit punts on which our fathers were wafted 60 years ago. We may, however, get some idea of the sort of thing then in use by a perusal of the steamboat announcements of that time, two of which are as follows:

[“Copy of an Advertisement taken from the Albany Gazette, dated September, 1807.]

“The North River Steamboat will leave Pauler’s Hook Ferry [now Jersey City] on Friday, the 4th of September, at 9 in the morning, and arrive at Albany on Saturday, at 9 in the afternoon. Provisions, good berths, and accommodations are provided.

“The charge to each passenger is as follows:

“For places, apply to William Vandervoort, No. 48 Courtlandt Street, on the corner of Greenwich Street.

“September 2, 1807.

[“Extract from the New York Evening Post, dated October 2, 1807.]

“Mr. Fulton’s new-inventedSteamboat, which is fitted up in a neat style for passengers, and is intended to run from New York to Albany as a Packet, left here this morning with 90 passengers, against a strong head-wind. Notwithstanding which, it was judged she moved through the waters at the rate of six miles an hour.”

[81]Bishop.

[82]American Journal of Science, March, 1827;London Mechanics’ Magazine, June 16, 1827.

[83]“New Universal Cyclopædia,” vol. iv., 1878.

[84]This distinguished inventor is still a resident of New York (1878).

... “And, last of all, with inimitable power, and ‘with whirlwind sound,’ comes the potent agency of steam. In comparison with the past, what centuries of improvement has this single agent comprised in the short compass of fifty years! Everywhere practicable, everywhere efficient, it has an arm a thousand times stronger than that of Hercules, and to which human ingenuity is capable of fitting a thousand times as many hands as belonged to Briareus. Steam is found in triumphant operation on the seas; and, under the influence of its strong propulsion, the gallant ship—‘Against the wind, against the tide,Still steadies with an upright keel.’It is on the rivers, and the boatman may repose on his oars; it is on highways, and exerts itself along the courses of land-conveyance; it is at the bottom of mines, a thousand feet below the earth’s surface; it is in the mills, and in the workshops of the trades. It rows, it pumps, it excavates, it carries, it draws, it lifts, it hammers, it spins, it weaves, it prints. It seems to say to men, at least to the class of artisans: ‘Leave off your manual labor; give over your bodily toil; bestow but your skill and reason to the directing of my power, and I will bear the toil, with no muscle to grow weary, no nerve to relax, no breast to feel faintness!’ What further improvement may still be made in the use of this astonishing power it is impossible to know, and it were vain to conjecture. What we do know is, that it has most essentially altered the face of affairs, and that no visible limit yet appears beyond which its progress is seen to be impossible.”—Daniel Webster.

‘Against the wind, against the tide,Still steadies with an upright keel.’

It is on the rivers, and the boatman may repose on his oars; it is on highways, and exerts itself along the courses of land-conveyance; it is at the bottom of mines, a thousand feet below the earth’s surface; it is in the mills, and in the workshops of the trades. It rows, it pumps, it excavates, it carries, it draws, it lifts, it hammers, it spins, it weaves, it prints. It seems to say to men, at least to the class of artisans: ‘Leave off your manual labor; give over your bodily toil; bestow but your skill and reason to the directing of my power, and I will bear the toil, with no muscle to grow weary, no nerve to relax, no breast to feel faintness!’ What further improvement may still be made in the use of this astonishing power it is impossible to know, and it were vain to conjecture. What we do know is, that it has most essentially altered the face of affairs, and that no visible limit yet appears beyond which its progress is seen to be impossible.”—Daniel Webster.

By the middle of the present century, as we have now seen, the steam-engine had been applied, and successfully, to every great purpose for which it was fitted. Its first application was to the elevation of water; it next was applied to the driving of mills and machinery; and it finallybecame the great propelling power in transportation by land and by sea.

At the beginning of the period to which we are now come, these applications of steam-power had become familiar both to the engineer and to the public. The forms of engine adapted to each purpose had been determined, and had become usually standard. Every type of the modern steam-engine had assumed, more or less closely, the form and proportions which are now familiar; and the most intelligent designers and builders had been taught—by experience rather than by theory, for the theory of the steam-engine had then been but little investigated, and the principles and laws of thermo-dynamics had not been traced in their application to this engine—the principles of construction essential to successful practice, and were gradually learning the relative standing of the many forms of steam-engine, from among which have been preserved a few specially fitted for certain specific methods of utilization of power.

During the years succeeding the date 1850, therefore, the growth of the steam-engine had been, not a change of standard type, or the addition of new parts, but a gradual improvement in forms, proportions, and arrangements of details; and this period has been marked by the dying out of the forms of engine least fitted to succeed in competition with others, and the retention of the latter has been an example of “the survival of the fittest.” This has therefore been a Period of Refinement.

During this period invention has been confined to details; it has produced new forms of parts, new arrangements of details; it has devised an immense variety of valves, valve-motions, regulating apparatus, and a still greater variety of steam-boilers and of attachments, essential and non-essential, to both engines and boilers. The great majority of these peculiar devices have been of no value, and very many of the best of them have been foundto have about equal value. All the well-known and successful forms of engine, when equally well designed and constructed and equally well managed, are of very nearly equal efficiency; all of the best-known types of steam-boiler, where given equal proportions of grate to heating-surface and equally well designed, with a view to securing a good draught and a good circulation of water, have been found to give very nearly equally good results; and it has become evident that a good knowledge of principles and of practice, on the part of the designer, the constructor, and the manager of the boiler, is essential in the endeavor to achieve economical success; that good engineering is demanded, rather than great ingenuity. The inventor has been superseded here by the engineer.

The knowledge acquired in the time of Watt, of the essential principles of steam-engine construction, has since become generally familiar to the better class of engineers. It has led to the selection of simple, strong, and durable forms of engine and boiler, to the introduction of various kinds of valves and of valve-gearing, capable of adjustment to any desired range of expansive working, and to the attachment of efficient forms of governor to regulate the speed of the engine, by determining automatically the point of cut-off which will, at any instant, best adjust the energy exerted by the expanding steam to the demand made by the work to be done.

The value of high pressures and considerable expansion was recognized as long ago as in the early part of the present century, and Watt, by combining skillfully the several principal parts of the steam-engine, gave it very nearly the shape which it has to-day. The compound engine, even, as has been seen, was invented by contemporaries of Watt, and the only important modifications since his time have occurred in details. The introduction of the “drop cut-off,” the attachment of the governor to the expansion-apparatus in such a manner as to determine the degree ofexpansion, the improvement of proportions, the introduction of higher steam and greater expansion, the improvement of the marine engine by the adoption of surface-condensation, in addition to these other changes, and the introduction of the double-cylinder engine, after the elevation of steam-pressure and increase of expansion had gone so far as to justify its use, are the changes, therefore, which have taken place during this last quarter-century. It began then to be generally understood that expansion of steam produced economy, and mechanics and inventors vied with each other in the effort to obtain a form of valve-gear which should secure the immense saving which an abstract consideration of the expansion of gases according to Marriotte’s law would seem to promise. The counteracting phenomena of internal condensation and reëvaporation, of the losses of heat externally and internally, and of the effect of defective vacuum, defective distribution of steam, and of back-pressure, were either unobserved or were entirely overlooked.

It was many years, therefore, before engine-builders became convinced that no improvement upon existing forms of expansion-gear could secure even an approximation to theoretical efficiency.

The fact thus learned, that the benefit of expansive working has a limit which is very soon reached in ordinary practice, was not then, and has only recently become, generally known among our steam-engine builders, and for several years, during the period upon which we now enter, there continued the keenest competition between makers of rival forms of expansion-gear, and inventors were continually endeavoring to produce something which should far excel any previously-existing device.

In Europe, as in the United States, efforts to “improve” standard designs have usually resulted in injuring their efficiency, and in simply adding to the first cost and running expense of the engines, without securing a marked increase in economy in the consumption of steam.

“Stationary Engines” had been applied to the operation of mill-machinery, as has been seen, by Watt and by Murdoch, his assistant and pupil; and Watt’s competitors, in Great Britain and abroad, had made considerable progress before the death of the great engineer, in its adaptation to its work. In the United States, Oliver Evans had introduced the non-condensing high-pressure stationary engine, which was the progenitor of the standard engine of that type which is now used far more generally than any other form. These engines were at first rude in design, badly proportioned, rough and inaccurate as to workmanship, and uneconomical in their consumption of fuel. Gradually, however, when made by reputable builders, they assumed neat and strong shapes, good proportions, and were well made and of excellent materials, doing their work with comparatively little waste of heat or of fuel.

Vertical Stationary EngineFig. 93.—Vertical Stationary Steam-Engine.

Fig. 93.—Vertical Stationary Steam-Engine.

One of the neatest and best modern designs of stationary engine for small powers is seen inFig. 93, which represents a “vertical direct-acting engine,” with base-plate—a form which is a favorite with many engineers.

The engine shown in the engraving consists of two principal parts, the cylinder and the frame, which is a tapering column having openings in the sides, to allow free access to all the working parts within. The slides and pillow-blocks are cast with the column, so that they cannot become loose or out of line; the rubbing surfaces are large and easily lubricated. Owing to the vertical position, there is no tendency to side wear of cylinder or piston. The packing-rings are self-adjusting, and work free but tight. The crank is counterbalanced; the crank-pin, cross-head pin, piston-rod, valve-stem, etc., are made of steel; all the bearing surfaces are made extra large, and are accurately fitted; and the best quality of Babbitt-metal only used for the journal-bearings.

The smaller sizes of these engines, from 2 to 10 horse-power, have both pillow-blocks cast in the frame, giving a bearing each side of the double cranks. They are built by some constructors in quantities, and parts duplicated byspecial machinery (as in fire-arms and sewing-machines), which secures great accuracy and uniformity of workmanship, and allows of any part being quickly and cheaply replaced, when worn or broken by accident. The next figure is a vertical section through the same engine.

Vertical Stationary Engine, SectionFig. 94.—Vertical Stationary Steam-Engine. Section.

Fig. 94.—Vertical Stationary Steam-Engine. Section.

Engines fitted with the ordinary rigid bearings require to be erected on a firm foundation, and to be kept in perfect line. If, by the settling of the foundation, or from any other cause, they get out of line, heating, cutting, and thumping result. To obviate this, modern engines are often fitted with self-adjusting bearings throughout; this gives the engine great flexibility and freedom from friction. The accompanying cuts show clearly how this is accomplished.The pillow-block has a spherical shell turned and fitted into the spherically-bored pillow-block, thus allowing a slight angular motion in any direction. The connecting-rod is forged in a single piece, without straps, gibs, or key, and is mortised through at each end for the reception of the brass boxes, which are curved on their backs, and fit the cheek-pieces, between which they can turn to adjust themselves to the pins, in the plane of the axis of the rod. The adjustment for wear is made by wedge-blocks and set screws, as shown, and they are so constructed that the parts cannot get loose and cause a break-down. The cross-head has adjustable gibs on each side, turned to fit the slides, which are cast solidly in the frame, and bored out exactly in the line with the cylinder. This permits it freely to turn on its axis, and, in connection with the adjustable boxes in the connecting-rod, allows a perfect self-adjustment to the line of the crank-pin. The out-board bearing may be moved an inch or more out of position in any direction, without detriment to the running of the engine, all bearings accommodating themselves perfectly to whatever position the shaft may assume.

The ports and valve-passages are proportioned as in locomotive practice. The valve-seat is adapted to the ordinary plain slide or D-valve, should it be preferred, but the balanced piston slide-valve works with equal ease whether the steam-pressure is 10 or 100 pounds, and at the same time gives double steam and exhaust openings, which greatly facilitates the entrance of the steam to, and its escape from, the cylinder, thus securing a nearer approach to boiler-pressure and a less back-pressure, saving the power required to work an ordinary valve, and reducing the wear of valve-gear.

This is a type of engine frequently seen in the United States, but more rarely in Europe. It is an excellent form of engine. The vertical direct-acting engine is sometimes, though rarely, built of very considerable size, and these large engines are more frequently seen in rolling-mills than elsewhere.

Where much power is required, the stationary engine is usually an horizontal direct-acting engine, having a more or less effective cut-off valve-gear, according to the size of engine and the cost of fuel. A good example of the simpler form of this kind of engine is the small horizontal slide-valve engine, with independent cut-off valve riding on the back of the main valve—a combination generally known among engineers as the Meyer system of valve-gear. This form of steam-engine is a very effective machine, and does excellent work when properly proportioned to yield the required amount of power. It is well adapted to an expansion of from four to five times. Its disadvantages are the difficulty which it presents in the attachment of the regulator, to determine the point of cut-off by the heavy work which it throws upon the governor when attached, and the rather inflexible character of the device as an expansive valve-gear. The best examples of this class of engine have neat heavy bed-plates, well-designed cylinders and details, smooth-working valve-gear, the expansion-valve adjusted by a right and left hand screw, and regulation secured by the attachment of the governor to the throttle-valve.

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