Horizontal Stationary Steam-EngineFig. 95.—Horizontal Stationary Steam-Engine.
Fig. 95.—Horizontal Stationary Steam-Engine.
The engine shown in the accompanying illustration (Fig. 95) is an example of an excellent British stationary steam-engine. It is simple, strong, and efficient. The frame, front cylinder-head, cross-head guides, and crank-shaft “plumber-block,” are cast in one piece, as has so generally been done in the United States for a long time by some of our manufacturers. The cylinder is secured against the end of the bed-plate, as was first done by Corliss. The crank-pin is set in a counterbalanced disk. The valve-gear is simple, and the governor effective, and provided with a safety-device to prevent injury by the breaking of the governor-belt. An engine of this kind of 10 inches diameter of cylinder, 20 inches stroke of piston, is rated by the builders at about 25 horse-power; a similar engine 30 inches in diameter of cylinder would yield from225 to 250 horse-power. In this example, all parts are made to exact size by gauges standardized to Whitworth’s sizes.
Horizontal Stationary Steam-EngineFig. 96.—Horizontal Stationary Steam-Engine.
Fig. 96.—Horizontal Stationary Steam-Engine.
In American engines (as is seen inFig. 96), usually, two supports are placed—the one under the latter bearing, and the other under the cylinder—to take the weight of the engine; and through them it is secured to the foundation. As in the vertical engine already described, a valve is sometimes used, consisting of two pistons connected by arod, and worked by an ordinary eccentric. By a simple arrangement these pistons have always the same pressure inside as out, which prevents any leakage or blowing through; and they are said always to work equally as well and free from friction under 150 pounds pressure as under 10 pounds per square inch, and to require no adjustment. It is more usual, however, to adopt the three-ported valve used on locomotives, with (frequently) a cut-off valve on the back of this main valve, which cut-off valve is adjusted either by hand or by the governor.
Engines of the class just described are especially well fitted, by their simplicity, compactness, and solidity, to work at the high piston-speeds which are gradually becoming generally adopted in the effort to attain increased economy of fuel by the reduction of the immense losses of heat which occur in the expansion of steam in the metallic cylinders through which we are now compelled to work it.
One of the best known of recent engines is the Allen engine, a steam-engine having the same general arrangement of parts seen in the above illustration, but fitted with a peculiar valve-gear, and having proportions of parts which are especially calculated to secure smoothness of motion and uniformity of pressure on crank-pin and journals, at speeds so high that the inertia of the reciprocating parts becomes a seriously-important element in the calculation of the distribution of stresses and their effect on the dynamics of the machine.
In the Allen engine,[85]the cylinder and frame are connected as in the engine seen above, and the crank-disk, shaft-bearings, and other principal details, are not essentially different. The valve-gear[86]differs in having four valves, one at each end on the steam as well as on the exhaust side, all of which are balanced and work with very little resistance. These valves are not detachable, but are driven bya link attached to and moved by an eccentric on the main shaft, the position of the valve-rod attachment to which link is determined by the governor, and the degree of expansion is thus adjusted to the work of the engine. The engine has usually a short stroke, not exceeding twice the diameter of cylinder, and is driven at very high speed, generally averaging from 600 to 800 feet per minute.[87]This high piston-speed and short stroke give very great velocity of rotation. The effect is, therefore, to produce an exceptional smoothness of motion, while permitting the use of small fly-wheels. Its short stroke enables entire solidity to be attained in a bed of rigid form, making it a very completely self-contained engine, adapted to the heaviest work, and requiring only a small foundation.
The journals of the shaft, and all cylindrical wearing surfaces, are finished by grinding in a manner that leaves them perfectly round. The crank-pin and cross-head pin are hardened before being ground. The joints of the valve-gear consist of pins turning in solid ferrules in the rod-ends, both hardened and ground. After years of constant use thus, no wear occasioning lost time in the valve-movements has been detected.
High speed and short strokes are essential elements of economy. It is now well understood that all the surfaces with which the steam comes in contact condense it.
Obviously, one way to diminish this loss is to reduce the extent of surface to which the steam is exposed. In engines of high speed and short stroke, the surfaces with which the steam comes in contact, while doing a given amount of work, present less area than in ordinary engines running at low speed. Where great steadiness of motion is desired, the expense of coupled engines is often incurred. Quick-running engines do not require to be coupled; a single engine may give greater uniformity of motion than is usuallyobtained with coupled engines at ordinary speeds. The ports and valve-movements, the weight of the reciprocating parts, and the size and weight of the fly-wheels, should be calculated expressly for the speeds chosen.
The economy of the engine here described is unexcelled by the best of the more familiar “drop cut-off” engines.
An engine reported upon by a committee of the American Institute, of which Dr. Barnard was chairman, was non-condensing, 16 inches in diameter of cylinder, 30 inches stroke, making 125 revolutions per minute, and developed over 125 horse-power with 75 pounds of steam in the boiler, using 253∕4pounds of steam per indicated horse-power, and 2.87 pounds of coal—an extraordinarily good performance for an engine of such small power.
The governor used on this engine is known as the Porter governor. It is given great power and delicacy by weighting it down, and thus obtaining a high velocity of rotation, and by suspending the balls from forked arms, which are given each two bearing-pins separated laterally so far as to permit considerable force to be exerted in changing speeds without cramping those bearings sufficiently to seriously impair the sensitiveness of the governor. This engine as a whole may be regarded as a good representative of the high-speed engine of to-day.
Since this change in the direction of high speeds has already gone so far that the “drop cut-off” is sometimes inapplicable, in consequence of the fact that the piston would, were such a valve-gear adopted, reach the end of its stroke before the detached valve could reach its seat; and since this progress is only limited by our attainments in mechanical skill and accuracy, it seems probable that the “positive-motion expansion-gear” type of engine will ultimately supersede the now standard “drop cut-off engine.”
The best known and most generally used class of stationary engines at the present time is, however, that whichhas the so-called “drop cut-off,” or “detachable valve-gear.” The oldest well-known form of valve-motion of this description now in use is that known as the Sickels cut-off, patented by Frederick E. Sickels, an American mechanic, about the year 1841, and also built by Hogg, of New York, who placed it upon the engine of the steamer South America. The invention is claimed for both Hogg and Sickels. It was introduced by the inventor in a form which especially adapted it to use with the beam-engine used on the Eastern waters of the United States, and was adapted to stationary engines by Messrs. Thurston, Greene & Co., of Providence, R. I., who made use of it for some years before any other form of “drop cut-off” came into general use. The Sickels cut-off consisted of a set of steam-valves, usually independent of the exhaust-valves, and each raised by a catch, which could be thrown out, at the proper moment, by a wedge with which it came in contact as it rose with the opening valve. This wedge, or other equivalent device, was so adjusted that the valve should be detached and fall to its seat when the piston reached that point in its movement, after taking steam, at which expansion was to commence. From this point, no steam entering the cylinder, the piston was impelled by the expanding vapor. The valve was usually the double-poppet. Sickels subsequently invented what was called the “beam-motion,” to detach the valve at any point in the stroke. As at first arranged, the valve could only be detached during the earlier half-stroke, since at mid-stroke the direction of motion of the eccentric rod was reversed and the valve began to descend. By introducing a “wiper” having a motion transverse to that of the valve and its catch, and by giving this wiper a motion coincident with that of the piston by connecting it with the beam or other part of the engine moving with the piston, he obtained a kinematic combination which permitted the valve to be detached at any point in the stroke, adding a very simple contrivance which enabled the attendant to set thewiper so that it should strike the catch at any time during the forward movement of the “beam-motion.”
On stationary engines, the point of cut-off was afterward determined by the governor, which was made to operate the detaching mechanism, the combination forming what is sometimes called an “automatic” cut-off. The attachment of the governor so as to determine the degree of expansion had been proposed before Sickels’s time. One of the earliest of these contrivances was that of Zachariah Allen, in 1834, using a cut-off valve independent of the steam-valve. The first to so attach the governor to adrop cut-offvalve-motion was George H. Corliss, who made it a feature of the Corliss valve-gear in 1849. In the year 1855, N. T. Greene introduced a form of expansion-gear, in which he combined the range of the Sickels beam-motion device with the expansion-adjustment gained by the attachment of the governor, and with the advantages of flat slide-valves at all ports—both steam and exhaust.
Many other ingenious forms of expansion valve-gear have been invented, and several have been introduced, which, properly designed and proportioned to well-planned engines, and with good construction and management, should give economical results little if at all inferior to those just named. Among the most ingenious of these later devices is that of Babcock & Wilcox, in which a very small auxiliary steam-cylinder and piston is employed to throw the cut-off valve over its port at the instant at which the steam is to be cut off. A very beautiful form of isochronous governor is used on this engine, to regulate the speed of the engine by determining the point of cut-off.
In Wright’s engine, the expansion is adjusted by the movement, by the regulator, of cams which operate the steam-valves so that they shall hold the valve open a longer or shorter time, as required.
Since compactness and lightness are not as essential as in portable, locomotive, and marine engines, the parts arearranged, in stationary engines, with a view simply to securing efficiency, and the design is determined by circumstances. It was formerly usual to adopt the condensing engine in mills, and wherever a stationary engine was required. In Europe generally, and to some extent in the United States, where a supply of condensing water is obtainable, condensing engines and moderate steam-pressures are still employed. But this type of engine is gradually becoming superseded by the high-pressure condensing engine, with considerable expansion, and with an expansion-gear in which the point of cut-off is determined by the governor.
Corliss EngineFig. 97.—Corliss Engine.
Fig. 97.—Corliss Engine.
Corliss Engine Valve-MotionFig. 98—Corliss Engine Valve-Motion.
Fig. 98—Corliss Engine Valve-Motion.
The best-known engine of this class is the Corliss engine, which is very extensively used in the United States, and which has been copied very generally by European builders.Fig. 97represents the Corliss engine. The horizontal steam-cylinder is bolted firmly to the end of the frame, which is so formed as to transmit the strain to the main journal with the greatest directness. The frame carries the guides for the cross-head, which are both in the same vertical plane. The valves are four in number, a steam and an exhaust valve being placed at each end of the steam-cylinder. Short steam-passages are thus secured, andthis diminution of clearance is a source of some economy. Both sets of valves are driven by an eccentric operating a disk or wrist-plate,E(Fig. 98), which vibrates on a pin projecting from the cylinder. Short links reaching from this wrist-plate to the several valves,D D,F F, move them with a peculiarly varying motion, opening and closing them rapidly, and moving them quite slowly when the port is either nearly open or almost closed. This effect is ingeniously secured by so placing the pins on the wrist-plate that their line of motion becomes nearly transverse to the direction of the valve-links when the limit of movement is approached. The links connecting the wrist-plate with the arms moving the steam-valves have catches at their extremities, which are disengaged by coming in contact, as the arm swings around with the valve-stem, with a cam adjusted by the governor. This adjustment permits the steam to follow the piston farther when the engine is caused to “slow down,” and thus tends to restore the proper speed. It disengages the steam-valve earlier, and expands the steam to a greaterextent, when the engine begins to run above the proper speed. When the catch is thrown out, the valve is closed by a weight or a strong spring. To prevent jar when the motion of the valve is checked, a “dash-pot” is used, invented originally by F. E. Sickels. This is a vessel having a nicely-fitted piston, which is received by a “cushion” of water or air when the piston suddenly enters the cylinder at the end of the valve-movement. In the original water dash-pot of Sickels, the cylinder is vertical, and the plunger or piston descends upon a small body of water confined in the base of the dash-pot. Corliss’s air dash-pot is now often set horizontally.
Greene EngineFig. 99.—Greene Engine.
Fig. 99.—Greene Engine.
In the Greene steam-engine (Fig. 99), the valves arefour in number, as in the Corliss. The cut-off gear consists of a bar,A, moved by the steam-eccentric in a direction parallel with the centre-line of the cylinder and nearly coincident as to time with the piston. On this bar are tappets,C C, supported by springs and adjustable in height by the governor,G. These tappets engage the armsB B, on the ends of rock-shafts,E E, which move the steam-valves and remain in contact with them a longer or shorter time, and holding the valve open during a greater or less part of the piston-stroke, as the governor permits the tappets to rise with diminishing engine-speed, or forces them down as speed increases. The exhaust-valves are moved by an independent eccentric rod, which is itself moved by an eccentric set, as is usual with the Corliss and with other engines generally, at right angles with the crank. This engine, in consequence of the independence of the steam-eccentric, and of the contemporary movement of steam valve-motion and steam-piston, is capable of cutting off at any point from beginning to nearly the end of the stroke. The usual arrangement, by which steam and exhaust valves are moved by the same eccentric, only permits expansion with the range from the beginning to half-stroke. In the Corliss engine the latter construction is retained, with the object, in part, of securing a means of closing the valve by a “positive motion,” should, by any accident, the closing not be effected by the weight or spring usually relied upon.
Greene-Engine Valve-GearFig. 100.—Thurston’s Greene-Engine Valve-Gear.
Fig. 100.—Thurston’s Greene-Engine Valve-Gear.
The steam-valve of the Greene engine, as designed by the author, is seen inFig. 100, where the valve,G H, covering the port,D, in the steam-cylinder,A B, is moved by the rod,J J, connected to the rock-shaft,M, by the arm,L K. The line,K I, should, when carried out, intersect the valve-face at its middle point, underG.
The characteristics of the American stationary engine, therefore, are high steam-pressure without condensation, an expansion valve-gear with drop cut-off adjustable by the governor, high piston-speed, and lightness combined with strength of construction. The pressure most commonly adopted in the boilers which furnish steam to this type of engine is from 75 to 80 pounds per square inch; but a pressure of 100 pounds is not infrequently carried, and the latter pressure may be regarded as a “mean maximum,” corresponding to a pressure of 60 pounds at about the commencement of the period here considered—1850.
Very much greater pressures have, however, been adopted by some makers, and immensely “higher steam” has been experimented with by several engineers. As early as 1823, Jacob Perkins[88]commenced experimenting with steam of very great tension. As has already been stated, the usual pressure at the time of Watt was but a few pounds—5 or 7—in excess of that of the atmosphere. Evans, Trevithick, and Stevens, had previously worked steam at pressures of from 50 to 75 pounds per square inch, and pressures on the Western rivers and elsewhere in the United States had already been raised to 100 or 150 pounds, and explosions were becoming alarmingly frequent.
Perkins’s experimental apparatus consisted of a copper boiler, of a capacity of about one cubic foot, having sides 3 inches in thickness. It was closed at the bottom and top, and had five small pipes leading from the upper head.This was placed in a furnace kept at a high temperature by a forced combustion. Safety-valves loaded respectively to 425 and 550 pounds per square inch were placed on each of two of the steam-pipes.
Perkins used the steam generated under these great pressures in a little engine having a piston 2 inches in diameter and a stroke of 1 foot. It was rated at 10 horse-power.[89]
In the year 1827, Perkins had attained working pressures, in a single-acting, single-cylinder engine, of upward of 800 pounds per square inch. At pressures exceeding 200 pounds, he had much trouble in securing effective lubrication, as all oils charred and decomposed at the high temperatures then unavoidably encountered, and he finally succeeded in evading this seemingly insurmountable obstacle by using for rubbing parts a peculiar alloy which required no lubrication, and which became so beautifully polished, after some wear, that the friction was less than where lubricants were used. At these high pressures Perkins seems to have met with no other serious difficulty. He condensed the exhaust-steam and returned it to the boiler, but did not attempt to create a vacuum in his condenser, and therefore needed no air-pump. Steam was cut off at one-eighth stroke.
In the same year, Perkins made a compound engine on the Woolf plan, and adopted a pressure of 1,400 pounds, expandingeight times. In still another engine, intended for a steam-vessel, Perkins adopted, or proposed to adopt, 2,000 pounds pressure, cutting off the admission at one-sixteenth, in single-acting engines of 6 inches diameter of cylinder and 20 inches stroke of piston. The steam did not retain boiler-pressure at the cylinder, and this engine was only rated at 30 horse-power.[90]
Stuart follows a description of Perkins’s work in the improvement of the steam-engine and the introduction of steam-artillery by the remark:
“ ... No other mechanic of the day has done more to illustrate an obscure branch of philosophy by a series of difficult, dangerous, and expensive experiments; no one’s labors have been more deserving of cheering encouragement, and no one has received less. Even in their present state, his experiments are opening new fields for philosophical research, and his mechanism bids fair to introduce a new style into the proportions, construction, and form, of steam-machinery.”
Perkins’s experience was no exception to the general rule, which denies to nearly all inventors a fair return for the benefits which they confer upon mankind.
Another engineer, a few years later, was also successful in controlling and working steam under much higher pressures than are even now in use. This was Dr. Ernst Alban, a distinguished German engine-builder, of Plau, Mecklenburg, and an admirer of Oliver Evans, in whose path he, a generation later, advanced far beyond that great pioneer. Writing in 1843, he describes a system of engine and boiler construction, with which he used steam under pressures about equal to those experimentally worked by Jacob Perkins, Evans’s American successor. Alban’s treatise was translated and printed in Great Britain,[91]four years later.
Alban, on one occasion, used steam of 1,000 pounds pressure. His boilers were similar in general form to the boiler patented by Stevens in 1805, but the tubes were horizontal instead of vertical. He evaporated from 8 to 10 pounds of water into steam of 600 to 800 pounds pressure with each pound of coal. He states that the difficulty met by Perkins—the decomposition of lubricants in the steam-cylinder—did not present itself in his experiments, even when working steam at a pressure of 600 pounds on the square inch, and he found that less lubrication was needed at such high pressures than in ordinary practice. Alban expanded his steam about as much as Evans, in his usual practice, carrying a pressure of 150 pounds, and cutting off at one-third; he adopted greatly increased piston-speed, attaining 300 feet per minute, at a time when common practice had only reached 200 feet. He usually built an oscillating engine, and rarely attached a condenser. The valve was the locomotive-slide.[92]The stroke was made short to secure strength, compactness, cheapness, and high speed of rotation; but Alban does not seem to have understood the principles controlling the form and proportions of the expansive engine, or the necessity of adopting considerable expansion in order to secure economy in working steam of great tension, and therefore was, apparently, not aware of the advantages of a long stroke in reducing losses by “dead-space,” in reducing risk of annoyance by hot journals, or in enabling high piston-speeds to be adopted. He seems never to have attained a sufficiently high speed of piston to become aware that the oscillating cylinder cannot be used at speeds perfectly practicable with the fixed cylinder.
Alban states that one of his smallest engines, having a cylinder 41∕2inches in diameter and 1 foot stroke of piston, with a piston-speed of but 140 to 160 feet per minute, developed 4 horse-power, with a consumption of 5.3 poundsof coal per hour. This is a good result for so small an amount of work, and for an engine working at so low a speed of piston. An engine of 30 horse-power, also working very slowly, required but 4.1 pounds of coal per hour per horse-power.
The work of Perkins and of Alban, like that of their predecessors, Evans, Stevens, and Trevithick, was, however, the work of engineers who were far ahead of their time. The general practice, up to the time which marked the beginning of the modern “period of refinement,” had been but gradually approximating that just described. Higher pressures were slowly approached; higher piston-speeds came slowly into use; greater expansion was gradually adopted; the causes of losses of heat were finally discovered, and steam-jacketing and external non-conducting coverings were more and more generally applied as builders became more familiar with their work. The “compound engine” was now and then adopted; and each experiment, made with higher steam and greater expansion, was more nearly successful than the last.
Finally, all these methods of securing economy became recognized, and the reasons for their adoption became known. It then remained, as the final step in this progression, to combine all these requisites of economical working in a double-cylinder engine, steam-jacketed, well protected by non-conducting coverings, working steam of high pressure, and with considerable expansion at high piston-speed. This is now done by the best builders.
One of the best examples of this type of engine is that constructed by the sons of Jacob Perkins, who continued the work of their father after his death. Their engines are single-acting, and the small or high-pressure cylinder is placed on the top of the larger or low-pressure cylinder. The valves are worked by rotating stems, and the loss of heat and burning of packing incident to the use of the common method are thus avoided. The stuffing-boxes areplaced at the end of long sleeves, closely surrounding the vertical valve-stems also, and the water of condensation which collects in these sleeves is an additional and thorough protection against excessively high temperature at the packing. The piston-rings are made of the alloy which has been found to require no lubrication.
Steam is usually worked at from 250 to 450 pounds, and is generated in boilers composed of small tubes three inches in diameter and three-eighths of an inch thick, which are tested under a pressure of 2,500 pounds per square inch. The safety-valve is usually loaded to 400 pounds. The boiler is fed with distilled water, obtained principally by condensation of the exhaust-steam, any deficiency being made up by the addition of water from a distilling apparatus. Under these conditions, but 11∕4pound of coal is consumed per hour and per horse-power.
The Pumping-Enginein use at the present time has passed through a series of changes not differing much from that which has been traced with the stationary mill-engine. The Cornish engine is still used to some extent for supplying water to towns, and is retained at deep mines. The modern Cornish engine differs very little from that of the time of Watt, except in the proportions of parts and the form of its details. Steam-pressures are carried which were never reached during the preceding period, and, by careful adjustment of well-set and well-proportioned valves and gearing, the engine has been made to work rather more rapidly, and to do considerably more work. It still remains, however, a large, costly, and awkward contrivance, requiring expensive foundations, and demanding exceptional care, skill, and experience in management. It is gradually going out of use. This engine, as now constructed by good builders, is shown in section inFig. 101.
A comparison with the Watt engine of a century earlier will at once enable any one to appreciate the extent to which changes may be made in perfecting a machine, evenafter it has become complete, so far as supplying it with all essential parts can complete it.
Cornish Pumping-EngineFig. 101.—Cornish Pumping-Engine, 1880.
Fig. 101.—Cornish Pumping-Engine, 1880.
In the figure,Ais the cylinder, taking steam from the boiler through the steam-passage,M. The steam is first admitted above the piston,B, driving it rapidly downward and raising the pump-rod,E. At an early period in the stroke the admission of steam is checked by the sudden closing of the induction-valve atM, and the stroke is completed under the action of expanding steam assisted by the inertia of the heavy parts already in motion. The necessary weight and inertia is afforded, in many cases, where the engine is applied to the pumping of deep mines, by theimmensely long and heavy pump-rods. Where this weight is too great, it is counterbalanced, and where too small, weights are added. When the stroke is completed, the “equilibrium valve” is opened, and the steam passes from above to the space below the piston, and an equilibrium of pressure being thus produced, the pump-rods descend, forcing the water from the pumps and raising the steam-piston. The absence of the crank, or other device which might determine absolutely the length of stroke, compels a very careful adjustment of steam-admission to the amount of load. Should the stroke be allowed to exceed the proper length, and should danger thus arise of the piston striking the cylinder-head,N, the movement is checked by buffer-beams. The valve-motion is actuated by a plug-rod,J K, as in Watt’s engine. The regulation is effected by a “cataract,” a kind of hydraulic governor, consisting of a plunger-pump, with a reservoir attached. The plunger is raised by the engine, and then automatically detached. It falls with greater or less rapidity, its velocity being determined by the size of the eduction-orifice, which is adjustable by hand. When the plunger reaches the bottom of the pump-barrel, it disengages a catch, a weight is allowed to act upon the steam-valve, opening it, and the engine is caused to make a stroke. When the outlet of the cataract is nearly closed, the engine stands still a considerable time while the plunger is descending, and the strokes succeed each other at long intervals. When the opening is greater, the cataract acts more rapidly, and the engine works faster. This has been regarded until recently as the most economical of pumping-engines, and it is still generally used in freeing mines of water, and in situations where existing heavy pump-rods may be utilized in counterbalancing the steam-pressure, and, by their inertia, in continuing the motion after the steam, by its expansion, has become greatly reduced in pressure.
In this engine a gracefully-shaped and strong beam,D,has taken the place of the ruder beam of the earlier period, and is carried on a well-built wall of masonry,R.Fis the exhaust-valve, by which the steam passes to the condenser,G, beside which is the air-pump,H, and the hot-well,I. The cylinder is steam-jacketed,P, and protected against losses of heat by radiation by a brick wall,O, the whole resting on a heavy foundation,Q.
The Bull Cornish engine is also still not infrequently seen in use. The Cornish engine of Great Britain averages a duty of about 45,000,000 pounds raised one foot high per 100 pounds of coal. More than double this economy has sometimes been attained.
Steam PumpFig. 102.—Steam-Pump.
Fig. 102.—Steam-Pump.
A vastly simpler form of pumping-engine without fly-wheel is the now common “direct-acting steam-pump.” This engine is generally made use of in feeding steam-boilers, as a forcing and fire pump, and wherever theamount of water to be moved is not large, and where the pressure is comparatively great. The steam-cylinder,A R, and feed-pump,B Q(Fig. 102), are in line, and the two pistons have usually one rod,D, in common. The two cylinders are connected by a strong frame,N, and two standards fitted with lugs carry the whole, and serve as a means of bolting the pump to the floor or to its foundation.
The method of working the steam-valve of the modern steam-pump is ingenious and peculiar. As shown, the pistons are moving toward the left; when they reach the end of their stroke, the face of the piston strikes a pin or other contrivance, and thus moves a small auxiliary valve,I, which opens a port,E, and causes steam to be admitted behind a piston, or permits steam to be exhausted, as in the figure, from before the auxiliary piston,F, and the pressure within the main steam-chest then forces that piston over, moving the main steam-valve,G, to which it is attached, admitting steam to the left-hand side of the main piston, and exhausting on the right-hand side,A. Thus the motion of the engine operates its own valves in such a manner that it is never liable to stop working at the end of the stroke, notwithstanding the absence of the crank and fly-wheel, or of independent mechanism, like the cataract of the Cornish engine. There is a very considerable variety of pumps of this class, all differing in detail, but all presenting the distinguishing feature of auxiliary valve and piston, and a connection by which it and the main engine each works the valve of the other combination.
Section Worthinton Pumping-EngineFig. 103.—The Worthington Pumping-Engine, 1876. Section.
Fig. 103.—The Worthington Pumping-Engine, 1876. Section.
In some cases these pumps are made of considerable size, and are applied to the elevation of water in situations to which the Cornish engine was formerly considered exclusively applicable. The accompanyingfigureillustrates such a pumping-engine, as built for supplying cities with water. This is a “compound” direct-acting pumping-engine. The cylinders,A B, are placed in line, working one pump,F, and operating their own air-pumps,D D, by a bell-cranklever,L H, connected to the pump-buckets by links,I K. Steam exhausted from the small cylinder,A, is further expanded in the large cylinder,B, and thence goes to the condenser,C. The valves,N M, are moved by the valve-gear,L, which is actuated by the piston-rod of a similar pair of cylinders placed by the side of the first. Thesevalves are balanced, and the balance-plates,R Q, are suspended from the rods,O P, which allow them to move with the valves. By connecting the valves of each engine withthe piston-rod of the other, it is seen that the two engines must work alternately, the one making a stroke while the other is still, and then itself stopping a moment while the latter makes its stroke.
Water enters the pump through the induction-pipe,E, passes into the pump-barrel through the valves,V V, and issues through the eduction-valves,T T, and goes on to the “mains” by the pipe,G, above which is seen an air-chamber, which assists to preserve a uniform pressure on that side the pump. This engine works very smoothly and quietly, is cheap and durable, and has done excellent duty.
Worthington Pumping-EngineFig. 104.—The Worthington Pumping-Engine.Large scale image(362 kB).
Fig. 104.—The Worthington Pumping-Engine.
Large scale image(362 kB).
Beam pumping-engines are now almost invariably built with crank and fly-wheel, and very frequently are compound engines. The accompanyingillustrationrepresents an engine of the latter form.
Double-Cylinder Pumping-EngineFig. 105.—Double-Cylinder Pumping-Engine, 1878.
Fig. 105.—Double-Cylinder Pumping-Engine, 1878.
AandBare the two steam-cylinders, connected by links and parallel motion,C D, to the great cast-iron beam,E F. At the opposite end of the beam, the connecting-rod,G, turns a crank,H, and fly-wheel,L M, which regulates the motion of the engine and controls the length of stroke, averting all danger of accident occurring in consequence of the piston striking either cylinder-head. The beam is carried on handsomely-shaped iron columns, which, with cylinders, pump, and fly-wheel, are supported by asubstantial stone foundation. The pump-rod,I, works a double-acting pump,J, and the resistance to the issuing water is rendered uniform by an air-chamber,K, within which the water rises and falls when pressures tend to vary greatly. A revolving shaft,N, driven from the fly-wheel shaft, carries cams,O P, which move the lifting-rods seen directly over them and the valves which they actuate. Between the steam-cylinders and the columns which carry the beams is a well, in which are placed the condenser and air-pump. Steam is carried at 60 or 80 pounds pressure, and expanded from 6 to 10 times.
Lawrence Water Works EngineFig. 106.—The Lawrence Water-Works Engine.
Fig. 106.—The Lawrence Water-Works Engine.
Leavitt Pumping-EngineFig. 107.—The Leavitt Pumping-Engine.
Fig. 107.—The Leavitt Pumping-Engine.
A later form of double-cylinder beam pumping-engine is that invented and designed by E. D. Leavitt, Jr., for the Lawrence Water-Works, and shown inFigs. 106and107. The two cylinders are placed one on each side the centre of the beam, and are so inclined that they may be coupled toopposite ends of it, while their lower ends are placed close together. At their upper ends a valve is placed at each end of the connecting steam-pipe. At their lower ends a single valve serves as exhaust-valve to the high-pressure and as steam-valve to the low-pressure cylinder. The pistons move in opposite directions, and steam is exhausted from the high-pressure cylinder directly into the nearer end of the low-pressure cylinder. The pump, of the “Thames-Ditton” or “bucket-and-plunger” variety, takes a full supply of water on the down-stroke, and discharges half when rising and half when descending again. The duty of this engine is reported by a board of engineers as 103,923,215 foot-pounds for every 100 pounds of coal burned. The duty of a moderately good engine is usually considered to be from 60 to 70 millions. This engine has steam-cylinders of 171∕2and 36 inches diameter respectively, with a stroke of 7 feet. The pump had a capacity of about 195 gallons, and delivered 96 per cent. Steam was carried at a pressure of 75 pounds above the atmosphere, and was expanded about 10 times. Plain horizontal tubular boilers were used, evaporating 8.58 pounds of water from 98° Fahr. per pound of coal.
Steam-boilers.—The steam supplied to the forms of stationary engine which have been described is generated in steam-boilers of exceedingly varied forms. The type used is determined by the extent to which their cost is increased in the endeavor to economize fuel by the pressure of steam carried, by the greater or less necessity of providing against risk of explosion, by the character of the feed-water to be used, by the facilities which may exist for keeping in good repair, and even by the character of the men in whose hands the apparatus is likely to be placed.
As has been seen, the changes which have marked the growth and development of the steam-engine have been accompanied by equally marked changes in the forms of the steam-boiler. At first, the same vessel served the distinctpurposes of steam-generator and steam-engine. Later, it became separated from the engine, and was then specially fitted to perform its own peculiar functions; and its form went through a series of modifications under the action of the causes already stated.
When steam began to be usefully applied, and considerable pressures became necessary, the forms given to boilers were approximately spherical, ellipsoidal, or cylindrical. Thus the boilers of De Caus (1615) and of the Marquis of Worcester (1663) were spherical and cylindrical; those of Savery (1698) were ellipsoidal and cylindrical. After the invention of the steam-engine of Newcomen, the pressures adopted were again very low, and steam-boilers were given irregular forms until, at the beginning of the present century, they were again of necessity given stronger shapes. The material was at first frequently copper; it is now usually wrought-iron, and sometimes steel.
The present forms of steam-boilers may be classified as plain, flue, and tubular boilers. The plain cylindrical or common cylinder boiler is the only representative of the first class in common use. It is perfectly cylindrical, with heads either flat or hemispherical. There is usually attached to the boiler a “steam-drum” (a small cylindrical vessel), from which the steam is taken by the steam-pipe. This enlargement of the steam-space permits the mist, held in suspension by the steam when it first rises from the surface of the water, to separate more or less completely before the steam is taken from the boiler.
Babcock & Wilcox's Vertical BoilerFig. 108.—Babcock & Wilcox’s Vertical Boiler.
Fig. 108.—Babcock & Wilcox’s Vertical Boiler.
Flue-boilers are frequently cylindrical, and contain one or more cylindrical flues, which pass through from end to end, beneath the water-line, conducting the furnace-gases, and affording a greater area of heating-surface than can be obtained in the plain boiler. They are usually from 30 to 48 inches in diameter, and one foot or less in length for each inch of diameter. Some are, however, made 100 feet and more in length. The boiler is made of iron1∕4to3∕8of aninch in thickness, with hemispherical or carefully stayed flat heads, and without flues. The whole is placed in a brickwork setting. These boilers are used where fuel is inexpensive, where the cost of repairing would be great, or where the feed-water is impure. A cylindrical boiler, having one flue traversing it longitudinally, is called a Cornish boiler, as it is generally supposed to have been first used in Cornwall. It was probably first invented by Oliver Evans in the United States, previous to 1786, at which time he had it in use. The flue has usually a diameter 0.5 or 0.6 the diameter of the boiler. A boiler containing two longitudinal flues is called the Lancashire boiler. This form was also introduced by Oliver Evans. The flues have one-third the diameter of the boiler. Several flues of smaller diameter are often used, and when a still greater proportional area of heating-surface is required, tubes of from 11∕4inch to 4 or 5 inches in diameter are substituted for flues. The flues are usually constructed by riveting sheets together, as in making the shell or outer portion. They are sometimes welded by British manufacturers, but rarely if ever in the United States. Tubes are always “lap-welded” in the process of rolling them. Small tubes were first used in the United States, about 1785. In portable, locomotive, and marine steam-boilers, the fire must be built within the boiler itself, instead of (as in the above described stationary boilers) in a furnace of brickwork exterior to the boiler. The flame and gases from the furnace or fire-box in these kinds of boiler are never led through brick passages en route to the chimney, as often in the preceding case, but are invariably conducted through flues or tubes, or both, to the smoke-stack. These boilers are also sometimes used as stationary boilers.Fig. 108represents such a steam-boiler in section, as it is usually exhibited in working drawings. Provision is made to secure a good circulation of water in these boilers by means of the “baffle-plates,” seen in the sketch, which compel the water to flow as indicated by thearrows. The tubes are frequently made of brass or of copper, to secure rapid transmission of heat to the water, and thus to permit the use of a smaller area of heating-surface and a smaller boiler. The steam-space is made as large as possible, to secure immunity from “priming” or the “entrainment” of water with the steam. This type of steam-boiler, invented by Nathan Read, of Salem, Mass., in 1791, and patented in April of that year, was the earliest of the tubular boilers. In the locomotive boiler (Fig. 109), as in the preceding, the characteristics are a fire-box at one end of the shell and a set of tubes through which the gases passdirectly to the smoke-stack. Strength, compactness, great steaming capacity, fair economy, moderate cost, and convenience of combination with the running parts, are secured by the adoption of this form. It is frequently used also for portable and stationary engines. It was invented in France by M. Seguin, and in England by Booth, and used by George Stephenson at about the same time—1828 or 1829.