CHAPTER
II.
THE STEAM-ENGINE AS A TRAIN OF
MECHANISM
"The introduction of new inventions seems to be the very
chief of all human Actions. The Benefits of new Inventions may extend to all
mankind universally; but the Good of political Achievements can respect but
some particular Cantons of Men; these latter do not endure above a few Ages,
the former forever Inventions make all Men happy, without either Injury or
Damage to any one single Person. Furthermore, new Inventions are, as it were,
new Erections and Imitations of God's own Works."BACON.
THE MODERN TYPE, AS DEVELOPED BY NEWCOMEN, BEIGHTON, AND
SMEATON.
AT the beginning of the eighteenth century every element of
the modern type of steam‑engine had been separately invented and practically
applied. The character of atmospheric pressure, and of the pressure of gases,
had become understood. The nature of a vacuum was known, and the method of
obtaining it by the displacement of the air by steam, and by the condensation of
the vapor, was understood. The importance of utilizing the power of steam, and
the application of condensation in the removal of atmospheric pressure, was not
only recognized, but had been actually and successfully attempted by Morland,
Papin, and Savery.
Mechanicians had succeeded in making steamboilers capable of
sustaining any desired or any useful pressure, and Papin had shown how to make
them comparatively safe by the attachment of the safety‑valve. They had made
steam‑cylinders fitted with pistons, and had used such a combination in the
development of power.
It now only remained for the engineer to combine known forms
of mechanism in a practical machine which should be capable of economically and
conveniently utilizing the power of steam through the application of now well‑understood
principles, and by the intelligent combination of physical phenomena already
familiar to scientific investigators.
Every essential fact and every vital principle had been learned, and every one
of the needed mechanical combinations had been successfully effected. It was
only requisite that an inventor should appear, capable of perceiving that these
known facts and combinations of mechanism, properly illustrated in a working
machine would present to the world its greatest physical blessing.
The defects of the simple engines constructed up to this time have been noted
as each has been described. None of them could be depended upon for safe,
economical, and continuous work. Savery's was the most successful of all. But
the engine of Savery, even with the improvements of Desaguliers, was unsafe
where most needed, because of the high pressures necessarily carried in its
boilers when pumping from considerable depths; it was uneconomical, in
consequence of the great loss of heat in its forcing‑cylinders when the hot
steam was surrounded at its entrance by colder bodies; it was slow in
operation, of great first cost, and expensive in first cost and in repairs, as
well as in its operation. It could not be relied upon to do its work
interruptedly, and was this in many respects a very unsatisfactory machine.
The man who finally effected a combination of the elements of the modern steam‑engine?
anal produced a machine which is unmistakeably a train of mechanism consisting
of sever.ll elementary pieces combined in a train capablc of transmitting a
force applied at one end and of communicating it to the resistance to be
overcome at the other end was Thomas Newcomes, an " iron‑monger " and
blacksmith of Dartmouth, England. The engine invented by him, and known as the
" Atmospheric Steam Engine," is the first of an entirely new type.
The old type of enginethe steam‑engine as a simple machinehad been given as
great a degree of perfection, by the successive improvements of Worcester,
Savery, and Desaguliers, as it was probably capable of attaining by any
modification of its details. The next step was necessarily a complete change of
type; and to effect such a change, it was only necessary to combine devices
already known and successfully tried.
But little is known of the personal history of Newcomen. His position in life
was humble, and the inventor was not then looked upon as an individual of even
possible importance in the community. He was considered as one of an eccentric
class of schemers, and of an order which, concerning itself with mechanical
matters, held the lowest position in the class.
It is supposed that Savery's engine was perfectly well known to Newcomen, and
that the latter may have visited Savery at his home in Modbury, which was but
fifteen miles from the residence of Newcomen. It is thought, by some
biographers of these inventors, that Newcomen was employed by Savery in making
the more intricate forgings of his engine. Harris, in his "Lexicon
Technicum," states that drawings of the engine of Savery came into the
hands of Newcomen, who made a model of the machine, set it up in his garden,
and then attempted its improvement; but Switzer says that Newcomen " was
as early in his invention as Mr. Savery was in his."
Newcomen was assisted in his experiments by John Calley, who,
with him, took out the patent. It has been stated that a visit to Cornwall,
where they witnessed the working of a Savery engine, first turned their
attention to the subject; but a friend of Savery has stated that Newcomen was
as early with his general plans as Savery.
After some discussion with Calley, Newcomen entered into correspondence with
Dr. Hooke, proposing a steam engine to consist of a steam‑cylincler containing
a piston similar to that of Papin's, and to drive a separate pump similar to
those generally in use where water was raised by horse or wind power. Dr. Hooke
advised and argued strongly against their plan, but, fortunately, the obstinate
belief of the unlearned mechanics was not overpowered by the acquisitions of
their distinguished correspondent, and Newcomen and Calley attempted an engine
on their peculiar plan. This succeeded so well as to induce them to continue
their labors, and, in 1708, to patent in combination with Savery who held the
exclusive right to practice surface condensation, and who induced them to allow
him an interest with them an engine combining a steam‑cylinder and piston,
surface‑condensation, a separate boiler, and separate pumps.
In the atmospheric‑engine, as first designed, the slow process of condensation
by the application of the condensing water to the exterior of the cylinder, to
produce the vacuum, caused the strokes of the engine to take place at very long
intervals. An improvement was, however, soon effected, which immensely
increased the rapidity of condensation. A jet of water was thrown directly into
the cylinder, thus effecting for the Newcomen engine just what Desaguliers had
done for the Savery engine previously. As thus improved, the Newcomen engine is
shown in Fig. 19.
Here b is the boiler. Steam passes from it through the cock, cl, and up into
the cylinder, a, equilibrating the pressure of the atmosphere, and allowing the
heavy pump‑rod, k, to fall, and, by the greater weight acting through the beam,
i, to raise the piston, s, to the position shown. The rod ~~n carries a
counterbalance, if needed. The cock cl being shut, j is then opened, and a jet
of water from the reservoir, g, enters the cylinder, producing a vacuum by the
condensation of the steam. The pressure of the air above the piston now forces
it down, again raising the pump‑rods, and thus the engine works on
indefinitely.
FIG. 19.Newcomen's Engine, A.
D. 1705.
The pipe Al is used for the purpose of keeping the upper side
of the piston covered with water, to prevent air‑leaks a device of Newcomen.
Two gauge‑cocks, c c, and a safety valve, 19 are represented in the figure, but
it will be noticed that the latter is quite different from the now usual form.
Here, the pressure used was hardly greater than that of the atmosphere, and the
weight of the valve itself was ordinarily sufficient to keep it down. The
condensing water, together with the water of condensation, flows off through
the open pipe tv. Newcomen's first engine made 6 or 8 strokes a minute; the
later and improved engines made 10 or 12.
The steam‑engine has now assumed a form that somewhat resembles the modern
machine.
The Newcomen engine is seen at a glance to have been a combination of earlier
ideas. It was the engine of Huyghens, with its cylinder and piston as improved
by Papin, by the substitution of steam for the gases generated by the explosion
of gunpowder; still further improved by Newcomen and Calley by the addition of
the method of condensation used in the Savery engine. It was further modified,
with the object of applying it directly to the working of the pumps of the
mines by the introduction of the overhead beam, from which the piston was
suspended at one end and the pump‑rod at the other.
The advantages secured by this combination of inventions were many and manifest.
The piston not only gave economy by interposing itself between the impending
and the resisting fluid, but, by affording opportunity to make the arca of
piston as large as desired, it enabled Newcomen to use any convenient pressure
and any desired proportions for any proposed lift. The removal of the water to
be lifted from the steam‑engine proper and handling it with pumps, was an
evident cause of very great economy of steam.
The disposal of the water to be raised in this way also permitted the operations
of condensation of steam, and the renewal of pressure on the piston, to be made
to succeed each other with rapidity, and enabled the inventor to choose,
unhampered, the device for securing promptly the action of condensation.
Desaguliers, in his account of the introduction of the engine of Newcomen, says
that, with his coadjutor Calley, he "made several experiments in private
about the year 1710, and in the latter end of the year 1711 made proposals to
drain the water of a colliery at Griff, in Warwickshire, where the proprietors
employed 500 horses, at an expense of £900 a year; but, their invention not
meeting with the reception they expected, in March following, through the
acquaintance of Dr. Potter, of Bromsgrove, in Worcestershire, they bargained to
draw water for Mr. Back, of Wolverhampton, where, after a great many laborious
attempts, they did make the engine work; but, not being either philosophers to
understand the reason, or mathematicians enough to calculate the powers and
proportions of the parts, they very luckily, by accident, found what they
sought for."
" They were at a loss about the pumps, but, being so near Birmingham, and
having the assistance of so many admirable and ingenious workmen, they came,
about 1712, to the method of making the pump‑valves, clacks, and buckets,
whereas they had but an imperfect notion of them before. One thing is very
remarkable: as they were at first working, they were surprised to see the
engine go several strokes, and very quick together, when, after a search, they
found a hole in the piston, which let the cold water in to condense the steam
in the inside of the cylinder, whereas, before, they had always done it on the
outside. They used before to work with a buoy to the cylinder, inclosed in a
pipe, which buoy rose when the steam was strong and opened the injection, and
made a stroke; thereby they were only capable of giving 6, 8, or 10 strokes in
a minute, till a boy, named Humphrey Potter, in 1713, who attended the engine,
added (what he called a scog,qan.) a catch, that the beam always opened, and
then it would go 15 or 16 strokes a minute. But, this being perplexed with
catches and strings, Sir Henry Beighton, in an engine he had built at Newcastle
upon Tyne in 1718, took them all away but the beam itself, and supplied then in
a much better manner.
In illustration of the application of the Newcomen engine to
the drainage of mines, Farey describes a small machine, of which the pump is 8
inches in diameter, and the lift 162 feet. The column of water to be raised
weighed 3,535 pounds. The steam‑piston was made 2 feet in diameter, giving an
area of 452 square inches. The net working pressure was assumed at 10 pounds
per square inch; the temperature of the water of condensation and of uncondensed
vapor after the entrance of the injection‑water being usually about 150° Fahr.
This gave an excess of pressure on the steam‑side of 1,324 pounds, the total
pressure on the piston being 4,859 pounds. One‑half of this excess is
counterweighted by the pump‑rods, and by weight on that end of the beam; and
the weight, 662 pounds, acting on each side alternately as a surplus, produced
the requisite rapidity of movement of the machine. This engine was said to make
15 strokes per minute, giving a speed of piston of 75 feet per minute, and the
power exerted usefully was equivalent to 265,125 pounds raised one foot high
per minute. As the horse‑power is equivalent to 33,000 " foot‑pounds
" per minute, the engine wa shad almost exactly 8 horse‑power.
It is instructive to contrast this estimate with that made
for a Savery engine doing the same work. The latter would have raised the water
about 2G feet in its " suction‑pipe," and would then have forced it
by the direct pressure of steam, the remaining distance of 13G feet; and the steam
pressure required would have been nearly 60 pounds per square inch. With this
high temperature and pressure, the waste of steam by condensation in the
forcing‑vessels would have been so great that it would have compelled the
adoption of two engines of considerable size, each lifting the water one‑half
the height, and using steam of about 25 pounds pressure. Potter's rude valve‑gear
was soon improved by Henry Beighton, in an engine which that talented engineer
erected (Newcastle‑upon‑Tyne in 1718, and in which he substituted substantial
materials for the cords, as in Fig. 20.
In this sketch, r is a plug‑tree, plug‑rod, or plug‑frame) as
it is variously called, suspended from the great beam, with which it rises and
falls, bringing the pins p and k, at the proper moment, in contact with the
handles k k and X X of the valves, moving them in the proper direction and to
the proper extent. A lever safety‑valve is here used, at the suggestion, it is
said, of Desaguliers. The piston was packed with leather or with rope, and
lubricated with tallow.
Fig. 20.Beighton's Valve-Gear,
A. D. 1718.
After the death of Beighton, the atmospheric engine of Newcomen retained its
then standard form for many years, and came into extensive use in all the
mining districts, particularly in Cornwall, and was also applied occasionally
to the drainage of wet lands, to the supply of water to towns, and it was even
proposed by Hulls to be used for ship‑propulsion.
The proportions of the engines had been determined in a hap‑hazard way, and
they were in many cases very unsafe. John Smeaton, the most distinguished
engineer of his time, finally, in 1689, experimentally determined proper
proportions, and built several of these engines of very considerable size. He
built his engines with steam cylinders of greater length of stroke than had
been customary, and gave them such dimensions as, by giving a greater excess of
pressure on the steam‑side, enabled him to obtain a greatly increased speed of
piston. The first of his new style of engine was erected at Long Benton, near
Newcastle‑upon Tyne, in 1774.
Fig. 21 illustrates its principal characteristic features. The boiler is not shown. The stern is
led to the engine through the pipe, C, and is regulated by turning the cock in
the receiver, S S, which connects with the steam‑cylinder by the pipe, X, which
latter pipe rises a little way above the bottom of the cylinder, 15 in order
that it may not drain off the injection‑water into the steam‑pipe and receiver.
The steam‑cylinder, about ten feet in length, is fitted with a carefully‑made
piston, G, having a flanch rising four or five inches and extending completely
around its circumference, and nearly in contact with the interior surface of
the cylinder. Between this flanch and the cylinder is driven a " packing
" of oakum, which is held in place by weights; this prevents the leakage
of air, water, or steam, past the piston, as it rises and falls in the cylinder
at each stroke of the engine. The chain and piston‑rod connect the piston to
the beam, I I. The archheads at each end of the beam keep the chains of the
piston‑rod and the pump‑rods perpendicular and in line.
A " jack‑head " pump, 19 is driven by a small beam deriving its
motion from the plug‑rod at g, raises the wate required for condensation of the
steam, and keeps the cistern, O, supplied. This " jack‑head cistern "
is sufficiently elevated to give the water entering the cylinder the velocity
requisite to secure prompt condensation. A waste pipe carries away any surplus
water. The injection of water is led from the cistern by the pipe, PP, which is
two or three inches in diameter, and the flow of water is regulated by the
injection cock, r. The cap at the end, d, is pierced with several holes, and
the stream thus divided rises in jets when admitted, and, striking the lower
side of the piston, the spray thus produced very rapidly condenses the steam,
and produces a vacuum beneath the piston. The valve, e, on the upper end of the
injection‑pipe, is a check‑valve, to prevent leakage into the engine when the
latter is not in operation. The little pipe, f; supplies water to the upper
side of the piston, and, keeping it flooded, prevents the entrance of air when
the packing is not perfectly tight.
Fig. 21.-Smeaton's Newcomen
Engine.
1 A facsimile of a sketch in Galloway's " On the Steam‑Engine,"
etc.
The "working‑plug," or plug‑rod, Q, is a piece of timber slit
vertically, and carrying pins which engage the handles of the valves, opening
and closing them at the proper times. The steam‑cock, or regulator, has a
handle, A2, by which it is moved. The iron rod, i i, or spanner, gives motion
to the handle, h.
The vibrating lever, k l, called the Y, or the " tumbling bob," moves
on the pins, m n, and is worked by the levers, op, which in turn are moved by
the plugtree. When o is depressed, the loaded end, A, is given the position
seen in the sketch, and the leg I of the Y strikes the spanner, i i, and,
opening the steam‑valve, the piston at once rises as steam enters the cylinder,
until another pin on the plug‑rod raises the piece, P, and closes the regulator
again. The lever, q r, connects with the injection‑cock, and is moved, when, as
the piston rises, the end, is struck by a pin on the plug‑rod, and the cock is
opened and a vacuum produced. The cock is closed on the descent of the plug‑tree
with the piston. An suction‑pipe, R, fitted with a clock, conveys away the
water in the cylinder at the end of each downstroke; the water thus removed is
collected in the hot‑well, A;, and is used as feed‑water for the boiler, to
which it is conveyed by the pipe z At each down‑stroke, while the water passes
out through R, the air which may have collected in the cylinder is driven out
through the " snifting‑valve," s. The steam‑cylinder is supported on
strong beams, t t; it has around its upper edge a guard, v, of lead, which
prevents the overflow of the water on the top of the piston. The excess of this
water flows away to the hot-well through the pipe W:
Catch‑pins, aa, are provided, to prevent the beam descending too far should the
engine make too long a stroke; two wooden springs, yy, receive the blow. The
great beam is carried on sectors, ZZ, to diminish losses by friction.
The boilers of Newcomen's earlier engines were made of copper where in contact
with the products of combustion, and their upper parts were of lead.
Subsequently sheet iron was substituted. The steam space in the boiler was made
of 8 or 10 times the capacity of the cylinder of the engine. Even in Smeaton's
time, a chimney‑damper was not used, and the supply of steam was consequently
very variable. In the earlier engines, the cylinder was placed on the boiler;
afterward, they were placed separately, and supported on a foundation of
masonry. The injection or " jack‑head " cistern v‑as placed from 12
to 30 feet above the engine, the velocity due the greater altitude being found
to give the most perfect distribution of the water and the promptest
condensation.
Fig.
22.-Boiler of Newcomen's Engine, 1763.
Smeaton covered the lower side of his steam pistons with
wooden plank about 2.25 inches thick, in order that it should absorb and waste
less heat than when the iron was directly exposed to the steam. Mr. Beighton
was the first to use the water of condensation for feeding the filter, taking
it directly from the suction‑pipe, or the "hot-well." Where only a
sufficient amount of pure water could be obtained for feeding the boiler, and
the injection‑water was " hard," Mr. Smeaton applied a heater,
immersed in the hot-well, through which the feed passed, absorbing heat from
the water of condensation en route to the boiler. Earey first proposed the use
of the " coil‑heater "a pipe, or "worm," which, forming a
part of the feedpipe, was set in the hot‑well. As early as 1743, the metal used
for the cylinders was cast-iron. The earlier engines had been fitted with brass
cylinders. Desaguliers recommended the iron cylinders, as being smoother, thinner,
and as having less capacity for heat than those of brass.
In a very few years after the invention of Newcomen's engine it had been
introduced into nearly all large mines in Great Britain; and many new mines,
which could not have been worked at all previously, were opened, when it was
found that the new machine could be relied upon to raise the large quantities
of water to be handled. The first engine in Scotland was erected in 1720 at
Elphinstone, in Stirlingshire. One was put up in Hungary in 1723.
The first mine‑engine, erected in 1712 at Griff, was 22 inches in diameter, and
the second and third engines were of similar size. That erected at Ansthorpe
was 23 inches in diameter of cylinder, and it was a long time before much
larger engines were constructed. Smeaton and others finally made them as large
as 6 feet in diameter.
In calculating the lifting‑power of his engines, Newcomen's method was "
to square the diameter of the cylinder in inches, and, cutting off the last
figure, he called it 'long hundredweights;' then writing a cipher on the right
hand, he called the number on that side ' odd pounds; ' this he reckoned
tolerably exact at a mean, or rather when the barometer was above 30 inches,
and the air heavy." In allowing for frictional and other losses, he
deducted from one‑fourth to one third. Desaguliers found the rule quite exact.
The usual mean pressure resisting the motion of the piston averaged, in the
best engines, about 8 pounds per square inch of its area. The speed of the
piston was from 150 to 175 feet per minute. The temperature of the hot-well was
from 145° to 175° Fahr.
Smeaton made a number of test‑trials of Newcomen engines to determine their
"duty"; i. e., to ascertain the expenditure of fuel required to raise
a definite quantity of water to a stated height. He found an engine 10 inches
in diameter of cylinder, and of 3 feet stroke, could do work equal to raising
2,919,017 pounds of water one foot high, with a bushel of coals weighing 84
pounds.
One of Smeaton's larger engines, erected at Long Benton, w‑as 52 inches in
diameter of cylinder and of 7 feet stroke of piston, and made 12 strokes per
minute. Its load was equal to 72 pounds per square inch of piston area, and its
effective capacity about 40 horse‑power. Its duty was 92 millions of pounds
raised one foot high per bushel of coals. Its boiler evaporated 7.88 pounds of
water per pound of fuel consumed. It had 35 square feet of grate surface and
142 square feet of heating‑surface beneath the boilers, and 317 square feet in
the tubesa total of 459 square feet. The moving parts of this engine weighed
8l tons.
Smeaton erected one of these engines at the Chasewater mine, in Cornwall, in
1775, which was of very considerable size. It was G feet in diameter of steam‑cylinder,
and had a maximum stroke of piston of 9~~ feet. It usually worked 9 feet. The
pumps were in three lifts of about 100 feet each, and were 173 inches in
diameter. Nine strokes were made per minute. This engine replaced two others,
of 64 and of 62 inches diameter of cylinder respectively, and both of G feet
stroke. One engine at the lower lift supplied the second, which was set above
it. The lower one had pumps 18 inches in diameter, and raised the water 144
feet; the upper engine raised the water 156 feet, by pumps 17+ inches in
diameter. The later engine replacing them exerted 76+ horse‑power. There were
three boilers, each 15 feet in diameter, and having each 23 square feet of
grate surface. The chimney was 22 feet high. The great beam, or "
lever," of this engine was built up of 20 beams of fir in two sets, placed
side by side, and ten deep, strongly bolted together. It was over 6 feet deep
at the middle and 5 feet at the ends, and was 2 feet thick. ' The " main
centres," or journals, on which it vibrated were 8+ inches in diameter and
8+ inches long. The cylinder weighed 6 tons, and was paid for at the rate of 28
shillings per hundredweight.
By the end of the eighteenth century, therefore, the engine of Newcomen,
perfected by the ingenuity of Potter and of Beighton, and by the systematic
study and experimental research of Smeaton, had become a well established form
of steam‑engine, and its application to raising water had become general. The
coal‑mines of Coventry and of Newcastle had adopted this method of drainage;
and the tin and the copper mines of Cornwall had been deepened, using, for
drainage, engines of the largest size.
Some engines had been set up in and about London, the scene of Worcester's
struggles and disappointments, where they were used to supply water to large
houses. Others were in use in other large cities of England, where waterworks
had been erected.
Some engines had also been erected to drive mills indirectly by raising water
to turn water‑wheels. This is said by Farey to have been first practiced in
1752, at a mill near Bristol, and became common during the next quarter of a
century. Many engines had been built in England and sent across the channel, to
be applied to the drainage of mines on the Continent. Belidor (1) stated that
the manufacture of these " fire‑engines " was exclusively confined to
England; and this remained true many years after his time. When used for the
drainage of mines, the engine usually worked the ordinary lift or bucket pump;
when employed for water‑supply to cities, the force or plunger pump was often
employed, the engine being placed below the level of the reservoir. Dr. Rees
states that this engine was in common use among the collieries of England as
early as 1720
.
The Edmonstone colliery was licensed, in 1725, to erect an engine, not to
exceed 28 inches diameter of cylinder and 9 feet stroke of piston, paying a
royalty of £80 per annum for eight years. This engine was built in Scotland, by
workmen sent from England, and cost about £1,200. Its "great cost" is
attributed to an extensive use of brass. The workmen were paid their expenses
and 15s. per week as wages. The builders were John and Abraham Potter, of
Durham. An engine built in 1775, having a steam‑cylinder 48 inches in diameter
and of 7 feet stroke, cost about £2,000.
Smeaton found 57 engines at work near Newcastle in 17G7, ranging in size from
28 to 75 inches in diameter of cylinder, and of, collectively, about 1,200
horse‑power. Fifteen of these engines gave an average of 98 square inches of
piston to the horse‑power, and the average duty was 5,590,000 pounds raised 1
foot high by 1 bushel (84 pounds) of coal. The highest duty noted was 7.44
millions; the lowest was 3.22 millions. The most efficient engine had a steam‑cylinder
42 inches in diameter; the load was equivalent to 9i pounds per square inch of
piston‑area, and the horse‑power developed was calculated to be 107.
Price, writing in 1778, says, in the Appendix to his " Mineralogia
Cornubiensis: " Mr. Newcomen's invention of the fire‑engine enabled us to
sink our mines to twice the depth we could formerly do by any other machinery.
Since this invention was completed, most other attempts at its improvement have
been very unsuccessful; but the vast consumption of fuel in these engines is an
immense drawback on the profit of our mines, for every fire‑engine of magnitude
consumes £3,000 worth of coals per annum. This heavy tax amounts almost to a
prohibition."
Smeaton was given the description, in 17T3, of a stone boiler, which was used
with one of these engines at a copper mine at Camborne, in Cornwall. It
contained three copper flues 22 inches in diameter. The gases were passed
through these flues successively, finally passing off to the chimney. This
boiler was cemented with hydraulic mortar. It was 20 feet long, 9 feet wide,
and 82 feet deep. It was heated by the waste heat from the roasting‑furnaces.
This was one of the earliest flue-boilers ever made.
In 1780, Smeaton had a list of 18 large engines working in Cornwall. The larger
number of them were built by Jonathan Hornblower and John Nancarron. At this
time, the largest and best‑known pumping‑engine for waterworks was at York
Buildings, in Wrilliers Street, Strand, London. It had been in operation since
1T52, and was erected beside one of Savery's engines, built in 1710. It had a
steam‑cylinder 45 inches in diameter, and a stroke of piston of 8 feet, making
7.5 strokes per minute, and developing 352 horse‑power. Its boiler was dome‑shaped,
of copper, and contained a large central fire‑box and a spiral flue leading
outward to the chimney. Another somewhat larger machine was built and placed
beside this engine, some time previous to 1775. Its cylinder was 49 inches in
diameter, and its stroke 9 feet. It raised water 102 feet. This engine was
altered and improved by Smeaton in 1777, and continued in use until 1813.
Smeaton, as early as 1765, designed a portable engine in which he supported the
machinery on a wooden frame mounted on short legs and strongly put together, so
that the whole machine could be transported and set at work wherever
convenient. In place of the beam, a large pulley was used, over which a chain
was carried, connecting the piston with the pump‑rod, and the motion was
similar to that given by the discarded beam. The wheel was supported on A‑frames,
resembling somewhat the "gallows‑frames"still used with the steam‑engines
of American river‑boats. The sills carrying the txro A's supported the
cylinder. The injection‑cistern was supported above the great pulley wheel. The
valve‑gearing and the injection‑pump were worked by a smaller wheel, mounted on
the same axis with the larger one. The boiler was placed apart from the engine,
with which it was connected by a steam‑pipe, in which was placed the "
regulator;" or throttle‑valve. The boiler (Fig. 23) "was shaped like
a large tea‑kettle," and contailled 3 fire‑box, B, or internal furnace, of
which the sides w ere made of cast‑iron. The fire‑door, Ct, was placed on one
side and opposite the fitle, X, through which the products of combustion were
led to the chimney, 1a; .a short, large pipe, 15 leading downward from the
furnace to the outsi(le of the boiler, was the ash‑pit. The shell of the
1)oiler~~ A, was made of iron plate one‑quarter of an inch thick. Tlle steam‑cylinder
of the engine was 18 inches in diameter, the stroke of piston G feet, the great
wheel 61 feet in diameter, and the A‑frames 9 feet high. The boiler was made G
feet, the furnace 34 inches, and the grate 18 inches in diameter. The piston v
as intended to make 10 strokes per minute, and the engine to develop 41 horse‑power.
l Smeaton's Reports," vol. i., p. 223.
In 1773, Smeaton prepared plans for a pumping engine to be set up at Cronstadt,
the port of St. Petersburg, to empty the great dry dock constructed by Peter
the Great and Catherine, his successor. This great work was begun in 1719. It
was large enough to dock ten of the ships of that time, and had previously been
imperfectly drained by two great windmills 100 feet high. So imperfectly did
they do their work, that a year was required to empty the dock, and it could
therefore only be used once in each summer. The engine was built at the Carron
Iron Works, in England. It had a cylinder 66 inches in diameter, and a stroke
of piston of 8~~ feet. The lift varied from 33 feet when the dock was full to 53
feet when it was cleared of water. The load on the engine averaged about 8+
pounds per square inch of piston‑area. There were three boilers, each 10 feet
in diameter, and 16 feet 4 inches high to the apex of its hemispherical dome.
They contained internal fireboxes with grates of 20 feet area, and were
surrounded by fires traversing the masonry setting. The engine was started in
1777, and worked very successfully.
The lowlands of Holland were, before the time of Smeaton, drained by means of
windmills. The uncertainty and inefficiency of this method precluded its
application to anything like the extent to which steam‑power has since been
utilized. In 1440, there were 150 inland lakes, or "meers" in that
country, of which nearly 100, having an extent of over 200,000 acres, have
since been drained. The "Haarlemmer Meer " alone covers nearly 50,000
acres, and forms the basin of a drainage‑area of between 200,000 and 30(1,000
acres, receiving a rainfall of 54,000,000 tons, which must be raised 1G feet in
discharging it. The beds of these lakes are from 10 to 20 feet lower than the
waterlevel in the adjacent canals. In 1810, 12,000 windmills were still
employed in this work. In the following year, ZVilliam II., at the suggestion
of a commission, decreed that only steam engines should be employed to do this
immense work. Up to this time the average consumption of fuel for the pumping‑engines
in use is said to have been 20 pounds per hour per horse‑power.
The first engine used was erected in 1777 and 1778, on the Newcomen plan, to
assist the 34 windmills employed to drain a lake near Rotterdam. This lake
covered 7,000 acres, and its bed was 12 feet below the surface of the river
Meuse, which passes it, and empties into the sea in the immediate neighborhood.
The iron parts of the engine were built in England, and the machine was put
together in Holland. The steamcylinder w‑as 52 inches in diameter, and the
stroke of piston 9 feet. The boiler was 18 feet in diameter, and contained a
double flue. The main beam was 27 feet long. The pumps were G in number, 3
cylindrical and 3 having a square cross‑section; 3 were of a fect and 3 of 2i
feet stroke. Twe pumps only lvere worked at hightide, and the others were added
one at a time, as the tide fell, until, at low‑tide, all 6 were at work.
The size of this engine, and the magnitude of its work, seem insignificant when
compared with the machinery installed G0 years later to drain the Haarlemmer
Mcer, and with the work done by the last. These engines are 12 feet in diameter
of cylinder and 10 feet stroke of piston, and workthey are 3 in number the
one 11 pumps of G:3 inches diameter and 10 feet stroke, the others 8 pumps of
73 inches diameter and of the same length of stroke. The modern engines do a
"duty" of 75,000,000 to 87,00(),000 with 94 pounds of coal, consuming
2i pounds of coal per hour and per horsepower.
The first steam-engine applied to working the blowing machinery of a blast‑furnace
was erected at the Carron Iron‑Works, in Scotland, near Falkirk, in 1765, and
proved vcry unsatisfactory. Smeaton subseqnently, in 1769 or 1770, introduced
better machinery into these works and improved the old engine, and this use of
the steam‑engine soon became usual. This engine did its work indirectly,
furnishing water, by pumping, to drive the water‑wheels which worked the
blowing cylinders. Its steam‑cylinder was 6 feet in diameter, and the pump‑cylinder
52 inches. The stroke was 9 feet.
A direct‑acting engine, used as a blowing‑engine, was not constructed until
about 1784, at which time a single‑acting blowing‑cylinder, or air‑pump, was
placed at the "outboard" end of the beam, where the pump‑rod had been
attached. The piston of the air‑cylinder was loaded with the weights needed to
force it down, expelling the air, and the engine did its work in raising the
loaded piston, the aircylinder filling as the piston rose. A large "
accumulator " was used to equalize the pressure of the expelled air. This
consisted of another air‑cylinder, having a loaded piston which was left free
to rise and fall. At each expulsion of air by the blowing‑engine this cyli¢der
was filled, the loaded piston rising to the top. While the piston of the former
was returning, and the air‑cylinder was taking in its charge of air, the
accumulator would gradually discharge the stored air, the piston slowly falling
under its load. This piston was called the " floating piston," or
" fly‑piston," and its action was, in effect, precisely that of the
upper portion of the common blacksmith's bellows.
Dr. Robison, the author of "Mcchanical Philosophy," one of the very
few works even now existing deserving such a title, describes one of these
engines ' as working in Scotland in 1790. It had a steam‑cylinder 40 or 44
inches in diameter, a blowing‑cylinder 60 inches in diameter, and the stroke of
piston was 6 feet. The air‑pressure was 2.77 pounds per square inch as a
maximum in the blowing cylinder; and the floating piston in the regulating
cylinder was loaded with 2.63 pounds per square inch. Making 15 or 18 strokes
per minute, this engine delivered about 1,600 cubic feet of air, or 120 pounds
in weight, per minute, and developed 20 horse‑power.
l Encyclopaedia Britannica," 1st edition.
At about the same date a change was made in the blowing‑cylinder. The air
entered at the bottom, as before, but was forced out at the top, the piston
being fitted with valves, as in the common lifting‑pump, and the engine thus
being arranged to do the work of expulsion during the down‑stroke of the steam‑piston.
Four years later, the regulating‑cylinder, or accumulator, was given up, and
the now familiar " water‑regulator " was substituted for it. This
consists of a tank, usually of sheet‑iron, set open‑end downward in a large
vessel containing water. The lower edge of the inner tank is supported on piers
a few inches above the bottom of the large one. The pipe carrying air from the
blowing‑engine passes above this water‑regulator, and a branch‑pipe is led down
into the inner tank. As the air‑pressure varies, the level of the water within
the inverted tank changes, rising as pressure falls at the slowing of the
motion of the piston, and falling as the pressure rises again while the piston
is moving with an accelerated velocity. The regulator, thus receiving surplus
air to be delivered when needed, greatly assists in regulating the pressure.
The larger the regulator, the more perfectly uniform the pressure. The water‑level
outside the inner tank is usually five or six feet higher than within it. This
apparatus was found much more satisfactory than the previously‑used regulator,
and, with its introduction, the establishment of the steam engine as a blowing‑engine
for iron‑works and at blast furnaces may be considered as having been fully
established.
Thus, by the end of the third quarter of the eighteenth
century, the steam‑engine had become generally introduced, and had been applied
to nearly all of the purposes for which a single‑acting engine could be used.
The path which had been opened by Worcester had been fairly laid out by Savery
and his contemporaries, and the builders of the Newcomen engine, with such
improvements as they had been able to effect, had followed it as far as they
were able. The real and practical introduction of the steam‑engine is as fairly
attributable to Smeaton as to any one of the inventors whose names are more
generally known in connection with it. As a mechanic, he was unrivaled; as an
engineer, he was head and shoulders above any constructor of his time engaged
in general practice. There were very few important public works built in Great
Britain at that time in relation to which he was not consulted; and he was
often visited by foreign engineers, who desired his advice with regard to works
in progress on the Continent.