A History of the Growth of the Steam-EngineThurston, Robert Henry
History
A History of the Growth of the Steam-Engine
Thurston, Robert Henry
Steam-engines -- History
In 1825, James P. Allaire, of New York, built compound engines for the
Henry Eckford, and subsequently constructed similar engines for
several other steamers, one of which, the Sun, made the trip from New
York to Albany in 12 hours 18 minutes. He used steam at 100 pounds
pressure. Erastus W. Smith afterward introduced this form of engine on
the Great Lakes, and still later they were introduced into British
steamers. The machinery of the steamer Buckeye State was constructed
at the Allaire Works, New York, in 1850, from the designs of John
Baird and Erastus W. Smith, the latter being the designing and
constructing engineer. The steamer was placed on the route between
Buffalo, Cleveland, and Detroit, in 1851, and gave most satisfactory
results, consuming less than two-thirds the fuel required by a similar
vessel of the same line fitted with the single-cylinder engine. The
steam-cylinders of this engine were placed one within the other, the
low-pressure exterior cylinder being annular. They were 37 and 80
inches in diameter respectively, and the stroke was 11 feet. Both
pistons were connected to one cross-head, and the general arrangement
of the engine was similar to that of the common form of beam-engine.
The steam-pressure was from 70 to 75 pounds--about the maximum
pressure adopted a quarter of a century later on transatlantic lines.
This steamer was of high speed, as well as economical of fuel.
In the year 1830, there were 86 steamers on the Hudson River and in
Long Island Sound.
During the early part of the nineteenth century, the introduction of
the steamboat upon the waters of the great rivers of the interior of
the United States was one of the most notable details of its history.
Inaugurated by the unsuccessful experiment of Evans, the building of
steamboats on those waters, once commenced, never ceased; and a
generation after Fitch's burial on the shore of the Ohio, his last
wish--that he might lie "where the song of the boatman would enliven
the stillness of his resting-place, and the music of the steam-engine
soothe his spirit"--was fulfilled day by day unceasingly.
Nicholas J. Roosevelt was, as has been already stated, the first to
take a steamboat down the great rivers. His boat was built at
Pittsburgh in 1811, under an arrangement with Fulton and Livingston,
from Fulton's plans. It was called the "New Orleans," was of about 200
tons burden, and was propelled by a stern-wheel, assisted, when the
winds were favorable, by sails carried on two masts. The hull was 138
feet long, 30 feet beam, and the cost of the whole, including engines,
was about $40,000. The builder, with his family, an engineer, a pilot,
and six "deck-hands," left Pittsburgh in October, 1811, reaching
Louisville in 70 hours (steaming about 10 miles an hour), and New
Orleans in 14 days, steaming from Natchez.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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