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
Fig. 142 is a type of marine tubular boiler which is in most extensive
use in sea-going steamers for moderate pressure, and particularly for
naval vessels. Here the gases pass directly into the back connection
from the fire, and thence forward again, through horizontal tubes, to
the front connection and up the chimney. In naval vessels the
steam-chimney is omitted, as it is there necessary to keep all parts
of the boiler as far below the water-line as possible. Steam is taken
from the boiler by pipes which are carried from end to end of the
steam-space, near the top of the boiler, the steam entering these
pipes through small holes drilled on the other side. Steam is thus
taken from the boiler "wet," but no large quantity of water can
usually be "entrained" by the steam.
A marine boiler has been quite extensively introduced into the United
States navy, in which the gases are led from the back connection
through a tube-box around and among a set of upright water-tubes,
which are filled with water, circulation taking place freely from the
water-space immediately above the crown-sheet of the furnace up
through these tubes into the water-space above them. These
"water-tubular" boilers have a slight advantage over the
"fire-tubular" boilers already described in compactness, in steaming
capacity, and in economical efficiency. They have a very marked
advantage in the facility with which the tubes may be scraped or freed
from the deposit when a scale of sulphate of lime or other salt has
formed within them by precipitation from the water. The fire-tubular
boiler excels in convenience of access for plugging up leaking tubes,
and is much less costly than the water-tubular. The water-tube class
of boilers still remain in extensive use in the United States naval
steamers. They have never been much used in the merchant service,
although introduced by James Montgomery in the United States and by
Lord Dundonald in Great Britain twenty years earlier. Opinion still
remains divided among engineers in regard to their relative value.
They are gradually reassuming prominence by their introduction in the
modified form of sectional boilers.
[Illustration: FIG. 143.--Marine High-Pressure Boiler. Section.]
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