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
Savery quaintly relates the action of his machine in "The Miner's
Friend," and so exactly, that a better description could scarcely be
asked: "The steam acts upon the surface of the water in the receiver,
which surface only being heated by the steam, it does not condense,
but the steam gravitates or presses with an elastic quality like air,
and still increasing its elasticity or spring, until it counterpoises,
or rather exceeds, the weight of the column of water in the
force-pipe, which then it will necessarily drive up that pipe; the
steam then takes some time to recover its power, but it will at last
discharge the water out at the top of the pipe. You may see on the
outside of the receiver how the water goes out, as well as if it were
transparent; for, so far as the steam is contained within the vessel,
it is dry without, and so hot as scarcely to endure the least touch of
the hand; but so far as the water is inside the vessel, it will be
cold and wet on the outside, where any water has fallen on it; which
cold and moisture vanish as fast as the steam takes the place of the
water in its descent."
After Savery's death, in 1716, several of these engines were erected
in which some improvements were introduced. Dr. Desaguliers, in 1718,
built a Savery engine, in which he avoided some defects which he, with
Dr. Gravesande, had noted two years earlier. They had then proposed
to adopt the arrangement of a single receiver which had been used by
Savery himself, as already described, finding, by experiment on a
model which they had made for the purpose, that one could be
discharged three times, while the same boiler would empty two
receivers but once each. In their arrangement, the steam was shut back
in the boiler while the receiver was filling with water, and a high
pressure thus accumulated, instead of being turned into the second
receiver, and the pressure thus kept comparatively low.
[Illustration: FIG. 14.--Papin's Two-Way Cock.]
In the engine built in 1718, Desaguliers used a spherical boiler,
which he provided with the lever safety-valve already applied by
Papin, and adopted a comparatively small receiver--one-fifth the
capacity of the boiler--of slender cylindrical form, and attached a
pipe leading the water for condensation into the vessel, and effected
its distribution by means of the "rose," or a "sprinkling-plate," such
as is still frequently used in modern engines having jet-condensers.
This substitution of jet for surface-condensation was of very great
advantage, securing great promptness in the formation of a vacuum and
a rapid filling of the receiver. A "two-way cock" admitted steam to
the receiver, or, being turned the other way, admitted the cold
condensing water. The dispersion of the water in minute streams or
drops was a very important detail, not only as securing great
rapidity of condensation, but enabling the designer to employ a
comparatively small receiver or condenser.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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