Discoveries and Inventions of the Nineteenth CenturyRoutledge, Robert
History
Discoveries and Inventions of the Nineteenth Century
Routledge, Robert
Inventions -- History -- 19th century
Although Fig. 9 represents with sufficient clearness all the essential
parts of a locomotive, it should be observed that as actually
constructed for use on the different lines of railway the machine is
greatly modified in the arrangement and proportions of its parts. A
greater number of adjuncts and subsidiary appliances are also provided
for the more effective and convenient working of the engine, and for
giving control over the movement of the train, and these, in fact,
conduce much to the greater economy and safety with which trains are now
run. As the circumstances and conditions under which railways are worked
vary much in different parts of the world, the locomotive has to be
designed to meet the requirements of each case, and its general
appearance, details and dimensions are accordingly much diversified.
From among the many types of recent locomotives we select for
illustration and a short description the form of express passenger
engine that has lately been designed by Mr. T. W. Worsdell, the engineer
of the North Eastern Railway, and this will give the opportunity of
noticing some of the newest improvements, which are embodied in this
engine. See Plate II.
The plan of causing the steam to work expansively has already been
mentioned on pages 8 and 9, as used by cutting off the steam when part
of the stroke of the piston has been made. Another mode by which the
expansive principle has long been made use of in stationary and marine
engines is to allow the steam from the boiler to enter first a smaller
cylinder and from that, at the end of the stroke, to pass into a larger
one in which, as it expands, it exercises a diminished pressure. This
arrangement has been called the compound or double-cylinder engine, and
was known to possess certain advantages where high pressure steam was
made use of. Indeed, in marine engines the principle of “triple
expansion” is now quite commonly adopted—that is, the steam passes
successively into three cylinders of successively greater diameter. Mr.
Webb, the locomotive engineer of the London and North Western Railway,
appears to have been the first to make the “compounding” system a
practical success as applied to the locomotive. In Mr. Webb’s
arrangement there are three cylinders, two smaller ones for the
high-pressure steam from the boiler, and between these a single large
low-pressure cylinder which receives the steam that has done its work
from both the smaller cylinders. In Mr. Worsdell’s engine the original
and simpler locomotive construction of two cylinders has been adhered
to, and thus the general plan of the engine is unchanged except in the
larger size of the low-pressure cylinder. In the present engine the
stroke is 24 in.; the high-pressure cylinder has its internal diameter
20 in. and the low-pressure cylinder a diameter of 28 in. The
boiler-shell is made of steel, the fire-box is of copper, and there are
203 brass tubes, 1¾ in. diameter and 10 ft. 11 in. long, connecting the
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