Every-day Science: Volume 6. The Conquest of NatureWilliams, Henry Smith
Science
Every-day Science: Volume 6. The Conquest of Nature
Williams, Henry Smith
Industrial arts; Machinery
Notwithstanding the early recognition of the possibility of securing
rotary motion with Watt's perfected Newcomen engine, it was long
before the full possibilities of the application of this principle
were realized, even by the most practical of machinists. Watt himself
apparently appreciated the possibilities no more fully than the
others, as the use of his famous engines "Beelzebub" and "Old Bess"
in the establishment of Boulton and Watt amply testifies. It appears
that Boulton had been an extensive manufacturer of ornamental metal
articles. To drive his machinery at Soho he employed two large water
wheels, twenty-four feet in diameter and six feet wide. These sufficed
for his purpose under ordinary conditions, but in dry weather from
six to ten horses were required to aid in driving the machinery. When
Watt's perfected engine was available, however, this was utilized to
pump water from the tail race back to the head race, that it might be
used over and over. "Old Bess" had a cylinder thirty-three inches in
diameter with seven-foot stroke, operating a pump twenty-four inches
in diameter; it therefore had remarkable efficiency as a pumping
apparatus. But of course it utilized, at best, only a portion of the
working energy contained in the steam; and the water wheels in turn
could utilize not more than fifty per cent. of the store of energy
which the pump transferred to the water in raising it. Therefore, such
use of the steam engine involved a most wasteful expenditure of energy.
It was long, however, before the practical machinists could be made to
believe that the securing of direct rotary power from the piston could
be satisfactorily accomplished. It was only after the introduction of
higher speed and heavier fly-wheels, together with improved governors,
that the speed of rotation was so equalized as to meet satisfactorily
the requirements of the practical engineer, and ultimately to displace
the wasteful method of securing rotary motion indirectly through the
aid of pump and water wheel. It may be added, that the centrifugal
governor, with which modern engines are provided to regulate their
speed, was the invention of Watt himself.
FINAL IMPROVEMENTS AND MISSED OPPORTUNITIES
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