Inventors at Work, with Chapters on DiscoveryIles, George
History
Inventors at Work, with Chapters on Discovery
Iles, George
Inventions -- History; Inventors
For many years turbines have proved themselves better than other
water-wheels, so that wherever an old-fashioned breast-wheel still goes
its creaking round, there the sketcher seizes the picturesque outlines
of a motor whose remaining days are few. A turbine in carefully curved
vanes gets from falling water all the power it holds; when the task is
to lift water, then this very turbine, reversed in direction, is the
Worthington pump, the most efficient water-lifter known. The rules for
construction are the same whether we start with falling water and derive
power from it, or begin with power and raise water thereby. Quite as
pictorial as a breast-wheel is a wind-mill, the older the better, thinks
the artist as he views its weather-beaten frame. Much later than the
wind-mill as a device is its counterpart, the fan-blower; the lines most
effective for the one are also best for the other. Much more effective
than the old-time mills of but four arms are new mills whose whole
circle is covered by blades. Fan-blowers with a like multiplicity of
vanes, yield most duty.
Hydraulic Pressure as a Counterbalance.
For ages one of the observations of every day has been that a column of
water exerts pressure in proportion to its height. Usually this pressure
is thought of as being exerted downward, but if a pipe, filled with
water at great pressure, be curved upward at its base, then the
contained liquid presses upward. Mark the gain of thus varying a little
from the ordinary view point of a case. In 1883 Mr. J. F. Holloway, of
California, set up a turbine with its stream admitted from below and
moving upward through the vanes of the machine. He thus obliged the
water pressure to aid in supporting the wheel, materially diminishing
its friction through thus counterbalancing its weight. This plan has
been adopted at Niagara Falls for the gigantic turbines there erected,
among the most powerful in the world.
Engine and Pump.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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