Langley Memoir on Mechanical Flight, Parts I and II: Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, Volume 27 Number 3, Publication 1948, 1911Langley, S. P. (Samuel Pierpont)
History
Langley Memoir on Mechanical Flight, Parts I and II: Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, Volume 27 Number 3, Publication 1948, 1911
Langley, S. P. (Samuel Pierpont)
Aeronautics; Flight
The diameter of the piston
rod and valve stem is 3 mm. and they pass through stuffing boxes with
glands of the ordinary type for packing. This pump served its purpose
admirably, and with it it was possible to maintain a continuous
circulation of water through the two coils of the boiler.
The third element in the steam-generating system is the boiler
proper[36] (Plates 25 and 26A), which consists of two coils of copper
pipe, having an outside diameter of 10 mm., each coil being formed of
21 turns each 75 mm. in diameter upon the outside and spaced 7.5 mm.
apart, so that the total axial length of each coil is 36 cm.
The water is delivered to the front end of the right-hand coil, and,
first passing through this, crosses over at the rear of the boiler to
the left-hand coil, returning through it to the front whence it is
led to and delivered into the top of the separator. Here the steam
and water are separated, the former going through the separator and
thence to the engine, while the unevaporated water falls to the
bottom to be again taken into the pumps and sent through the coils.
In order that the draft of the burner and the gases of combustion
might not be dissipated, it was necessary to sheathe the boiler. The
method of doing this is shown in Plate 25. It will be seen that the
front half of the boiler is wrapped in a sheet of mica through which
the coils can be faintly seen. This, in turn, is held at the extreme
front end by a strip of thin sheet-iron, ‹O›. Over the back end the
stack ‹Q›, made of very thin sheet-iron, is slipped. This has an
oblong cross-section at the lower end where it goes over the boiler;
it is provided with a hole through which the midrod passes, and
terminates in a circular opening of about 10 cm. diameter. [p116]
The engine, which is clearly shown in the dimensional drawing, Plate
26B, is of the plain slide-valve type, using a piston valve and solid
piston, without packing rings. The cylinder is formed of a piece of
steel tubing 35 mm. outside diameter, with flanges 47 mm. in diameter
and 2.25 mm. thick brazed to each end, to which the cylinder heads
are attached by small machine screws. Inside this cylinder is a thin
cast-iron bushing in order to obtain a better rubbing surface for the
piston. The cross-head is a small piece of aluminum bronze, running
on round guides that also serve as cylinder braces. There are also
four hollow braces, 5 mm. in diameter, running from the back cylinder
head to a corrugated steel bed-plate, that stands vertically and
reaches from one side rod of the frame of the hull to the other, and
to which are bolted the bearings of the main shaft. The connecting
rod has the cross-section of a four-rayed star and drives a crank
in the center of the shaft. The following are some of the principal
dimensions of the engine:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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