Lives of Boulton and Watt. Principally from the Original Soho Mss.: Comprising also a history of the invention and introduction of the steam engineSmiles, Samuel
History
Lives of Boulton and Watt. Principally from the Original Soho Mss.: Comprising also a history of the invention and introduction of the steam engine
[32] Two boilers, a large, A, and a smaller, B, were fixed in
a furnace, and connected together at the top by a pipe, C.
The larger boiler was filled two-thirds full, and the smaller
quite full of water. When that in the larger one was raised to
the boiling-point, the handle of the regulator, D, was thrust
back as far as it would go, by which the steam forced itself
through the pipe connected with the vessel E, expelling the
air it contained through the clack at F. The handle of the
regulator being then drawn towards you, the communication
between the boiler and the vessel, E, was closed, and that
between the boiler and the second vessel, G, was opened, which
latter was also filled with steam, the air being in like manner
discharged through the clack, H. Cold water was then poured
from the water-cock, I, on to the vessel E, by which the steam
was suddenly condensed, and a vacuum being thereby caused, the
water to be raised was drawn up through the sucking-pipe, J,
its return being prevented by a clack or valve at K. The handle
of the regulator D being again thrust back, the steam was again
admitted, and pressing upon the surface of the water in E,
forced it out at the bottom of the vessel and up through the
pipe L, from which it was driven into the open air. The handle
of the regulator was then reversed, on which the steam was again
admitted to G, and the water in like manner expelled from it,
while E, being again dashed with cold water, was refilling from
below. Then the cold water was turned upon G, and thus alternate
filling and forcing went on, and a continuous stream of cold
water kept flowing from the upper opening. The large boiler was
replenished with water by shutting off the connection of the
small boiler with the cold water pipe, M, which supplied it from
above, on which the steam contained in the latter forced the
water through the connecting pipe, C, into the large boiler,
and kept it running in a continuous stream until the surface of
the water in the smaller boiler was depressed below the opening
of the connecting pipe, which was indicated by the noise of
the clack, when it was refilled from the cold water pipe, M, as
before.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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