On the Economy of Machinery and ManufacturesBabbage, Charles
ReligionComparative
On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures
Babbage, Charles
Machinery; Manufactures
The following statement by the proprietors of the patent is
extracted from Brewster's Journal, 1832, p. 349:
Comparative view of the quantity of materials required at the
Clyde iron works to smelt a ton of foundry pig-iron, and of the
quantity of foundry pig-iron smelted from each furnace weekly
Fuel in tons of 20 cwt each cwt 112 lbs; Iron-stone; Lime-stone
Cwt; Weekly produce in pig-iron Tons
1. With air not heated and coke; 7;3 1/4; 15; 45
2. With air heated and coke; 4 3/4; 3 1/4; 10; 60
3. With air heated and coals not coked; 2 1/4; 3 1/4; 7 1/2; 65
Notes. 1. To the coals stated in the second and third lines, must
be added 5 cwt of small coals, required to heat the air.
2. The expense of the apparatus for applying the heated air
will be from L200 to L300 per furnace.
3. No coals are now coked at the Clyde iron works; at all the
three furnaces the iron is smelted with coals.
4. The three furnaces are blown by a double-powered
steam-engine, with a steam cylinder 40 inches in diameter, and a
blowing cylinder 80 inches in diameter, which compresses the air
so as to carry 2 1/2 lbs per square inch. There are two tuyeres
to each furnace. The muzzles of the blowpipes are 3 inches in
diameter.
5. The air heated to upwards of 600 degrees of Fahrenheit.
It will melt lead at the distance of three inches from the
orifice through which it issues from the pipe.
289. The increased effect produced by thus heating the air is
by no means an obvious result; and an analysis of its action will
lead to some curious views respecting the future application of
machinery for blowing furnaces.
Every cubic foot of atmospheric air, driven into a furnace,
consists of two gases.(2*) about one-fifth being oxygen, and
four-fifths azote.
According to the present state of chemical knowledge, the
oxygen alone is effective in producing heat; and the operation of
blowing a furnace may be thus analysed.
1. The air is forced into the furnace in a condensed state,
and, immediately expanding, abstracts heat from the surrounding
bodies.
2. Being itself of moderate temperature, it would, even
without expansion, still require heat to raise it to the
temperature of the hot substances to which it is to be applied.
3. On coming into contact with the ignited substances in the
furnace, the oxygen unites with them, parting at the same moment
with a large portion of its latent heat, and forming compounds
which have less specific heat than their separate constituents.
Some of these pass up the chimney in a gaseous state, whilst
others remain in the form of melted slags, floating on the
surface of the iron, which is fused by the heat thus set at
liberty.
4. The effects of the azote are precisely similar to the
first and second of those above described; it seems to form no
combinations, and contributes nothing, in any stage, to augment
the heat.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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