Scientific American Supplement, No. 530, February 27, 1886Various
Science
Scientific American Supplement, No. 530, February 27, 1886
Various
Science -- Periodicals
The combined vehicle was entered from the platform in the rear, which
could hold four passengers, and from thence, as already mentioned, the
staircase led on to the roof. The total number of passengers this vehicle
could accommodate was thus eighteen inside, thirty-four on the roof, four
on the platform, or fifty-six in all.
The total length of the carriage was 29 ft. 7 in., the width 7 ft. The
distance between the axes of the bogies was 16 ft. 9 in. The distances
apart of the centers of the wheels were in the case of the hind bogie 3
ft. 9 in., and in the case of the front bogie 4 ft. 4.6 in.
The motor is a compound engine, the diameters of the cylinders being 4.9
in. and 1.9 in., with a 12 in. stroke. The diameter of the wheels was 2
ft. 4 in. A small boiler is placed on one side, in front, for creating
steam, which passes into a steam-jacket, inclosing the pipe of
communication from the reservoir to the cylinders, as well as the
cylinders themselves, so that the air was warmed before it escaped. The
reservoirs on the motor contained 71 cubic feet.
In an experiment made on charging the reservoir in the motor, the
pressure in the fixed reservoirs, at the time of charging the reservoirs
on the motor, was 63.8 atmospheres, at a temperature of 68° F. One
atmosphere was lost by letting the air into the pipe laid between the
shed and the tramway where the motor stood; when the reservoir on the
motor was charged, the pressure fell to 42.6 atmospheres in the fixed
reservoirs, at a temperature of 55° F.
The pressure in the reservoir on the motor, when ready to start, was 42.6
atmospheres, at a temperature of 84° F. On its return, at the end of
forty-six minutes, after a journey as above mentioned of about three and
a quarter miles including the triangle, the pressure had fallen to 20.9
atmospheres, and the temperature to 71° F. The weight of air used during
the journey was thus about 110 lb., or, say, 34 lb. per mile. The coal
consumed by the stationary engine to compress the air amounted to 39 lb.
per mile, in addition to 3 lb. of coke per mile for warming the exhaust.
While the motor was performing its journey, the stationary steam-engine
was employed in raising the pressure in the fixed cylinders to 63
atmospheres, and worked, on an average, during fifty minutes in each
hour; during the rest of the journey it remained idle. It was thus always
employed in doing work in excess of the pressure which could be utilized
on the car, and the work was, under the circumstances of the case,
necessarily intermittent. This was a very unfavorable condition of
working.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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