Scientific American Supplement No. 822, October 3, 1891Various
Science
Scientific American Supplement No. 822, October 3, 1891
Various
Science -- Periodicals
The whole current generated by the great dynamo of the Cowles Company
was passed through the furnace.
In the experiments raw materials only were used, for it was evident
that it was only by the direct production of phosphorus from the
native minerals which contain it, such as the phosphates of lime,
magnesia, or alumina that there was any hope of superseding, in point
of economy, the existing process of manufacture.
In the furnaces as used at Milton much difficulty was experienced in
distributing the heat over a sufficiently wide area. So locally
intense indeed was the heat within a certain zone, that all the oxygen
contained in the mixture was expelled and alloys of iron, aluminum,
and calcium combined with more or less silicon, and phosphorus were
produced. Some of these were of an extremely interesting nature.
We now turn to a short account of the works and plant which have been
erected near Wolverhampton to prove the commercial success of the new
system of manufacturing phosphorus.
The ground is situated on the banks of a canal and extends to about 10
acres, which are wholly without buildings except those which have been
erected for the purposes of these industrial experiments. These
consist of boiler and engine houses, and large furnace sheds.
There are three Babcock & Wilcox steam boilers of 160 horse power
each, and each capable of evaporating 5,000 lb. of water per hour. The
water tubes are 18 ft. long x 4 inches diameter, and the steam and
water drums 43 in. in diameter and 231/2 ft. long, of steel 7/16 ths.
in. thick, provided with a double dead head safety valve, stop valves,
blow-off cock, water gauges, and steam gauge.
The total heating surface on each boiler is 1,619 square feet and the
total grate surface is 30 square feet.
The boilers are worked at 160 lb. pressure.
The engine is a triple compound one of the type supplied for torpedo
boats, and built by the Yarrow Shipbuilding Company. It is fitted with
a Pickering governor for constant speed. The engine is capable of
delivering (with condenser) 1,200 indicated horse power, and without
condenser 250 indicated horse power less.
With steam at 170 lb. pressure the engine worked at 350 revolutions
per minute, but it has been rearranged so as to deliver 700 indicated
horse power with 160 lb. steam pressure without condenser, and at 300
revolutions per minute:
The high pressure cylinder is 141/2 inches diameter.
" intermediate " " 25 " "
" low pressure " " 32 " "
" stroke is 16 inches.
The dynamo for producing the requisite amount of electric current
supplied to the furnaces is one of the well known Elwell-Parker type
of alternating current dynamos, designed to give 400 units of
electrical energy, equivalent to 536 indicated horse power.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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