The Life of George Stephenson and of his Son Robert Stephenson: Comprising Also a History of the Invention and Introduction of the Railway LocomotiveSmiles, Samuel
History
The Life of George Stephenson and of his Son Robert Stephenson: Comprising Also a History of the Invention and Introduction of the Railway Locomotive
James Watt's friend and correspondent, Dr. Small, of Birmingham, when
he heard of Moore's intended project, wrote to the Glasgow inventor
with the object of stimulating him to perfect his steam-engine, then in
hand, and urging him to apply it, among other things, to purposes of
locomotion. "I hope soon," said Small, "to travel in a fiery chariot
of your invention." Watt replied to the effect that "if Linen-draper
Moore does not use my engines to drive his carriages, he can't drive
them by steam. If he does, I will stop them." But Watt was still a
long way from perfecting his invention. The steam-engine capable of
driving carriages was a problem that remained to be solved, and it was
a problem to the solution of which Watt never fairly applied himself.
It was enough for him to accomplish the great work of perfecting his
condensed engine, and with that he rested content.
But Watt continued to be so strongly urged by those about him to apply
steam-power to purposes of locomotion that, in his comprehensive patent
of the 24th of August, 1784, he included an arrangement with that
object. From his specification we learn that he proposed a cylindrical
or globular boiler, protected outside by wood strongly hooped together,
with a furnace inside entirely surrounded by the water to be heated
except at the ends. Two cylinders working alternately were to be
employed, and the pistons working within them were to be moved by the
elastic force of the steam; "and after it has performed its office,"
he says, "I discharge it into the atmosphere by a proper regulating
valve, or I discharge it into a condensing vessel made air-tight,
and formed of thin plates and pipes of metal, having their outsides
exposed to the wind;" the object of this latter arrangement being to
economize the water, which would otherwise be lost. The power was
to be communicated by a rotative motion (of the nature of the "sun
and planet" arrangement) to the axle of one or more of the wheels of
the carriage, or to another axis connected with the axle by means of
toothed wheels; and in other cases he proposed, instead of the rotative
machinery, to employ "toothed racks, or sectors of circles, worked with
reciprocating motion by the engines, and acting upon ratched wheels
fixed on the axles of the carriage." To drive a carriage containing
two persons would, he estimated, require an engine with a cylinder 7
in. in diameter, making sixty strokes per minute of 1 ft. each, and so
constructed as to act both on the ascent and descent of the piston;
and, finally, the elastic force of the steam in the boiler must be such
as to be occasionally equal to supporting a pillar of mercury 30 in.
high.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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