The Steam Engine Explained and Illustrated (Seventh Edition): With an Account of Its Invention and Progressive Improvement, and Its Application to Navigation and Railways; Including Also a Memoir of WattLardner, Dionysius
History
The Steam Engine Explained and Illustrated (Seventh Edition): With an Account of Its Invention and Progressive Improvement, and Its Application to Navigation and Railways; Including Also a Memoir of Watt
Lardner, Dionysius
Steam-engines; Watt, James, 1736-1819
In the cylinder represented at C (_fig._ 21.), the piston P moves
steam-tight. It is closed at the top, and the piston [Pg134] rod,
being accurately turned, runs in a steam-tight collar, B,
furnished with a stuffing-box, and is constantly lubricated with
melted tallow. A funnel is screwed into the top of the cylinder,
through which, by opening a stop-cock, melted [Pg135] tallow is
permitted from time to time to fall upon the piston within the
cylinder, so as to lubricate it, and keep it steam-tight. Two
boxes, A A, called the upper and lower steam boxes, contain valves
by which steam from the boiler may be admitted and withdrawn.
These steam boxes are connected by a tube of communication T, and
they communicate with the cylinder at the top and bottom by short
tubes represented in the figure. The upper steam box A contains
one valve, by which a communication with the boiler may be opened
or closed at pleasure. The lower valve box contains two valves.
The lower valve I communicates with the tube T′, leading to the
condenser D, which being opened or closed, a communication is made
or cut off at pleasure, between the cylinder C and the condenser
D. A second valve, or upper valve H, which is represented closed
in the figure, may be opened so as to make a free communication
between the cylinder C and the tube T, and by that means between
the cylinder C, below the piston and the space above the piston.
The condenser D is submerged in a cistern of cold water. At the
side there enters it a tube, E, governed by a cock, which being
opened or closed to any required extent, a jet of cold water may
be allowed to play in the condenser, and may be regulated or
stopped, at pleasure. This jet, when playing, throws the water
upwards in the condenser towards the mouth of the tube T′, as
water issues from the rose of a watering pot. The tube S proceeds
from the boiler, and terminates in the steam box A, so that the
steam supplied from the boiler constantly fills that box. The
valve G is governed by levers, whose pivots are attached to the
framing of the engine, and is opened or closed at pleasure, by
raising or lowering the lever G′. The valve G, when open, will
therefore allow steam to pass from the boiler through the short
tube to the top of the piston, and this steam will also fill the
tube T. If the lower valve H be closed, its circulation beyond
that point will be stopped; but if the valve H be open, the valve
I being closed, then the steam will circulate equally in the
cylinder, above and below the piston. If the valve I be open, then
steam will rush through the tube T′ into the condenser; but this
escape of the steam will be [Pg136] stopped, if the valve I be
closed. The valve H is worked by the lever H′, and the valve I by
the lever I′.
The valve G is called the upper steam valve, H the lower steam
valve, I the exhausting valve, and E the condensing valve.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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