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
A (_fig._ 82.) is the boiler, with the furnace beneath it; C C are
two cylinders with solid pistons P P′, connected with the
working-beams B B′, to which are attached the pump-rods R R′, of
two forcing pumps F F′, which communicate with a great force-pipe
S; G is a _four-way cock_ (66.) already described. In the position
in which it stands in the figure, the steam issues from below the
piston P into the atmosphere, and the piston is descending by its
own weight; steam from the boiler is at the same time pressing up
the piston P′, with a force equal to the difference between the
pressure of the steam and that of the atmosphere. Thus the piston
R of the forcing-pump is being drawn up, and the piston P′ is
forcing the piston R′ down, and thereby driving water into the
force-pipe [Pg324] S. On the arrival of the piston P at the
bottom of the cylinder C, and P′ at the top of the cylinder C′,
the position of the cock is changed as represented in _fig._ 83.
The steam, which has just pressed up the piston P′, is allowed to
escape into the atmosphere, while the steam, passing from the
boiler below the piston P, presses it up, and thus P ascends by
the steam pressure, and P′ descends by its own weight. By these
means the piston R is forced down, driving before it the water in
the pump-cylinder into the force-pipe S, and the piston R′ is
drawn up to allow the other pump-cylinder to be re-filled; and so
the process is continued.
[Illustration: _Fig._ 83.]
A valve is placed in the bottom of the force-pipes, to prevent the
water which has been driven into it from returning. This valve
opens upwards; and, consequently, the weight of the water pressing
upon it only keeps it more effectually closed. On each descent of
the piston, the pressure transmitted to the valve acting upwards
being greater than the weight of the water resting upon it, forces
it open, and an increased quantity of water is introduced.
(182.) From the date of the improvement of Watt until the
commencement of the present century, non-condensing engines were
altogether neglected in these countries. In the year 1802, Messrs.
Trevethick and Vivian constructed the first non-condensing engine
of this kind which was ever brought into extensive practical use
in this kingdom. A section of this machine, made by a vertical
plane, is represented in _fig._ 84.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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