The Steam Engine Familiarly Explained and Illustrated: With an historical sketch of its invention and progressive improvement; its applications to navigation and railways; with plain axioms for railway speculatorsLardner, Dionysius
History
The Steam Engine Familiarly Explained and Illustrated: With an historical sketch of its invention and progressive improvement; its applications to navigation and railways; with plain axioms for railway speculators
Lardner, Dionysius
Steam-engines -- Early works to 1850
This engine is represented in fig. 54., the sides being open, to
render the interior mechanism visible. A B is the cylindrical boiler;
C C are the working cylinders; D E are the cogged wheels fixed on the
axle of the wheels of the engine, and surrounded by the endless chain.
These wheels being equal in magnitude, perform their revolutions in
the same time; so that, when the crank, F, descends to the lowest
point, the crank, G, rises from the lowest point to the horizontal
position, D; and, again, when the crank, F, rises from the lowest
point to the horizontal position, E, the other crank rises to the
highest point; and so on. A very beautiful contrivance was adopted in
this engine, by which it was suspended on springs of steam. Small
cylinders, represented at H, are screwed by flanges to one side of the
boiler, and project within it a few inches; they have free
communication at the top with the water or steam of the boiler. Solid
pistons are represented at I, which move steam-tight in these
cylinders; the cylinders are open at the bottom, and the piston-rods
are screwed on the carriage of the engine, over the axle of each pair
of wheels, the pistons being presented upwards. As the engine is
represented in the figure, it is supported on four pistons, two at
each side. The pistons are pressed upon by the water or steam which
occupies the upper chamber of the cylinder; and the latter being
elastic in a high degree, the engine has all the advantage of spring
suspension. The defect of this method of supporting the engine is,
that when the steam loses that amount of elasticity necessary for the
support of the machine, the pistons are forced into the cylinders, and
the bottoms of the cylinders bear upon them. All spring suspension is
then lost. This mode of suspension has consequently since been laid
aside.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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