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
On this occasion there was a high wind ahead on the quarter, and the
connecting rod worked hot, owing to having been keyed too tight. On
arriving at Manchester, I caused the cylinders to be opened, and found
that the pistons were so loose, that the steam blew through the
cylinders with great violence. By this cause, therefore, the machine
was robbed of a part of its power during the journey; and this
circumstance may explain the slight decrease in speed, and increase in
the consumption of fuel, with a lighter load in this journey compared
with that performed on the 5th of May.
The Victory weighs 8 tons 2 cwt., of which 5 tons 4 cwt. rest on the
drawing wheels. The cylinders are 11 inches diameter, and 16 inches
stroke; and the diameter of the drawing wheels is 5 feet.
III.
On the 29th of May, the engine called the "Samson," (weighing 10 tons
2 cwt., with 14-inch cylinders, and 16-inch stroke; wheels 4 feet 6
inches diameter, both pairs being worked by the engine; steam 50 lbs.
pressure, 130 tubes) was attached to 50 wagons, laden with
merchandise; net weight about 150 tons; gross weight, including
wagons, tender, &c., 223 tons 6 cwt. The engine with this load
travelled from Liverpool to Manchester (30 miles) in 2 h. and 40 min.,
exclusive of delays upon the road for watering, &c., being at the
rate of nearly 12 miles an hour. The speed varied according to the
inclinations of the road. Upon a level, it was 12 miles an hour; upon
a descent of 6 feet in a mile, it was 16 miles an hour: upon a rise of
8 feet in a mile, it was about 9 miles an hour. The weather was calm,
the rails very wet; but the wheels did not slip, even in the slowest
speed, except at starting, the rails being at that place soiled and
greasy with the slime and dirt to which they are always exposed at the
stations. The coke consumed in this journey, exclusive of what was
raised in getting up the steam, was 1762 lbs., being at the rate of a
quarter of a pound per ton per mile.
(94.) From the above experiments it appears that a locomotive engine,
in good working order, with its full complement of load, is capable of
transporting weights at an expense in fuel amounting to about 4 ounces
of coke per ton per mile. The attendance required on the journey is
that of an engine-man and a fire-boy; the former being paid 1_s._
6_d._ for each trip of 30 miles, and the latter 1_s._ In practice,
however, we are to consider, that it rarely happens that the full
complement of load can be sent with the engines; and when lesser loads
are transported, the _proportionate expense_ must for obvious reasons,
be greater.
The practical expenditure of fuel on the Liverpool and Manchester line
may, perhaps, be fairly estimated at half a pound of coke per ton per
mile.
(95.) Having explained the power and efficiency of these locomotive
engines, it is now right to notice some of the defects under which
they labour.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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