The Story of Great InventionsBurns, Elmer Ellsworth
History
The Story of Great Inventions
Burns, Elmer Ellsworth
Inventions -- History
The expansion-engine was designed to use more of the power of the steam
than can be done in the single-cylinder engine. In the double
expansion-engine the steam expands from one cylinder into another. The
second cylinder must be larger in diameter than the first. In the triple
expansion-engine the steam expands from the second cylinder into a
third, still larger. The second and third cylinders use a large part of
the power that would be wasted with only one cylinder.
The Turbine
One of the great inventions relating to steam-power is the
steam-turbine. The water-turbine is equally useful in relation to
water-power. The water-turbine and the steam-turbine work in very much
the same way, the difference being due to the fact that steam expands as
it drives the engine, while water drives it by its weight in falling, or
by its motion as it rushes in a swift stream or jet against the blades
of the turbine.
The first steam-engine, that of Hero in the time of Archimedes, was a
form of turbine (Fig. 82). It was driven by the reaction of the steam as
it escaped into the air. The common lawn-sprinkler, that whirls as the
water rushes through it, is a water-turbine that works in the same way.
"Barker's Mill" is the name applied to a water-turbine that works like
the lawn-sprinkler. As the water rushes out of the opening it pushes
against the air. It cannot push against the air without pushing back at
the same time. Never yet has any person or object in nature been able to
push in one direction only. It cannot be done. If you push a cart
forward you push backward against the ground at the same time. If there
were nothing for you to push back against your forward push would not
move the cart a hair's-breadth. If you doubt this, try to push a cart
when you are standing on ice so slippery that you cannot get a foothold.
It is the backward push of the water in the lawn-sprinkler and the
backward push of the steam in Hero's engine that cause the machine to
turn.
[Illustration: FIG. 82--HERO'S ENGINE]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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