Phenix gazette. [volume] (Alexandria [D.C.]) 1825-1833, 1827-08-04
PERKINS, STEAM ENGINE.

Intelligence respecting the High Pressure,
Safety, Steam Engine, and on various SUBJ
iects, connected with it, with remarks upon
some other engines, which have recently
attracted public attention; In a letter to the
Editor Of the Franklin Journal, from IA
COB PERKINS, Esq.
London, March sth, S27.
NV Dear friend,-You must attribute my
not having written to you at an earlier date
not TO want of inclination, but to a desire of
being able 70 communicate the information
which now give you, namely, that my most
yaneuine expectations are realised and to the
utmost, in the completion of my High Pressure
Snfsiy Engine This should have been ena-
'bled to say, long since, had it not been for the
opposition which / have encountered from av-
aricious and interested individuals, by whom
nv course has been retarded, much more than
it has by mechanical difficulties, although these
have been enough in all conscience.
Many ofmy friends and some OF them very
scientific men, have expressed great fears that
I had attempted impossibillues; and were oil o.
pinion, that steam engines were so well under
stood, as to leave lutte that is new, on this
subject, TO be discovered. I will ask you, and
will allow no one TO be better Judge, If IL is
not new to generate steam of all elasuciues,
from the minimum, to the maximum, without
the least danger' If it is not new, In the gen.
Grafton Of steam, to substitute pesSure for sur
face, which consider the basis ofmy invention!
lit is not new, to have pressure OF 1000 lbs.
to the square inch, on one side OF the piston,
while on the other side of it, all resistance is
taken away by vacuum, and this produced
without an air-pump, or any more water, than
is used, in generating the steam? Ii 1t Is not
new TO have invented metallic piston,which re-
quirss no fabrication, and yet IL is as tight as
the piston of an air pump If it is not new
to have applied Sir Humphrey DAVIS zinc
protectors, to steam cylinders, to prevent oxi-
dation? This found took-psace in my cyiin.
ders, when the engine was not at work, alter
found that could dispense with oil. Ii 1t is
not new, to dispense with the etiuciion oolce and
sduciioa p;ye, hasipg DO other than-a small IN
duction valve, and that, SO constructed as to
neutrahze the pressure, requiring no oil: and
very little power, to open and close IT. ifIeis
not new, to allow the steam to escape at an o.
pening, $50 times larger, than the steam pipe!
All this has been effected, as our friend Lukens
can avouch, he having witnessed all these facts
as we'll as myself. And lastly, if It is not new
to have discovered tina, steam may be genera
ted, altho' in contact with water, at all tempe
natures, without producing corresponding elias
ITCHY?
AS soon as my last patent is specified here,
Twill forward it 10 you, together with the draw
ings, not only for your inspection, Gu, with a
request, that loU viii forward them to Wash
iug.oa; IS = petition 10 OBTAIN patent Will &C
Company them.
herewith send you a paper, son The Explo-
sion Of Steam Boilers, &C." This paper l
have not yet published here, as il might lead TO
the discovery Of my method o. correcting the
evil arising from generating surcharged steam,
before my patent is specified; but as this will
be secure in a very short time, YOU arc request
ed, ifyou approve il, TO publish lhe paper in
your interesting Journal, as am anxious for
its early appearance in my own country. have
in confidence, given copy to DR.. Wollaston,
TO Mr.. Faraday, and to several engineers whom
couldtrust, and who all agree, that it assigns
the true cause of explosions. ] long TO see,
and to converse with you, and my other really
scientific friends in the United States, on this,
and other interesting points, connected with my
engine.
! have had much interested opposition to
contend with, since my residence here; but
some of the best men in the country have con-
stantly stood BY me or must have sunk under
the pressure. This government have now CIV
en- The stamp business 10 Perkins and Heath,
which we should long since have had, ard the
country thereby have been saved thousands,
but for the intrigues of an individual who is
now sent TO Coventry.
More than dozen projectors have attempt
ed TO make tubular boilers, since commenced
my experiments; Of generating steam by small
quantities Of water, under pressure but for want
Of pressure, which is the novelty claim in
my patent,) they have all failed. M'Curdy,
from New York, who brought, out Haw kins's
project was the FIRST who oppo,6d me. He stat.
ed that had stolen Hawkins's invention, and
gave an air of probability to his assertion, by
producing such evidence from the U. States,
as he hoped would substanuate it. Yet he
was altogether ignorant of my method of gen
Grating high steam; and indeed there are not, at
this day, ten persons in the world, who are
wholly acquainted with it. M'Curdy took out
a patent in this country, aud sold to the amour,
Of ten thousand pounds, reserying one third to
himself. He has made three small steam boats;
one large enough to take passengers to Rich
tnond, but NO one of them ever steamed more
than three miles an hour. The quantity OF
coal consumed, could not learn, it must, how