Polynesian. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu], Hawaii) 1844-1864, 1852-12-25
The Caloric ship-.Encsson.

Il No other right than these she asks
loa The Caloric Ship--Encsson. ; :
| TT.HE ERIcssoN is externally first class
steamship, perhaps a trifle neater, trimmer,
and more graceful than usual. Seeming a
steamship, the same contrast of black and
gold, the same high arching paddle-boxes
revealing the red iron wheels and floats, the
same halfway preparation for canvas But
really, and within, what strange work No
steam, and no boilers to make steam, and no
place to put them if they we're wanted. No
| smoke, and no chimneys worth naming No
| more hiss and roar, no more explosion
Hereafter all is to be dry and still-this is
the Caloric Ship. A costly experiment truly,
and, if successful, destined to work an entire
revolution in notwithstanding less than
| an entire disuse of steam as motor.
There is something sublime in the daring
displayed in this undertaking. A single in
| vention entering the lists and challenging the
perfected work of ages. 1t is Ivanhoe at
Ashby-all alone, fand unexpected, defying
Bois Guilbert to mortal combat The daring
wins attention and commands intense inter-
est. ,,i.-.r
The marine steam engine is the result of
~
quent progress A very few years ago no
workshop in the world would have dared to
undertake such massive work Castings of
forty tons weight and complicated TO the last
degree, shafts of wrought iron, welded up
big as pine tree, cylinders large enough for
comfortable bedroom! Had any man
dared devise the work and execute the
drawings, no shop could have satisfied the
conditions. But now, by short and slow and
easy steps, every dimension has been in
creased inch by inch, until at last our en-
glnes seem like the very wheels of machine
ry of nature. We build iron caverns, pour
| in an ocean, and set them over volcanoes, and
mostly call them boilers and furnaces, as it
were mere device to boil eggs withal ai'f
A pair of frst-class side-lever marine en-
gines slowly swinging their immense proper
tloDs to and fro in ponderous silence, ap-
proach as near to sublimity as it is lawful for
the work of man to come, He that can look
upon them with no emotion of awe, and no
thrill of apprehension, will do well to be anx-
ious at once about his soul.
Notwithstanding this, and unabashed by
the imperial renown and majesty of the mod
ern engine, there is come an unknown cham
pion into the list to dispute the empire and
claim the first rank to ITSELF Not by slow
steps of progress does it propose to rise to
dominion Not by long apprenticeship or
slavery to pumps, mills, ferries and river
boats, the step by which steam attained its
royalty, not so will the caloric engine win its
way All or nothing All at once, or nothing.
And so the hull is builded, and launched,
such hull as has never before been set
oAn kno
Her reg ister IS over two thousand tons; there
are not ten steamers in the world larger than
she, and not one Of equal workmanship in re-
spect to sea-worthiness and strength.
Her engines are buik with the same ele-
gance and precision that we should antici-
pate, were they the ffiieth instead of the first
of their kind. Four huge, cylinders, each
thirteen feet in diameter (ninety-six inches is
the largest diameter the writer ever saw Civ
eE to a steam cylinder,) are to be set in a
line along the keel. Under each IS little
furnace, having two small fire doors. each
furnace capable of holding perhaps three or
four bushels Of coal A ton of anthracite
will start them all! Each pair of cylinders
constitutes an engine. Their united power
is transmitted to single crank upon the main
shaft. The agent that is to give motion is
AIR, expanded by the heat Of the furnaces al
ready named. The detail of valves, &C.,
must be in effect, identical in all reciprocal
ting cylinder engines, whatever be the mo-
tor. In the coloric engine, the valve chests
are just like those in use on the ordinary
/" beam-cngime. In word, the caloric en-
gine is steam engine made to 90 by elastic
expansive air at low pressure, instead of elas-
tic expansive steam at high pressure. Hence
the necessity Of so many and such enormous
cylinders, for the pressure upon each square
inch Of piston-head being less than in steam
engine, of course the area, or number of
square inches must be increased by the same
ratio or factor that measures the decrease of
pressure, if we would secure equivalent ef.
fects in the two cases. This is done by four
folding the area Of each cylinder, and by
doubling their number. -Four thirteen feet
cylinders, with pressure OF one pound to |
the inch. fraction aside, will yield as much
power as one cylinder. seventy-eisht inches
in diameter, with sirteen pounds pressure to
the square inch.
The advantages claimed for the caloric en-
gine are imposing.
l. Economy Of space A moments in
spection justifies and admits this claim.
2. Safety from explosion and accident
This, too, is undeniable