The weekly Minnesotian. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1852-1858, 1853-01-15
From the Chicago journal.
The CRlOric shin.

Iuc ~ . JOuIuut VI COUlLleTCe slItcS lDdt
the wheel of the caloric ship, building by Mr..
Ericsson, performed its first revolution on Mon
day last, the motive power being nothing more
than the expansive force of compressed air, I'M
heated. No fire was used in this instance the
elasticity of the natural atmosphere being sui.
fcient for the desired purpose.
As this experiment is being awaited with
much interest by the scientific world the fol-
lowing description of the engine, which, if
successful, will work such mighty change in
that branch of mechanism, may not be out of
place at this time. We take it from an article
in Hunts Merchants Magazine:
1T is the most extraordinary piece of ma
chinery we have ever seen. 1t has four cylin-
ders. Two of seventy-two inches in diameter.
stand side by side. Over each of these is plac-
ed one much smaller. Within these are Dis
tons, exactly fitting their respective cylinders,
and SO connected that those within the lower
and upper cylinders move together. Under
the bottom of each of the lower cylinders a
fire is applied. No other furnaces are employ
ed. Neither boilers or water are used. The
lower is called the working cylinder the up
per. the supply cylinder, moves down, valves
placed i'll the top open, and it becomes filled
with cold air. AS the piston rises within it,
these valves close. and the air within unable to
escape as it came. passes through another set of
valves, into a receiver. from whence it is to
pass into the working cylinder, to force up the
working piston within it. AS it leaves the re-
ceiver to perform this duty, it passes through
what is called the regeneration, which we shall
soon explain, where it becomes heated to about
four hundred and fifty degrees. and upon en-
tering the working cylinder, it is further heat
ed by fire underneath. We have said the work
ing cylinder is much lerger in diameter than
the supply cylinder. Let us. for the sake of il
lustration, merely suppose it contains double
the area. The cold air, which entered the mp
per cylinder will, therefore. but half fill the
lower one. In the course of the passage, how
ever, we have said it passes through regenera-
tor, and let us suppose, that as it enters the
working cylinder. it has become heated to
about four hundred and eighty degrees. At
this temperature atmospheric air expands to
about double its volume! The same atmos-
pheric air, therefore, which was contained with
in the supply cylinder, is now capable of filling
one of twice its size. With this enlarged ca
pacity. it enters the working cylinncr
We will further suppose the area of the pis-
ton within this cylinder to contain a thousand
square inches, and the area of the piston in the
supply cylinder above, to contain but five
hundred. The air presses upon this with
mean force, we will suppose, of about eleven
pounds to each square inch; or, in other words,
with a weight of $500 pounds. Upon the sur
ever, pressing upward with like force of H.
600 pounds. Here, then. is force which, af-
ter overcoming the weight above, leaves a sur
plus Of $500 pounds, if we make no allowance
for friction. This surplus furnishes the work
ing power of the engine. 1t will be seen that
after one stroke of its piston is made. it will
continue to with this force SO long US sufficient
heat is supplied to expand the air in the work
ing cylinder to the extent stated for so long
as the area of the lower piston is greater than
the upper, and like pressure is upon every
square inch of each, so long will the greater
piston push forward the small. as two pound
weight upon one end of balance will be quite
sure to bear down one pound placed upon the
other. We need hardly say that after the air
in the working cylinder has forced up the ps-
ton within it, a valve opens. and as it passes
out, the pistOns, by force of gravity, descend,
and cold air again rushes into and fills the sup
ply cylinder, as we have before described. In
this manner the two cylinders are alternately
each to play up and down substantially as they
do in the steam engine.
Let us now attempt to describe the rcgenera-
tor, to which we have referred. Without this.
the machine we examined would possess, in
point of economy, no advantage over the best
constructed steam-engine. With it, the advan-
tages are incalculable. We have already fully
illustrated the leading idea conceived by Capt.
Ericsson, of employing heat over and over
again. To attain this, is the object of the re-
generator.
For the purpose of understanding this instru-
ment. our readers will bear in mind the con-
struction and operation of the machine. We
have before stated that atmospheric air is first
drawn into the supply cylinder, from whence
it is forced into receiver, and that from this it
proceeds towards the working cylinder, before
reaching which it passes through the regenera-
tor. This structure is composed of wire net,
somewhat like that used in the manufacture of
selves, placed side by side, until the series at
tain a thickness say of twelve inches. Through
the almost innumerable cells, formed by the
intersection of these wires, the air must pass,
on its way to the working cylinder. In passing
through these, it is so infinitely subdivided that
the particles composing it are brought into
close contact with the metal which forms the
wires. Now let us suppose. what actually takes
place, that the side of the Regeneration nearest
the working cylinder is heated to high tenn
pcrature. Through this heated substance the
air must pass before entering the cylinder. and
in cffccting this passage it takes as is demon
strated 10y the thermometer, about $50 degrees
of the $50 degrees of heat required, as we have
before stated to double its volume The addi-
tional 80 degrees are communicated by the fire
beneath the cylinder. The air has thus become
expanded; it forces the piston upward; it has
done its work-valves open-and the impris-
oncd air. heated to 4s0 degrees. passes from the
cylinder, and again enters the regeneration,
through which it must pass before leaving the
machine.
We have said that the side of this instrument
nearest the working cylinder is hot, and it
should be here stated that the other side is kept
cool by the action upon it of the air entering in
the opposite direction at each up-stroke of the
pistons. Consequently, as the air from the
working cylinder passes out, the wires absorb
its heat so etfectually that when it leaves the
Regeneration, it has been robbed of all, except
about thirty degrees In other words as the
air passes into the working cylinder it gradu-
ally receives from the regenerator about $50
degrees of heat and as it passes out, this is re-
turned to the wires, and is thus used over and
over, the only purpose of the fires beneath the
cylinders being to supply the 80 degrees of heat
We have mentioned. and that which is lost by
radiation and expansion. Extraordinary as this
statement may seem, it is nevertheless incon-
trOvertbly proved by the thermometer to be