Richmond daily times. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1853, 1853-01-15
THE DAILY TIMES
THE CALORIC ENGINE.

We place below an article from the New York
Herald, giving a detailed account of the results
OF the trial excursion of the pioneer ship in thu
Caoric line, with minute description of her in.
ternal arrangements. All the New York Jour-
nails unite in representing her success as complete.
ly triumphant. We may now say that Captain
Ericsson has realised the hope of his life and
reached the goal of his ambition. To invent a
substitute for the steam engine that should ope.
rate upon less enormous consumption of fuel
| and less wholesale destruction of human be.
ings, has been the great object of his lie. To
this object he has devoted his mind and his
means, his time and his resources, for the last
five and twenty years. He has wrought with the
enthusiastic belief that it was his mission in the
world to supersede steam as motive power by
some more manageable and innocuous agent He
has fulfilled his mission.
The two important points in his invention are
economy and safety. The engine of the "Ercs
son" is kept in motion by one.ffh of the fuel
that would be consumed by steam engine OF
the same power. Here at once is a vast saving
in coal, in labor, and in ship-room. Then there
is no danger from explosion by recklessness,
| oversight, ignorance-no danger from fire, or
from the thousand and one accidents to which we
travel in Caloric ship without feeling ourselves
perpetually liable to be boiled, broiled OR blown
up. There is nothing to apprehend from an in
competent, excited, or rash engineer, in the ma
nagement of Caloric engine; for when it is once
set in motion it needs no watching, and will run
of itself for hours without calling for human
aid. The worst that could happen, were the en-
| CINE abandoned, would be for the machinery to
stop some time after all the fires were extin-
| guished.
| AS this enterprise is exciting more present in.
terest in the scientific and commercial world than
| any other subject, we have thought it might be
well to reproduce partial account of the Caloric
| Engine from lecture upon Ericsson and some
of his inventions delivered before the Boston Ly-
ceum in December, l843-nearly ten years ago
and published in the following May by Wiley
and Putnam, of New York. This lecture was
reprinted at the time in the leading scientific
| journals of England, and translated into several
OF the Continental languages. 1t possesses inte-
rest from the fact of its showing the length of
time during which Captain Ericsson has pursued
his studies and experiments in this country, be-
fore perfecting his invention. There has been no
attempt on his part to amuse the public with an
incomplete and unfinished work. or to bring it
| before the world with insufficient means and in
an inadequate style. Captain Ericsson has wait
ed, calmly and patiently, till he has seen his
way clear to demonstrate his success in manner
| and through medium that must command the
| attention of the world
While this matter apparently rested in exper-
| lment, we were cautious in expressing sanguine
expectations of complete success. We now re.
| gard the triumph of the inventor as secure. A
new era in the annals of navigation has com.
menced. The cage of steam'' no longer, the
present is destined to be the Age of Caloric.-
But few years will elapse before the ocean will
traversed by Caloric lines They will shortly
divide the passage money of the world with the
steam companies, and will absorb inevitably the
larger portion Of the frelghts. The combination
Of the Caloric engine with the propeller will ena.
BILE a ship thus equipped to go round the world
without exhausting her supply of coal. Com
mercialy, the invention will prove of infinite ad-
vantage to mankind-but when we reflect upon
the thousand on thousand of human beings who
perish miserably every year, by sea and land, in
consequence of the use or abuse of steam as
motive power, we cannot over estimate the bles-
sings which Captain Ericsson has conferred upon
his race by his great achievement. 1t is not toe
much to say that there is no man of any age or
country who has conferred so great a boon upon
mankind.
Captain Ericsson is Swede by birth, but the
United States is his adopted country. We are
proud that he has identified his name and fame
with our institutions, and that it is to the ener.
gy, judgment, ard liberalty of an American citi.
zen, MIR. John B. Kitching. of New York; thet be
has been indebted fol- the means to carry out this
great enterprise in style corresponding to its
Importance.
We learn from the Herald that Captain Erics
son will not accompany the ship in her first trip
| to Europe, but that he will remain in New York
to superntend the building of other Caloric ships
for the parties interested in the vessel alread V
constructed.
We annex the extract from the lecture to which
we have above referred
Il now propose to take hasty glance at Erics
sons Caloric Engine, which excited so much in.
terest few years ago in England; and which, il
it should be brought into practical operation, will
| prove the most important mechanical invention
ever conceived by human mind, and one that will
confer greater benefits on civilized life than any
that has ever preceded it. For the object of it is
the production of mechanical power by the agen
| cy of heat, at an expenditure of fuel so exceed.
| ingly small, that man will have an almost nnln
tied mechanical force at his command, in regions
where fuel may now be said hardly to exist The
announcement of such an idea may startle all
those acquainted with the nature of heat and
the we'll known limits of the amount of mechani
cal power which any given quantity of caloric is
capable of producing; more particularly as it is
wellestablished fact that given quantity of heat
will exert an equal amount of mechanical power
to whatsoever medium it may be impaired.
"Ericsson's theory of heat is altogether in OPP.
position to the received notion that the mechani-
cal force produced will bear direct known pro-
portion to the quantity of caloric generated and
that the power exerted in our best constructed
m-engnes is nearly the measure of that eff.
feet.
"The late Professor Harvefeldt, of Sweden
one of the first mathematician of the day, stated
in public lecture, mot many years ago, that
there is nothing in the theory of heat which
proves that common spirit lamp may not be
sufficient to drive an engine of hundred horse
power. twill readily be believed that the pro.
lessor had but few hearers who did not smile at
the suggestion, but among these few we may
number Ericsson, who from the earliest period Of
his mechanical labors, had been in the habit Of
regarding heat as an agent which, whilst it exerts