The Literary echo, and Pawcatuck advertiser. [volume] (Westerly, R.I.) 1851-1854, 1853-02-17

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numerous inventions devised by Captain
Ericsson during his residence in Eng
land shall take occasion, however, to
comment on an invention which has been
for many years the favorite project and
study of Capt. Ericsson, and the per-
fecting of which will confer inestimable
benefits on mankind
now propose to take hasty glance
at Ericsson's caloric engine, which ex-
cited so much interest few years ago
in England, and which, should it be
brought into practical operation, will
prove the most important mechanical
invention ever conceived by the 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 agency of heat, at an expenditure
of fuel SO exceedingly small that man
will have an almost unlimited mechanical
force at his command, in regions where
fuel may now be said hardly to exist
The announcement Of such an idea may
startlc all those acquainted witt the
nature of hear, and the well-known
limits of the amount Of mechanical
power which any given quantity of co.oric
is capable of producing more particu-
larly as il is well-establishcd fact that
a 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 opposition to the received notion, that
the mechanical force produced will bear
a direct known proportion to the guam
tity of coloric generated ; and that the
power exerted in our best constructed
steam engines is nearly the measure of
that effect.
The late Professor Harvefeldt, Of
Sweden, one OF the first mathematicians
of the day, stated in rablic lecture,
not many years ago, and there is nothing
in the theory of heat which proves that
a common spirit-lamp may not be suti
cient TO drive an engine Of horse pow
er. 1t will readily be believed that the
professor had but few hearers who did
not smile at the suggestion; but among
those 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
mechanical force, uudergocs no change
This nxtranrdinary fact EriassAn Ara,n.
pli6es by a simple but conclusive illus
tration, for the reader reception OF
which by my readers it will be we'll to
introduce particular dimensions. Sup
pose the piston Of an ordinary steam
engine cylinder to be at the bottom, and
suppose the force Of steam intended to
be admitted into this cylinder under the
piston to act with the force of 100 900
pounds, which is the force on piston
of fifty inches diameter, acted upon by
steam Of 50 pounds pressure to the
square inch Suppose the cylinder to
be ten feet long, and the piston to be
loaded with weight equal to these
100000 pounds. Ii now a sufficient
quantity of steam of the stated pressure
be admitted from below the piston, This
load will be elevated through the whole
length of the cylinder and hence We
shall have raised weight of 100, 900
pounds through space of 10 feet. But
who will contend that this immense
amount of mechanical force has required
any expenditure of heat; Does not the
steam, after having lifted this weight,
contain just as much heat as it did be-
fore leaving the team-boilor-less only
the losses by radiation ? And does not
that heat retain all the properties after
the operation which it possessed before =;
Am | then correct in stating that we
have obtained this power without chang
ing the nature or diminishing thccnergy
OF the heat employed
But although III nature has furnished us
with an agent of such extraordinary
properties for the production OF mechan-
ical force, how imperfectly do We en-
ploy it In the low-presSure engine,
we turn the steaus, after having per-
formed its god Office, into a condens-
ing apparatus, where tho heat is in
manner annihilatcd and in the high
pressure engine We throw it away into
tho atmosphere. Yet men, even oil
mechanical distinction, ridicule the idea
Of superscding the .steam-engine, and
science seems to pause contentedly IN
the contemplation of its admitted per-
fection. For mere theorist to attempt
au exposition of its defects, Or TO sug-
gest substitute, would, under such cir
eumstanccs, excite little attention but