Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1852-1859, 1853-01-26
From the Mao York Tribune.
The New Motive Power,

new Motive Power as sure and efficient as steam.
while II is free from all danger OF accident, anil
is, vastly cheaper and more manageable. TIN:
demonstration is perfect. The age OF Steam Is
closed; the era of Caloric opens. Fulton and
Watt belong to the Past; Ericsson is the great me-
chanical genius ofthe Present and the Future.
The Ca'oric Engine is no hasty product. Twen-
ty-hve years ago Ericssonc conceived the idea. For
twenty FIVE years he has been engaged in elabora-
ting and periecting it. In 1888 he propounded j.:
TO the scientific world at London. Men of the
highest authority, such men as Farady and Brunei,
pronounced it good, and predicted its triumph.
But there were practical difficulties. The princi-
pie was clear; not SO its application. Those diff
culteS have had to be overcome gradually, one by
enc. Since the first model engine of five horse
power was constructed, the inventor has built
some twelve or thirteen others, in each making
some improvement, removing some obstacle. Two
Years since his invention was complete. No him
drance remained to be vanquished. He was ready
to submit the New Motive Power to the test OF
trial on the largest scale. Fortunate beyond othe:
great inventors, at every step he had found means
to go forward. And now cam the final demon
%Stration. For that means were also found. Eli
l%ightened capitalists came forward, and examined,
and were convinced. The funds were furnished.
1t was determined to bring out the machine on n
scale unprecedented in the history of inventions.
The Ericsson, a splendid ship of 1900 tons, was
constructed, the machinery built and put on board.
The public trial has taken place at the earliest
possible moment, if anything, too soon for perfect
justice to the invention. Though the engine was
unfinished and unable TO perform all the work for
VIII CHI it is designed, yet, as many unfavorable ru-
morS had been put in circulation, such as that it
could not move the ship from the dock, that the
wheels had to be turned by hand, that It was but
vast humbug, with others of the same sort,-in or
der to silence these assertions and relieve the own
eS from the Sneers and lmputationS 10 which they
were subjected as having thrown away their money
on a delusion, it was determined to anticipate the
time CT bringing out the ship and to submit the
Calorlc Engine to public inspection, even in its
present imperfect state, and with the certainty
that it could not exhibit its whole power.
This was first done in the trial trip of last week,
when only the inventor, owners and crew Of the
ship were present. Her performance on that oc-
ca.ion we have recorded. Yesterday a second
trial was made. This was for the special satisfac-
ton of the members of the Press. Representatives
were present from all, or nearly all, the Journalist
The City, including several OF the editors in chief
of the respective papers. The party was taken
iIom Whitehall at about half past . in a small
steamer. 1t was nearly 10 when the Ericsson was
put in motion. With the tide and u light breeze
against her, she run down beyond the Narrows, a
distance of some ten miles; the tide was also against
her in returning; the run each was accomplished
in about an hour and a quarter, making her aver
age speed about eight miles an hour against the
tide.
The time on the passage down was spent in dis
cuSSing an excellent breakfast, and in examining
the engine. The first thing in the engine which
strikes the observer, is the magnitude IF the cylin-
deES. These are fourteen feet i'll diameter, six feet
more than those Of the Collins steamers There
are four in the Ericsson, standing in a fore-and-att
IiuG lWU UelOte anu TWO uDalL Inc Snalt, ana work
ing IN pairs upon it. From the base of the cylin-
ders to the summit is about thirty feet. Each cylin.
der is double, consisting of what is called q work
ing cylinder and n supply cylinder; the latter be-
ing on top and united with the other, though Of in
ierior diameter. The working cylinder has the fur
mace under it; in it the active force Of the ma
chine is developed in the form Of air expanded by
heat. The supply cylinder is always cod. The
working cylinder is ii feet in diametel; the piston
which plays in it has a superlicies of % 800 square
inches. The supply cylinder is II feet I inches in
diameter, and the area of its p ston is II 500 square
inches. These pistcns are joined by powerful iron
rods. The stroke is I feet. On the under side of
the upper piston are valves through which the sup
ply Of fresh air is drawn after the machine is put
IN motion. Over the supply cylinder is a reservoir
III which the upward motion of the piston COM
presses the air, which passes in their through
valves. The connection between the reSer:ior and
working cylinder is by a large pipe running frum
the former TO the base of the latter. The engine
is set i'll motion by pumping cold air into the reser-
viz, by hand or Otherwise.
From the reservoir, through a valve at the bot
Tom oil the large connecting pipe, the compressed
ar Is admitted into the working cylinder over the
furnace. Here it is instantly heated, and by its
expansion drives up the piston and at the SAINT
time congresses the air in the ply cylinder, and
forces II into the reservoir. Then another valve
In the connecting pipe opens, and the hot air is let
OIL into the atmoSpere. This removes the pressure
that has driven the piston up, when its own weight
brings it down again., and the escape valve closes.
Then the valve opens again, and lets the cold air
IN over the furnace; it is / heated, and so the process
goes on.
But the great feature of the invention is yet TO
be described. This is the apparatus by which the
main part Of the heat which expands the air in the
working cylinder is saved and made to do duty
over and over again. This it is that produces thes
astonishing economy Of fuel, which is one oil the
great characteristics of the invention. Ina steam
engine the heat is used but once, it passes away,
and therefore has 10 be perpetually renewed. In
the Caioric engine it is economical. This is an
immense advantage. The apparatus is formed OF
IRON wire, l 1-6 an inch in d:ameter, woven into a
web dense enough for the holes or meshes to occu-
Ply half the surface. Fifty tlicknesses, OF disks OF
this cloth are userl in each pipe connecting the
reservoir and working cylinders. Each disk is &
teet long and 4 wide, and contains half u million of
lneShaS. They are placed close together in the
pipe between the wol king cylinder and the two
valves which lett he new air, and let out that
which has been used. Thus all the air which
comes IN, passes through the meslles of the wires,
as does all that goes out. Here lies the wonder of
the invention. The heated air in going out, leaves
its heat in these wires. and the cold air in coming
IN takesit up again. In the engines of the Erics-
son, the air which comes Tut is but 80 deg. hotter
than the atmosphere, though before passing through
The wires 1t was 1884 deg. hotter. Even these 80
deg. might be saved, says Capt. Ericsson, by in
creasing the number of wire disks, but it is practi-
cylly unnecessary. This apparatus is called the re-
generator. Though the principal OF it is essential
~ the same as that ofDavy's Safety Lamp, the glory
OF its application to mechanical purposes is Capt.
EtlcSSon'S forever.
As we said, there are four Of these double cyl
lnders, four working and four supply. According
ly, there are four furnaces, ingeuiously arranged,
and set without any extraordinary outlay OF brick,
such as has been reported. In these, a small fire
is kept up with anthracite Goa, which is preferable
to other fuel, because it does not blaze-only its
%radi:ting heat is employed. From the crate to the
apex cylinder-bottoni, which is arched of course,
there a distance of five feet. The cylin.ier- bot
tom is one and a half inches thick. Before the
engine is put in motion, il may get q brown heat,
but at that distance il cannot pet hotter Ac vonp
as the cold is let in, it coolsnluch below that point.
Thus there is 10 danger either of fusion, cracking,
or oxydizing OF the cylinder-hotton, all of which