The Hillsdale standard. [volume] (Hillsdale, Mich.) 1851-1909, 1853-01-25
An ACCOUNT OF THE CALoRIc SHIP ERICSSON
BY A FRENCH ENGINEER.


Monday, for the secondtime, with about fifty in
vited guests on board, principally persons con-
nected with tho press. Having left from the
foot of Castle Garden at half past nine, A M,
she passed to tho outside OF Fort Hamilton,
and returned to anchor. near the Battery, to-
wards one o'clock. Leaving aside the custom
ary speeches and resolutions, we will attempt
TO explain tho workings of the machine, with
out, at tho samc time, expecting to attain that
degree of lucidity with which Capt. Ericsson
explained it to his guests, with the accompani-
mcnt of the bum bum, of its immense pistons.
The great principle which serves rs its base
of operation, namely that of the return OF the
caloric, has demanded from the inventor twon-
iy years reflections, Ia bo embodied in ma
Cline 1t consists in availing himself constant
ly Of the same heat 10 heat the air which is in
iroduced into the cylinders. Tho instrument
by means of which this principle is applied is
called regencraior, and clear idea of it may
bc had by supposing man with his mouth fill
cd by hot nietalic sponge. If he draw breath
the outer air. in iraversing tho pores of tho
warm sponge, will BIO heated, ind will arrive
in the lungs warm, whilst the sponge, having
yielded its caloric will become cold. If he
make a respiration of this hot air, It, in passing
again through the sponge, will heat the latter,
and will arrive at the other side cold agaiu.-
If, instead of the individual producing these
movements by the contractions of tho muscles
of his breast, a common bellows be fitted to his
mouth TO produce the action of breathing and
respiring, we have almost Ericsson's machine.
This machine is composed of two vertical
cylinders, one placed over the other. The low
or one is the working cylinder--the upper one
is pump, whdh congresses the air into res
ervoir placed over il. This reservoir and the
Ind al l.xr, ,kn hsnh
through the regenerator. and is provided with
ordinary valves TO open or close the commnni-
cation. Under tho cylinder thero is fire.
place.
The fire being lighted, the first operation for
setting tho machine to work, is by an outer
means to compress the air into reservoir
That done the communication with tho cylin-
der is opened-the air being precipitated into
it, driving the piston upward; and as tho pis-
ton is connected by iron trucks with that Of
the pump, the latter Immediately congresses
int" tho reservoir the quantity of air which has
left it, The surface of tho mover being al
most double that of the pump, the air has tn-
ken by contact with the bottom of the cylinder
the quantity of heat necessary to double its vol
ume in conserving its pressure. Half of the
force contained in this compressed air is en-
ploycd by the pump to compress cold air; the
chine.
When tho piston reaches tho top of It's course
tho valves are worked in such manner as to
close the reservoir OF cold air, and TO let the
hot air escape from the C, Under through the
reseneratof. This air Is cool in il before reach
ing the atmosphere, and leaves its heat in store
The weight of the piston Is sufficient to pro-
duce this result, and to draw it 10 the bottom
of the cylinder. Tho valves bcirg restored to
their proper position, the piston ascends again.
but from tnat moment tne air winch passes
from the reservoir to tho cylinder, becoming
heated in pnssing through the reccnerator, the
hot bottom OF: The cylinder has no longer augh,
to support the small quantity Of heat of which
it has been deprived by tho air driven off. and
that lost by radiation from the hot surface.
The construct on of the Ericsson is not
commercial cnterprise--it is an experiment in
science upon a gigantic scale by the young
American giant The hull Of the ship, remar-
kable for the perfection of its model, is 250
feet in length. 40 feet breadth Of beam, and "a
feet depth of hold. Over the deck rise four
tunnels 30 inches in diameter, and only IL feet
in height. Two Of them serve as chimneys-
the other two scrvc TO let out the air which
leaves the regcnera,ors The wheels are 80
feet in diameter, and 10 feet in breadth.
The cylinders are fourteen feet in diameter,
and the piston has six feet stroke. Hardly
year since the largest cylinders that had ever
been east wero eight feet in diameter and tho
possibility of casting larger ones without de-
feet was doubted. At prescn: Messrs. Hoeg
& Delma,cr are prepared at their own risk and
peril. to make them of 20 feet diameter. An
other difficulty declared by many persons to he
insurmoun,ablc, was that ofpreventing the pis-
ton from becoming hot, circumstance which
would destroy the gear by preventing its be
ing creased. The pstons are hollow boxes,
fiat on top and concavc beneath; their size at
the top is six feet, but the gear only occupies
the upper portion The interior OF the pistons
is filled with plaster and coal bodics which arc
bad conductors of heat, This arrangement
has succeeded so well that tho heat Of the ap-
poratus is hardly great enough TO melt fat.
The bottom of tho cylinders is a convex sur
face above and formed in such manner as to
be exactly inclosed in the pistons when it de-
scends. This buttom is an inch and half in
thickness, and II is heated by means Of fire of
anthracite or coke. placed five feet lover
This distance has been adopted so that the bot
tom would not redden, and it has answered so
we'll the purpose expected from it, that it is al
ready supposed that the bottoms will be able,
though in contact with tho air, TO endure lon
ger than four years, tho average duration of
steam boilers in the u. States.
Regeneroror.- part of the appartus,
undoubtedly tho most remarkable, is that which
has been the first invented, and has since Civ
en- the least embarrassment to tho INVENTOR
The regenerator is composed ola series ofme-
tallic nets placed parallel to each other in box
six feet in breadth by four in height.
Each of the nets contain, therefore twenty
four square #; thero are 200 of them for each
cylinder, that is, almost 10000 square f.. The
number Of meshes is computed at a hundred
million; the threads of the nets are about the
18th of an inch in diameter
Pressure and Temperature.--Th pressure
which has been forrd tho most advantageous
is that of ftwolve pounds to the square inch that
is TO say, a little more than an Atmosphere
The highest temperature TO which the air is cl-
evated in the interior of the cylhder Is 3S4
dog. Farenheit To double its volume il would
be necessary that it should .ttsin 450 deg; but
this degree oftemperature would cause .incon-
..