New-York daily tribune., 1854-08-26
THE NEW Machinery OF THE STEAAER
ARCTIC.
oOusspOndenes Of tn. Bosson Chronicle.

Ibave delayed giving description Of the Ariics ms
ehnery end The application Of the motive power employ
ed in anticipation Of trial trip by this splendid steamer;
but it s certain th she viii not leave this port
for Boston for nearly fortnight, will give brief ac-
count in the present letter.
For several months series Of scientific experiment..
have been made by the hberaity Of Mr. T. h. Collins,
with what i known Wethses Patent the object being
TO increase the power Of steam without any increased ex
peudliuTe for fuel. The patentees claim the
" combining steam and superheated surcharged steam
for scustng engines, when generated the elasticity
"inereaked and operated set FORTH The patent intends
not steam simply surchaged with heat but the use OF
mixture of saturated and surchagod steam ordinary
steam being saturated with water, OF maximum den
sy for the pressure, and surchsrged steam being con-
steam surcharCed with heat, having less than the
maximum density and therefore not being saturated with
water. certain quantity Of saturated steam being With
GraSn from the boiler and heated of contact with the
water 10 very high temperature, then mixed with cer
tain quantity Of saturated stesm and this mixture used to
operate upon the engine, greater po@er can be derived
from H. with a certain quantity Of fuel than could be de-
rived from the of saturated steam ai0ne produced
the same quantity Of fuel.
The mode OF obtaining the mixture ia as follows: From
the steam chimney OF the boiler, common steam pipe,
furnished with the necessary sopvsves conveys etter
Dsy to the boiler the saturated steam to the vayeches
spOther similar pipe, valves &C. from the steam
chimney but starting within the smoke chimney, allows
the passage of saturated steam down the mokechimney,
through the iues and through the fura mme
diaely the burning fuel and having become highly
charged in its passage is led out OF the fron of the
boiler the valvechest, where 1t uniies with the
saturated steam From the valve chest the mixture passes
TO the cylinder Of the engine ana operates motive
power uptn the piston.
Numerous EXPERIMENTS have been made by b. r. I.her-
wood Esq Chief Engineer OF the United States Navy,
aud Daniel b. Martin, Esq., Engineer inChef OF the L.
S Navy. The engine upon which the experiments were
at first made noncondensing one-he diam ser Of
the cylinder of which l2 inches; the cylinder was
double surrounded with steam jacket the steam pipes
were y inches inside diameter and feet long, nearly d.
rect from the boiler to the cynde The boiler had YER
teal tubes and was working model OF Tie boilers IN the
Collins hne of steamships. With excellent apparatus aud
81. al 4dp Vyh
steam alone; with surcharged steam alone ind
with the mixture of common and surcharged steam in
vhich the proportions "a 25 10 10 From the result
ia appeared that using the steam simply surchsrged pro-
duo with the fuel increased elect Of % per
cent above what derived from the common steam
sone; while increased effect o 100 per cent vas de-
rived by the OF the mixture Aso, the increased Ell
4. Of the mixture 25 per cent over what WIS OBJ
tanned from Tile surohaTged steam alone.
These results subsequently verified by operating
with the tow boat to which alluded IN former letter.
This boat had engine with the cylinder 81 inches dIa-
meter ana stroke af piston The steam cut oil
in the supply pipe by d. waive and canboard at T. the
stroke OF piston from the commandments There was one
iron boiler with the furnace and direct fire below and
single return ascending iiues above steam chimney
sur ounded the smoke chin Dey AMI the average enPera
ture OF the latter 500 degrees Fahrenheit the steam
for surchsrged by taking II from the ste
chimney dDg down the inside oi the smoke cAmney
then through the upper fues then returning TO tue lower
direct Ges and through the furnace over the burning coal
TO the OF the bOer from which twas led to the sup
pv ppe there united with common steam, then brought
b.
chimney conductor.
From table of experiments in Jahury last, carefully
prepared by Mr. Martin appears that the economical
efciehcy of the mixture of saturated AMI surcharged
steem about 2 7lO cent greater than that OF com
mon steam alone. Tho experiments IN lae with the mix
ture and with the saturated steam continued the
same number Of hours and minutes the total number OF
double strokes Of piston made per minute was with sstu
raj, steam alone - and $40 with the mixture 20 and
lilo; the number OF pounds OF anthrase coal consumed
per hour producing saturated ssa was 656 no. produc
ing the mixture 44O sl0 In subsequent experiments, II
was found that in given time the total number of pounds
of anthracite coal consumed in hour producing sau-
rated or common steam 453 3l0 producing the NIX
ture 9l0 In these experiments about the same num-
her Of double strokes Of engine piston was made. lhe
object OF this trial make the number OF revo-
uors of the wheels in equal times, a. t. give the Doet
the same speed the distance 56 miles was run WIN
the mixture and wlh the steam alone, so thai the deer
ence tells in the fuel only But with the mixture order
o keen the pressure sufficiently down to Obtain the same
speed with the alone it was necessary 10 csy
their fires extremely low that at tunes portions of e
CRATE would be entirely bare. No difficulty has ever
BEEN experienced from the burning out OF the pipes con-
yelirE the surcharged steaIn . =,
The result OF other experiments, exhibited the decidedly
superior heating power OF combined steam over the st
raed or ordinary and surchaged or saperheated
sttam
Having heref re- carefully experimental and observed
the satisfactory results Mr. Collins resolved 10 IN
troduce this motive power into the Arctic, and thi dc
sicn has been accomplished successfully an nor at
liberty at present writing to give the Dimensions
of the Arctic machinery, but sufce tor the pre-
sent To say that the plan OF the work is similar TO that
above described and the trial trip she has already made
has verified the results of former exper mens, and de-
monstraed the proposition that steam may be So treated
greatly increase its power without any increase ex
penditure Of fuel and that with the power hitherto OBJ
tanned there be a great saving IN fuel. am aware
that YOU will pronounce this description quite dry for the
general reader and Isl but to explain intelioly the
application Of the motive power facts and hsures are re-
quired.