Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1863-09-23
A TRACTION ENGINE IN OPER-
ALTON.
A Curious Invention in Englanc

er respects they are behind us. But they
have beaten US in perfecting a trJe.ion en-
gine, which is now in successful operation
in one of the great English dockyards.-
The London Review gives the following
lively description of this very ingenious
and useful machine. which we recon-
mend to the attention of our engineers
and machinists:
Perhaps the oldest among the many
very odd creatures found in Australia Is
the animal called the ornithorhynchuS,
which appears TO be a mixture of the duck,
the beaver and the mole; and the traction
engine, constructed according to the or
der OF the dOckyard authorities, and now
at work here, Is about as strange q med
ley of halfa-dozen machines, having ap-
parently totally diverse functions. Inde-
pendently of its traction power-its main
employment-it is fitted up as steam
derrick, as a fixed engine to turn the shaft
ing in the workshops and rs capstan to
haul the ships about the docks; and
finally, it is used as a very powerful steam
fire engine, capable of throwing Jet
to the top of the highest ship building
sheds; in short, it can do anything. the
dockyard laborers declare. short of talk
ing, and that it can do. after its own fash
ion, with its steam whistle.
when we saw it at work it was remov-
ing Il huge marine boiler from among the
scores of similar monsters stored in the
depot. It seemed a marvel how such a
bulk of iron could be moved at all; but
by the use of tackels and blocks it was
first hauled clear of others. and then hav-
ing been lifted by jacks on to the travel
ling truck, the engine moved off with its
load-like an ant removinga a grain of corn
ten times as big and heavy rs itself
along the narrow tracks, III and out the
timber and other impedimentS in its way:
around the various docks. without noise
or friction, the great load progressed un-
til il finally reached its destination. The
weight of the boiler was about eight and
twenty tons, which, together with that of
truck and engine, made total of forty
three tons: nevertheless it went smooth
ly over the yard. and in consequence of
its broad wheels, made even less mark up
on the paving than would a score of strain
ing horses with their hoois flashing fire.
At an instance of the odd jobs it is put
to do, we may mention that particular
Oulk Ol Obhtii AltllOCI ilOnA
the middle of a stack. an immense num-
Der of laborers Were told to haul 1t out
After many efforts, however, they gave it
up, when the engine, happening TO pass
on other work, the driver volunteered to
get it Out-a work done almost as speed
ily as the pulling out of "a double tooth,
an operation it somewhat resembled. mas
much as the bulk of timber was very If
regular in form. and must have required
an awful tug To extract it from the stack.
When any steamer requires any repairs
to her screw, this handy jack of the yard
goes down to the edge of the dock, fits up
Its derrick apparatus and in a few min
utes the huge blades of the screw are lift
ed on to the quay wall. The kind of work
is varied sometimes by unloading timber
from the ships side, and taking it to the
stack; or with her capstan head she lifts
the heavy chain cables from the holds of
the men-of-war; and when the other la
borers have done their work, and the
huge stationary engine of the yard IS at
rest for the day, the traction engine comes
up, plants herself firmly in the shop where
motive power is required for overwork,
the band is slipped over her driving drum,
and Immediately the whole machinery OF
n department is at work. She Is constant
" thus employed in the armor plate shed
and in consequence of the small expense
at which she is worked, compared with
the large stationary engine, an immense
saving accrues to the public service.
Perhaps the most curious and inter
esting feature of the traction engine is
the arrangement by which she is enabled
TO climb hills which horses with heavy
loads could not attempt, and not only to
climb but to descend with equal facility.
In order to accomplish this, the driving
wheels are fitted with mechanical ar
rangement which acts like a cats claw,
in seizing or taking firm hold of the ground.
These talons are projected through the
rim of the wheel, and are withdrawn
with feathering action like that of a
at the moment they act as
an obstruction; they simulate, in fact the
sheathing action of the cats claw, clear
ing themselves, at every rotation of the
wheel, of the clogging soil The engine
is capable of ascending gradients as steep
as one in six, and it has several times
been seen. to the astonishment of the
conVeyinga 6S FOUNDER gun,
weighing ll2 cwt., down the Plumstead
road, over the steep activity OF Burage
hill. and returning by the descent OF San
DIV hill to the Arsenal; feat which, 1t Is
needless to say, horses could not have ae-
On Woolwich Common,
moreover, it maneuvres with three OF
these ponderous 6S Founders with an as
tonishing facility.
..The wheels of the traction-engine are
50 broad that they do no damage to the
ordinary road, and they run without sink
ing in marshy land and on loose
ground where ordinary wagons would sink
beyond reclaim. The ordinary pace OF
the engine, when carrying a load over
broken ground, is about three miles an
hour; and it has been proved capable OF
over good road as great weight
IS a hundred tons.
"This speed and power of traction, and
the low cost at which it works, the ex-
6ense for the coke not being more than
two and six-pense per day, point to the
great adaptability Of the traction-engine
for lines of metropolitan tramway or to
lines running between towns incapable OF
a railway with its expensive
rolling stock. The engine moves so noise
lessly that, if one were constructed spec
ially to run in our streets, no horses would
be frightened by it. and it may be easily
to avoid the escape of steam al
together. However, the extraordinary
hardness and compactness of this new
power, the ability to turn the power to
any kind of work, and the ease with
which it is guided by the aid of the steer
age wheel, will, without any measure OF
doubt render her the indispensable COM
panion of man wherever great works are