Sunbury American. [volume] (Sunbury, Pa.) 1848-1879, 1868-11-07
MISCELLANEOUS.
what Invention Has Ee0nc within
AZ Generation

IL IS not so many years ago since the lead
! ing shIp-builders maintained that iron slips
could not swim. When they had swum it
was argued that they could not hold to-
| gether, although we row know that iron
ships may be made of sizes and proportions
! that could never be repeated in wood, as.
for example, the Great Eastern, $50 feet
long, and other ships 400 feet long, and of a
beam only one eleventh of their length.
Next 1T was contcnded that iron ships would
ioul 10 such an extent as to prevent their
being kept going, and it is but very few
years since iron war ships were reckoned as
wholly impracticable. There were no argu.
ments against watcr~tight bulkheads, because
there could be none beyond these-tlat they
| cost something and weighed something;
but it was o long time before they came
. into general use. Iron masts were objected
to because they could not, as it was said, be
cut away, as if it was always necessary to
be cutting away masts, but hanse Joint,
WIN Do!ts and nuts near the deck, removed
| TINS objection. Iron standing rigging came
III at last, and so did topsails that could be
reeied from the deck Just as the sails of
windmills are rcefed from the mill house.
Anchors, too, of far greater holding power
tor given weight are now common, and we
have boat-loweling gear which will Olsen
gage both ends of boat at the same instant
OF time. Once it was rcckoned impossible
to apply steam to the propulsion of ships,
ana, long afterwards, il was thought unlike.
! ~ that screws could ever compete with pad.
dies.
In steamship machinery, too, it was the
opinion only few years ago that only slow.
engine speeds and spur gearing, or very
coarse pitched screws, could ever answer.
IL Is enough to say that this is not the opin-
ION now: Even with high speeds of screw
engines it was long before any one thought
1t worth while to apply counter weights,
patented, we may as well say, by Mr.. Cramp.
ton, IN lS47, six years before they were used
by Penn or Mr. Bourne.
The screw was once on the verge of dis.
honorable dismissal, and all for the want of
hlr. Pcnn's WOOD bearings, the least likely,
| upon an P'l0rt view, TO withstand wear,
! ana yet they constitute one of the greatest
! improvements ever made in steamship ma
chlnery. The same unlikely material, wood,
now serves as the best for packing the many
thousand jointed service condensers. High
speed screw eng ines could not, it was once
believed, work their air pumps at full stroke
from the piston, yet we have now double
acting pumps of large force worked at the
rate of 20, 10 and even 1O6 double strokes
per minute, and the unlikely material, India
! rubber, serves perfectly for the valves. Even
the value OF the marine engine governors has
been at last discovered.
50 with railways. We have been long
familiar with them, yet it was but very lately
that clever engineers argued that they could
never be worked underground with frequent
trains as tor metropolitan traffic 1t is hardly
! longer since it was maintained that there
hone
And who would admit, few years ago, that
continuous brakes, mechanically put on,
could be worked on railway trains, or that
mail bags could be caught at forty miles an
hour, or that gas could be introduced in
] railway trains, or that communication be-
tween passengers and guards was both prac-
| tlcable and allowable, or that sleeping car
rlages could be made both comfortable and
profitable, or that signals could be so arrang.
ed, as by Andersons plan, made by Yardley,
OF Manchester, that mistakes were no longer
possible. And as for locomotive and car
riage details, how long were balanced slide
valves the ignus .Jdtui of locomotive enai-
neers; how long did it take to understand
that Ramsbottom's mode of picking up
water, just as it is wanted, is cheaper than
carrying 1t about eight or ten tons at time,
with a ten or twelve ton tender to hold it
no" lohs 10 learn that condensed steam
would certainly displace oil in the gravity
OF displacement 1ubricator, and how long
Will 1t take tolearn that axle boxes fabricated
with oil cause less friction than the dirty,
troublesome and extravagant grease pots
now in use 1t is only now that engineers
are learning that locomotives can take
load up inclines of in 10, and that without
a mid-rail, and that bogie rolling stock is
the easiest and safest Of all. What a world
Of irritation it has taken to convince engi-
neers that Richards indicator is the only
one fit to be used for high speeds, even up
to four hundred and fifty revolutions per
minute; how long to instil into the minds
of owners Of steam power that Prony's fric-
tion brake, as improved by Appold, is the
only true measure of power, as developed or
consumed by machines having a circular
motions By-and.by the Canadian railway
managers and engineers will be believed