The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1879-08-16
The Steam Engine of the Future.
John Bourne ia English Paper.

Surprising good and cheap small engine
to be available-an engine that Will be strong
simple, safe, light noiseless and economical
in fuel-not only would all It's industrial ap
plcatlons be extended, but it would find a
new and wide sphere of usefulness in minis
terng to domestic wants. one OF the most
widely pervading of which is the want of a
motive power. In America hotel steam en-
giHes have long been employed for brushing
boots and cleaning knives. They are doclle
and inexpensive Helots of the age, and the do.
nestle production of the electric light Is "A new
and important sphere for their energies. But
besides these functions, a domestic engine may
be employed in roasting meat, driving wash
Iing,machines and manglcs, driving sewing
machines, in brushing hair, IN preparing
prated waters. and in the country for pump
| ing, for saving wood, and for performing
many other laboriOus operations. a steam en-
glnc may be made to cool houses in summer
and to warm them IN winter, to maintain toun-
ains in Conservatives to work punkas, to pro-
duce ice and to create and maintain "A vacuum
in safes for the preservation of meat. For such
purposes the engine must obviously be OF the
simplest most compact, and most inexpensive
character, and should he attached to the boiler
so that the whole may be lifted in piece, like
a hall stove. The boiler should be provided
WIN Il sell dCjluU lCtNt vi NdNtl, anu lliC Iuti
should be gas, which has only to be lighted to
enable the engine to be put into operation.
Gas companies will find ample compensation
tor the loss of their lighting function in the
creation of a new heating function which will
become larger and more remuneratlve than
the lighting has ever been Instead of extract
ing from the coal only the illuminating gases,
the whole fuel should be turned into combust-
ible gas by the aid of superheated steam, and
all the fires of houses could be maintained by
this cheap gas burning in jets amid pumice,
which it would keep red hot There would
then be neither dust from CRATES nor smoke
from chImneys and the gas-works would sup
ply the fuel that is necessary for the genera
| ton of the electrict light The application of
the steam engine to the propulsion of carriages,
Omnibuses and cabs is now only hindered by
its too heavy weight and too high cost As
phalt pavements, which are Objectionable for
horses, afford for steam carriages a surface as
leliCible for easy traction a. railway, ana
without any countervailing fault. All wheel
ed vehicles whether required to travel at a
nigh or low speed will be propelled by steam
instead of horses as soon as the steam engine Is
made sufficiently light and sufficiently cheap
10 warrant the substitution Llfe-boats, in
stead of being open boats propelled by mum
| Der OF men, should be decked boats propelled
| by steam engine and managed by only two
men, one to steer the boat and the other TO at
| tend to the engine. Such boats should be pro
PEELED by waterjet which will always act
whatever may be the roughness of the sea and
whether the stern of the boat is in or out OF the
water. The use of the steam engine for lrri
CATION in connection with the centrifugal
pump is an application of which the sphere /:
limited only by the cost and the deficient
portability of the apparatus. To render The
class of small engines so much more portable
50 mucn more simple anu so much less costly
as To remove the existing impediments TO theil
use may certainly be accounted one of the mos
important problems of the present time, ana
trust 1t is not prescriptions TO hope that thu
curiosity hints here gwen may accelerate the
desired solution.