The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1881-01-13
Horse Sense in Mechanics,

learned rules fail, and engineers are at
fault, there comes man on the scene
who suggests a plain, practical, eff .
cient way out of difficulty. WheE
such mans suggestions prove prac-
ticable, he is credited with "horse
sense" probably from the acuteness
Of horses in finding and keeping the
right road when the masters have lost
it. Old machinists, when the they can
be induced to talk, recall many in
stances of the value of this horce
sense. A few specimens may be SUI
gestive.
In large and important manufac-
tory, huge balance wheel was used
as an equalizer between the prime
mover and the driven machinery, and
was run by jack shaft. and it was
found that when in motion-particu-
larly when starting and stopping
the balance wheel was loose on it's
Shaft. This loOsenesS could not be de.
tected when the machinery was stop.
ped, and all trials to move the wheel
on the shaft were futile. Still the
looseness was apparent when the
wheel was in motion, and was noticed
when there was any difference between
the strain on the prime mover and the
driven machinery. At length it was
determined to rectify the eccentric gy-
rations of the fly wheel, and workmen
were sent to do it. A quiet but OBJ
servant operative of the concern asked
leave to make test, and being al.
lowed, he found that the wheel had
stripped the corners of the key in the
hub. He had thought the matter out,
and by putting a purchase on the
wheel while the jacket was locked.
turned it on the shaft and removed
the key and the wheel. Then the
coast was clear and the cause of the
looseness stood confessed. A new key
way and new key rectified the
trouble.
Another instance occurred where it
became necessary to correct a leak in
the piston of steam engine. To do
this required the removal of the piston
for examination and repair. The en-
gine was of the horizontal pattern, and
the engineer did not know that the
piston was packed, but supposed it had
the usual springs between the follower
and piston plate. As events proved it
was a steam-packed piston. On an at
tempt being made to force the piston
out of the cylinder, it was found that
no amount of purchase or force, aided
by the momentum of the ply, could
get the piston beyond a certain point
near the end of the cylinder. Work
men began chipping the follower to
remove it in broken pieces, when the
fireman suggested that perhaps the
packing ring was broken, and had
lodged in the inlet port. This proved
to be the case, and the mystery of the
fixed piston was solved, the port being
OH the lower side of the cylinder and
the loose portion of the ring being
lodged in the port.
An engineer was much annoyed by
a thump in the cylinder of his engine.
He tried for days to find its exact
location. He called the best men in
the concern to assist him. None of
them could locate it. He followed
their advice and by degrees gave the
engine thorough overhauling. With
the exception of this thump, the er.
gine was probably never in better re-
pair than when he had given up the
thump as mystery never to be
solved. All the brasses had been re.
moved, and, where necessary, dressed;
the steam chest had been inspected;
the cylinder opened and the piston rings
adjusted, and, in short. every
thing that engineering experience
could suggest had been done, but to 10
avail. One day he sat in the doorway of
his engine room and looked at the regu-
lar play of the crosshead, over which
flowed ray of sunlight from a siGe
window. He noticed at length, as
the crosshead left the cylinder on it's
backward stroke, a fine mist seemed
to rise from the brasses connecting
the cr0sshead with the pitman. He
watched it a while and his horse sense
suggested a remedy for the thumpe
After shutting down re took out his
brasses and found slight indentation
OH the glib. just enough to allow 4
slight movement. He filed this out
and put in a shin of sheet steel, and
the thump was gone.
Some years ago a large concern had
contract for engines for government
use. They were propellers, and as
this was before the adoption of the
plan for raising the screw when the
vessel was to be propelled by sail. the
engine and propeller were disconnect.
ed by clutches. A system of compound
levers threw the engine and propellers
in gear and vice versa. These clutch.
es were immense affairs, the hanges
nearly six feet in diameter, and the
hubs proportioned. They were shrunk
on the shafts as we'll as keyed. Iu
shrinking one of the glands on it stuck
1t could not be removed, nor could il
be forced to place, as it had cooled
These clutches were costly affairs
They were costly as to weight and
trouble in molding and casting: they
were costly as to flushing and fitting
the jaws were faced with steel, and all
i - 90 Ah1 ~.