Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1882-05-18
Enormous waste of Power IN steam
Engines.

Enormous waste u Power m steam
Engines.
re are a number of reasons for
ng that within the next year or
bnsiderable progress will be made
Wy neononidng force. In,
Inn - aical ppiianees there
= Esrss ta e. e ' sss. . i boiler s
WI iesyhSel6 where every
df0p of waSef would seem to be utilized,
there is waste in transferring the pow
er OF about one-ffth. The nearest ap-
proach toward the absolute conservation
of force is made in the use of dynamo
electric machines. With some of these
about ninety-ive per cent. of the power
generated by the machine is put upon
the wire in the form of electricity, and
then by connecting wires with another
dynamo machine the electricity can be
reconverted into motion with loss of
only five per cent. In other words, the
force applied to an electric-dynamo ma
chine can be transferred over q distance
of one or two miles, and then nsed with
loss of about ten per cent. of its vol
ume. Such close adaptation of mesns
to ends is unparalleled in previous me-
chanical construction. 1t approaches
nearly, in the conservation of force, to
the methods of nature.
The success that has been met with in
the construction of force-saving electric
mschines seems to have stimulated in
quiry IN other directions. 1t is, indeed,
1 an uncomfortable reflection on human
Eil2enuityto be compelled TO admit that
nine-tentAs of the value of every pound
of coal burned under a steam boiler is
~swasteA Certainly methods which are
attended with such an extravagant leak
age of force must sooner or later pass
into disuSe. In what way change will
be made it would be impossible to say.
1t may come by a better utilization OF
fuel or the substitution of some medium
to take the place of steam, or by both
OF these combined. There seems to be
"a growing belief that it is better to use
coal for the manufacture of gas, and
sthen use the gas for heat under a boiler.
than it is to directly employ coal for the
latter purpose. What is known as water.
gas, which is formed by passing super
heSted steam over q bed of incandescent
coal, can be made at a very low price,
under favorable circumstances at about
% cents per l 200 cubic feet. The
heating power of water-gas is some.
what less than that of ordinary street
gas but the difference in this respect is
By no means SO great as the variation in
3 Price would apparently imply. There
have been experiments made which
seem to indicate that a pound of coal
converted into water-gas and then
burned under q boiler will produce
twice the amount of force that can be
obtained by the direct combustion of the
coal. But there would be another gain
in the fact that this gas to be used for
heating purposes would, if its general
use became desirable, be furnished by
pipes from some central stations, and
thus do away with the minor expenses
attendant upon a. generating power
from coal in thousands of different 10.
calities. sessns@
Then the question arises, is the use OF
steam-power desirable? 1t is asserted
by inventors both here and in England
that it is not an economical method,
and that at no distant day steam station
airy engines will give place to caloric
enginesswhich can be depended upon to
do q given amount of work at so per
cent. the volume of heat required by the
best steam engines. So far this asser-
ton rests upon experimental tests. for
. these lately devised methods have not YET
been subjected to the trial of general
application. Results attained in an
inventor's workshop often prove de-
lusiye when the attemptsto secure them
is made under different conditions.
There is, however, one gain in the use
2 of caioric engines which is of sufficient
importance to make one wish that their
employment might become general.
This is their relative safety. The ex-
plosive power of steam is very well
known by the numerous disasters which
it has occasioned. With a caloric boiler
an explosion is impossible. The pres
sure may be so great as to force it apart,
Just as boiler is sometimes rent when
subjected, for the purpose of trial, to
] cold water pressure, but in one case,
As inS the other, the explosive force,
which in steam boiler skaters the
iron and throws it with great violence in
all directions, is wholly wanting. The
chamber of twenty horsepower caloric
engine might explode in the basement
of a building and those on the floor
above be wholly unaware of the mishap,
while those who happened to be en-
ployed near the engine would be in nc
danger Why it is that steam has such
an immense explosive power has never
been satisfactorily solved. However, il
hot air is free from this defect its EN-
ployment as a motor might be advisable,
even on the supposition that there was
no great saving in the cost of running
the different engines. But If it can be
shown that by its use a ysaying in ex-
pense of 80 per -cent.scan be made, no
other argument will be- necessary. Ii
the various methods referred to can be
made to work in a satisfactory manner,