The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1886-04-23
Uses for Compressed Air.

''What are some of the uses of COM
pressed air rs n mctor?" asked New
York Mail and Express reporter of q
leading dealer in rock-drills and COM
pressed air machinery recently.
lit is especially well adapted" was
the reply, ''for rock-drills, pumps.
hosting engines. and other machines
used in mines, shafts, tunnels, and I'M
foreground work in general, where the
direct use of steam would be very in
convenient, and in most cases impracti-
cable. The fact is that the compressed
air is motor for all the essential pur-
poses of steam, without the loss of pow
er due to condensation and without the
heat and many other Inconvenience
attending the use of steam as a motive
power especially in confined places and
at distance from the source of supply.
1t is, therefore, applicable to all engines
that can be operated by the expansive
power of steam, either ut high or low
pressures, and one of its principal adj.
vantages over steam is that it can be
stored and transmitted through pipe to
any distance without any material loss
of pressure or diminution of volume, the
only requisites being pipe and ample
area, with tight joints and laid with the
least possible number of sharp turns.
In mining work particularly it has the
additional advantage that, upon ex-
hausting from the drills or other ma
chimes used, il furnishes to the workmen
a constant and abundant supply of pure,
fresh, and cool air, thus in many cases
obviating the necessity of providing
other and expensive means of vcntila-
ton"
us it applied to other kinds of work
succcssfully?'
Quite so. For instance, in sinking
bridge caissons; driving tunnels through
soft material by the pneumatic process;
for refrigcrating and ventilating purpo-
SEES; transmitting messages, packages
and passenger cars in pneumatic tubes;
vulcanizing wood; in the manufacture
of rubber goods and nitro-glycerine cx-
plosives; for elevating liquids, purifying
water for city and town use, driving
street cars, mine locomotives, and for
supplying very convenient and per-
fectly safe motor for running elevators
and factory and shop machinery. The
feasibility of COMPRISING air, either by
steam or water power, at any conve-
nicnt point for economical production.
and then conveying it through iron
pipes along the streets (eXactly as gas
or water is carried), to be tapped and
used wherever required. furnishing
power for use in towns and cities, has
already been practically demonstrated,
and it is only question of time when
this plan will be extensively adopted,
owing to its economy and safety. BY
this system power may be transmitted
to n great distance at comparatively
small expense. At the tunnel being
driven for the Washington ID. G. aque-
duct. the compressor plant is located at
Il central point for economical operation,
and the air distributed over distance
of five miles over ground, through ten.
twelve, and six-inch pipe, to the four
shafts where it is received by four-inch
pipe and supplied to the drills, hosting
engines, and pumps. When the tunnel
is completed the air will have been con-
veycd through ten miles Of pipe. This
is the longest distance air has been con-
| Quoted, and the loss OF friction and rad
iation does not exceed per cent 1t
can Just as readily be conducted much
longer distance without II higher per-
| centape of loss"