Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1889-01-26
OLD STEAM ENGINE.
A Queer and Ponderous Continuance, hut
1t Did Its Work Well.

IL Diu It's work Well.
1t has been claimed that to Rhode
Island belongs the honor of using the
first practical stationary steam engine
in the United States. Without at
tempting to vouch for the historical
accuracy of the statement it is suffi-
cient to know that the engine was mt
work in the town of Cranston more
than a hundred years ago, and that,
although of crude construction and
ponderous movement, it did the work
for which it was designed. The en-
CINE was built by Mr., Joseph Brown,
of this city, and cost upward of Fl 900
1t was founded upon the English type
of engine known as the Newcomer,
but contained some improvements and
simpliications original with the build
or. The engine was set up at the
Cranstou ore beds beyond Knights
vile, and one OF the most complete ac-
counts OF 1t is to be found in the
biography and diary of Manassoh Cut
Ter, LII. d., Ipswich, Mass. Dr. Cut
Ter appears to have learned OF this en-
CINE and took occasion to visit it. In
the diary. unleIdatc juno u. 1887. he
thus Describes the mechanism.
80 go to the furnace aud engine was
EIGHT miles. nearly. ont Of NV wav but
nv CURIOSITY was so much excited bv
the description of so SINGULAR a scheme
the only one in America--that T
could not DENY myself the Measure of
viewiup if. arrived at the ore beds
| Cron ore) at twelve o'clock The on
well eiphtv feet deem. The iron fine is
two and onc-half feet wide nv six feet
lone. with a souarc beorth ot the
NOUN. secured from hre hv LARGE
thick. iron plates. On the back part
of the Hue is winding funnel. bich
passes into chimney back of the
building.
"Abovc the nue is placed "A wooden
boiler, six feet in diameter. which is
constantly kent full of water when the
engine is in motion. The boiler rises
above the first story of the building,
m,ch in the form of tho lorga cistarns
used in distillories where if receives
nj thc ton tho cordarsinr cv,ipdar
two and one-balf feet in diameter and
made Of plated iron. From tbis cvlin.
der a LARGE worm masses with many
windinps down tba boiler The valve
that masses into this cvlindar Is more
than two feet in diameter and rises
and descends nv means of nm iron rod
made fast IN one end of a large
beam. Around the ton Of the
boiler are numerops ,eadon mines
some connected with the con.
denser and some not-.fnrnisbed with
stop-coclls for ADMITTING or excluding
air or water ~ necessary in WORKING
the machine. brt tbov arc too p,rorI
GUS and complicated TO admit of any
dissertation from . mare view If the
machine, A LARGE reservoir Of wafer
is placed in the third loft of the house.
and is constantly supplied with n punn
for the nurpose, Inv tbe WORKING of the
machine.
The large beam is a massive piece OF
timber near four feet in diameter and
twenty feet long. being two very large
1ak timbers nicely forged together.
1t moves on a large iron bolt in the
center, like the beam of scales. and
mas two arching timbers. at each end,
forming the scgments of n circle,
along which two chains of prodigious
size play as the bean moves. One OF
these chains leads 10 the piston. or
valve of the condenser. and the other,
ut the opposite end, 10 the pumps in
the we'll. There are four cold water
pipes. one feeding pipe. and one vent
ing pipe. By the same motion of the
beam which raises the water ont of the
we'll all these pipes open or close by
means of stop-cocks and valves as the
iesign of them requires. There
are two large pumns in In,
we'll, which is eighty feet deem ant
twenty-three feet wide. The sides q
the we'll are supported bv largo tim
)ers laid horizontal. so as Ito make tn,