Virginia free press. (Charlestown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1832-1916, 1890-07-02
BIG MACHINES.
The Modern Tendency Is Toward Huge,
Powerful Engines.

Powerful Engines.
There is notable tendency in industrial
enterprises in recent times not only to
concentrate capita. into large concerns,
but to have structures and machinery OF
the largest possible kind, and to drive it
with extreme rapidity. This is pre-emi.
nently the day of big things, using the
word in its ordinary sense TO mean large,
massive. heavy, and bulky. Ocean steam-
ships are growing larger and more power
full. Locomotives, cars, railway tracks,
bridges are all made heavier. Blast fur
naces have increased in size and their
output has increased enormously so that
a product of 800 tons day is no more
uncommon that one of 800 tons a week
was 20 years ago. A Bessemer steel works
has recently made the record OF $4,000
tons of steel in one month. Open hearth
furnaces are now erected with capacity
of 80 tons, or three times the capacity OF
those of 10 years ago. In rolling mills
the same progress has been shown. a
plate was rolled in Pittsburg 80 inches
wide by s. feet long, inch thick. weigh
ing 7.4S0 pounds.
In steam and electric engineering the
same tendency is seen. AT the Home
stead Steel Works, Pittsburg, there Is
about to be placed one of the largest Cor
liss engines in the world, with horizon
tai cylinder "a by ~ inches. The fly wheel
will weigh 100000 pounds. The whole
weight of the engine will be over 5O0,0Oo
pounds, and it is expected to develop
$500 horse power. The Corliss engine,
the largest in the world, was built at the
Soho Iron Works, Bolton, England. lt
is of 5000 horse power, of the vertical
type. and stands AS feet high. II Is de-
signed to drive the Ferranti dynamos,
As feet in diameter, mentioned below.
The West End electric railway station
in Boston is TO have IL engines of 1000
horse power each. They are to be triple
compound, with cylinders 81, 80, and %
inches in diameter. The power is trans
mitted by two belts for each engine, each
belt feet wide. Steam will be furnished
by "a water tube boilers, each rated at
500 horse power. The new cable railway
station of the West Side cable railway III
Chicago has two Greene engines, each 80
inches bv - inches. Each engine weighs
23s. 900 pounds. and has capacity oil
/. POO horse power. The new water tube
boiler designed by I. +. Morrin, of Jer-
sew CITY. which is located at the West
inghouse electric light station in oath
street. New York city, contains 600 S-inch
water tubes of peculiar bent shape, ex-
banded at each end into an internal CYL
inder 4S inches in diameter The aggre-
gate length of the tubes is i,2OO feet, or
about a mile and half, and the boiler
has 5000 feet of heating surface, and Is
said to be capable of developing 1000
horse power.
In foreign countries the same tendency
toward bigness is shown, and in electri-
cal engineering the. have even surpassed
us. The Ferranti dynamos used in the
Deptford lighting stations near London
weigh 500 tons eacl stand 45 feet high,
run at 60 revolutions per minute, and
can supply about 100000 incandescent
lights.
Two dynamos of 10.0O0-lamp capacity
are being made for Berlin, each one OF
which will require about 1000 horse
power.
There are no data now existing which
will enable any one to predict what Will
be the size of boilers, engines, dynamos,
steamships, bridges, cars, locomotives,
office buildings, and other structures ~
years hence. Everything in the en-
gineering line seems to be changing at a
more rapid rate than at any previous
period. Certainly the limit to increase
of size does not appear. When the
single engine reached its limit in ship
building the compound engine came In
When shafts and screws seemed to have
grown as large as they could be made
twin screws and shafts were used, and at
the same time facilities for making still
larger shafts and screws were perfected.
So il is in every branch of engineering;
as soon as limit is fixed some one finds
way of overlapping it and the limit IS
placed further ahead.