The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1890-10-02
Anaerspt1 ynte11tget.ter.
Engineering TrIumplls.

There is q notable tendency in indus.
trial enterprises in recent times not only
to concentrate capital into large con-
Germs, but to have structures, machinery,
etc., of the largest possible kind, and to
drive it with extreme rapidity. This is
pre- eminently the day of "big things"
using the word "big" in its ordinary
sense to mean large, massive, heavy and
bulky. Ocean steamships are growing
larger and more powerful, although no
modern ship has yet reached the size of
the "Great Eastern" which was deficient
in power. Locomotives, cars, railway
tracks, bridges are all being made heav-
ier. Blast furnaces have increased in
size, and their output has increased
enormously, so that product of 300 tons
day ia no more uncommon than one OF
300 tons week was twenty years ago.
A Bessemer steel works has recently
made the. record of 10000 tons OF steel
in one month. Open hearth furnaces
are now erected with q capacity Of so
tons, or three times the capacity ;lf those
Of ten years ago. In rolling mills the
same progress hss been shown. a riate
was rolled recently 10 Pittsburgh 30
inches wide by So leet long, seven eights
inch thick, weighing 7,4s0 pounds. In
steam an electric engineering the same
tendency is seen. At the Homestead.
Steel Works, Pittsburgh, there IS about
to be placed one nf the largest Curliss
engines IN the world, with a horizontal
cylinder 81 by II inches. The fly wheel
will weigh 200, 1000 pounds The whole
weight Of the engine will be over 500, 900
pounds, and it is expected to develop
8, 500 horse power The Curliss engine.
the Largest in the world" was built at
the Soho Iron works, Bolton, Eng land.
Iii of 5 900 horse power, of the vertical
type, and stands 48 feet high 1t is
designed to drive the Ferrauti dyEamos,
As feet in diameter, mentioned below.
The West Eod electric railway station iu
Boston is to baps 19 engines of 1000
florse power each. They are to be triple
compound with cylinders 81, 36 and 52
inches in diameter. The power is trans
mitled hy twu belts for each engine,
each belt FIVE. feet wide. Steam
will be furnished by "a water tube boil
ers, each rated at 500 horse power. The
new cable railway station ot the West
Side Cable Railway, ir Chicago, bias two
Greene engines, each 36inches by u
inches; each engine weighs 29S,000
pounds, snd has q capacity Of 1,200
horse power. We recently described the
large Belpaire boilers aud Levitt hosting
engines at the Calumetan Hec!a mine,
aud now we have a description of the
new water.tube boiler designed BY T. F.
Murrin, of Jersey City, which is located
at the Westinghouse electric lig ght sta.
tion, on Twenty-fonrth street New York
city. It contains 600 three.inch water.
tubes of peculiar bent shape, expanded
at each end into au internal cylinder 4S
inches in diameter. The aggregate
length ofthe tubes is 200 feet, or about
a mile anda halt, and the boiler has
5000 fest of heating surface, and is said
to be capable of developing 1000 horae
power: In foreign countries the same
tendency towards bigness is shown, and
in electrical engineering they have even
surpassed us. The Ferranti dynamoa
used in the Deptford lighting stations
near London, which were illustrated in
the Engineering and Mining Journal,
1889, weigh 500ltons each, stand 45 feet
high, run at 60 revolutions per minute.
and can each supply about zoe, 900 incan-.
descent lights. Two dynamos of 10000.
lamp capacity are being made for Berlin,
each of which will require about 1000
lorse 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 ten years hence. Every
thing in the engineering line seems to be
changing ats more rapid rate than any.
previous period. Certainly the limit to
increase of size does not yet appear.
When the single engine reached its limit
in shipbnilding, 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 it is in every branch
of engineering; as soon as limit is
fixed some one finds a way of overlapping
it, and the limit is placed further ahead.
Engineering and Mining Journal.