Blackfoot news. (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1891-1902, 1892-04-02
TO SUPERsEDE STEAM.
A NEW MOTIVE POWER DIscoV-
Erred BY AN ENGINEER.
by Its Use the Atlantic Voyage May Be
Made In -Four Days-Ammonia
Gas Successfully Applied to
Steam Engines.

The engines on the tug-boat Edwin |
Hartley of New York, are OF type
calculated to interest engineers
greatly. writes John K. Robson in
the Detroit Free Press and, in fact
to arouse the curiosity Of all people |
in the development of new ideas.
They are much like the ordinary
engines in tug-boats and are adapted
from the original compound engines
used in the tug-boat But they give
the same speed to the boat that they
used to give when steam was used,
and are run with exactly one-haf the
amount of coal the old system re-
quired. The saving comes from the
use OF ammonia gas. in the place of
steam, as the source of the power.
The gas passes through the same
cylinders that the steam. was
used in. 1t is known that the steam
engine is very economical. but com
paratively few people know that the
amount of work used is hardly more
than one-tenth the total energy in the
COAL By far the greatest part of this
great waste occurs in what is known
as the condenser. where the steam
that has been used is converted into
water. This loss is only increased
when the steam blows off into the air,
! for then the whole of the heat is lost;
that is to say all the heat in the
steam being of a certain value, say
! A. $50 units, only about 125 are used
in the best modern steam engines.
The loss in the condenser is caused by
the absolute loss of the heat required
to turn water heated TO the boiling
point to steam or about 1000 units.
Inventor Campbell has found that
ammonia requires much less heat to
vaporize it than water does and has
conceived the idea of using that gas
in the place of steam. As might be
expected, he encountered many diff
culties in the way of putting his idea
into practice. In the first place am
monia gas itself cannot be made liquid,
a necessary operation. above tenn
perature OF see. This great diff
Guilty he has avoided by using aqua
ammonia The water easily absorbs
the ammonia gas and thus can be
used.
: Then ammonia water cannot be used
in boilers on account of the great cor
rosive power of the liquid. So he at
taches an evaporator TO the regular
! boiler and evaporates the ammonia BY
using steam from the old boiler. AL
the heat OF the steam is thus used anC
we have no waste there. The ammo
, MIA gas found in this evaporation which
is practically the only addition made
4 TO the machinery OF the tug-boat goe
to the engines and does the work in
i stead of the steam. Then it comes Il
a some cold ammonia water and is ab
/ sorbed and passes back to the evapor
d ator.
4 AS in the use of ammonia it take
less than 400 units 10 evaporate tn
liquid into gas. the waste is shown {
be decreased in the ratio of ten t
four; the ten representing the !. 90
< units lost with steam, and the fou
s the 400 units lost with ammonia Thu
! the efficiency of the engine is NOR
), than doubled.
The advantages claimed for this sy:
- TEN are:
/, i. The economy; but one-half TIL
n coal is needed to run this type of er
# CINE that was required to run til
ut steam engine. This claim has prove
to be good from actual practice on tt
lg Hartley. where only one furnace
at now in use in the old double furnat
Ii boiler
&c 3. The system is easily attacheds>
+. tia, present engines and requires ver
IS little expense to fit it in place.
~ s. The boilers last longer as Il
~ water in them is always pure. viii
of ammonia gas being in itself a GOO
lubricant the use of oil in the cyli
der is dispensed with. This adva
tage would about double the life
the machinery.
IN The system is as easily cared for
en- the old one and tho gas does not lie;
-, ~ out, the ordinary glands and packil
" being sufficient TO keep 1t confined.
y, If on further trial. this syste
"a. should prove the great success it nj
Din promises to be. the new Atlantic lin
for will be out of date in two years ant
four-days trip from new York
ed Queenstown will soon be not at all i
uld common.
the The amount of coal required to
ain carried and burned is divided by tv
as This great economical advantage
enough to commend it to every u;
cen of an engine, and especially to mari
IN engineers where each pound of c,
tne carried means one pound less of ca,
-. TO be carried,
After all this, and in view of
~ fact that there are no dtsadvanta;
or, worth mentioning it seems proba
nti. that the steam engine, pure and 81
,ity pie. will soon be out of date, and t
but new and great Improvement in
linz OF heat engines will be used.