The San Saba weekly news. (San Saba, Tex.) 18??-1???, 1892-02-05
TO SUPERSEDE STEAM.
a NEW MOTIVE POWER DIScOV-
Erred BY AN ENGINEER.
BY Its Use the Atlantic Voyage May he
Made In -Four Days-Ammonia
Gas Successfully App led to
Steam Engines.


Steam Engines.
The engines on the tug-boat Edwi
Hartley. OF New York are of typ
calculated TO interest engineer
greatly writes John K. Robson i
the Detroit Free Press and in fact
to arouse the curiosity Of all peopl
in the development OF new ideas.
They are much like the ordinar,
engines in tug-boaJs and are adapte,
from the original compound engine
used in the tug boat But they Civ,
the same speed to the boat that thel
used to give when steam was used
and are run with exactly one-half tn,
amount of coal the old system re
Quired- The saving comes from thu
use OF ammonia gas in the place o
steam as the source of the power
The gas passes through the sam,
cylinders that the steam wa
used in. It is known that the steam
engine is very economical but com
palatively few people know that the
amount Of work used is hardly more
tLan one-tenth the total energy in tn,
coal BY far the greatest part of Thu
great waste occurs in what Is know
rs the condenser where the steam
that has been used Is converted into
water This loss is only increased
when the steam blows of INTO the air,
for then the whole OF the heat is lost.
that is to say ali the heat in the
steam being of a certain value. say
4 250 units only about l25 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 200 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 Ike place Of steam. As might be
expected. he encountered many diff
cultie5 in the way of putting his idea
lnto practice In the first place am
nonia gas itself cannot be made liquid,
a necessary operation. above a tenn
perature of $50. This great diff
Guilty he has avoided by using aqua
ammonia The wafer easily ahsorbs
tho ammonia gas and thus can be
used.
Then ammonia water cannot be used
in boilers on account of the great cor
rosiye 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. All
the heat OF the steam is thus used and
we have no waste there. The ammo
mia gas found in this evaporator which
is practically the only addition made
TO the machinery OF the tug boat goes
10 the engines and does the work in
stead OF the steam. Then it comes to
some cold ammonia water and is alb
orbed and passes back to the evapor-
ator
As in the use OF ammonia it takes
less than 400 units to evaporate the
liquid into gas the waste is shown to
be decreased in the ratio OF ten to
four; the ten representing the l, 600
units lost with steam, and the four
the 400 units lost with ammonia Thus
the efficiency of the engine is more
than doubled.
The advantages claimed for this sys-
tenn are:
]. The economy but one-half the
,oal is needed to run this type of en-
zine that was required 20 run the
steam engine. This claim has proved
10 be good from actual practice on the
Hartley, where only one furnace is
now in use in the old double furnace
boiler
? The system is easily attached to
the present engines and requires very
little expense to fit it in place.
8. The boilers last longer. as the
water in them is always pure. while
ammonia gas being in itself good
the use of oil in the cylin-
Ter is dispensed with This advan-
age would about double the life of
he machinery
The system is as easily cared for as
he old one and the gas does not leak
tut the ordinary glands and packing
being sufficient to keep it confined
II. on further trial this system
should prove the great success it now
promises TO be. the new Atlantic lines
will be out of date in two years and
trip from new York to
will soon De not at all I'M
common
The amount Of coal required to be
,arried and burned is divided by two.
This great economical advantage Is
enough to commend it to every user
If an engine, and especially to marine
where each pound of coal
,arried means one pound less of cargo
o be carried
After all this, and in view OF the
act that there are no disadvantages
worth mentioning it seems probable
hat the steam engine, pure aud sim
lie will soon be out of date, and this
lew and great Improvement in the
Inc OF heat engines will be used.