The evening times., 1899-07-17
CHEAP COMPRESSED AIR.
BostOn Inventor Thinks He Hns
Solved the Great Problem.

Boston. July 17.-By the new application
of principle in mechanics young Swede
in this city believes he will revolutionize
existing method of COMPRISING air. The
inventor is Mr.. X. o. B. Textorius, a grad
uate OF the University Of Stockholm. and
mechanical craftsman by profession. For
several years the machine has been devel-
cped, until now it is almost ready to be put
upon the market at moment
when air power is one of the
most absorbing subjects of study by
engineers and capitalists. Patent rights
covering every point have been secured in
this country and are pending abroad.
The experimental machine is in room
up under the skylight of a tall Office build
ing In fremont Street. and very few, out
side the inventor and a friend who has
financial interest, have seen it. The
model is small Its size was fixed by the
limited dimensions of what spare room
there was in little hall bedroom in a
South End lodging house, where the ma
chine was started some years ago. II the
the room had been larger, SO would the
machine have been. In this little lodging
room Mr.. Textorius He'd and pounded and
AAt'Sa u0tii >aS uiSL udCulut WAS Tbduy
| to be started. AS he was employed by day
all this work had to be done at night
Just at the moment when the generator
demonstrated its success by blowing the
Welght OH the safety valve, letting it fall
on the floor with bang. the other dodgers
and the landlady insisted that Mr.. Textor-
lus was disturbing element, and he had
10 leave the house Then he went to the
fremont Street room, into which he put
the machine and his friends put folding
bed. The inventor had little use for the
latter, however, and traded it for a desk
at which he could work out his plans un-
disturbed by any desire to sleep. Here the
boarding house product was trimmed and
pruned, and grated upon. until the ma
ehine as it stands today was finished. Then
MI Textorius went abroad to study for
eign methods of air compression. and. after
several months of careful investigation,
returned last December fully convinced OF
the superiority Of his invention.
MIR. Textorius was employed by a COM
pahy making speciality of heating and
Ventiiaung to draw plans for furnishing
Iresh air In stated amounts and tempera-
lures 10 large numbers of people The
study of this problem in its many phases
naturally led him to the study of air COM
preston, and one thing that impressed
MIN at the outset was the great cost of
existing methods. To compress the air
slowly in order to heat it as little as pos
sible, TO keep IL cold and then heat il as
quickly as possible when wanted FOR use,
are simple phases of the grea: problem of
producing the best possible results at the
air motor from the expenditure of a given
amount OF coal. An expert who has ex-
amined Mr.. TeXtorius' model says that a
large machine built on the same lines
would obtain given results with one
eighth the power used by the ordinary
method, II the theory is borne out in
practice. the great value OF the invention
can be seen at once in these days of
compressed air street cars, automobiles
and liquid air for refrgerating and other
purposes. Compression Is the first stage
in the production of liquid air. and an eco
nonIical method of compression will be
hailed with delight by the manufacturers
The experimental plant of Mr.. Textorius
is interesting in many ways. On a little
platform are three machines-the air
power engine, the air-power generator,
and little electric motor driven from
the incandescent- light circuit Note the
! procession of forces: First, the air-power
! engine; back of that. in an evolutionary
! sense. is the air generator; back of that the
! electric motor: then the dynamo, miles
away. driven by the engine. and that in
turn driven, through the medium of steam,
/ by the primal power stored in the coal for
! of this process of evolution. from the
! power in the coal to the air power in
pipes or in steel bottles, is one of the
! great mechanical problems of the day.
The revolutionary principle in Mr. Tex
| torius' machine is the application of the
/ law of gravity by the use of big wheel
! called an actuator But the method of ap-
| plication is almost equally revolutionary.
| in that il acts upon a multiple series of
! cylinders arranged in a circle and tied to-
! gether in pairs on the walking beam prin-
| ciple- There are many little niceties of
| adjustment and application that, in theory
| at least, do much TO perfect the machine.
! Some of them can be appreciated by even
! the layman at a glance. The cylinders are
/ long and small in diameter. That means
| slow compression and the maintenance
/ of low temperature of the air during
| compression. The actuator is SO controli-
ed by balances that the low point is al
ways just ahead of it. and the two big
| balance wheels help by their forward trend
as well as their momentum.
| To be brief and not too technical, the
! Textorius Howard air-power generator
! consists of a series of pumps, eight, ten
| twelve. sixteen, twenty-four or more
mounted on a bedplate arranged in
/ circle and coupled in diametrically opposite
| pairs. Thus, as one piston is at its low
point its mate is at its high point and all
| the others are at work. either admitting
| free air or COMPRISING the air admitted
| at former point of the stroke. Free air
| is admitted through an aperture to each
cylinder and the compressed air is deliver
ed into common pipe, through which
| passes a constant current of compressed
| air.
In, the centre of the circle of pumps is a
shaft driven by the prime mover, which
may, of course, be steam engine, water
wheel. or electric motor. To the top of
this shaft is attached, for power for com
preston, heavy Wheel to which the in
ventor has given the name '.actuator''
This rotates around the circle of pumps.
running upon fiat ring. to the lower side
| OF which are attached the tops OF the pi.-
| ton rods in the pumps. The weight of the
actuator transmits the necessary power of
compression TO the pistons in ve.y uni
form and economical manner.
For the governing device there IS an
outside circular track on which run two
! wheels, and on shafts to which these two
are connected there are two large and
heavy wheels situated Numerically oppo-
site each moving at high speed and in op-
posite directions. These large wheels t
as governing devices, and also assist BY
| their momentum in the work ef rotating
/ the shaft to which is connected the actua-
tor.
The use of a multiple series of small.
pumps instead of single larger one WILL
it is said by the inventor, compress large
volume of free air to a given pressure with
the expenditure of less primal power. Ac-
cording to the inventor, it would require
eight times as much power to compress air
| to a given pressure in cne cylinder 3.S4