The times., 1899-07-17


of a principle in mechanics a young Swede
in this city believes he will revolutionize
| existing method of compressing air. The
! inventor is Mr.. X. o. B. Textorius. grad
uate of the University of Stockholm. and a
mechanical craftsman by profession. For
| several years the machine has been deyel-
| oped, 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 tall Office build
ing in fremont Street, and very few, out
side the inventor and friend who has
a financial interest. have seen it. The
model is small. Its size was fixed by the
| limited dimensions of what spare room
| there was in a little hall bedroom in a
| South End lodging house. where the ma
1 chine was started some years ago. If the
| the room had been larger, so would the
machine have been. In this little lodging
room Mr.. Textorius filed and pounded and
!
/ 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
/ weight off the safety valve, letting it fall
on the floor with a bang, the other dodgers
and the landlady insisted that Mr. Textor-
| ius was disturbing element and he had
| to 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 1t for a desk.
at which he could work est his plans un-
disturbed by any desire to sleep. Here the
boarding house product was trimmed and
pruned, and grated upon until the ma
chine as it stands today was finished Then
Mr.. 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
Mr.. Textorius was employed by a COM
pany making speciality of heating and
ventilating to draw plans for furnishing
fresh air in stated amounts and tempera-
lures to 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
him at the outset was the great cost of
existing methods. To compress the air
slowly in order to heat 1t as little as pos
sible. to keep it cold and then heat it as
quickly as possible when wanted for use,
are simple phases of the great problem of
producing the best possible results at the
"
amount of coal. An expert who has ex-
amined Mr.. Textorius model says that
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 refrigerating and other
purposes. Compression is the first stage
in the production of liquid air. and an eco
nomical method OF compression will be
hailed with delight by the manufacturers.
The experimental plant of Mr.. Textorius
is interesting in many ways. On 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
countless centuries. To reduce the cost
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 it 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 controll-
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 rot 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 bed-plate arranged in a
circle and coupled in tliametricalIy opposite
pairs. Thus, as one piston is at its low
point its mate is at its high point and nj.
the others are at work. either admitting
free air or compressing the air admitted
at a former point of the stroke. Free air
is admitted through an aperture to each
cylinder and the compressed air is deliver
ed into a common pipe through which
passes a constant current of compressed
air.
In the centre Of the circle OF pumps is
shaft driven by the prime mover. which
may, of course, be a 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 a very uni
form and economical manner.
For the governing device there is an
outside circular track which run two
wheels, and on shafts to which these two
: Tod