Omaha daily bee., 1910-09-12
Things You Want to Know Fight Of Steam.

The National Association OF Stationary
Engineers will meet In Rochester tomorrow.
while the International Union OF Steam
Engineers convened at Denver yesterday.
These organizations have been laborfng for
years in the direction Of greater efficiency
I'm steam engineering. For several years
IL looked as IL steam. perhaps the great
est benefactor the human race has known,
and which has contributed more than any
other one mechanical force toward human
progress. was doomed TO an enforced re-
urement to the limbo of things which have
outlved their usefulness. After the ad-
vent OF electricity and producer gas. engi-
neers everywhere predicted the time when
they would take the place of steam. which
had full century OF almost unchallenged
sway. II was found that the electric To-
connective had many advantages over the
steam railroad engine. and that the only
hope Of steam was that the cost OF cleo
trio installation would retard the general
adoption OF electric motive power for many
years TO come.
IL also was found that I'm marine en-
cheering as well as in factory practice
the use Of steam was a wasteful and
costly method of deriving power from
coal and other sources. Everywhere IT
seemed agreed that steam was tottering
on the brink OF its grave. and that shortly
the boon OF yesterday would be the for
gotten thing Of tomorrow. Even railroad
presidents we're wont to predict that in
a half century steam locomotives would
be as much of a curiosity as the old
John Bull in the Smithsonian Institution
is today. But now 1t seems that all
these predictions and forecasts are to
be given the lie by steam. Some months
ago the subway company OF New York
found that its power plant, which was
thought to be large enough to meet all
the requirements of the system for many
years to come, already was proving in
adequate. The problem of increasing the
power generating facilities of the plant
became a pressing one To tear out all
the compound condensing engines of this
plant and to substitute nigh pressure tur-
bines therefor was believed to be out OF
the question 1t has been demonstrated
in engineering practice that low pres
/ sure turbine can utilize the exhaust
steam of a noncondensing engine to great
| advantage, but IL had never been sue.
| cessfully demonstrated that such a tur.
bine could be hitched TO compound con
| denslng engine. The subway authorities
concluded to try the experiment of in
stalling a low pressure turbine with
compound condensing engine of The re
| ciprocating type.
The result OF this experiment has prove,
to be one of the most epoch-making event.
OF the engineering world in. almost a cen
fury. 1t has shown that the low pressur
turbine can drive more power from the ex
haust than was given by the reciprocatin
engine. In point OF fact. when the loy
pressure turbine was hitched with tn
compound condensing engine, it was foun
there was an increase of l46 per cent &
power derived from a given amount of Goa
In other words, by utilizing the exhaus
steam under the old methods, the power de
rived from a pound of coal may be multi
piled by two and one-half. 1t is Difficult
10 ovenestimate how much this means {
the engineering world, When such installs
lions become general II will result in
vast saving of fuel.
But with all the saving effected by tn
new method of joint reclprocatlng engin
and steam turbine installation, whic
method represents a higher degree
energy utilization than either producer ga
or electricity can show, much yet remain
to be desired. This Is shown by the state
ment that even with such new utilzatio
: of power as the subway people have mad
] more than one-half of the energy in tn
coal still is permitted to escape into Mort
: river. 1t is lately announced that a Ru,
e sian naval engineer has invented a ne
process of utilizing all gases arising frol
/. combustion, which makes him able to cor
a vert fully 80 per cent of the energy in hi
I fuel into power. The method by which b
1 obtains this desirable end is Interesting
{ the extreme. He first takes all of III
s gases coming from the furnaces and COO
. them from a temperature of about 3,5
e degrees to something like 1900 degree
e Thus cooled, he passes the gases into a TUT
I with water spray. where they again al
$ reduced in temperature to about $50 d.
] grees After thus being treated the gasc
become super-heated steam and in tn
form are introduced into the boiler itsel
| where they are utilized with the steal
otherwise made, in driving the cylinder.
While not yet tested under ac-ua, worl