The sun., 1910-05-22
'EEGINE INVENTOR PRAISED
DINNER WIN 4 WORKING or
THE DETECE on VIEW.

Lawyer HeTFIrk sf DrOsllyn lIAs Been
working 60 Make Practical q nat
aneed RoIAry Engine and IIe and Ills
FFiends Are sure He Has snceeedeti.
Cerardus Post Herrick. BrOoklyn
lawyer. was the guest of honor of lOO
engineers representatives NJ contraCt-
ing companies. ship building concerns
and railroads and electric and machine
companies az dinner a. the Waldorf
Astoria last night They were there
to congratulate Mr. Henick on HE in
ventiOn Of a practical rotary engine
Among the guests were Prof II T..
Clifford Of Harvard. e. r Edwards of the
Fore River Shipbulding Company. Edgar
Freeman oi the New York Central. e A.
Hamilton Of the General Electric Com
pany. Luther d Iovekin Of the New York
Shipbuilding Company. 2. r Munger
Of the Hudson and Manhattan Railway.
Prof Frederick l. Pryor Of the Stevens
Institute of Technology. Kunio Suda
chief engineer Of the KaWasaki Dock
yard Company ~ Kobe. japan; Capt.
A. r. Willets. L = n; Everett Colby.
the New Jersey refOrmer. William BAR
clay Parsons and J vipOnd Daviees chief
engineer oi the Hudson tunneh.
working model Of Mr.. Herrick's
balanced rotary engine was on eXhibi-
ton in an anteroorn For an hour before
the dinner the enyineers and representa-
tives Of machine companies gathered
around the model observing il workings.
They wouldn't permit steam to he used
in the Waldorf 20 power was furnished
by an electric motor The engineers
seemed 20 think that Mr.. Herrick has
evolved a rotary engine which 10 free nom
the defects Of the type
Il Was explained In the speechmaking
that rotary engines have been pretty
much Of a forlorn hope. They were in
teresting 20 tinker with and useful in small
ways. but up 10 the present they had
never been reliable OT commercially
practicable on any kind Of scale. Mr.
herrick and his friends among whom
were Prof Pryor % the Stevens institute
and Luther y. LOvekin. chief engineer
Of the New York Shipbuilding Company.
said that the Herrick engine has been
carefully tested and that u has proved its
! usefulness.
Mr.. LOyekin said that perhaps 500. .OOO.-
OOC has been spent by machinery people
trying 20 evolve u satisfactory rotary.
The chief obstacle had teen that when
steam was used 20 drive a ristOn In q
Circulr course Il e2erted such PRESSURE
on the central bearing tha, eithcr the
engine refused to work at all under any
thing like heavy steam pressure OF Il
delivered power with great loss from
Fiction. OF else Il was rapidly and corn
pl~tely destroyed.
Mr. Herrick, he said worked for nine
years in his laboratories at " Prospect
street Brooklyn. trying 20 hnd a means
" overcoming this destructive fricti0n.
After many costly failures he finally
discovered a method Of using a film of
steam one thirty second Of an inch thick
20 countsrt a ance the cylinder pressure
This film q steam he introduced into
series u balancing chambers around the
circumference of a cylindrical balancing
plug which lifted between the bearings
and the cylinder The steam Ia the
engine was made tO CounterbalanCe its
own pressure and drive the piston without
nulliying its working forcs.
Mr. IsOvekin believed that IN a battle
ship ike the North Dakota, with q apeed
81 tHenty-ons knots. thu HsrTick engine,
combined with the turbines. would add
three fourths % a knot an hour with the
sans boiler space and the same Coal
consumption. He thought the engine
would save from 20 n % per cent IN coal
consumption Il tho bAttleship was driven
al cruising speed only. II applied 20
vessels of the MauretAnia type, the new
rotary. Mr.. LOvekin said. would increase
the speed Of the vessel more than q knot
an hour. reducing the transatlantic trip
by about Ave hours. There would b. also
a saving In boiler capacity and In coal.
Mr.. Herrick 10 a speech explaining the
workings Of his engine said
As the lrishman advised for stocking
/ of the paTk lakes with EondOlas w. have
| bred the reCirrocatinR steam cycle 10 the
mechanical movement of the turbine and
lei naturr take her course Our rotary
engine with its static pressure aud limited
metallic clearaucez IL the result
-As We said 10 Prpf Pryor II Steyeng
institute some years ago. when wc first
went 90 him for expert counsel Before
W. are through We will either give the
world a rotary engine or we Will let III
world krow why a rotary angine IN impus-
sible And this g1'heung u The fulh,-
mCni ~ that promise.