The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1911-02-09
A Romance Of Progress.

A Romance OF PROGRESS
JAMES WATT-And the series Of
Accidents that changed all history.
lone Of six interesting articles written for
me Hickman Courier. Don't fail To read IL
GSISNIG3ISlS9I1I0ISISEIGRI9 I1ERI91IGHISIE
An English nobleman, imprisoned In
the Tower Of London on a political
charge in the latter part of the sew.
enteentn century. noticed one cold
day that when be clamped down too
tightly the lid OF water-kettle on his
cell stove. the lid would sooner or
Mater fly on. The prisoner, marquis
OF Worcester, had much time on his
hands. He fell to studying out a rea-
son for these explosions In time he
had figured out their reason. The
heat OF the stove boiled the water In
the kettle. The boiling generated a
vapor. known as steam. This vapor
was so powerful In its expansion that
IL forced its way out OF the narrow
confines OF the kettle and pervaded
the room. Experiments later proved
that steam would fll l.642 times the
space occupied by the water which
had formed II. II was a new force, a
new and tremendous power, of which
the world at large was wholly ig-
norant The marquis made many ex-
periments along his chance-discov-
cred subject And the fame of them
reached the ears OF Capt Slavery. q
military engineer.
I Slavery. soon after hearing OF Wor-
oester's theory, was one day sitting in
tavern. He had Just finished drink
ing a bottle of wine. He tossed the
bottle with its few remaining drops OF
liquid into the open fire. Presently
what was left OF the wine began to
Issue from the mouth OF the bottle in
the form OF steam. Savory snatched
up the bottle and thrust It's neck into
a pail OF cold water that stood close
by. Water rushed up into the bottle
almost filling IT, This phenomenon
set Slavery to thinking. He made ex-
periments and. in 1898. took out a pat
ent for a device for Raising water
and occasioning motion to all sorts OF
millwork by the impellant force OF
IRE" In other words he made the
first practical application of steam
power to mechanical use and. by fol-
lowing out the idea evolved by the
ssv,,v.. ODD Die. bottle in the tav-
ern, he constructed
crude steam en-
gine or pump for taking water out Of
mines. To this raising Of water by
pressure he Joined the principle OF
procuring. by condemnation. a vacuum.
This was later improved on by a
steam engine in which Through the
vacuum made by condensation) a pis-
ton. or plunger, was forced. Savery's
idea was taken up by Thomas New
comen. an English mechanic. a year
or two later Newcomer made an en-
CINE In which steam was let into a
offender from below. q piston above
being thus driven up In such a way
that a pump-rod Fastened 10 II by a
balance arm) was forced downward.
A vacuum was formed by pouring
cold water into the condensing cyl
inder. the atmospheric pressure form
without drawing the piston down into
the cylinder BY this action the pump
rod was forced upward.
A primitive AFFAIR. and wofully In
complete. Yet Il paved the way for
the greatest invention and progress
promoter the world has ever known
the modern steam engine.
At about this time James Watt. q
young Scotch mechanic. was picking
up a scanty enough living as instru-
mentmaker for Glasgow university.
A model OF the Newcomer engine was
sent to him to be repaired. Every one
had looked on that engine as little
short OF miraculous. II had been 40
claimed as the highest possible type
OF machinery. Watt did not agree
with this idea. He was even so au-
dacious as to declare the engine
faulty and incomplete. and TO figure
out improvements for H.
The first and gravest fault, he
found, was the necessity for alternate
hta1Ahb Nho IL
respectively admitting and condens-
ing the steam. The letting in OF
steam and the subsequent cutting OF
OF communication with the boiler
while the steam was condensed in
volved a great loss Of time and steam.
The remedy came to Watt as an in
SEPARATION. Why not do away with all
this delay by condensing the steam
In some other vessel than the cylin-
der itself? Then the condemnation
s,ruoo,, with temperature could
ro'e'V' and the cylinder
always be kept hot. He put the idea
into execution. Then he added an air
pump. 20 maintain the vacuum, and
other improvements on the original.
Now that the work was done and
the modern condensing steam engine
completed, Watt sought to put II on
the market. But here fresh misfortune