The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1920-08-23


turn OF. the tide. Il behooyed every en-.
CINE in the country To be quick as pos
sible on the getaway and to he able
to utilize instantly the full measure
of steam which ii was capable OF ge.r-
Grating to the greatest possible advan-
tage, Irrespective of coal cost or any
other consideration.
Yet even at sea the compound en-.
gines are being retired, though much
less rapidly, for in sea service bunker
| capacity alone fixes the duration as
well as the profit of many a trading
voyage, and fuel economy of space
and weight is therefore a paramount
consideration, while the price charged
hungry stranger seeking coal in a
far-otf tropic port where no one else
ever calls for the commodity would
make the merriest protiteer of these
northern ATTITUDES blush for very
shame.
Triple expansion marine engines are
still the rule, and few Quadruple eX-
panSiOn engines are being built, while
the whole family of compounds Is
bending before the steam turbine, the
electrically-driven ship Gas in the lat
est United States battleships) and mo-
tor ships propelled by the internal
combustion of oil in their engines
without the intervention of steam at
all.
Only few weeks ago a traveller
passing seward from the city down
the bay noted that of the five best
known vessels passed on the way, not
one was driven by reciprocating steam
engines.
Turbine Locomotives Yet to Come.
Turbine locomotives have not yet
got beyond the working model stage,
and even as such are little more than
scientific toys, but none the less the
turbine has already found an impOr-
tant place on many of the foremost
railroads in generating high voltage
current for the new electric head
lights. This may have been the means
of saving the headlight itself, for
with the constant progress in abolish
ing grade crossings and other better
ments of the right of way, the tend
ency of the late years had been to re-
duce the light carried on the front
of the trains, some engine drivers
maintaining that if big white church
were to stray ur"n the tracks they
might see 1t in time to stop with the
oil-burning lamps. The big lights.
they held caused confusion at grade
crossings by their startling rays, and
the headlights OF the old days were
rapidly degeneratiLg into mere signal
lights corresponding to the tail lamps
of the train.
The cowcatcher, once an imposing
triangle Of heavy timber which car
ried the big wing-shaped sn0wplOws in
winter, has all but disappeared in
modern practice, there being seldom
anything more than slightly-curved
wrought-iron framework looking for
all the world like loosely-built picket
fence inverted, and but short step
from the downward-pointing knives
which mark the front of Euro
pean engine. But it is not at all in
the way when it comes to pushing, or
drawing train backward, and engine
drivers themselves now refer to it sim
ply as the pilot"
Rear End Helps the Middle.
Atoning in measure for the losses
new contrivance is now being quietly
tested on the New York Central with
great promise of success. The idea
comes from Lima, O., which has be-
come one of the three big locomotive
building centers of the country. It is
called the booster" With the advent
of the latter day giant engines, classed
variously as the Atlantic" Pacific"
and the "Mikado" types, the great
weight on the drivers put an almost
crushing strain upon the rails, and
to relieve this trailer wheels were at
tached to the rear Of the engines.
Trailers hung as dead weight on
the locomotive, but with the booster"
are so no longer. 1t consists of
double engine, connected directly with
the trailer wheels. When the throt-
tie Is opened these engines take steam
as do the main engines and the trailers
do their full share in starting the
machine, but just as soon as
yard limits are left behind and the
engineer lifts his lever up out Of the
corner of his cab to its normal posi-
ton for running on the open road,
the booster" engines are autOmatical-
ly disconnected and remain quiescent
until the train again comes to stand
still, when they re-engage with the
trailers and again do their full share
of the work of getting up speed, thus
giving the fastest high-wheel lOcOmo-
tive the advantage before possessed
only by engines with small drivers of
making a quick start.
Superheaters are another innOva-
ton which have apparently come to
stay. This is a system of heating the
steam with gas otherwise wasted on
it's way from the boiler to the engine,
to which the superheater delivers 1t,
often at more than boiler pressure as