A Treatise on the Steam-engine: From the Seventh Ed. of the Encyclopaedia BritannicaAdam and Charles Black, 1851 - 296 pages |
Other editions - View all
A Treatise on the Steam-Engine: From the Seventh Ed. of the Encyclopaedia ... John Scott Russell No preview available - 2018 |
Common terms and phrases
action admitted air-pump apparatus appendages applied atmosphere axis axle bars beam boiler bottom centre circle coal cock cold water common condenser connecting rod construction copper crank cubic foot cylinder descend diameter direction eccentric eduction-pipe effect Encyclopædia Britannica equal evaporated experiments feet figure filled fire flask flue fly-wheel force of steam Franklin Institute fuel fusible plugs gine give heating surface high-pressure horse power invention iron lever machine manner Marquis of Worcester mechanism metal moving Newcomen parallel motion passes perfect pipe piston piston-rod placed plate plugs pounds practical pressure produced pump quantity raising water reciprocating reciprocating engine regulated rendered revolving rotatory engine round Salomon de Caus Savery shut side side rods simple square inch steam-engine steam-pipe steam-valve stopcock straight line strength stroke temperature tion tube turn upper vacuum valve velocity vessel Watt Watt's weight wheel whole
Popular passages
Page 22 - An admirable and most forcible way to drive up water by fire, not by drawing or sucking it upwards, for that must be as the philosopher calleth it, infra spheeram activitatis, which is but at such a distance. But this way hath no bounder, if the vessels be strong enough ; for I have taken a piece of a whole cannon, whereof the end was burst, and filled it...
Page 22 - I have seen the water run like a constant fountain-stream forty feet high; one vessel of water, rarified by fire, driveth up forty of cold water ; and a man that tends the work, is but to turn two cocks, that one vessel of water being consumed, another begins to force and refill with cold water, and so successively...
Page 70 - I call the steam vessel, must during the whole time the engine is at work be kept as hot as the steam that enters it, first, by enclosing it in a case of wood, or any other materials that transmit heat slowly; secondly, by surrounding it with steam or other heated bodies; and thirdly, by suffering neither water or any other substance colder than the steam to enter or touch it during that time.
Page 61 - It soon occurred to him that this was caused by the little cylinder exposing a greater surface to condense the steam than the cylinders of larger engines did in proportion to their respective contents...
Page 70 - I intend, in many cases, to employ the expansive force of steam to press on the pistons, or whatever may be used instead of them, in the same manner as the pressure of the atmosphere is now employed in common fire-engines. In cases where cold water cannot be had in plenty, the engines may be wrought by this force of steam only, by discharging the steam into the open air after it has done its office.
Page 70 - ... first, that vessel in which the powers of steam are to be employed to work the engine, which is called the cylinder...
Page 21 - A Century of the Names and Scantlings of such Inventions, as at present I can call to mind to have tried and perfected which (my former notes being lost) I have, at the instance of a powerful Friend, endeavoured now in the year 1655 to set these down in such a way as may sufficiently instruct me to put any of them in practice.
Page 60 - ... diameter, with a solid piston, and furnished also with a cock to admit the steam from the digester, or shut it off at pleasure, as well as to open a communication from the inside of the syringe to the open air, by which the steam contained in the syringe might escape. When the communication between the...
Page 92 - ... (an invention of great merit, of which the humble inventor, and even its era, are unknown). But as the rotative motion is produced in that machine by the impulse given to the crank in the descent of the foot only...
Page 62 - ... that would receive and give out heat slowly : of these, wood seemed to be the most likely, provided it should prove sufficiently durable. " A small engine was therefore constructed with a cylinder six inches diameter, and twelve inches stroke, made of wood, soaked in linseed oil, and baked to dryness. With this engine many experiments were made; but it was soon found that the wooden cylinder was not likely to prove durable, and that the steam condensed in filling it still exceeded the proportion...