Chapter 1

Produced by Olaf Voss, Don Kretz, Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.

SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN SUPPLEMENT NO. 286

NEW YORK, JUNE 25, 1881

Scientific American Supplement. Vol. XI, No. 286.

Scientific American established 1845

Scientific American Supplement, $5 a year.

Scientific American and Supplement, $7 a year.

* * * * *

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

I. ENGINEERING AND MECHANICS.--One Thousand Horse Power Corliss Engine. 5 figures, to scale, illustrating the construction of the new one thousand horse power Corliss engine, by Hitch, Hargreaves & Co.

Opening of the New Workshop of the Stevens Institute of Technology. Speech of Prof. R.W. Raymond, speech of Mr. Horatio Allen.

Light Steam Engine for Aeronautical Purposes. Constructed for Capt. Mojoisky, of the Russian Navy.

Complete Prevention of Incrustation in Boilers. Arrangement for purifying boiler water with lime and carbonate of soda.--The purification of the water.--Examination of the purified water.--Results of water purification.

Eddystone Lighthouse. Progress of the work.

Rolling Mill for Making Corrugated Iron. 1 figure. The new mill of Schultz, Knaudt & Co., of Essen, Germany.

Railway Turntable in the Time of Louis XIV. 1 figure. Pleasure car. Railway and turntable at Mary-le-Roy Chateau, France, in 1714.

New Signal Wire Compensator. Communication from A. Lyle, describing compensators in use on the Nizam State Railway, East India.

Tangye's Hydraulic Hoist. 2 figures.

Power Loom for Delicate Fabrics. 1 figure.

How Veneering is Made.

II. TECHNOLOGY AND CHEMISTRY.--The Constituent Parts of Leather. The composition of different leathers exhibited at the Paris Exhibition.--Amount of leather produced by different tonnages of 100 pounds of hides.--Percentage of tannin absorbed under different methods of tanning.--Amounts of gelatine and tannin in leather of different tonnages, etc.

Progress in American Pottery.

Photographic Notes.--Mr. Waruerke's New Discovery.--Method of converting negatives directly into positives.--Experiments of Capt. Bing on the sensitiveness of coal oil--Bitumen plates.--Method of topographic engraving. By Commandant DE LA NOE.--Succinate of Iron Developer.--Method of making friable hydro-cellulose.

Photo-Tracings in Black and Color.

Dyeing Reds with Artificial Alizarin. By M. MAURICE PRUD'HOMME.

III. ELECTRICITY, PHYSICAL SCIENCE, ETC.--On Faure's Secondary Battery.

Physical Science in Our Common Schools.--An exceptionally strong argument for the teaching of physical science by the experimental method in elementary schools, with an outline of the method and the results of such teaching.

On the Law of Avogadro and Ampere. By E. VOGEL.

IV. GEOGRAPHY, GEOLOGY, ETC.--Petroleum and Coal in Venezuela.

Geographical Society of the Pacific.

The Behring's Straits Currents.--Proofs of their existence.

Experimental Geology.--Artificial production of calcareous pisolites and oolites.--On crystals of anhydrous lime.--4 figures.

V. NATURAL HISTORY, ETC.--Coccidæ. By Dr. H. BEHR.--An important paper read before the California Academy of Sciences.--The marvelous fecundity of scale bugs.--Their uses.--Their ravages.--Methods of destroying them.

Agricultural Items.

Timber Trees.

Blood Rains.

VI. MEDICINE AND HYGIENE.--Medical Uses of Figs.

Topical Medication in Phthisis.

VII. ARCHITECTURE, ETC.--Suggestions in Architecture.--Large illustration.--The New High School for Girls, Oxford, England.

* * * * *

PETROLEUM AND COAL IN VENEZUELA.

MR. E. H. PLUMACHER, U. S. Consul at Maracaibo, sends to the State Department the following information touching the wealth of coal and petroleum probable in Venezuela:

The asphalt mines and petroleum fountains are most abundant in that part of the country lying between the River Zulia and the River Catatumbo, and the Cordilleras. The wonderful sand-bank is about seven kilometers from the confluence of the Rivers Tara and Sardinarte. It is ten meters high and thirty meters long. On its surface can be seen several round holes, out of which rises the petroleum and water with a noise like that made by steam vessels when blowing off steam, and above there ascends a column of vapor. There is a dense forest around this sand-bank, and the place has been called "El Inferno." Dr. Edward McGregor visited the sand-bank, and reported to the Government that by experiment he had ascertained that one of the fountains spurted petroleum and water at the rate of 240 gallons per hour. Mr. Plumacher says that the petroleum is of very good quality, its density being that which the British market requires in petroleum imported from the United States. The river, up to the junction of the Tara and Sardinarte, is navigable during the entire year for flat-bottomed craft of forty or fifty tons.

Mr. Plumacher has been unable to discover that there are any deposits of asphalt or petroleum in the upper part of the Department of Colon, beyond the Zulia, but he has been told that the valleys of Cucuta and the territories of the State of Tachira abound in coal mines. There are coal mines near San Antonia, in a ravine called "La Carbonera," and these supply coal for the smiths' forges in that place. Coal and asphalt are also found in large quantities in the Department of Sucre. Mr. Plumacher has seen, while residing in the State of Zulia, but one true specimen of "lignite," which was given to him by a rich land-owner, who is a Spanish subject. In the section where it was found there are several fountains of a peculiar substance. It is a black liquid, of little density, strongly impregnated with carbonic acid which it transmits to the water which invariably accompanies it. Deposits of this substance are found at the foot of the spurs of the Cordilleras, and are believed to indicate the presence of great deposits of anthracite.

There are many petroleum wells of inferior quality between Escuque and Bettijoque, in the town of Columbia. Laborers gather the petroleum in handkerchiefs. After these become saturated, the oil is pressed out by wringing. It is burned in the houses of the poor. The people thought, in 1824, that it was a substance unknown elsewhere, and they called it the "oil of Columbia." At that time they hoped to establish a valuable industry by working it, and they sent to England, France, and this country samples which attracted much attention. But in those days no method of refining the crude oil had been discovered, and therefore these efforts to introduce petroleum to the world soon failed.

The plains of Ceniza abound in asphalt and petroleum. There is a large lake of these substances about twelve kilometers east of St. Timoteo, and from it some asphalt is taken to Maracaibo. Many deposits of asphalt are found between these plains and the River Mene. The largest is that of Cienega de Mene, which is shallow. At the bottom lies a compact bed of asphalt, which is not used at present, except for painting the bottoms of vessels to keep off the barnacles. There are wells of petroleum in the State of Falcon.

Mr. Plumacher says that all the samples of coal submitted to him in Venezuela for examination, with the exception of the "lignite" before mentioned, were, in his opinion, asphalt in various degrees of condensation. The sample which came from Tule he ranks with the coals of the best quality. He believes that the innumerable fountains and deposits of petroleum, bitumen, and asphalt that are apparent on the surface of the region around Lake Maracaibo are proof of the existence below of immense deposits of coal. These deposits have not been uncovered because the territory remains for the most part as wild as it was at the conquest.

* * * * *

ONE THOUSAND HORSE-POWER CORLISS ENGINE.

We illustrate one of the largest Corliss engines ever constructed. It is of the single cylinder, horizontal, condensing type, with one cylinder 40 inches diameter, and 10 feet stroke, and makes forty-five revolutions per minute, corresponding to a piston speed of 900 feet per minute. At mid stroke the velocity of the piston is 1,402 feet per minute nearly, and its energy in foot pounds amounts to about 8.6 times its weight. The cylinder is steam jacketed on the body and ends, and is fitted with Corliss valves and Inglis & Spencer's automatic Corliss valve expansion gear. Referring to the general drawing of the engine, it will be seen that the cylinder is bolted directly to the end of the massive cast iron frame, and the piston coupled direct to the crank by the steel piston rod and crosshead and the connecting rod. The connecting rod is 28 feet long center to center, and 12 inches diameter at the middle. The crankshaft is made of forged Bolton steel, and is 21 inches diameter at the part where the fly-wheel is carried. The fly driving wheel is 35 feet in diameter, and grooved for twenty-seven ropes, which transmit the power direct to the various line shafts in the mill. The rope grooves are made on Hick, Hargreaves & Co.'s standard pattern of deep groove, and the wheel, which is built up, is constructed on their improved plan with separate arms and boss, and twelve segments in the rim with joints planed to the true angle by a special machine designed and made by themselves. The weight of the fly-wheel is about 60 tons. The condensing apparatus is arranged below, so that there is complete drainage from the cylinder to the condenser. The air pump, which is 36 inches diameter and 2 feet 6 inches stroke, is a vertical pump worked by wrought iron plate levers and two side links, shown by dotted lines, from the main crosshead. The engine is fenced off by neat railing, and a platform with access from one side is fitted round the top of the cylinder for getting conveniently to the valve spindles and lubricators. The above engraving, which is a side elevation of the cylinder, shows the valve gear complete. There are two central disk plates worked by separate eccentrics, which give separate motion to the steam and exhaust valves. The eccentrics are mounted on a small cross shaft, which is driven by a line shaft and gear wheels. The piston rod passes out at the back end of the cylinder and is carried by a shoe slide and guide bar, as shown more fully in the detailed sectional elevation through the cylinder, showing also the covers and jackets in section. The cylinder, made in four pieces, is built up on Mr. W. Inglis's patent arrangement, with separate liner and steam jacket casing and separate end valve chambers. This arrangement simplifies the castings and secures good and sound ones. The liner has face joints, which are carefully scraped up to bed truly to the end valve chambers. The crosshead slides are each 3 feet 3 inches long and I foot 3 inches wide. The engine was started last year, and has worked beautifully from the first, without heating of bearings or trouble of any kind, and it gives most uniform and steady turning. It is worked now at forty-one revolutions per minute, or only 820 feet piston speed, but will be worked regularly at the intended 900 feet piston speed per minute when the spinning machinery is adapted for the increase which the four extra revolutions per minute of the engine will give; the load driven is over 1,000 horsepower, the steam pressure being 50 lb. to 55 lb., which, however, will be increased when the existing boilers, which are old, come to be replaced by new. Indicator diagrams from the engines are given on page 309. The engine is very economical in steam consumption, but no special trials or tests have been made with it. An exactly similar engine, but of smaller size, with a cylinder 30 inches diameter and 8 feet stroke, working at forty-five revolutions per minute, made by Messrs. Hick, Hargreaves & Co. for Sir Titus Salt, Sons & Co.'s mill at Saltaire, was tested about two years ago by Mr. Fletcher, chief engineer of the Manchester Steam Users' Association, and the results which are given below pretty fairly represent the results obtained from this class of engine. Messrs. Hick, Hargreaves & Co. are now constructing a single engine of the same type for 1,800 indicated horse-power for a cotton mill at Bolton; and they have an order for a pair of horizontal compound Corliss engines intended to indicate 3,000 horse-power. These engines will be the largest cotton mill engines in the world.--_The Engineer_.

_Result of Trials with Saltaire Horizontal Engine on February 14th and 15th, 1878. Trials made by Mr. L.E. Fletcher, Chief Engineer Steam Users' Association, Manchester._

Engine single-cylinder, with Corliss valves. Inglis and Spencer's valve gear. Diameter of cylinder. 30in.; stroke, 8ft.; 45 revolutions per minute.

No. of trials Total 1.H.P. [MB] Mean boiler pressure. [MP] Mean pressure on piston at beginning of stroke. [ML] Mean loss between boiler pressure and cylinder. [MA] Mean average pressure on piston. [W] Water Per I.H.P. per hour. [C] Coal per I.H.P. per hour.

No. of trials Total MB MP ML MA W C I.H.P. lb lb lb lb lb lb Trial No. 1. 301.89 46.6 44.11 2.53 21.23 18.373 2.699 Trial No. 2. 309.66 47.63 44.45 3.18 21.67 17.599 2.561 Means. 305.775 47.115 44.28 2.855 21.45 17.986 2.630

* * * * *

OPENING OF THE NEW WORKSHOP OF THE STEVENS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY.

In our SUPPLEMENT No. 283 we gave reports of some of the addresses of the distinguished speakers, and we now present the remarks of Prof. Raymond and Horatio Allen, Esq.:

SPEECH OF PROF. R. W. RAYMOND.

A few years ago, at one of the meetings of our Society of Civil Engineers we spent a day or so in discussing the proper mode of educating young men so as to fit them for that profession. It is a question that is reopened for us as soon as we arrive at the age when we begin to consider what career to lay out for our sons. When we were young, the only question with parents in the better walks of life was, whether their sons should be lawyers, physicians, or ministers. Anything less than a professional career was looked upon as a loss of caste, a lowering in the social scale. These things have changed, now that we engineers are beginning to hold up our heads, as we have every reason to do; for the prosperity and well-being of the great nations of the world are attributable, perhaps, more to our efforts than to those of any other class. When, in the past, the man of letters, the poet, the orator, succeeded, by some fit expression, by some winged word, to engage the attention of the world concerning some subject he had at heart, the highest praise his fellow man could bestow was to cry out to him, "Well said, well said!" But now, when, by our achievements, commerce and industry are increased to gigantic proportions, when the remotest peoples are brought in ever closer communication with us, when the progress of the human race has become a mighty torrent, rushing onward with ever accelerating speed, we glory in the yet higher praise, "Well done, well done!" Under these circumstances, the question how a young man is best fitted for our profession has become one of increasing importance, and three methods have been proposed for its solution. Formerly the only point in debate was whether the candidate should go first to the schools and then to the workshop, or first to the shop and then to the schools. It was difficult to arrive at any decision; for of the many who had risen to eminence as engineers, some had adopted one order and some the other. There remained a third course, that of combining the school and the shop and of pursuing simultaneously the study of theory and the exercise of practical manipulation. Unforeseen difficulties arose, however, in the attempt to carry out this, the most promising method. The maintenance of the shop proved a heavy expense, which it was found could not be lessened by the manufacture of salable articles, because the work of students could not compete with that of expert mechanics. It would require more time than could be allotted, moreover, to convert students into skilled workmen. Various modifications of this combination of theory and practice, including more or less of the Russian system of instruction in shop-work, have been tried in different schools of engineering, but never under so favorable conditions as the present. With characteristic caution and good judgment, President Morton has studied the operation of the scheme of instruction adopted in the Stevens Institute, and, noting its deficiencies, has now supplied them with munificent liberality, giving to it a completeness that leaves seemingly nothing that could be improved upon, even in a prayer or a dream. Still, no one will be more ready to admit than he who has done all this, that it is not enough to fit up a machine shop, be it never so complete, and light it with an electric lamp. The decision as to its efficiency must come from the students that are so fortunate as to be admitted to it. If such young men, earnest, enthusiastic, with every incentive to exertion and every advantage for improvement, here, where they can feel the throbbing of the great heart of enterprise, within sight of bridges upon which their services will be needed, within hearing of the whistles of a score of railroads, and the bells of countless manufactories which will want them; if such as these, trained under such instructors and amid such surroundings, prove to be not fitted for the positions waiting for them to fill, it will have been definitely demonstrated that the perfect scheme is yet unknown.

SPEECH OF MR. HORATIO ALLEN.

Impressed with the very great step in advance which has been inaugurated here this evening, I feel crowding upon me so many thoughts that I cannot make sure that, in selecting from them, I may not leave unsaid much that I should say, and say some things that I had better omit. Some years ago, when asked by a wealthy gentleman to what machine-shop he had best send his son, who was to become a mechanical engineer, I advised him not to send him to any, but to fit up a shop for him where he could go and work at what he pleased without the drudgery of apprenticeship, to put him in the way of receiving such information as he needed, and especially to let him go where he could see things break. Great, indeed, are the advantages of those who have the opportunity of seeing things break, of witnessing failures and profiting by them. When men have enumerated the achievements of those most eminent in our profession the thought has often struck me, "Ah! if we could only see that man's scrap heap."

There are many who are able to construct a machine for a given purpose so that it will work, but to do this so that it will not cost too much is an entirely different problem. To know what to omit is a rare talent. I once found a young man who could tell students what to store up in their minds for immediate use, and what to skim over or omit; but I could not keep him long, for more lucrative positions are always waiting for such men.

The advice I gave my wealthy friend was given before the Stevens Institute had developed in the direction it has now. The foundation of this advice, namely, to combine a certain amount of judicious practice with theory, is now in a fair way to be carried out, and although things will probably not be permitted to break here, the students will doubtless have opportunities for looking around them and supplementing their systematic instruction here by observation abroad.

* * * * *

LIGHT STEAM ENGINE FOR BALLOONS.

We here illustrate one of a couple of compound engines designed and constructed by Messrs. Ahrbecker, Son & Hamkens, of Stamford Street, S.E., for Captain Mojaisky, of the Russian Imperial Navy, who intends to use them for aeronautical purposes. The larger of these engines has cylinders 3¾ in. and 7½ in. in diameter and 5 in. stroke, and when making 300 revolutions per minute it develops 20 actual horse power, while its weight is but 105 lbs. The smaller engine--the one illustrated--has cylinders 2½ in. and 5 in. in diameter, and 3½ in. stroke, and weighs 63 lbs., while when making 450 revolutions it develops 10 actual horse power.

The two engines are identical in design, and are constructed of forged steel with the exception of the bearings, connecting-rods, crossheads, slide valves and pumps, which are of phosphor-bronze. The cylinders, with the steam passages, etc., are shaped out of the solid. The standards, as will be seen, are of very light T steel, the crankshafts and pins are hollow, as are also the crosshead bolts and piston rods. The small engine drives a single-acting air pump of the ordinary type by a crank, not shown in the drawing. The condenser is formed of a series of hollow gratings.

Steam is supplied to the two engines by one boiler of the Herreshoff steam generator type, with certain modifications, introduced by the designers, to insure the utmost certainty in working. It is of steel, the outside dimensions being 22 in. in diameter, 25 in. high, and weighs 142 lb. The fuel used is petroleum, and the working pressure 190 lb. per square inch.

The constructors consider the power developed by these engines very moderate, on account of the low piston speed specified in this particular case. In some small and light engines by the same makers the piston speed is as high as 1000 ft. per minute. The engines now illustrated form an interesting example of special designing, and Messrs. Ahrbecker, Son, and Hamkens deserve much credit for the manner in which the work has been turned out, the construction of such light engines involving many practical difficulties,--_Engineering._

* * * * *

Mount Baker, Washington Territory, has shown slight symptoms of volcanic activity for several years. An unmistakable eruption is now in progress.

* * * * *

COMPLETE PREVENTION OF INCRUSTATION IN BOILERS.

The chemical factory, Eisenbuettel, near Braunschweig, distributes the following circular: "The principal generators of incrustation in boilers are gypsum and the so-called bicarbonates of calcium and magnesium. If these can be taken put of the water, before it enters the boiler, the formation of incrustation is made impossible; all disturbances and troubles, derived from these incrustations, are done away with, and besides this, a considerable saving of fuel is possible, as clear iron will conduct heat quicker than that which is covered with incrustation."

J. Kolb, according to _Dingler's Polyt. Journal_, says: "A boiler with clear sides yielded with 1 kil. coal 7.5 kil. steam, after two months only 6.4 kil. steam, or a decrease of 17 per cent. At the same time the boiler had suffered by continual working."

Suppose a boiler free from inside crust would yield a saving of only 5 per cent. in fuel (and this figure is taken very low compared with practical experiments) it would be at the same time a saving of 3c. per cubic meter water. If the cleaning of one cubic meter water therefore costs less than 3c., this alone would be an advantage.