Chapter 1

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SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN SUPPLEMENT NO. 388

NEW YORK, June 9, 1883

Scientific American Supplement. Vol. XV., No. 388.

Scientific American established 1845

Scientific American Supplement, $5 a year.

Scientific American and Supplement, $7 a year.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS.

I. ENGINEERING.--Farcot's Improved Woolf Compound Engine.--4 figures.

The "Swallow," a New Vehicle.

Boring an Oil Well.

A Cement Reservoir.--2 figures.

"Flying."

II. TECHNOLOGY.--Iron and Steel.--By BARNARD SAMUELSON. The world's production of pig iron.--Wonderful uses and demands for iron and steel.--Progress of Bessemer steel.--Latest improvements in iron making.--Honors and rewards to inventors. --Growth of the Siemens-Martin process.--The future of iron and steel.--Relations between employers and workmen.

Machine for Grinding Lithographic Inks and Colors.--1 figure.

A new Evaporating apparatus.--2 figures.

Photo Plates.--Wet and Dry.

Gelatino Bromide Emulsion with Bromide of Zinc.

The Removal of Ammonia from Crude Gas.

III. MEDICINE AND HYGIENE.--The Hair, its Uses and its Care. The Influence of Effective Breathing in Delaying the Physical Changes Incident to the Decline of Life, and in the Prevention of Pneumonia. Consumption, and Diseases of Women.--By DAVID WARK. M.D.--Pneumonia.--The true first stage of Consumption. The development of tubercular matter in the blood.--The value of cod-liver oil in the prevention of consumption.--The influence of normal breathing on the female generative organs--Showing how the breathing powers may be developed.--The effects of adequate respiration in special cases.

Vital Discoveries in Obstructed Air and Ventilation.

IV. ELECTRICITY.--The Portrush Electric Railway, Ireland.--By Dr. EDWARD HOPKINSON.

The Thomson-Houston Electric Lighting System.--4 figures.

A Modification of the Vibrating Bell.--2 figures.

V. CHEMISTRY.--Acetate of Lime.

Reconversion of Nitroglycerine into Glycerine. By C.L. BLOXAM.

Carbonic Acid and Bisulphide of Carbon. By JOHN TYNDALL.

VI. AGRICULTURE AND HORTICULTURE.--Propagation of Maple Trees.

Dioscorea Retusa.--Illustration.

Ravages of a Rare Scolytid Beetle in the Sugar Maples of Northeastern New York.--Several figures.

The Red Spider. 4 figures.

Japanese Peppermint.

VII. NATURAL HISTORY.--The Recent Eruption of Etna.

The Heloderma Horridum.--Illustration.

The Kangaroo.

VIII. ARCHITECTURE.--Design for a Villa.--Illustration.

IX. BIOGRAPHY.--William Spottiswoode.--Portrait.

X. MISCELLANEOUS.--Physics without Apparatus.--Illustration.

The Travels of the Sun.

FARCOT'S IMPROVED WOOLF COMPOUND ENGINE.

In a preceding article, we have described a ventilator which is in use at the Decazeville coal mines, and which is capable of furnishing, per second, 20 cubic meters of air whose pressure must be able to vary between 30 and 80 millimeters.

In order to actuate such an apparatus, it was necessary to have a motor that was possessed of great elasticity, and that nevertheless presented no complications incompatible with the application that was to be made of it.

In the ventilation of mines it has been demonstrated that the theoretic power in kilogrammes necessary to displace a certain number of cubic meters of air, at a pressure expressed in millimeters of water, is obtained by multiplying one number by the other. Applying this rule to the case of 20 cubic meters under a hydrostatic pressure of 30 millimeters, we find:

20 × 30 = 600 kilogrammeters.

In the case of a pressure of 80 millimeters, we have:

20 × 80 = 1,600 kilogrammeters.

If we admit a product of 50 per cent., we shall have in the two cases, for the power actually necessary:

600 ---- = 1,200 kilogrammeters, or 16 H.P. 0.05

1,600 ----- = 3,200 kilogrammeters, or 43 H.P. 0.05

Such are the limits within which the power of the motor should be able to vary.

After successively examining all the different systems of engines now in existence, and finding none which, in a plain form, was capable of fulfilling the conditions imposed, Mr. E.D. Farcot decided to study out one for himself. Almost from the very beginning of his researches in this direction, he adopted the Woolf system, which is one that permits of great variation in the expansion, and one in which the steam under full pressure acts only upon the small piston. There are many types of this engine in use, all of which present marked defects. In one of them, the large cylinder is arranged directly over the small one so as to have but a single rod for the two pistons; and the two cylinders have then one bottom in common, which is furnished with a stuffing-box in which the rod moves. With this arrangement we have but a single connecting rod and a single crank for the shaft; but, the stuffing-box not being accessible so that it can be kept in a clean state, there occur after a time both leakages of steam and entrances of air.

Mr. Farcot has further simplified this last named type by suppressing the intermediate partition, and consequently the stuffing-box. The engine thus becomes direct acting, that is to say, the steam acts first upon the lower surface of the small piston during its ascent, and afterward expands in the large cylinder and exerts its pressure upon the upper surface of the large piston during its descent. Moreover, the expansion may be begun in the small cylinder, thanks to the use of a slide plate distributing valve, devised by the elder Farcot and slightly modified by the son.

As the volume comprised between the two pistons varies with the position of the latter, annoying counter-pressures might result therefrom had not care been taken to put the chamber in communication with a reservoir of ten times greater capacity, and which is formed by the interior of the frame. This brings about an almost constant counter-pressure.

The type of motor under consideration, which we represent in the accompanying plate, is possessed of remarkable simplicity. The number of parts is reduced to the extremest limits; it works at high speed without perceptible wear; it does not require those frequent repairs that many other cheap engines do; and the expansion of the steam is utilized without occasioning violent shocks in the parts which transmit motion. Finally, the plainness of the whole apparatus is perfectly in accordance with the uses for which it was devised.

_Details of Construction._--Figs. 1 and 2 represent the motor in vertical section made in the direction of two planes at right angles. Figs. 3 and 4 are horizontal sections made respectively in the direction of the lines 1-2 and 3-4.

The frame, which is of cast iron and entirely hollow, consists of two uprights, B, connected at their upper part by a sort of cap, B¹, which is cast in a piece with the two cylinders, C and _c_. The whole rests upon a base, B², which is itself bolted to the masonry foundation.

Each of the uprights is provided internally with projecting pieces for receiving the guides between which slides the cross-head, _g_, of the piston rod. The slides terminate in two lubricating cups designed for oiling the surfaces submitted to friction.

The cross-head carries two bearings, _g¹_, to which is jointed the forked extremity, D, of the connecting rod, whose opposite extremity receives a strap that embraces the cranked end of the driving shaft, A. It will be remarked that the crank, A¹, and the bearings, _g¹_, are very long. The end the inventor had in view in constructing them thus was to diminish friction.

To the shaft, A, are keyed the coupling disks, Q, which are cast solid at a portion of their circumference situated at 180° with respect to the parts, A², of the cranked shaft, the object of this being to balance the latter as well as a portion of the connecting rod, D.

The shaft, A, also receives the eccentric, E, of the slide valve, the rod, _e_, of which is jointed to the slide valve rod through the intermedium of a cross-head, _e¹_, analogous to that of the pistons, and which, like the latter, runs on guides held by the support, b.

The two pistons, _p_ and P, are mounted very simply on the rod, T, as shown in Fig. 1, and slide in cylinders, _c_ and C, whose diameters are respectively equal to 270 and 470 millimeters.

The slide valve box, F, is bolted to the cap-piece, B¹, as seen in Fig. 4. As for the slide valve, _t_, its arrangement may be distinguished in section in Fig. 2. Its eccentric is keyed at 170° so as to admit steam into the small cylinder during the entire travel, which latter is 470 mm.

To permit of the expansion beginning in the small cylinder, Mr. Farcot has added a sliding plate, _t¹_, which abuts at every stroke against the stops, _s_. These latter are affixed to the rod, S, whose lower extremity is threaded, and which may be moved vertically, as slightly as may be desired, through the medium of the pinions, S¹, when the hand-wheel, V, is revolved. A datum point, _v_, and a graduated socket, _v¹_, allow the position of the stops, _s_, and consequently the degree of expansion, to be known.

Steam is introduced into the small cylinder through the conduit, _i_, and its passage into the large one is effected through the conduit, _f_. The escape into the interior of the frame is effected, after expansion, through the horizontal conduit, _h_. The pipe, H, leads this exhaust steam to the open air.

The pipe, I, leads steam into the jacket, C¹, of the large cylinder, this latter being provided in addition with a casing of wood, C², so as to completely prevent chilling.

The regulator, R, is after the Büss pattern, and is set in motion by a belt which runs over the pulleys, _a_ and _a¹_. It is mounted upon a distributing box, R¹, to which steam is led from the boiler by the pipe, _r¹_. After traversing this box, the steam enters the slide valve box through the pipe, _r²_, its admission thereto being regulated by the hand-wheel, R², which likewise serves for stopping the engine.

The cocks, _x_, are fixed at the base of the uprights, B, for drawing from the frame the condensed water that has accumulated therein.

The lubricating apparatus, V, which communicates, through the tube, _u_, with the steam port, _r¹_, permits oil to be sent to the large and small cylinders through the tubes, _u¹_ and _u²_.

Mr. Farcot has recently adapted this type of motor to the direct running of electric machines that are required to make 400 revolutions per minute.--_Publication Industrielle._

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IRON AND STEEL.

At the recent meeting of the Iron and Steel Institute, London, the president-elect (Mr. Bernard Samuelson, M.P.), delivered the following inaugural address:

THE WORLD'S PRODUCTION OF PIG IRON.

He showed that the world's production of pig iron has increased in round numbers from 10,500,000 tons in 1869 to 20,500,000 tons in 1882. The blast furnaces of 1869 produced on the average a little over 180 tons per week, with a temperature of blast scarcely exceeding 800° Fahr. The consumption of coke per ton of iron varied from 25 to 30 cwt. To-day our blast furnaces produce on the average upward of 300 tons per week.

The Consett Company have reached a production of 3,400 tons in four weeks, or 850 tons per week, and of 134 tons in one day from a single furnace.

From the United States we have authentic accounts of an average production of 1,120 tons per furnace per week having been attained, and that even this great output has lately been considerably exceeded there. Both as to consumption of fuel and wear and tear, per ton of iron produced, these enormous outputs are attended with economy.

HEAT OF THE BLAST.

In the case of the Consett furnace they were obtained although the heat of the blast was under 1,100° Fahr., while heats of 1,500° to 1,600° are not uncommon at the present day in brick stoves, thanks to the application of the regenerating principle of ex-president Sir W. Siemens.

But an economy which promises to be of great importance is now sought in the recovery and useful application of those constituents of coal which, in the coking process, have hitherto been lost; or, as an alternative, in a similar recovery in those cases in which the coal is charged in a raw state into the blast furnace, as is the practice in Scotland and elsewhere. This recovery of the hydrocarbons and the nitrogen contained in the coal, and their collection as tar and ammoniacal liquors, and subsequent conversion into sulphate of ammonia as to the latter, and into the various light and heavy paraffin oils and the residual pitch as to the former, have now been carried on for a considerable time at two of the Gartsherrie furnaces; and they are already engaged in applying the necessary apparatus to eight more furnaces. In the coke oven the recovery of these by-products--if that name can be properly applied to substances which yield the most brilliant colors, the purest illuminants, and the flesh-forming constituents supplied by the vegetable world--would appear at first sight to be simpler; but it has presented its own peculiar difficulties; the chief of which was, or was believed to be, a deterioration in the quality of what has hitherto been the principal, but what may, perhaps, come to be regarded hereafter as the residual product, namely, the coke. But the more recent experience of Messrs. Pease, at Crook, appears not to justify this opinion. You will see on our table specimens of the coke produced in the Carves-Simon oven, yielding 75 to 77 per cent. of coke from the Pease's West coal, which they have now had at work for several months. Twenty-five of these ovens are at work, and the average yield of ammoniacal liquor per ton of coal has been 30 gallons of a strength of 7° Twaddell, valued at 1d. per gallon at the ovens; the quantity of tar per ton has been 7 gallons, valued at 3d. per gallon. These products would therefore realize 4s. 3d. per ton of coal. Of course the profit on the ton of coke is considerably more, and to this has to be added the value of the additional weight of coke, which in the ordinary beehive ovens from coal of the same quality is only 60 per cent. or in beehive ovens having bottom flues about 66 per cent., while in the Carves ovens it is, as I have said, upward of 75 per cent. Against these figures there is a charge of 1s. 4d. per ton of coke for additional labor, including all the labor in collecting the by-products; the interest on the first cost of the plant, which is considerable, and probably some outlay for repairs in excess of that in the case of ordinary ovens, has also to be charged. Mr. Jameson takes credit for the combustible gas, which is used up in the Carves ovens, but which remains over in his process, and is available, though not nearly all consumed, in raising steam for the various purposes of a colliery, including, no doubt, before long, the generation of electricity for its illumination. It is right to state that prior to 1879 Mr. Henry Aitken had applied bottom flues for taking off the oil and ammoniacal water to beehive ovens at the Almond Ironworks, near Falkirk. He states that the largest quantity of oil obtained was eleven gallons, the specific gravity varying from 0.925 to 1.000, and that the water contained a quantity of ammonia fully equal to 5½ lb. of sulphate of ammonia to the ton of coal coked. The residual permanent or non-condensed gases were allowed to issue from the end of the condenser pipe, and were burnt for light in the engine-houses, but it was intended to force them into the oven again above the level of the coke. Owing to the works being closed, nothing has been done with these ovens for some years. I may mention, by the way, that it is proposed to apply the principle of Mr. Jameson's process to the recovery of oil and ammonia from the smouldering waste heaps at the pit-bank, by the introduction into these of conduits resembling those which he applies to the bottom of the beehive oven. There is every reason to expect that one or more of these various methods of utilizing valuable products which are at present lost will be carried to perfection, and will tend to cheapen the cost at which iron can be produced, and still further to increase its consumption for all the multifarious purposes to which it is applied.

WONDERFUL USES AND DEMAND FOR IRON AND STEEL.

But the world's annual production of 20,000,000 tons of pig iron is itself sufficiently startling, and without attempting to present to you the statistics of all its various uses--for which, in fact, we do not possess the necessary materials--the increased consumption of more than 9,000,000 tons since 1869 becomes conceivable when we consider how some of the great works in which it is employed have been extending during that or even a shorter interval. And of these I need only speak of the world's railways, of which there were in 1872 155,000 miles, and in 1882 not less than 260,000, but probably more nearly 265,000 miles. In the United States alone about 60,000 miles of railway have been built since 1869--the year, I may remind you in passing, in which the Atlantic and Pacific States of the Union were first united by a railway; while in our Indian Empire the communication between Calcutta and Bombay was not completed till the following year.

The substitution of iron and steel for wood in the construction of ships, and the enormous increase in the tonnage of the world, in spite of the economy arising from the employment of steamers in place of sailing ships, is perhaps the element of increased consumption next in importance to that of railways. I do not think that the materials are available for estimating with any accuracy the amount of this increase, but I believe I am rather understating it if I take the consumption of iron and steel used last year throughout the world in shipbuilding as having required considerably more than 1,000,000 tons of pig iron for its production, and that this is not far short of four times the quantity used for the same purpose before 1870. And so all the other great works in which iron and steel are employed have increased throughout the world. It would be tedious to indicate them all.

Among those which rank next in importance to the preceding, I will only name the works for the distribution of water and gas, which in this country and in the United States have been extended in a ratio far greater than that of the increase of the population, and which, since the conclusion of the Franco-German war, and the consolidation of the German and Italian States, are now to be found in almost every European town of even secondary importance; and bridges and piers, in the construction of which iron has almost entirely superseded every other material.

It is difficult to imagine what would have been the state of the iron industry in this country if we had been called upon to supply our full proportion of the enormously increased demand for iron. To meet that proportion, the British production of pig iron should have been close on 11,000,000 tons in 1882, a drain on our mineral resources which cannot be replaced, and which, especially if continued in the same ratio, would have been anything but desirable. Fortunately, as I am disposed to think, other countries have contributed more than a proportionate amount to the increase in the world's demand; and, paradoxical as it may appear, it is possible that, to this country at least, the encouragement given by protective duties to the production of iron abroad may have been a blessing in disguise.

PROGRESS OF BESSEMER STEEL.

To speak of the enormous increase in the production of steel by the introduction of the Bessemer process has become a commonplace on occasions like the present, and yet I doubt whether its real dimensions are generally known or remembered. In 1869 the manufacture of Bessemer steel had already acquired what was then looked upon as a considerable development in all the principal centers of metallurgical industry, except the United States, but including our own country, Germany, France, and Austria, and the world's production in that year was 400,000 tons. Last year it was over 5,000,000 tons, and it has doubled in every steel-producing country during the last four years, except in France, where, during this latter period, the increase has not been much more than one-fourth. What is almost as remarkable as the enormous increase in the production of Bessemer steel is the great diminution in its cost. In the years preceding 1875, the price of rails manufactured from Bessemer ingots fluctuated between £10 and £18 per ton, and I remember Lord George Hamilton when he was Under-Secretary for India of Lord Beaconsfield's administration in 1875 or 1876, congratulating himself on his good fortune in having been able to secure a quantity of steel rails for the Indian government at £13 per ton. Within the last three years we have seen them sold under £4 10s. in this country, and £5 10s. in Germany and Belgium.

LATEST IMPROVEMENTS IN IRON MAKING.

This great reduction is the cumulative result of a number of concurrent improvements, partly in the conversion of the iron, and partly in the subsequent treatment of the ingot steel. In most of the great steelworks the iron is no longer remelted, but is transferred direct from the blast furnace to the converter, a practice which originated at Terre-Noire, and was long considered in this country to be incompatible with uniformity in the quality of the steel produced. The turn-out of the converter plant has been gradually increased in this country to more than four times that of fourteen years ago, while the practice of the United States is stated by a recent visitor to have reached such an astounding figure that I am afraid to quote it without confirmation; but the greatest economy arises no doubt in the labor and fuel employed in the mill.

Cogging has taken the place of hammering. Even wash-heating will be, if it is not already, generally dispensed with by the soaking process of our colleague, Mr. Gjers, which permits of the ingot, as it leaves the pit, being directly converted into a rail.

STEEL RAILS 150 FEET LONG.

An extract from a letter addressed to me by our colleague, Mr. E.W. Richards, will describe better than any words of mine the perfection at which steel rail mills have arrived. He says, "Our cogging rolls are 48 in. diameter, and the roughing and finishing rolls are 30 in. diameter. We roll rails 150 feet long as easily as they used to roll 21 feet. Our ingots are 15½ inches square, and weigh from 25 to 30 cwts. according to the weight of rail we have to roll. These heavy ingots are all handled by machinery. We convey them by small locomotives from the Bessemer shop to the heating furnaces, and by the same means from the heating furnaces to the cogging rolls.

So quickly are these ingots now handled that we have given up second heating altogether, so that after one heat the ingot is cogged from 15½ inches square down to 8 inches square, then at once passed on to the roughing and finishing rolls, and finished in lengths, as I have said before, of 150 ft., then cut at the hot saws to the lengths given in the specifications, and varying from 38 ft. to about 21 ft. The 38 ft. lengths are used by the Italian 'Meridionali' Railway Company, and found to give very satisfactory results." I need scarcely say that in a mill like this, the expenditure of fuel and labor and the loss by waste caused by crop ends are reduced to a minimum.

BASIC STEEL.