Chapter 2

The energy contained in an oxide of copper and potash battery is very great, and far superior to that stored by an accumulator of the same weight, but the rendering is much less rapid. Potash may be employed in concentrated solution at 30, 40, 60 per cent.; solid potash can dissolve the oxide of zinc furnished by a weight of zinc more than one-third of its own weight. The quantity of oxide of copper to be employed exceeds by nearly one-quarter the weight of zinc which enters into action. These data allow of the reduction of the necessary substances to a very small relative weight.

The oxide of copper batteries have given interesting results in their application to telephones. For theatrical purposes the same battery may be employed during the whole performance, instead of four or five batteries. Their durability is considerable; three elements will work continuously, night and day, Edison's carbon microphones for more than four months without sensible loss of power.

Our elements will work for a hundred hours through low resistances, and can be worked at any moment, after several months, for example. It is only necessary to protect them by a cover from the action of the carbonic acid of the atmosphere.

We prefer potash to soda for ordinary batteries, notwithstanding its price and its higher equivalent, because it does not produce, like soda, creeping salts. Various modes of regeneration render this battery very economical. The deposited copper absorbs oxygen pretty readily by simple exposure to damp air, and can be used again. An oxidizing flame produces the same result very rapidly.

Lastly, by treating the exhausted battery as an accumulator, that is to say, by passing a current through it in the opposite direction, we restore the various products to their original condition; the copper absorbs oxygen, and the alkali is restored, while the zinc is deposited; but the spongy state of the deposited zinc necessitates its being submitted to a process, or to its being received upon a mercury support. Again, the oxide of copper which we employ, being a waste product of brazing and plate works, unless it be reduced, loses nothing of its value by its reduction in the battery; the depolarization may therefore be considered as costing scarcely anything. The oxide of copper battery is a durable and valuable battery, which by its special properties seems likely to replace advantageously in a great number of applications the batteries at present in use.

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FARCOT'S SIX HORSE POWER STEAM ENGINE.

This horizontal steam engine, recently constructed by Mr. E.D. Farcot for actuating a Cance dynamo-electric machine, consists of a cast iron bed frame, A, upon which are mounted all the parts. The two jacketed, cylinders, B and C, of different diameters, each contains a simple-acting piston. The two pistons are connected by one rod in common, which is fixed at its extremity to a cross-head, D, running in slides, E and F, and is connected with the connecting rod, G. The head of the latter is provided with a bearing of large diameter which embraces the journal of the driving shaft, H.

The steam enters the valve-box through the orifice, J, which is provided with a throttle-valve, L, that is connected with a governor placed upon the large cylinder. The steam, as shown in Fig. 2 (which represents the piston at one end of its travel), is first admitted against the right surface of the small piston, which it causes to effect an entire stroke corresponding to a half-revolution of the fly-wheel. The stroke completed, the slide-valve, actuated by an eccentric keyed to the driving shaft, returns backward and puts the cylinders, B and C, in communication. The steam then expands and drives the large piston to the right, so as to effect the second half of the fly-wheel's revolution. The exhaust occurs through the valve chamber, which, at each stroke, puts the large cylinder in connection with the eduction port, M.

The volume of air included between the two pistons is displaced at every stroke, so that, according to the position occupied by the pistons, it is held either by the large or small cylinder. The necessary result of this is that a compression of the air, and consequently a resistance, is brought about. In order to obviate this inconvenience, the constructor has connected the space between the two pistons at the part, A', of the frame by a bent pipe. The air, being alternately driven into and sucked out of this chamber, A', of relatively large dimensions, no longer produces but an insignificant resistance.

As shown in Fig. 5, there may be applied to this engine a variable expansion of the Farcot type. The motor being a single acting one, a single valve-plate suffices. This latter is, during its travel, arrested at one end by a stop and at the other by a cam actuated by the governor. Upon the axis of this cam there is keyed a gear wheel, with an endless screw, which permits of regulating it by hand.

This engine, which runs at a pressure of from 5 to 6 kilogrammes, makes 150 revolutions per minute and weighs 2,000 kilogrammes. --_Annales Industrielles_.

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FOOT LATHES.

We illustrate a foot lathe constructed by the Britannia Manufacturing Company, of Colchester, and specially designed for use on board ships. These lathes, says _Engineering_, are treble geared, in order that work which cannot usually be done without steam power may be accomplished by foot. For instance, they will turn a 24 inch wheel or plate, or take a half-inch cut off a 3 inch shaft, much heavier work than can ordinarily be done by such tools. They have 6 inch centers, gaps 7½ inches wide and 6½ inches deep, beds 4 feet 6 inches long by 8¾ inches on the face and 6 inches in depth, and weigh 14 cwt. There are three speeds on the cone pulley, 9 inches, 6 inches, and 4 inches in diameter and 1½ inches wide. The gear wheels are 9/16 inch pitch and 1½ inches wide on face. The steel leading screw is 1½ inches in diameter by ¼ inch pitch. Smaller sizes are made for torpedo boats and for places where space is limited.

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ENDLESS TROUGH CONVEYER.

The endless trough conveyer is one of the latest applications of link-belting, consisting primarily of a heavy chain belt carried over a pair of wheels, and in the intermediate space a truck on which the train runs. This chain or belt is provided with pans which, as they overlap, form an endless trough. Power being applied to revolve one of the wheels, the whole belt is thereby set in motion and at once becomes an endless trough conveyer. The accompanying engraving illustrates a section of this conveyer. A few of the pans are removed, to show the construction of the links; and above this a link and coupler are shown on a larger scale. As will be seen, the link is provided with wings, to form a rigid support for the pan to be riveted to it. To reduce friction each link is provided with three rollers, as will be seen in the engraving. This outfit makes a fireproof conveyer which will handle hot ore from roasting kiln to crusher, and convey coal, broken stone, or other gritty and coarse material. The Link Belt Machinery Company, of Chicago, is now erecting for Mr. Charles E. Coffin, of Muirkirk, Md., about 450 ft. of this conveyer, which is to carry the hot roasted iron ore from the kilns on an incline of about one foot in twelve up to the crusher. This dispenses with the barrow-men, and at an expenditure of a few more horsepower becomes a faithful servant, ready for work in all weather and at all times of day or night. This company also manufactures ore elevators of any capacity, which, used in connection with this apparatus, will handle perfectly anything in the shape of coarse, gritty material. It might be added that the endless trough conveyer is no experiment. Although comparatively new in this country, the American _Engineering and Mining Journal_ says it has been in successful operation for some time in England, the English manufacturers of link-belting having had great success with it.

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RAILROAD GRADES OF TRUNK LINES.

On the West Shore and Buffalo road its limit of grade is 30 feet to the mile going west and north, and 20 feet to the mile going east and south. Next for easy grades comes the New York Central and Hudson River road. From New York to Albany, then up the valley of the Mohawk, till it gradually reaches the elevation of Lake Erie, it is all the time within the 500 foot level, and this is maintained by its connections on the lake borders to Chicago, by the "Nickel Plate," the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern, and the Canada Southern and Michigan Central.

The Erie, the Pennsylvania, and the Baltimore and Ohio roads pass through a country so mountainous that, much as they have expended to improve their grades, it is practically impossible for them to attain the easy grades so much more readily obtained by the trunk lines following the great natural waterways originally extending almost from Chicago to New York.

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ENGLISH EXPRESS TRAINS.

The _Journal of the Statistical Society_ for September contains an elaborate paper by Mr. E. Foxwell on "English Express Trains; their Average Speed, etc. with Notes on Gradients, Long Runs, etc." The author takes great pains to explain his definition of the term "express trains," which he finally classifies thus: (a) The general rule; those which run under ordinary conditions, and attain a journey-speed of 40 and upward. These are about 85 per cent. of the whole. (b) Equally good trains, which, running against exceptional difficulties, only attain, perhaps, a journey speed as low as 36 or 37. These are about 5 per cent. of the whole. (c) Trains which should come under (a), but which, through unusually long stoppages or similar causes, only reach a journey speed of 39. These are about 10 per cent.[1] of the whole.

[Footnote 1: 10 per cent. of the number, but not of the mileage, of the whole; for most of this class run short journeys.]

He next explains that by "running average" is meant: The average speed per hour while actually in motion from platform to platform, i.e., the average speed obtained by deducting stoppages. Thus the 9-hour (up) Great Northern "Scotchman" stops 49 minutes on its journey from Edinburgh to King's Cross, and occupies 8 hours 11 minutes in actual motion; its "running average" is therefore 48 miles an hour, or, briefly, "r.a.=48." The statement for this train will thus appear: Distance in miles between Edinburgh and King's Cross, 392½; time, 9 h. 0 m.; journey-speed, 43.6; minutes stopped, 49; running average, 48.

Mr. Foxwell then proceeds to describe in detail the performances of the express trains of the leading English and Scottish railways--in Ireland there are no trains which come under his definition of "express"--giving the times of journey, the journey-speeds, minutes stopped on way, and running averages, with the gradients and other circumstances bearing on these performances. He sums up the results for the United Kingdom, omitting fractions, as follows:

========================================================================= Extent of| | | Average | | | System | | Distinct | Journey- | Running | Express | in Miles.| | Expresses.| speed. | Average.| Mileage.| ---------+-------------------+-----------+----------+---------+---------+ 1773 | North-Western | {54} 82 | 40 | 43 | 10,400 | | | {28} | | | | 1260 | Midland | 66 | 41 | 45 | 8,860 | 928 | Great Northern | {48} 67 | 43 | 46 | 6,780 | | | {19} | | | | 907 | Great Eastern | 34 | 41 | 43 | 3,040 | 2267 | Great Western | 18 | 42 | 46 | 2,600 | 1519 | North-Eastern | 19 | 40 | 43 | 2,110 | 290 | Manch., Sheffield,| 49 | 43 | 44 | 2,318 | | and Lincoln | | | | | 767 | Caledonian | 16 | 40 | 42 | 1,155 | 435 | Brighton | 13 | 41 | 41 | 1,155 | 382 | South-Eastern | 12 | 41 | 41 | 940 | 329 | Glasgow and | 8 | 41 | 43 | 920 | | South-Western | | | | | 796 | London and | 3 | 41 | 44 | 890 | | South-Western | | | | | 984 | North British | 11 | 39 | 41 | 830 | 153 | Chatham and Dover | 9 | 42 | 43 | 690 | +-----------+----------+---------+---------+ | 407 | 41 | 44 | 42,683 | =========================================================================

A total of 407 express trains, whose average journey-speed is 41.6, and which run 42,680 miles at an average "running average" of 44.3 miles per hour.

If we arrange the companies according to their speed instead of their mileage, the order is:

Average r.a. Miles Great Northern. 46 6,780 Great Western. 46 [2]2,600 Midland. 45 8,860 Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincoln 44 2,318 London and South-Western. 44 890 North-Western. 43 10,400 Glasgow and South-Western. 43 920 Great Eastern. 43 3,040 North-Eastern. 43 2,110 Chatham and Dover. 43 690 Caledonian. 42 1,155 South-Eastern. 41 940 Brighton. 41 1,155 North British. 31 825

[Footnote 2: Not reckoning mileage west of Exeter.]

EXPRESS ROUTES ARRANGED IN ORDER OF DIFFICULTY OF GRADIENTS, ETC.

North British, Caledonian, Manch., Sheffield & Lincoln, Midland, Glasgow and South-Western, Chatham and Dover, South-Eastern, Great Northern, South-Western, Great Eastern, Brighton, North-Western, North-Eastern, Great Western.

LONG RUNS IN ENGLAND.

======================================================================= | Number of | Average | Running | Trains. | Speed. | Averages. ------------------------------------+-----------+---------+------------ | | Miles. | Miles. Midland. | 104 | 53 | 46 (5,512) North-Western. | 98 | 60 | 45 (5,880) Great Northern. | 49 | 73 | 50 (3,616) Great Western. | 24 | 56 | 48 (1,344) Great Eastern. | 24 | 56 | 42 (1,362) Brighton. | 23 | 45 | 42 (1,047) North-Eastern. | 20 | 56 | 44 (1,120) South-Western. | 13 | 47 | 44 (615) South-Eastern. | 12 | 66 | 42 (795) Chatham and Dover. | 8 | 63 | 45 (504) Caledonian. | 8 | 59 | 45 (476) Glasgow and South-Western | 8 | 58 | 44 (468) Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincoln. | 8 | 48 | 43 (390) North British. | 7 | 60 | 40 (423) ------------------------------------+-----------+---------+------------ Total. | 406 | 58 | 45 (23,550) =======================================================================

From this it will be seen that the three great companies run 61 per cent. of the whole express mileage, and 62 per cent. of the whole number of long runs.

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IMPROVED OIL MILL.