History of the Steam Engine, from Its Earliest Invention to the Present Time

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1828 Excerpt: ...o o. The other ends of the tubes, a a a, are each fitted with a cover properly secured and bolted, but which can be taken off occasionally to clean out the boiler. 'c In working with such boilers the water carried off by evaporation is replaced by water forced in by the usual means; and the steam generated is earned to the place intended by means of tubes connected with the upper part of the cylinder A. It may not be improper, says Mr. Woolf, to call the attention of those who may hereafter wish to construct such apparatus to one circumstance, namely, that in every case the tubes composing the boiler should be 60 combined and arranged, and the furnace so constructed, as to make the fire, the flame and heated air, to act around, over, and among the tubes, embracing the largest possible quantity of their surface. It must be obvious to any one that the tubes may be made of any kind of metal; but I prefer cast-iron as the most convenient. The size of the tubes may be varied: but in every case care should be taken not to make their diameter too great; and it must be remembered that the larger the diameter of any single tube in such a boiler the stronger it must be made in proportion, to enable it to bear the same expansive force as the smaller cylinders. It is not essential, however, to my invention that the tubes should be of different sizes; but I prefer that the upper cylinders, especially the one which I call the main cylinder, should be larger than the lower ones, it being the reservoir, as it were, into which the lower ones send the steam, to be thence conveyed away by the steam pipe or pipes. The following general direction may be given respecting the quantity of water to be kept in a boiler in my construction: it ought always to fill ...