Discoveries and Inventions of the Nineteenth Century

The application of steam power to agricultural operations has led to the construction of engines specially adapted by their simplicity and portability for the end in view. The movable agricultural engines have, like the locomotives, a fire-box nearly surrounded by the water, and horizontal tubes, and are set on wheels, so that they may be drawn by horses from place to place. There is usually one cylinder placed horizontally on the top of the boiler; and the piston-rod, working in guides, is, as in the old locomotive, attached by a connecting-rod to the crank of a shaft, which carries a fly-wheel, eccentrics, and pulleys for belts to communicate the motion to the machines. Engines of this kind are also much used by contractors, for hoisting stones, mixing mortar, &c. These engines are made with endless diversities of details, though in most such simplicity of arrangement is secured, that a labourer of ordinary intelligence may, after a little instruction, be trusted with the charge of the engine; while their economy of fuel, efficiency, and cheapness are not exceeded in any other class of steam engine. Besides the steam engines already described or alluded to, there are many interesting forms of the direct application of steam power. There are, for example, the steam roller and the steam fire-engine. The former is a kind of heavy locomotive, moving on ponderous rollers, which support the greater part of the weight of the engine. When this machine is made to pass slowly over roads newly laid with broken stones, a few repetitions of the process suffice to crush down the stones and consolidate the materials, so as at once to form a smooth road. Steam power is applied to the fire engine, not to propel it through the streets, but to work the pumps which force up the water. The boilers of these engines are so arranged that in a few minutes a pressure of steam can be obtained sufficient to throw an effective jet of water. The cut at the end of this chapter represents 25a very efficient engine of this kind, which will throw a jet 200 feet high, delivering 1,100 gallons of water per minute. It has two steam cylinders and two pumps, each making a stroke of two feet. These are placed horizontally, the pumps and the air reservoir occupying the front part of the engine, while the vertical boiler is placed behind. The steam cylinders, which are partly hid in the cut by the iron frame of the engine, are not attached to the boiler, which by this arrangement is saved from injurious strains produced by the action of the moving parts of the mechanism. There are seats for eight firemen, underneath which is a space where the hose is carried. A first-class steam fire-engine of this kind, completely fitted, costs upwards of £1,300. A cheap and very convenient prime mover has lately come into use, which has certain advantages over even the steam engine. Where a moderate or a very small power is required, especially where it is used only at intervals, the gas engine is found to be more convenient. It is small and compact, no boiler or furnace is required, and it can be started at any moment. As now made, it works smoothly and without noise. The piston is impelled, not by the expansive force of steam, but by that of heated air, the heat being generated by the explosion of a mixture of common coal gas and air within the cylinder itself. Thus a series of small explosions has the same effect as the admissions of steam through a valve. A due quantity of gas and air is introduced into the cylinder, and is ignited by the momentary opening of a communication with a lighted gas jet outside. But the machine is provided with a regulator or governor, which so acts on the valve mechanism that this communication is made at each stroke only when the speed of rotation falls below a certain assigned limit, and thus the number of the explosions is less than the number of strokes, unless its work absorbs the machine’s whole energy, which, according to the size of the engine, may be from that of a child up to 30–horse power.