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Title: |
1859 Article-Washington Iron Works, Portable Steam Engine |
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Source: |
Scientific American, V 1 #25, 17 Dec 1859, pg. 401 |
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Insert Date: |
5/28/2014 7:38:20 PM |
A GOOD PORTABLE ENGINE.
There is but little novelty in any of the individual parts of the engine which we here illustrate, and we present it merely as an excellent combination of known devices for the production of a compact, efficient, and cheap portable engine, it being a subject on which we have inquiries by nearly every mail, for information.
It has a locomotive boiler, E, furnished with 3-inch tubes, which are made so large to adapt them to burning pine-wood, which is generally used at the South. The bed-plate, F, is bolted upon the boiler, and sustains the cylinder and shaft. The shaft carries two driving wheels, one of which, B, is larger than the other, A, for convenience of applying the power to various machines which may require to run with different velocities. The pulley, C, on the end of the shaft is intended to be connected by a belt with the pulley, D, on the end of one axle, and thus to propel the carriage by the power of the engine.
The following are some of the advantages claimed by the manufacturers of this engine:—
"The good performance of an engine depends in a great measure on the accuracy of its workmanship and stability or rigidity of the framework; should the former be of the best possible description, however, a want of the latter will soon cause a binding or strain on certain important points, whence necessarily results increased friction, a rapid wearing away of the parts, disarrangement in the adjustments with the resulting thumps or shocks indicative of injury to the engine, and an increased consumption of fuel.
"Portable steam-engines, made after the usual plan of bolting the different parts to the boiler, are peculiarly liable to the foregoing difficulties, resulting from a want of entire stability in the arrangements arising from the unequal expansions and contractions of the various parts attached to the boiler. To remedy such defects has been the object in the construction of an improved portable engine as represented in the drawing, where the whole of its parts arc attached to a rigid bed-plate of cast-iron as in stationary engines, which bed-plate is firmly secured to the boiler; thus to great compactness and completeness of engine is joined beauty of appearance, and complete independence of the unequal expansion in the boiler. It can be easily detached from the boiler, and thus converted into a stationary engine if required; it also permits the renewal or repairs of the boiler without any disarrangement to the machinery. The engine is entirely complete in itself, having a cylinder with its connections, crank shaft of wrought iron, with two pulleys of different diameters of improved construction, having wrought iron arms, force pump, safety valve, steam gage, heater, governor, &c. The boiler is of the most approved pattern, with 3-inch tubes for burning resinous wood or coal, and is mounted on very strong and broad truck wheels, which enables it to be moved with great ease and safety from place to place."
The above engine is manufactured at the Washington Iron Works Company, Newburgh, N. Y., where orders can be filled for any part of the country at short notice. |
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1859 Washington Iron Works, Portable Steam Engine
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