Chapter I: Front Matter

[Entered at the Post Office of New York, N. Y., as Second Class Matter.]

A WEEKLY JOURNAL OF PRACTICAL INFORMATION, ART, SCIENCE, MECHANICS,
CHEMISTRY, AND MANUFACTURES.

Vol. LVI.--no. 9. ]
[NEW SERIES.] ] NEW YORK, FEBRUARY 26, 1887. [$3.00 per Year.

IMPROVED CALORIC ENGINE.

Caloric engines have long been used by the Trinity Board to provide power for working siren fog signals in connection with their lighthouses in England. They have generally been in the past of the horizontal type, but lately a new pattern, which we illustrate from _Engineering_, has been brought out; and as the entire work of the motor consists in driving air-compressing pumps, this form of engine should give very good results. At one end of a beam stands the retort or furnace with the motor cylinder, and at the other end stand three pumps. One of these forces air into the furnace, a second supplies the receiver of the fog signal, while the third, which is smaller than the second, performs the same office, when it is desired to raise the pressure to a point too high for the larger pump to accomplish. As fogs come on very suddenly, and give so little warning that it is often impossible to get the engine into action before the vision is entirely obscured, it is customary to keep a store of air in the receiver at two or three times the usual working pressure, and it is from the accumulation of this pressure that the smaller pump is provided.

The furnace is a closed receiver, and is fed with coke. Air is pumped into it at a pressure of about 30 lb. to the square inch, part being delivered below the fuel and part above. That part which goes below rises through the incandescent coke, and appears at the surface as carbonic oxide. Here it meets the upper air supply and burns with a fierce bright flame, producing very hot gases, which are admitted to the cylinder and there expand, driving the piston before them. From experiments made by Mr. C. Ingrey with engines of this kind, it appears that they consume from 2¼ lb. to 2½ lb. of coke per brake horse power per hour, and thus provide power very economically.

The engine is regulated by a governor, which varies the proportion of air admitted above and below the fuel, and thus alters the temperature of the gases admitted to the cylinder. The distributing valves are of the conical type, worked by tappets, and the fall is regulated by an air cushion.

These engines, for there are a pair, have been constructed by the Pulsometer Engineering Company, Limited, London, for the Northern Lights Commissioners, and will be erected on a lightship, probably at the North Carr. Each engine is nominally of six horse power, but actually gives ten horse power. The motor cylinder is 24 in. in diameter, the air pump 18 in., and the compressing pumps 9 in. and 5 in. respectively, all with a stroke of 18 in.

Naval Architecture During the Last Half Century.

The annual lecture under the auspices of the Greenock Philosophical Society, to commemorate the birth of James Watt, was delivered in the Watt Lecture Hall, Greenock, on January 14, by Mr. Robert Duncan, shipbuilder, Port Glasgow. The title of Mr. Duncan's paper was "Evolution in Naval Architecture during the Reign of Queen Victoria." After referring to the early history of marine engineering, and to the intimate connection of Greenock and the Clyde with its initial stages, Mr. Duncan went on to say that up to the date of her Majesty's accession in 1837, no systematic attempt at ocean navigation by steam had been made. In 1812 steamship building began, but it was not till 1838 that the first Atlantic steam communication began. The Sirius and the Great Western made the voyage to and from New York at the same time, in the middle of that year, in fourteen and seventeen days respectively, under steam all the way. Mr. Duncan then traced rapidly the evolution of the iron ship, through the various modifications of design and proportion, and the simultaneous and consequent evolution of crafts to adapt themselves to the rapidly changing conditions. Mr. Duncan also described the influence upon the forms of ships of maritime law and of Lloyd's rules--evolution in size from the short square boxes of the early periods to the long narrow vessels of to-day; the Enterprise, for example, the first steamer to make the voyage to India by the Cape of Good Hope, being only 122 feet long, while now the cargo carrying steamer is over 400 feet long, and the express passenger ocean steamer over 500 feet. Mr. Duncan considers it possible that, ere her Majesty's reign closes, the Flying Scotchman of the sea will reach a length of 800 feet, and a speed of twenty-five to thirty miles an hour. The evolution of the man-of-war was next described, an interesting sketch given of the science of naval architecture, and a bibliography of the subject.

A Three Cylinder Locomotive.

The Dunmore Iron and Steel Company, at Dunmore, Pa., has a small locomotive in use switching in its yards which is of a novel pattern. It is thus described by the superintendent of the works: "This little engine has three 8 X 12 in. steam cylinders, four 33 in. driving wheels, two outside connecting and parallel rods, and one inside connecting rod. No balancing is needed in driving wheels. The engine has six exhausts to a revolution, and the effect on the fire is good. It is claimed that by setting the cranks at an angle of 120 degrees the slip is reduced to a minimum. This engine makes 30 miles an hour on a 40 ft. grade easily, with a light load, and is considered a good machine by those who have run her. Its weight is about 12 tons."

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NEW YORK, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 1887.

Contents.

(Illustrated articles are marked with an asterisk.)

Architecture, naval, during last half century 127

Armament, British, at Victoria* 131

Army, peace, of the United States 129

Aurora borealis* 135

Beam caloric engine* 127

Bench and ironing board, combined* 131

Birds, incendiary 133

Birds, phosphorescent 133

Birds, winter, our* 133

Blind stop, improved* 131

Books and publications, new 138

Boots or shoes, crimping, device for* 131

Brush and comb cleaner* 132

Business and personal 138

Charcoal as fossil 133

Chevreul's black* 137

Cocaine habit, the 128

Correspondence 133

Craze, Yankee, the latest 136

Defense of New York within thirty days' time 132

Dredger, marine, improved* 134

Earthquake, Charleston 133

Electroplating with platinum 132

Emery wheels for gumming saws* 130

Engine, caloric, improved* 127

Eruption in the Tonga group 133

Exhibition, American, London 137

Fish, meat, etc., canned 133

Guns, steel, are they superior? 128

Hats, ladies', protector for* 132

Hydraulic dredging at Washington 134

Injector, Penberthy* 132

Inventions, agricultural 138

Inventions, engineering 138

Inventions, index of 139

Inventions, miscellaneous 138

Life insurance company, a solid 129

Locomotive, three-cylinder 127

Measuring rack, wood, adjustable* 131

Medicine, preventive 129

Nervous patient, treatment, length of 136

Northern lights, the* 135

Notes and queries 138

Patent law, amendment of the, new 128

Patent, steel wire brush 136

Petroleum in Egypt 137

Plasterer's hawk* 131

Pyrofuxin--a new tanning substance from coal 128

Saw gummer, emery vulcanite* 130

Shark, frilled, the* 130

Snails, strength of 137

Sodium, producing, new method of, Castner's 129

Steel rail capacity of the United States 132

Stump puller, improved* 132

Sugar process, new 134

Sun, duration of 134

Thermoscopic balance* 134

Torpedo boat armed with pneumatic dynamite guns* 137

Torpedo, effect of, on an ironclad* 136

Torpedo experiments at Portsmouth* 136

TABLE OF CONTENTS OF SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN SUPPLEMENT

No. 582.

For the Week Ending February 26, 1887.

Price 10 cents. For sale by all newsdealers.

PAGE
I. AERONAUTICS.--War Balloons.--The establishment of balloon
corps in the armies of different countries; the French,
English, Italian, and Russian establishments.--1
illustration 9288