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Title: Engineering reminiscences contributed to "Power" and "American machinist"
Author: Charles T. Porter
Release date: November 5, 2023 [eBook #72043]
Language: English
Original publication: New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1908
Credits: deaurider, Harry Lamé and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ENGINEERING REMINISCENCES CONTRIBUTED TO "POWER" AND "AMERICAN MACHINIST" ***
Transcriber’s Notes
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Small capitals have been transcribed as ALL CAPITALS.
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[Illustration: _Faithfully yours_
_Charles T. Porter_]
Engineering Reminiscences
CONTRIBUTED TO
“Power” and “American Machinist”
BY
CHARLES T. PORTER
HONORARY MEMBER OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERS
_Author of “A Treatise on the Richards Steam-engine Indicator
and the Development and Application of Force in the
Steam-engine,” 1874; “Mechanics and Faith,” 1885_
REVISED AND ENLARGED
_FIRST EDITION_
FIRST THOUSAND
NEW YORK
JOHN WILEY & SONS
LONDON: CHAPMAN & HALL, LIMITED
1908
Copyright 1908
BY
CHARLES T. PORTER
THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED
TO THE MEMORY OF
MY FATHER AND MOTHER
[Illustration: MY FATHER]
[Illustration: MY MOTHER]
PREFACE
A word of explanation seems due to both the reader and myself.
The idea of writing these reminiscences did not originate with me. I
was invited to write them by Mr. F. R. Low, the editor of _Power_. This
invitation I declined, saying that I felt averse to writing a story
in which I must be the central figure. Mr. Low replied that I should
regard it as a duty I owed to the profession. Engineers demanded to
know the origin and early development of the high speed system of steam
engineering. I was the only person who could meet this demand; no one
else possessed the necessary information.
I felt obliged to yield to this view, and can only ask the reader to
imagine that I am writing about somebody else.
C. T. P.
MONTCLAIR, N. J.,
December, 1907.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
PAGE
Birth, Parentage and Education. Experience in the Practice of
Law. Introduction to Centrifugal Force. Invention and
Operation of a Stone-dressing Machine 1
CHAPTER II
The Evolution and Manufacture of the Central Counterpoise
Governor. Introduction of Mr. Richards 17
CHAPTER III
Invention and Application of my Marine Governor 34
CHAPTER IV
Engineering Conditions in 1860. I meet Mr. Allen. Mr. Allen’s
Inventions. Analysis of the Allen Link 42
CHAPTER V
Invention of the Richards Indicator. My Purchase of the Patent.
Plan my London Exhibition. Engine Design. Ship Engine Bed to
London, and sail myself 58
CHAPTER VI
Arrival in London. Conditions I found there. Preparations and
Start 65
CHAPTER VII
My London Exhibit, its Success, but what was the matter?
Remarkable Sale of the Engine 71
CHAPTER VIII
Sale of Governors. Visit from Mr. Allen. Operation of the Engine
Sold to Easton, Amos & Sons. Manufacture of the Indicator.
Application on Locomotives 80
CHAPTER IX
Designs of Horizontal Engine Beds. Engine Details. Presentation
of the Indicator at the Newcastle Meeting of the British
Association for the Advancement of Science 93
CHAPTER X
Contract with Ormerod, Grierson & Co. Engine for Evan Leigh, Son
& Co. Engine for the Oporto Exhibition. Getting Home from
Portugal 101
CHAPTER XI
Trouble with the Evan Leigh Engine. Gear Patterns from the
Whitworth Works. First Order for a Governor. Introduction of the
Governor into Cotton Mills. Invention of my Condenser. Failure of
Ormerod, Grierson & Co. 113
CHAPTER XII
Introduction to the Whitworth Works. Sketch of Mr. Whitworth.
Experience in the Whitworth Works. Our Agreement Which was never
Executed. First Engine in England Transmitting Power by a Belt 122
CHAPTER XIII
The French Exposition of 1867. Final Break with Mr. Whitworth 139
CHAPTER XIV
Study of the Action of Reciprocating Parts. Important Help from
Mr. Frederick J. Slade. Paper before Institution of Mechanical
Engineers. Appreciation of Zerah Colburn. The Steam Fire Engine
in England 153
CHAPTER XV
Preparations for Returning to America. Bright Prospects 165
CHAPTER XVI
Return to America. Disappointment. My Shop. The Colt Armory
Engine Designed by Mr. Richards. Appearance of Mr. Goodfellow. My
Surface Plate Work. Formation of a Company 173
CHAPTER XVII
Mr. Allen’s Invention of his Boiler. Exhibition at the Fair of
the American Institute in 1870 190
CHAPTER XVIII
Demonstration to the Judges of Action of Reciprocating Parts.
Explanation of this Action. Mr. Williams’ Instrument for
Exhibiting this Action 198
CHAPTER XIX
Boiler Tests in Exhibition of 1871. We Lose Mr. Allen. Importance
of Having a Business Man as President. Devotion of Mr. Hope 208
CHAPTER XX
Close of the Engine Manufacture in Harlem. My Occupation During a
Three Years’ Suspension 219
CHAPTER XXI
Production of an Original Surface Plate 233
CHAPTER XXII
Efforts to Resume the Manufacture. I Exhibit the Engine to Mr.
Holley. Contract with Mr. Phillips. Sale of Engine to Mr. Peters 238
CHAPTER XXIII
Experience as Member of the Board of Judges at the Philadelphia
Centennial Exhibition 245
CHAPTER XXIV
Engine Building in Newark. Introduction of Harris Tabor 259
CHAPTER XXV
Engine for the Cambria Iron and Steel Company 271
CHAPTER XXVI
My Downward Progress 275
CHAPTER XXVII
My Last Connection with the Company 325
CHAPTER XXVIII
The Fall and Rise of the Southwark Foundry and Machine Company.
Popular Appreciation of the High-speed Engine 331
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
1. My First Mechanical Drawing. Longitudinal Section of my Stone-
dressing Machine 7
2. The First Porter Governor 21
3. The Porter Marine Governor 37
4. Porter-Allen Engine. Diagram of Admission--Valve Movements 48
5. Vertical Adjustment of Sustaining Pin for Trunnions of the
Allen Link 52
6. My Improvement in Cranks and Journal Boxes 54
7. My Improvement in Eccentrics 56
8. Diagram from the First Allen Engine taken with the First
Richards Indicator 59
9. Mr. Porter’s Exhibit at the London International Exhibition,
1862 71
10. Diagram from Allen Engine in London Exhibition of 1862 73
11. Spring-testing Instrument Used in the Manufacture of the
Richards Indicator 86
12. Plan of Spring-testing Instrument 89
13. Diagrams from English Locomotives, taken with the Richards
Indicator 91
14. Engine Bed Designed by Mr. Porter 95
15. Cross-head Designed by Mr. Porter 96
16. Connecting-rod and Strap 99
17. Attaching a Steam-drum to a Lancashire Boiler 107
18. Diagrams from Engine of Evan Leigh, Son & Co. 114
19. Condenser and Air-pump Designed by Mr. Porter. (Cross-section) 118
20. Diagrams from Engine Built for Mr. Adams 138
21. Exposition Universelle, Paris, 1867. Diagrams from the “Allen”
Engine Employed in Driving Machinery 142
22. Pair of Diagrams from 18×30 Allen Engine at South Tyne Paper
Mill, 108 Revolutions, Vacuum 28 Inches. Only Half Intended
Load on Engine 160
23. Cross-section of Machine Shop Proposed by Mr. Porter in 1868,
after the Design of Smith & Coventry 168
24. Card from Allen Engine in Colt’s Armory 178
25. Sectional and Front Elevations of One of the Two Pairs of
Porter-Allen Engines in the Colt Armory, Hartford, Conn. 180
26. Sectional and Side Elevations of One of the Two Pairs of
Porter-Allen Engines in the Colt Armory, Hartford, Conn. 181
27. Porter-Allen Engines in the Colt Armory, Hartford, Conn. Front
View 181
28. Porter-Allen Engines in the Colt Armory, Hartford, Conn. Rear
View 181
29. Surface Plates Designed by Mr. Porter 182
30. Diagram from Allen Engine, Back End of Cylinder, at Fair of
American Institute, 1870 194
31. Friction Diagram from Allen Engine at Fair of American
Institute, 1870 196
32. Diagram from Allen Engine, Fair of American Institute, 1870,
Cutting Off at ¹⁄₄ Stroke 196
33. Apparatus for Graphically Showing the Acceleration and
Retardation of the Reciprocating Parts of an Engine 205
34. The Allen Boiler _Facing_ 208
35. The Prototype of the Modern High-speed Engine, Fly-wheel Side 223
36. Prototype of the Modern High-speed Engine, Crank Side 224
37. Longitudinal Section of Cylinder and Valves 225
38. Cross-section of Cylinder and Valves 226
39. Connections of Admission Valves 226
40. First Arrangement of Exhaust Valves 228
41. Main Bearing 230
42. Eccentric and Cross-head and Crank-pin Lubricators 230
43. Surface Plate for Producing a True Plane 234
44. Mr. Porter’s Regulating Valve 244
45. The Corliss Engine Exhibited at the Centennial Exhibition 249
46. Porter-Allen Engine Equal in Power to the Exhibited Corliss
Engine 250
47. Mr. Porter’s Fly-wheel 269
48. Connection of Arms and Rim in Mr. Fritz’ Fly-wheel 273
49. Mr. Allen’s Patent Pressure Plate 293
50. Diagrams from the Otis Engine 311
51. Otis Engine. Dash Pot for Governor 313
52. Diagrams from my First and Only Compound Engine 318
LIST OF FULL-PAGE HALF-TONE PORTRAITS
PAGE
1. CHARLES T. PORTER _Facing title page_
2. MY FATHER _After dedication_
3. MY MOTHER „ „
4. GEORGE T. HOPE 6
5. CHARLES B. RICHARDS, A.D. 1858 26
6. JOHN F. ALLEN 48
7. JOSEPH E. HOLMES 60
8. ALEXANDER GORDON 62
9. WELLINGTON LEE 66
10. CHARLES T. PORTER, A.D. 1862 68
11. FREDERICK E. SICKELS 78
12. W. H. MAW 92
13. WILLIAM J. HOYLE 122
14. SIR JOSEPH WHITWORTH 124
15. FREDERICK J. SLADE 154
16. PROFESSOR CHARLES B. RICHARDS 178
17. PRESIDENT F. A. P. BARNARD 198
18. JOSEPH NASON 204
19. EDWIN F. WILLIAMS 206
20. PROFESSOR ROBERT H. THURSTON 208
21. J. C. HOADLEY 220
22. ALEXANDER LYMAN HOLLEY 238
23. WILLIAM R. JONES 244
24. PROFESSOR FRANCIS REULEAUX 246
25. COLONEL ALEXIS PETROFF 252
26. JAMES MOORE 254
27. EMIL BRUGSCH 256
28. ROBERT W. HUNT 262
29. STEPHEN W. BALDWIN 264
30. HARRIS TABOR 266
31. DANIEL N. JONES 272
32. JOHN FRITZ 274
33. E. D. LEAVITT 308
34. SAMUEL T. WELLMAN 310
35. CHARLES A. OTIS 312
36. DANIEL J. MORRELL 314
37. BENJAMIN F. AVERY 324
38. JAMES C. BROOKS 332
ENGINEERING REMINISCENCES
CHAPTER I
Birth, Parentage and Education. Experience in the Practice of Law.
Introduction to Centrifugal Force. Invention and Operation of a
Stone-dressing Machine.
I was born in Auburn in the State of New York, January 18th, 1826.
My parents were both of New England descent. My father, John Porter,
was born in Hadley, Mass. His father, William Porter, was the son of
Eleazer Porter and his wife Susannah, one of the daughters of Jonathan
Edwards. My father’s mother was Lois Eastman. My mother was born in
Middletown, Conn. Her maiden name was Abigail Phillips. Her ancestry in
the maternal line is traced back to Governors Saltonstall, Dudley and
the two Winthrops.
I graduated at Hamilton College, New York, in 1845, read law in my
father’s office, and in the fall of 1847 was admitted to the bar.
Practiced my profession for six or seven years, first in Rochester,
N.Y., afterwards in New York City.
My knowledge of mechanics may be illustrated by a story I once heard
in England of a man who had been prosecuted for selling adulterated
tobacco. He got off by proving that there was no tobacco at all in
the article that he sold. But this illustration hardly does the case
justice.
I had some mechanical ideas, but they were exactly wrong. For example,
I could not see any difficulty in perpetual motion. All one had to do
was to pump up water, which by its fall would furnish power to run
the pump. This, however, was no more absurd than were two inventions
which were brought out in England while I was there. One of these was
corrugating the faces of the piston, so as to present more extended
surfaces for the steam pressure to be exerted upon. The other was a
device for utilizing that half of the force of the steam which had
been wasted against the cylinder heads. Both of these were published
with commendatory remarks in the _Mechanics’ Magazine_. The last, if
I recollect rightly, was the original bottom feature of the Wells
balance-engine. My error was that I made no account of friction, which
must be overcome before motion can take place. We shall see before long
the same disregard of friction by men who ought to have known better.
My utter ignorance of everything mechanical at that time is capable of
proof. I stepped right into one of those “springes to catch woodcocks”
which were being set in those days, and proved myself to be about as
green a gosling mechanically as ever was plucked.
I had a client by the name of Searle, who was a “dead-beat.” He owed me
about $100, which I could not collect. He finally called upon me and
told me frankly that he could not pay me one red cent, because he had
no money; but he could put me in the way of making a fortune, and he
was anxious in that way to discharge the great obligation which he felt
himself under to me.
A new invention had appeared, called the Gwynne & Sawyer
static-pressure engine, that was bound to revolutionize all
applications of power. It was, he told me, attracting great attention
in engineering circles, and there had been a hot discussion over its
theoretical principles, but its advocates had successfully vanquished
all their antagonists and now the invention was established on a
perfectly sound scientific basis. If I would give him a receipt
in full for the money that he owed me and put another $100 into
this enterprise, he was in a position to secure for me a number of
rights to use the machine. He kindly offered to introduce me to Mr.
Sawyer. Mr. Gwynne was unfortunately absent from home at the time. (I
learned afterwards that he was in jail.) Mr. Sawyer received me most
graciously. I think he had been told by Mr. Searle about how much
taffy I might be expected to swallow, but he must have ventured far
beyond his instructions. He told me that he was delighted to make my
acquaintance; he had frequently heard of me through our mutual friend,
Mr. Searle, and of my triumphs at the bar, and had come to feel a
great admiration for me, and was proud to show this great invention
to a man so eminently capable of appreciating it. He told me that the
invention was a practical method of utilizing that wonderful power
known as centrifugal force. This force could be obtained in any amount.
In fact, it was the force that kept the universe in motion. It had lain
unutilized for so long a time because engineers had never been able
to apply it practically. This difficulty had been completely overcome
in this great invention, and this wonderful power was now to be made
available for the world. He gave me quite an oration on the subject,
saying, “We do not antagonize the forces of nature, we utilize them and
apply them to beneficial purposes; consequently all nature co-operates
with us,” and more to the same effect. He was able to show me a working
model of this great invention; was very sorry that he could not put
it in motion for me that day, as it happened to be a little out of
order; but I would be able to see the principle of its operation very
distinctly. I was flattered into believing that I saw the principle,
with the result that Mr. Sawyer saw the principal, and with the further
result that after that I never saw or heard of either principal or
interest. Our mutual friend, Mr. Searle, also disappeared.
This was my first lesson in mechanics, given to me by a master of his
art. I am not sure, on the whole, but that in one way and another it
has been worth the trifle it cost me.
Had any one at that time told me that the expression “centrifugal
force” is entirely misleading, that in reality there is no such force,
that what goes by this name is not a force at all, nothing but a
resistance, the resistance which a body revolving around an exterior
point opposes to being continually deflected from a straight line of
motion, and which ceases the instant the deflecting force ceases, when
the body merely moves on in a straight line tangent to the circle, and
in bodies revolving around their own axes or centers of gravity is the
same resistance of their atoms, he would probably have had about the
same success in making me see it that I long afterwards had with some
engineering friends.
It is difficult at the present day to conceive the confusion of thought
which then prevailed on this subject. The language of text-books was
vague in the extreme.
The coincidence is not without interest, that my first mechanical
experience, though in this ridiculous fashion, should have been with
what was to become so prominent a feature of the high speed governors
and engine.
I had for some time felt a growing disgust with the profession of the
law. The contrast between the glorious science of human rights and the
art of its practical application was very forcibly presented to my
mind. I realized the fitness of the protest of Bryant, who described
himself as being “forced to drudge for the dregs of men.” I was a
regular reader of the _Evening Post_, in which an article appeared one
day, written by John Bigelow, then the editor of the _Post_, laudatory
of a certain judge whose term on the bench had lately closed, and
who then retired from the profession. On this act Mr. Bigelow warmly
congratulated him. Among a number of pungent expressions in the article
I was particularly struck by this one: “The association of lawyers
is mostly with knaves and fools.” My own experience bore witness to
the truth of this statement. A few legal successes, which cost me
incredible labor, interspersed of course with disappointments, weighed
nothing compared with the daily association which I seemed compelled to
endure. I formed a scheme for establishing a conciliation office for
the amicable settlement of disputes, but found every man prepared to
compromise on the extreme verge of his own position. So I gave that up.
I had another client, a Mr. Hastings, who had invented a stone-dressing
machine, which he had patented, and the patent for which he wanted
to dispose of. He had a working model of his invention, which was
operated for visitors in the shop where it was built. He invited me to
go and see it, which I did, and it certainly worked very well indeed.
I recalled afterwards that the stone was carefully bedded on the table
of the machine. I was quite fascinated with it and took some friends to
see it, who were equally captivated, and the result was that we bought
the patent. To make sure of its value, however, I first called with Mr.
Hastings on Mr. Munn, his patent solicitor, and received Mr. Munn’s
assurance that he had a very high opinion of it.
I gradually abandoned my law business, and devoted myself to the
exploitation of this invention. I put into it all the money I had
and all that I could borrow. After a while a large working machine
was completed for us, the drawings for which I had made by a German
draftsman, and which was built under my direction at the works of Mott
& Ayers, near the foot of West Twenty-sixth Street. When this machine
was finished the parties in interest assembled at these works to see it
tried.
One experiment was enough. I had put into the machine a stone that
was quite a foot thick and which was supported at two points. At the
first cut made across this stone it broke in two in the middle. I
found myself, in the words of President Cleveland, “confronted not by
a theory but by a condition.” The machine was absurd. The patent was
worthless. The enterprise was a failure. Our money had all been thrown
into the sea. Nothing could be done unless I did it; and I knew nothing
of mechanics, of machine design or construction, or of mechanical
drawing, except the little that I had picked up in the works of Mott &
Ayers while this machine was in process of construction. I should say,
however, that the head draftsman in that establishment had given me
some instruction in mechanical drawing, so that I knew the use of the
instruments and what kind of ink to use.
I cannot recollect that I was in the least cast down or discouraged. I
cannot now account for my confidence. I believed that the fundamental
features of this machine were correct. These were: cutting stone by a
blow given by a hammer moving in an inclined direction, and which was
thrown up by a cam and thrown down by springs. The more I reflected
upon it the more I became convinced that a successful stone-dressing
machine could be made on those general lines, and in no other way; and
I also became impressed with what seems the almost absurd conviction
that I could make it.
The machine that broke the stone had a broad hammer--a cast-iron plate
with tongues on the sides running in grooves in a frame, and to the
end of which a long steel blade was bolted. My first idea was to divide
the single broad hammer into several hammers working side by side and
striking their blows successively; the second was to separate the
hammers from the tool-holders, the third, to employ the same tools that
were used by stone-cutters, namely, the point, tooth-chisel and drove,
and to give them as nearly as possible the same blow that was given to
them by the workman, and the fourth, to give to the tools only the blow
necessary to do their work.
I infused my own enthusiasm into my associates to such a degree that
they agreed to put up the money and let me try the experiment. That
also is something that I now wonder at.
The most influential member of this devoted band was George T. Hope,
President of the Continental Fire Insurance Co., a gentleman whom I
shall have frequent occasion to mention, and who remained my steadfast
friend till his death, which occurred soon after the close of my
engineering career.
I set about my work in this manner. My house, on the south side of
Twenty-second Street west of Seventh Avenue, had been arranged in
its construction to use the extension room back of the parlor as a
dining-room. That left the front basement available for me. This
I equipped for a drawing-office, and set myself at work to learn
mechanical drawing, and at the same time to design this machine.
I bought a Scotch instruction book, and a sheet of “antiquarian”
drawing-paper. In those days all drawings were made on white linen
paper, and this was nearly the largest size that was made, and cost 75
cents a sheet. My principal drawing-implement was india-rubber. As my
plans grew in my mind I had to rub out my preceding sketches. I spent
a great deal of my time in visiting the large engineering works on
the East River--the Allaire Works, the Morgan Works and the Novelty
Works--and studying tools and machines and principles and methods
of construction. I tried to get my mind saturated with mechanics. I
finally succeeded in producing the design, this vertical section of
which I have sketched from memory after fifty years.
It will be seen that this machine was massive in its construction.
This was required on account of the speed--300 rotations of the shaft
per minute--at which I had determined to run it. This was my first
employment of high speed.
[Illustration: GEORGE T. HOPE]
The original model of the machine made 60 strokes per minute. In the
machine that broke the stone I had increased the speed to 100 strokes
per minute. In designing the successful machine I made the great jump
to 300 revolutions of the cam-shaft per minute. This was done after
much study of practical requirements. I observed carefully the speed
of planing-machines. I had also the opportunity of witnessing the
operation of the first wood-moulding machine, and was much impressed by
the speed of the rotary cutters and the rapidity with which the work
was turned out. I wanted a motion of 40 inches a minute for the stone
table, which would make the output of the machine satisfactory; 300
revolutions would give this motion, the table advancing .133 of an inch
at each blow.
[Illustration: Side frame not shown, except Channels
for Elevating Screws
My First Mechanical Drawing. Longitudinal Section of my
Stone-dressing Machine.]
The machine contained six hammers, each 6 inches wide and weighing
about 200 pounds, which ran in a suspended frame. The front member of
this frame was a wrought-iron bar 6 inches square, with a projection
on the lower side, as shown. At the ends this bar was first reduced to
5 inches square, the corners rounded to 1 inch radius, and mortised
into cast-iron side-bars 4 inches thick, one of which is shown in the
sectional view. Beyond these side-bars the wrought-iron bar was turned
down to journals 3¹⁄₂ inches in diameter, which turned in the heads of
large screws, one of which is represented. Beyond those journals it
was further reduced to 2 inches diameter, and the ends threaded. These
projections extended through slots in the main framing, and nuts on the
outside provided with long handles enabled the whole to be bound fast
in its position, when that had been determined.
The hammers had two faces; the upper faces struck on this 6-inch square
bar, the lower faces struck the backs of the heavy tool-holders. These
tool-holders were held in position in the manner shown. At the extreme
back end they rocked downward upon a heavy cross-bar. At the front they
rose against the 6-inch cross-bar. They were made with a heavy hook
at the back, which prevented them from coming forward further than
the projection at the bottom of this cross-bar permitted. A curved
spring held them up to the cross-bar when the weight of the hammer
was removed. Between the 6-inch cross-bar and the tool-holders and
the hammer faces I introduced a sheet of heavy leather belting, which
deadened the force of the blow. A stone-cutter uses a wooden mallet to
drive the tooth-chisels and droves, because the impact of iron on iron
has a disintegrating effect upon the stone, which the stone-cutters
call “stunning the stone.” It produces a vibration in the body of the
stone to a depth of perhaps ¹⁄₈ inch, and, however well the surface of
the stone may appear when it is finished, after a while the outside
will flake off to the depth to which these vibrations have extended.
This leather buffer served the purpose of the wooden mallet, completely
avoiding this difficulty. Incidentally also it made the building
habitable, by transforming the blow into a dull thud, which at the
rate of 1800 blows per minute from the six hammers was itself quite
important to be done.
The large screws on each side of the machine at the front were provided
at the top with long nuts resting on a cross-bar and combined with
worm-wheels. A shaft carrying two worms engaging with these wheels
extended across the top of the machine, so that the nuts were rotated
identically, and the front of the suspended frame was raised or lowered
as the thickness of the stone or depth of the cut required. The machine
could cut stone from the thinnest ashlar up to a thickness of about 3
feet. The hammers ran on rollers as shown. At the back the frame and
hammers were carried on similar rollers on the same shaft. The ends of
this shaft also turned in square heads of screws, and by a mechanism
similar to that already described the back of the frame could be
elevated or depressed to the height required and be set at any desired
angle.
The six tool-holders were made in the following manner: I got from
England a bar of steel long enough to make them all. This was planed
into the form shown in the section, and the sockets for the shanks of
the tools were finished to an equal depth and perfectly in line. It was
then parted, and the ends of each finished in a slotting-machine.
The blows struck by the hammers were very effective. The cams had a
throw of 1¹⁄₄ inches, but they threw the hammers back against the
springs 1¹⁄₄ inches further, making their fall 2¹⁄₂ inches. This I
ascertained by holding a piece of thin board edgeways between the upper
end of a hammer and the cross-bar at the back, when the hammer crushed
it up to this height.
We never ran over the stone with the points but once. They made
everything before them fly. On the other hand, the droves merely dusted
the surface, to take out the marks of the tooth-chisels. All surplus
force in the blow was received on the 6-inch cross-bar. The tools
stood motionless unless pushed back by the stone, when they received a
sufficient portion of the blow to drive them forward to their position.
The feed motion was powerful, being imparted by a worm engaging in a
worm-wheel 24 inches in diameter, while the run back was swift, quite
100 feet in a minute.
The sides of the steel tool-holders, rubbing against each other,
became after a while badly abraded. I was obliged to plane them off
and dovetail thin strips of hardened steel into them. These prevented
any further trouble. The sides of the end tool-holders, however, which
rubbed against the cast-iron side-bars, I observed, were polished
without sensible wear.
This was a very important observation. These surfaces all rubbed
together dry. The pressure was only the side thrust, which was very
trifling. Under these conditions the molecules of the same material
interlocked, while those of the different materials did not. These
two materials were, however, extremely different in their constituent
features. Perhaps this point of freedom of _some_ different materials
from interlocking was still better illustrated by the set-screws,
where this difference of molecular structure did not exist in the same
degree. These were made of Ulster iron, a superior quality of American
iron then largely used in New York City for bolts. They were ⁵⁄₈-inch
screws, and were also used dry, no oil being allowed anywhere over
the stones. Each tool-holder contained three of these set-screws.
The outside ones were tightened and loosened sixty times every day.
The middle ones, where only the points were used, were tightened and
loosened twenty times every day and at other times stood loose in their
threads. The tool-holders being massive, and the blows of the hammers
also coming on the leather cushion, there was no vibration. At the end
of the two years’ running the outer bolts were all perfect fits. The
middle ones were loose, but still held the tools perfectly.
The rollers on which the hammers ran were hardened and turned on
hardened shafts. The hammers themselves had chilled faces, and their
surfaces running on the rollers were also chilled. The surfaces of
the tool-holders and of the bar on which these rocked were provided
with hardened strips to the extent that they came in contact with each
other. The cams and rollers and their pins were also hardened.
When built this machine was found to require only a single alteration.
I had welded the cams onto the shaft, the welds being guaranteed by
the smith to be perfectly sound. No appearance of unsoundness could be
detected when the shaft was finished, but after running a week or two
the cams became loose. This also gave me a useful lesson. I was obliged
to send to England for blocks of steel, which were bored, finished and
keyed on the shaft in the manner shown, and the working surfaces of
the cams were hardened. This required the substitution of new hammers,
because the cams could not be threaded through the old ones. The hubs
of these cams were 6 inches long, covering the shaft.
Our company, being satisfied from its design that the machine when
finished would prove a success, rented from Mr. Astor a large lot on
the south side of Fourteenth Street, west of Ninth Avenue, extending
through to Thirteenth Street, and erected and equipped a building and
established a stone-yard, where the machine ran successfully for two
seasons, principally employed in facing ashlar, as the flat-faced
stones of buildings are termed. It turned out with ease 600 square feet
of finished surface per day, which was the work of thirty men, and it
never broke a stone, however thin.
For facing in the machine the stones were set on bars 2 inches thick
and 4 inches high, cast on the surface of sliding tables. These were
both longitudinal and cross bars, and were provided with holes ³⁄₄ inch
in diameter and about 3 inches apart. There were two tables, each 16
feet in length.
Several pieces of ashlar were set upon each table and held by dogs
and wedges on these bars. They were wedged up very easily by skilled
workmen, so that they would finish at the same level. At one side
of the ways on which the tables moved, near each end, was placed a
swing-crane, which was double- and triple-geared, so that by means of
it any stone that the machine was adapted to cut could be lifted by two
men. The operations of cutting the stones on one table and removing the
stones and setting others on the other table went on simultaneously,
so that the cutting was never interrupted, except to change the tools
and the tables. This last was done as follows: Each table, when the
work on it was completed, was run rapidly backward or forward to attach
it to the other table. It was then connected with this by a couple of
hooks, and, the motion being reversed, pulled it into place under the
tools, and in doing this took its own place under a crane, so that the
work of removing the finished stones and setting rough ones went on
continuously at one end or the other of the ways.
In addition to the machine I designed the building and the whole plant
and the plan of its operation, which moved like clockwork. I made every
drawing myself. The cranes I obtained in Rochester, N. Y., of a pattern
which the builders made for railroads for handling heavy freight.
I bought from a stone-dressing company that had failed a rubbing
machine called the Jenny Lind rubber, from the fact that it was started
the same year in which that songstress was brought to the United States
by Mr. Barnum. This rubbing-machine was quite a success. From a central
vertical spindle a jointed arm extended in three lengths, each about 12
feet long. The sections of this arm were very deep, so that there was
no sag at the end, where the rubbing-plate was driven by belting and
could be moved from stone to stone around a circle of 36 feet radius.
Half of this circle was sufficient for our use. I made only one change
in this machine. The pulleys, two pairs on each joint, one at the top
and one at the bottom, about two feet in diameter by three inches
face, were of course horizontal. The makers were afraid the belts
would fall off; so they made these pulleys with two square grooves,
¹⁄₂ inch wide by ¹⁄₄ inch deep, in their faces, and had corresponding
strips of leather sewn on the belts to run in these grooves. I threw
all these away and substituted ordinary pulleys with their faces
slightly crowning. Never had the least trouble. Indeed, these pulleys
did better than I expected. I supposed the belts would need to be taken
up occasionally, on account of becoming stretched, but they did not.
Perhaps they would have done so if the strain on them had been greater.
This rubbing machine resembled the stone-dressing machine in one
respect: everything about it was arranged for continuous operation and
the largest output.
The business was carried on the first season under the management of
Mr. John McClave, a master stone-cutter, and the second season under
the management of the firm of Brown & Young, stone-cutters. Mr. Hugh
Young, of this firm, has since been prominent in the stone-cutting
business in New York.
The machine was found to possess a remarkable advantage over hand work.
The sun was called by stone-cutters “the great revealer.” When its rays
fell at a small angle on a surface finished by hand they showed very
considerable irregularities. The same test showed work in the machine
to be true planes. It won a high reputation; stone-cutters were anxious
to get their surfaces done in the machine, and we had more work offered
us than we could do.
The following incident illustrates the favorable impression made by the
machine upon everyone who witnessed its operation:
At a meeting of the Directors of the Company at which I was present Mr.
Daniel S. Miller, a gentleman somewhat prominent in financial New York,
was late. He made the following explanation. “I thought that before the
meeting I would visit the stone yard and see how the work was going on.
I stayed longer than I had intended, and I want five thousand dollars
more of the stock of this company.”
We were much elated over our success, and plans were made for enlarging
the business. I completed the drawings for an additional machine, wide
enough to take in platforms, for which provision had been made by me in
the plan of the building. The only change suggested by our two years’
experience was the use of air-cushions behind the hammers in place of
steel springs.
But the best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men, the poet tells us,
“Gang aft a-gley;
And leave us naught but grief and pain
For promised joy.”
Our plans were suddenly ruined. A change in the method of facing
ashlar was introduced and soon became universally adopted. Instead
of being faced by hand, it began to be sawn out of large blocks. I
have since wondered why this had not been done long before. Blocks of
marble had been sawn into slabs by gang-saws no one knows how long,
and all that had to be done was to apply the same system to blocks of
building-stone. It was found to cost no more to saw ashlar than it
had done to split it out at the quarry. All the cost of facing and
much stone were saved. Our stone-cutting machine became useless, and I
learned that disappointments were not confined to the legal profession.
The speed of 300 revolutions per minute had proved to be admirably
suited for the machine. Familiarity with this speed in the running of
the stone-dressing machine made me alive to the value of high rotative
speeds in all cases to which they are adapted.
In looking back over this period I see that the success of the
stone-dressing machine was due to the following causes:
First, I went about the work of facing stone by machinery in the
natural way.
Second, the machine was superabundantly strong and substantial in every
part.
Third, it was made with absolute mechanical truth.
Fourth, the speed was splendid.
Fifth, the blow was peculiar. In the Hastings machine the cutting-tool
was driven into the stone. In mine it rested on the stone and was
moved back horizontally by the feed. This changed slightly the angular
position of the tool-holder, so that the blow was received by it at
the lower edge of its back. This gave to the tool a motion forward and
_upward_, so that the vertical effect on the stone was trifling.
This was the vital feature of my improvement, and that in a double
sense; for it was only by convincing my associates beforehand that a
machine operating in this manner could not break the stone that I was
able to obtain their financial support.
Sixth, the two-faced hammer saved the stone from all unnecessary force
of the blow.
The final cause of its success was the two-table system. The two
operations of setting and cutting occupied each about the same time,
and twenty tables each averaging thirty square feet of surface,
measured after being squared up, were easily finished in a day of ten
hours.
A description of some of the constructive methods employed by me may be
interesting:
The bar of steel which was to be made into six separate tool-holders
had to have eighteen sockets mortised in it. These were 1 inch square.
I had made the tools with square shanks so as to insure their proper
position. These mortises must be absolutely in line and of equal depth.
These objects were accomplished as follows: A cast-iron angle-bar with
planed surfaces was first bolted on the table of the drilling-machine,
and for drilling the holes the bar of steel was kept in contact
with this angle-bar. A uniform depth was insured by employing a
bottoming-drill with a collar formed on the shank. The drilling was
finished when this collar rubbed on the steel bar.
I had this work done by Mr. Joseph Banks, whose shop was in a large
building at the corner of Second Avenue and Twenty-second Street. Mr.
A. S. Cameron, the inventor and manufacturer of the celebrated Cameron
steam-pumps, was then an apprentice in that shop. Mr. Banks was an
excellent mechanic, and I was greatly indebted to him for the accuracy
of the work that I procured. He devised an expanding-drill to cut a
groove at the bottom of these sockets, in which the chips from the
slotting-tool made in squaring the holes would come off. The finishing
slotting-tool I designed myself. I had noticed in all slotting-machines
that came under my observation at that time that the tool would spring
off a little at the commencement of the cut, so that a full square
angle was never obtained. To avoid this defect and to size the slots
equally I made a slotting-tool to cut on opposite sides. The cutting
edges were each about ¹⁄₈ inch long and the corners rounded. The bar
for the tool-holders had to be set three times on account of its
length. It was set in contact with the same angle-bar, which was bolted
on this table parallel with its transverse feed. This finishing-tool
being once set, the upper and lower faces of all the sockets were thus
readily finished in perfect line and with square edges. The tool being
then turned at right angles to its first position, for which purpose
its shank had been planed square, finished the sides of the sockets.
These were identical in every respect, and any tool could go anywhere.
The springs behind the hammers were prepared with great care. I had
large bars of spring steel reduced under a tilt-hammer to a section ³⁄₈
inch square. These were coiled with only ¹⁄₄ inch space between the
coils, so that in case a spring broke within the hammer it could not
get out of place. These springs were exceptionally durable. We took off
the back cross-bar occasionally--perhaps once a month--to examine for
broken springs, and sometimes we found one, which was replaced with
a new one because we assumed that it was fatigued, but the hammers
worked just as well with broken springs as they did with whole ones.
The springs, having considerable initial compression, did not become
loose.
It seems proper to add that, except the help from Mr. Banks, I did not
in designing the machine or organizing the work receive assistance or
suggestion from anyone.
With these details I bid a final good-by to you, my old schoolmaster. I
have a warm place in my heart for you. You set me my first lessons in
mechanics. Your life was short. You were not ordained to cut much of a
figure in the world. But you were faithful. You always did your work
and did it well.
CHAPTER II
The Evolution and Manufacture of the Central Counterpoise Governor.
Introduction of Mr. Richards.
When the stone-dressing machine was started a difficulty presented
itself. The governor was in constant motion a short distance up and
down, causing the engine to oscillate, running alternately too fast and
too slow. There was nothing that should have caused this action, so
far as I could observe. The load on the engine was constant. However
the work done on the stone may have varied, the work of the engine was
to lift the hammers, and these, being lifted successively, presented a
uniform resistance. The oscillation was not very great, as nearly as
I can remember about 12 per cent. of the speed; which would give to
each hammer a variation of thirty-six blows per minute. This, however,
produced a waving surface on the stone. The more rapid the blow, the
stronger it was and the deeper the cut. These waves were slight, only
about ¹⁄₅₀ of an inch variation in depth, but yet it was not possible
for our rubbing-machine to grind them off without great loss of time.
So we had to employ three or four stone-cutters to chisel off these
ridges, which were about 4 inches apart.
It was evident that this oscillation must be stopped. I tried to remedy
it by changing the pressure of the steam, and then by changing the
pulleys so as to run the engine faster, the speed of the governor,
however, necessarily remaining the same. But these had no effect.
Having exhausted my own stock of ignorance on the subject, I applied
to professional experts for more, and I got it. Three persons, who I
supposed ought to know, and who probably did know, all that was then
known on the subject, gave me the same advice. It was that I should get
a larger engine and a great deal larger fly-wheel. This advice did
not seem to me reasonable. I knew that the engine was large enough,
because while the governor was in the lowest position, in which it did
not open the throttle entirely by any means, the machine ran too fast.
They then told me I must have a heavier fly-wheel at any rate, and they
explained to me that the fly-wheel performed two offices--one to carry
the crank over its dead centers with an approximately uniform motion,
and the other to give the governor time to act. I replied that the
engine passed its dead centers with absolute uniformity then, as nearly
as I could see, and as was shown by the surface of the stone, and
consequently for that purpose the fly-wheel I had must be sufficient.
The oscillations were regular, occupying about 30 revolutions of the
machine, or 6 seconds of time, and had no connection with the dead
centers, and I did not see why the governor should require any time to
act. They told me that all governors required time to act, of course.
I then examined the governor more critically, and made up my mind that
its action was hindered by friction in the driving-joints at the top
of the spindle. These joints were about 4 inches apart, on opposite
sides of the spindle, and were of a character in which the force
transmitted through them to drive the balls produced a pinch between
the broad faces of the joints. The governor could not act until by
change of its speed it had accumulated force enough to overcome this
pinch, and then it moved too far. Again I applied to my authorities
for some way of getting rid of this friction. They told me that was
easy enough. All I had to do was to put a yoke on the governor spindle,
through which the governor arms were threaded and by which the driving
pressure was applied close to the balls. So for the first time I took
their advice and had a yoke put on the governor. I could not discover
that this helped the matter at all. The improvement was too trifling
to be noticed. I also saw clearly enough why this was so. The pressure
applied was lighter than that applied through the joints, but it
was also applied at a correspondingly increased distance from the
axis, so that the effect in retarding the action of the governor was
substantially the same.
I saw that if I got any relief I must find a way to it myself. So I
began studying the subject of governors. My engineering library at
that time consisted of Haswell’s Engineers’ Pocket Book. What little
book-knowledge I had respecting mechanics I had learned from Haswell.
I turned to Haswell and read what he had to say about governors.
I learned that they were conical pendulums and made half as many
revolutions in a minute as the vibrations of a pendulum whose length
was equal to the height of the cone, the base of which was the plane
in which the center of oscillation of the balls and arms revolved, and
its apex the point of intersection of the axes of the arms, if produced
upward, and that their revolutions varied inversely as the square root
of the height of this cone. I did not see that this got me out of
my difficulty at all. I then referred to the subject of centrifugal
force, with which I had made some acquaintance before, and I read this
champion mind-muddler: “All bodies moving around a center or fixed
point have a tendency to fly off in a straight line. This is termed
centrifugal force.” This did not help me any more, nor interest me much
at that time.
But I read further that the centrifugal force of a body revolving in
any given circle varies as the square of the speed. “Thus a body making
10 revolutions per minute will exert four times as much centrifugal
force as will be exerted by the same body making 5 revolutions per
minute.” The governor on my engine was making 50 revolutions per
minute, and in thinking the matter over it occurred to me that if
the governor could be run as fast as my machine, namely, at 300
revolutions per minute, the centrifugal force of one pound would be
as great as that exerted by 36 pounds at 50 revolutions per minute.
I cried, “Eureka! I have found it.” One-pound balls in place of
36-pound balls would be easily driven. I told my experts of the great
find that I had made, and they laughed at me. They told me I ought
to know that the momentum of the balls increased in the same ratio
with their centrifugal force, _MV²_ being the expression common to
both, so, in the same circle, while the centrifugal force of the balls
at 300 revolutions per minute would be 36 times greater than at 50
revolutions, it would require also 36 times the force to drive them,
and that I would gain nothing by my proposed change, but instead I
would have to rotate also the weight that I would need to use to hold
the small balls down, and the last case would be worse than the first.
This staggered me, and I pondered awhile what I should do.
I had a friend living near by on Fourteenth Street, west of Seventh
Avenue--a Mr. Thompson, a mathematician and the author of a series of
mathematical books then largely used. So I called upon him and stated
my trouble and asked his advice. He illuminated the subject to me as
follows: “You seem to be a persevering young man; keep hard at it and
you will solve the difficulty by and by.”
In my despair I just had before me this one thought: The friction must
be cured at any rate. After a time I thought that if I made a long
joint at the top embracing the center of gyration of the counterpoise,
so that the pressure required to drive the balls and counterpoise would
be applied at some distance from the axis of the spindle and for that
reason would be much lighter, and also would be normal to the surface
of the joint-pin instead of being a pinch between opposite faces, the
difficulty would be cured, as the force to overcome the friction would
be exerted at the ends of levers 50 or 100 times the radius of the pin.
I felt so sure of this that I risked making a governor with a single
joint at the apex of the cone, as originally employed by Watt, thus
making the governor more sensitive, as the height of the cone would not
be changed at both ends, still fortunately holding to my little balls
and high speed, though I cannot tell why. The joint at the top I made 6
inches in length.
When this governor was started, the trouble absolutely vanished. The
engine ran with perfect uniformity while the load was constant. I
use the adjective “perfect” advisedly, for the governor slide was as
motionless on the spindle as if it were screwed tight, and the governor
proved to be the most sensitive possible index of the variations of
speed. When the belt was thrown off to the loose pulley the engine
ran idle. The counterpoise then rose promptly but gently to its fixed
highest position, and stood there motionless until the belt was thrown
on and the hammers were started, when it moved as gently but promptly
down to its lower position and stood there again motionless so long as
the hammers were running. We could not detect by the eye the variation
in speed that caused this action of the governor. The heaviest load
on the engine, however, was dragging rapidly the two tables loaded
with stone. This caused the governor to settle still further, but
always the motion of the engine seemed to be the same so far as I could
detect. The surface produced on the stone left nothing to be desired.
The machine cut true planes, free from any windage, and the surfaces
were left so smooth that the rubbing-machine had but little to do, and
kept up with the cutting-machine very easily. The governor fascinated
everybody who witnessed its operation.
[Illustration: The First Porter Governor.]
I first made the drawing for the governor with the weight hanging to
the slide. Mr. John McLaren, a machinist who had done good work for
me, when I showed it to him said, “Why don’t you turn your weight
upside down and put it between the arms?” I was not long in acting upon
this suggestion, and that made the Porter governor complete. I had it
described and illustrated in the _Scientific American_. They took a
photograph of it as photographs were taken in those days--that is, they
sent their artist up to make a sketch of it, and this sketch (shown
here) and description will be found in the _Scientific American_ of
October 9, 1858. This governor has never been changed by me except in
the shape of the counterpoise.
I believed the mathematics of my advisers to be sound, and that the
perfect action of the governor was obtained entirely by the long
driving-joint, which I supposed would have enabled the 36-lb. balls
at 50 revolutions per minute to do just as well as 1-lb. balls at 300
revolutions, but I never tried the experiment.
In that belief I remained for 50 years. Now, at the age of over 80
years, after long rest from business activities, in revising these
reminiscences for publication, the idea has first occurred to me,
and has grown into a conviction, that my advisers were wrong here as
they had been in every other respect. They overlooked the fact that
the angular velocity of the driving-joint increased equally with that
of the balls, so that the ratio between them would remain constant.
The law that the driving force required increases as the square of
the speed imparted applies only to the original source of power, as,
to the force of the steam exerted in the cylinder of an engine, the
motion of the piston remaining the same, and to the transmitting belts
or gears whose speed also remains the same. At all these points the
force exerted must increase as the square of the speed imparted; but
this does not apply to the pressure exerted in the governor joint. Its
speed does not remain the same, but increases with that of the balls.
So, while the centrifugal force of the balls, changes in which produce
the vertical movements of the counterpoise, varies as the square of
the speed, the force required to be exerted in this joint to drive the
balls, and which produces the friction to retard these movements, does
not increase at all, whatever the speed of revolution may be. This
fact, unobserved by me or any one else so far as I ever heard, has all
the time been the secret, a pretty open secret when once seen, of the
surprising combination of sensitiveness and stability in the action of
this governor which has led to its general use, and at which I myself
have never ceased to wonder because I was ignorant of its cause. This,
however, was not the only time that I builded better than I knew.
I can imagine some persons, after having read the above explanation,
to say, some of them perhaps flippantly, and some possibly sneeringly,
“To a properly educated engineer this is obvious at a glance.” I think
it will be so hereafter, but has it been so hitherto? If any one will
produce the record of its observation I will cheerfully yield to him
the priority and will congratulate him upon it.
Some things, however, make me doubt if this observation has ever been
made. At the London Exhibition of 1862 this governor attracted much
attention from its novel appearance, rapid rotation and remarkable
action. Many engineers spoke to me about it. In their conversation
I observed two things: first, no one ever asked me a question, but
every one explained its action to me; and second, while each had an
explanation of his own to make, they all agreed in a fundamental
respect. Their minds ran in the same groove. They considered the
governor only in its theoretical action. No one ever took notice of the
incident of friction, which was the controlling factor. An improved
governor was in their view one contrived in some way to free the
governor from the limitation to its action, which is imposed by the law
of the conical pendulum, and every one explained to me how my governor
was adapted to do this.
The following illustrates this universal view among English engineers:
In the Appendix to the 10th edition of Rankine’s “Manual of the
Steam-engine and other Prime Movers,” published in 1882, one reads
as follows: “ISOCHRONOUS GOVERNORS. The ordinary governor is
not isochronous; for when, in order to adapt the opening of the
regulating-valve to different loads, it rotates with its revolving
pendulums at different angles to the vertical axis, the _altitude_ of
the cone assumes different values, corresponding to different speeds.
_The following are expedients for diminishing or removing this defect._
1. _Loaded Governor_ (Porter’s).--From the balls of the common
governor, whose collective weight is (say) _A_, let there be hung by
a pair of links of lengths equal to the pendulum arms, a load, _B_,
capable of sliding up and down the spindle, and having its center
of gravity on the axis of rotation. Then the centrifugal force is
that due to _A_ alone, and the effect of gravity that due to _A_ +
2_B_; consequently the altitude for a given speed is increased in the
ratio _A_ + 2_B_ : _A_, as compared with that of a simple revolving
pendulum; and a given absolute variation of altitude in moving the
regulating-valve produces a smaller proportionate variation of speed
than in the common governor.”
That is the whole of it. Respecting this I have to say:
1st. The vertical motion of the counterpoise (variation of altitude),
if the links had also a single joint at the bottom, could not be either
more or less than twice that of the balls, which equal lengths of the
arms and links give also in the common governor, so in this respect the
governor is no improvement.
2d. No notice is taken of the small size of the balls or of the speed
of rotation.
3d. Professor Rankine is not responsible for this absurd piece of
reasoning.
4th. It only shows how far the English engineering mind has been from
considering the subject of hindrance to the governor action from
friction.
My governor works within the law of the conical pendulum. I never
dreamed of attempting in this form of governor to avoid it. In fact
it is this law which gives to the governor its action. A change of
speed is necessary to produce a motion of the counterpoise. But as
the governor was designed by me, this change of speed is very small,
probably no more than is required for stability, and is not sensible
in any way except in the motion of the counterpoise itself, which is
simultaneous with the most minute changes of speed.
Quite a variety of modifications of this governor are being made in
this country, but I think not elsewhere. The makers have been kind
enough to invent the name “the central counterpoise governor.” For
this I feel greatly obliged, as I should be mortified to find my
name attached to any of them. Their action is always more or less
unsatisfactory, sometimes very much so. But I do not think it likely
that the secret of the remarkable action of the Porter governor has
been detected by any of these people.
I am glad that this was not explained to me at first; if it had been
I might not have thought of the single long driving-joint, which is a
valuable feature.
When the stone-dressing machine proved to be valueless, as already
described, I found myself out of business; but the governor had
attracted so much attention and had been so favorably received that I
thought I could establish a business of manufacturing these governors,
and I am proud to say that the gentlemen already associated with me
and who had lost their money in the abandonment of the stone-dressing
machine were so decidedly of the same opinion, and I had won their
confidence to such an extent, that they furnished the money to enable
me to establish this manufacture.
I rented a shop on the second floor of a triangular building on
Thirteenth Street, at the junction of Hudson Street and Ninth Avenue,
owned by Mr. Herring, the safe-manufacturer, the lower part of which
was occupied by him for his own business. This was a large room and had
light on three sides.
I proceeded to equip this shop with the necessary tools, some of which
I purchased of Mr. Freeland, then considered the best toolmaker in the
United States, and who had gone to England and worked for some years
as a journeyman in the celebrated Whitworth Works, in Manchester, for
the purpose of learning everything that was known there. Those which
Mr. Freeland could not supply I obtained from Geo. S. Lincoln & Co., of
Hartford, Conn.
During the time these tools were building I was waited upon by Mr.
Chas. B. Richards, who was then removing from Hartford to New York
to establish himself as a designer of machinery, and who brought me
a letter from Geo. S. Lincoln & Co. I was at that time engaged in
scheming as well as I could a machine for drilling the arms and balls
and counterweight and spindle of my governor, and immediately employed
Mr. Richards to assist me in getting out the drawings for this machine.
This he did quite to my satisfaction, and the machine was made by
Geo. S. Lincoln & Co., Mr. Pratt, for so many years head of the firm
of Pratt & Whitney, afterwards the Pratt & Whitney Company, being then
their foreman; so that all my tools from that concern were made by Mr.
Pratt. He also cut for me superb iron patterns for the governor gears.
This machine always interested me very much. It solved every problem
which was involved in the perfect and rapid performance of these
operations. It had two parallel spindles running horizontally in the
same plane, one fixed and the other adjustable. Distance pieces laid
between the spindle heads insured the equal length of the arms of all
governors of the same size. The table was made with a back to it, so
that, a parallel block being laid on the table behind the arms, these
were always brought in position parallel with its back. The arms were
supported on blocks of proper height. These provisions insured that
the joint-holes, which were drilled simultaneously, should intersect
the axes of the arms and of the balls and spindle at right angles.
This machine fitted up all the governors that I ever made. I gradually
built up an excellent business in their manufacture, on account of the
extreme pains taken to produce perfect work, so that the governors
always gave the highest satisfaction.
I think of only one instance to the contrary. I sold a governor to
Mr. Winslow, of Troy, afterwards of the firm of Corning & Winslow,
the first manufacturers of Bessemer steel rails in this country under
the inspiration of Mr. Alexander L. Holley. Soon after this governor
had been shipped I received a letter from Mr. Winslow telling me that
the governor would not answer at all, and I should come and see about
it. I found the governor had been placed on a second-hand Burden
engine, which was a well-known type of horizontal engine at that time,
made in Brooklyn. The engine had been built to make 50 revolutions
per minute, but being a great deal too large for their use they had
reduced the speed to 25 revolutions per minute, and the complaint was
that every time the crank passed its centers the governor dropped to
its seat. I told them what I thought the difficulty was; that any one
could see that the engine very nearly stopped as the crank passed its
centers, and the governor _had_ to drop. To show them this action, I
disconnected the governor from the valve and throttled the engine by
hand, and showed them that the governor, when not connected with the
throttle-valve, rose and dropped on every stroke, in the same way as
when connected. They asked me what I was going to do about it. I told
them I should do nothing about it; that I presumed they might possibly
get a governor somewhere that would stand that alternation of speed
without winking, but they had better send mine back, because it was not
made for any such service.
[Illustration: CHARLES B. RICHARDS
A.D. 1858]
The following is an amusing illustration, doubtless an extreme one,
of the degree in which the lay mind may be incapable of mechanical
perception. My governors were usually set on the engine bed of
horizontal engines near the shaft, and were connected with the
throttle-valve over the cylinder by means of a bell-crank lever and a
long rod. One day a gentleman called to make a personal examination
of the governor and its manufacture, with a view to investing in the
business. I showed him a governor in action on the testing platform,
and a woodcut on my circular which represented the governor in its
position, as above described, with a short piece of the connecting-rod
attached to the lever. He looked at this cut intently for some time,
and then, putting his finger on the broken-off end of the little rod,
said, “Ah, I see; the steam enters there.” I made no reply, and he was
so much pleased with his own penetration that he invested at once.
I know of only one case in which this governor needed the help of a
dash-pot or controlling vessel. In the great plate-mill of the Otis
Works, in Cleveland, when the enormous mass of steel struck the rolls,
the governor dropped sharply to its seat, and jumped as sharply to the
upper limit of its action when this mass was shot out. Mr. Wellman,
their general manager, suggested to me an elegant arrangement of
air-chambers at the top and bottom of a cylinder, which permitted free
motion to the governor through its whole range of action, but cushioned
it on confined air at the ends.
For several years I made the counterpoise of the governor in the form
of a vase. The present form with hemispherical top was suggested by Mr.
Whitworth in 1866, and shown by me in the Paris Exposition of 1867.
It has three advantages. It is more readily turned with a circular
tool-rest, and it contains more metal and looks more mechanical.
I exhibited the governor in operation at a fair of the American
Institute held on Fourteenth Street between Sixth and Seventh avenues,
New York City (where the armory of the Twelfth Regiment now stands),
making an arrangement with an exhibitor of an engine for that purpose.
I remember that Mr. George H. Reynolds, then an engineer in the works
of Mr. Delamater at the foot of West Thirteenth Street, as he passed
it with a friend a day or two after it was started, remarked in my
hearing, “It will take a horse-power to drive that governor.” It
would not do to let any such nonsense get around as the opinion of an
engineer, so the next morning the governor was driven by a belt ⁵⁄₈
of an inch wide, and continued to be so through the fair. I was sorry
afterwards that I did not use a half-inch belt, which would have driven
it just as well, and indeed I think even a narrower belt would have
done, as the foot of the spindle was of hardened steel, a segment of
a sphere, running in a puddle of oil in a hardened step cupped to a
larger radius.
The funniest application of the governor I ever made was the following:
The Civil War had just broken out, and every Yankee was making some
warlike invention. The most ridiculous of all was a centrifugal gun.
A company was formed for its manufacture. The shot, about an inch in
diameter, was fed in at the center of a swiftly revolving wheel and
thrown out through a barrel at the periphery, with a velocity that, it
was estimated by the inventor, would carry it about two miles. This
velocity was to be got up in about one second. The governor would not
act quickly enough, and the engine was stopped. The parties heard of
my governor, and ordered one, offering to pay for it in a tempting
amount of their stock. I preferred the cash and got it. The governor
filled the bill, the shot was delivered, the velocity of revolution not
falling sensibly, but we judged by the sharp fall of the counterpoise
that it required not less than twenty horse-powers to do it.
The gun was tried on the bank of the Hudson, the Palisades opposite
being the target. The inventor declared that every shot hit the mark,
but some evil-minded persons insisted that they fell into the water
within a quarter of a mile of the shore from which they were fired.
About the same time the absurdity of sending into the field a tank of
water, a boiler, an engine and the gun, on separate wheels, connected
by pipes or belting, which would be ruined by the least damage to
anything, began to dawn on the enthusiasts, and the thing was abandoned.
I furnished one of my first governors to Mr. James Horner to regulate a
rolling-mill near Boonton, N. J., a sale which is worth recording. This
mill was employed in rolling steel pretty high in carbon into rods for
making gimlets, and the three-high train had not yet issued from the
brain of Mr. Fritz. The rolling was slow work. The resistance brought
down the speed of the engine before the governor could act, and they
could have only one pass in the rolls at a time. The workmen had to
carry the end of the rod around and insert it in the next groove after
it had run out of the former one. The rod would be black before it was
finished, and often it was difficult to get it finished at all. I do
not know of any change that so much impressed me at the time as did
that which followed the putting of my governor on this engine. The full
speed was kept up, the billets seemed to rush through the rolls, two
and even three passes could be in them at the same time, and the rods
were still at a dull red heat when finished.
This success induced me to make a raid on Pittsburg. I found there very
different conditions. They then rolled nothing but iron, so far as I
saw or heard. In the first mill I visited, after I had discussed the
subject with one of the proprietors, an old man came up to me and said,
“Do you see that chair? I have sat in that chair twenty-four years.”
The chair corroborated his story. “I watch the rolls; when a bar enters
them, I turn on more steam; when it goes out I shut it off. If you put
in a governor that will do as well, I shall be discharged. I don’t know
how to do anything else; I have a family dependent on me, and I don’t
know what I should do.” I did not hesitate long about what I should
do. I could not improve on the old man’s action. He regulated the
speed perfectly. The only result of my success would be to beggar him.
Superseding hand labor by machinery I did not in this particular case
care to be responsible for. I concluded that the Pittsburg way was
good enough for them, and took the next train for home.
The first governor I sold was to Mr. William Moller for his
sugar-refinery on Vandam Street. The engine to be regulated was an
old-fashioned beam-engine. The governor was to be set on a bracket
that we had to bolt to the wall, and a pulley some 3 feet or more in
diameter had to be made in halves and put on the shaft. To make sure
that no mistake would be made, I went down myself to make a gauge of
that shaft. I took a ³⁄₈-inch steel rod bent to span the shaft, and
made of this an outside gauge with great care. Now this was not what I
wanted, but I did not know it. I wanted an inside gauge, representing
the diameter of the shaft, and what I did make was useful only to
compare the two.
I returned highly satisfied with my work, leaving the real gauge to
be made in the shop, where it could not be compared with the shaft.
What might reasonably have been expected to happen did happen. In some
unaccountable way something happened to my gauge, and when we went to
install the governor we found the pulley had been bored ¹⁄₄ inch too
small. We had to work hard all night, and got through only just in time
for the engine to start at its usual hour in the morning. If I had sent
a man who knew his business to make this gauge I should have avoided a
lot of trouble, but I should not have learned anything.
In preparing for the establishment of the governor manufacture I
visited the works of Geo. S. Lincoln & Co., in Hartford, and saw
twist-drills in use, cutting chips instead of scraping. They attracted
my attention and I inquired about them, and was told that they made
them themselves. They kindly took me into the smith-shop and had one
made for me to witness the operation. The smith heated a round bar
of steel and swaged channels in it on opposite sides. They had quite
a set of top and bottom swages for different-sized channels. He then
took another heat on the bar and twisted it by hand, giving a gradually
increasing twist, which at the end was quite rapid. An increasing twist
was obtained in this way. The drill was held in a vise, so that only
the projecting end of it could receive the amount of twist then being
imparted. The drill had to be moved in the vise of course a number of
times. The channels were smoothed out with files, and when the drill
was turned in the lathe sharp cutting edges were developed, which
needed only to be backed off by grinding. I took one of these drills
home with me to serve as a pattern and equipped my shop with them. They
were of the highest use to me. The small ones drilled the holes for
the governor joints, and the large ones drilled the counterpoise and
the column for the governor spindle. I suppose the twist-drill had its
origin in these Hartford works.
I never saw any twist-drills in England except at Mr. Whitworth’s, and
these I thought were the funniest things I ever did see. They were
twisted by the blacksmith out of square bars and with a uniform quick
twist, were left rough, and did not fill the hole, and the ends were
flattened out in the form of the common drill to scrape, and not to cut.
When I returned from England in 1868 twist-drills were coming into
general use in this country. After 1876 the firm of Smith & Coventry
introduced them in England.
At that time almost everything in machine-shops was done in the
old-fashioned way, and accuracy depended entirely on the skill of
the workman. The tool work left much to be done by the fitter.
Interchangeability was unknown, even in screw-threads. For example,
when nuts were removed from a cylinder head, pains had always to be
taken that each nut was replaced on its own bolt, as no two were
exactly of a size. This condition developed a class of very skillful
all-round workmen; but my earliest observation showed me that in
manufacturing it was important that so far as possible the personal
factor should be eliminated. I adopted the rule that in mechanical work
there was only one way to insure that anything should always be done
right, and that was to make it impossible that it should be done wrong.
For example, in my governor gears their true running required that the
bore should be absolutely correct, both in position and in direction.
I had seen many gears bored. They were held in the jaws of a chuck and
trued by marking their projecting side when running with a piece of
chalk. It was evident that absolute truth could hardly ever be reached
in this way, and the approximation to it depended wholly on the skill
and pains of the workman. Besides, much time was lost in setting each
wheel. These objections were much aggravated in the case of bevel-gears.
I met these difficulties in this way. In standardizing my governors I
found it necessary to make eight sizes, but managed to use only three
different pairs of gears. I made a separate chuck for each of these six
wheels, the faces of which were turned to fit the top and inner ends
of the teeth, the same surfaces to which I had seen the chalk applied.
When the castings were received from the foundry the first operation on
them was to bed them to their chucks, which were covered with a thin
coating of red lead for this purpose. The workman was careful to remove
only projecting imperfections without touching the true surfaces of the
teeth. After this the gears, being held firmly to their chucks by means
of a yoke, were bored rapidly and always with absolute truth. Result:
their running was practically noiseless.
Mr. Freeland taught me the secret of producing true cylindrical
surfaces by grinding with a wheel. It was to let the swiftly revolving
wheel traverse the surface as it rotated, touching only the highest
points, and these very lightly. This avoided the danger of errors
from the springing of either the piece or the wheel, which under
strong pressure is sure to take place to some extent, even in the best
grinding-machines. I have found this delicacy of touch to be a most
difficult thing to teach the ordinary workmen. They often manage to
produce by grinding a surface more imperfect than it was before.
I took extreme pains to insure that the axes of the joint pins should
intersect the axis of the governor spindle and those of the governor
balls, and should be equidistant from the center of the counterpoise,
these parts of the joints having been turned to true spherical forms
by means of a circular tool-rest. For this purpose I employed a
feeling-gauge, consisting of a cylindrical stem fitting the hole as
drilled, with a curved arm projecting from this stem and terminating
in a point that would rub on the external surface of the balls. By
this means we almost always detected some slight inaccuracy, which was
remedied by the use of a round file. The joint holes were afterwards
finished with long reamers, the cutting portion of which was in the
middle of their length. The front end of the reamer fitted the drilled
hole and extended quite through the joint, so guiding the cutting
edges as they entered, and the back end of the reamer filled the hole
that had been reamed.
I finally tested their alignment by bringing the last of the five
joints together after the others had been united, when the forked link
should swing freely to the ball without the least tendency in either
direction from its exact place. This it always did.
Some time afterwards I adopted the plan of dispensing with heads and
washers on the joint pins, reaming the holes in the central portions of
the joint slightly smaller than those in the arms and making the pin a
hard fit in the former. There was never any tendency for a pin to get
loose in the running of the governor. I also at a later date cut the
counterpoise in two a short distance above the joints, so that the mass
of its weight did not need to be started and stopped when the speed of
the governor changed. I could not see, however, that this was of any
advantage, although when the governor balls were pulled around by hand
no motion was imparted to the mass of the counterpoise. The action was
apparently quite perfect before.
CHAPTER III
Invention and Application of my Marine Governor.
I was anxious from the first to produce a governor capable of being
used on marine engines--which the governor already described could not
be, as it needed to stand in a vertical position--and also one that
should be free from the limitations of the conical pendulum. I gave
a great deal of study to the subject, and after worrying about it--I
am ashamed to say how long, for the principle when once seen is found
to be exceedingly simple, being merely maintaining a constant ratio
between the compression of the spring and the radius of the circle of
revolution of the balls--I finally perfected my marine governor and
tried it in my shop, running it from a hand-driven pulley, and found
it perfectly isochronous. It was capable of being adjusted to be as
nearly isochronous as we thought expedient consistent with stability of
position.
This governor is represented in the cut that follows. The motion
imparted was small, from ³⁄₄ to 1¹⁄₂ inches in the different sizes, but
the governor was very strong. The balls are shown half expanded. Before
expansion their circle of revolution is 10 inches diameter; when fully
expanded it is 15 inches diameter; increase in diameter, and so in
centrifugal force, 50 per cent. The spring has an initial compression
given by the nut of 2 inches; additional compression imparted by the
expansion of the balls, 1 inch, giving an increase of 50 per cent. in
the resistance. So in every position of the balls the two forces are in
equilibrium, at a constant number of revolutions per minute.
My friend Mr. McLaren had the job of making repairs on the vessels of
the newly started North German Lloyd Line, and feeling confident that
my governor was what that line needed very much, he obtained from the
agents in New York an order for me to put one on the steamer “New York”
on a guarantee of perfect performance. This was the first steamship of
this line. The chief engineer of the vessel, an Englishman, Mr. Sparks,
told me in conversation that I could have no idea how anxious they
were in the engineering department for my governor to be a success,
because they had to throttle the ship by hand, and it seemed sometimes
as though their arms would drop off before the end of their watch;
but he was sorry to say that I could not do it, and he would tell me
why. “We know when the screw is coming out of the water by the rising
of the stern of the vessel, and we shut the steam off beforehand, and
so when the stern goes down we know that it is going down into the
sea and admit the steam to the engine beforehand. Now, your governor
cannot tell what is going to happen. It cannot act until a change of
motion has taken place which will be too late, and so I am sorry to say
that you cannot succeed.” But in spite of his want of faith I obtained
authority to attach the governor.
On returning from his first voyage with it, Mr. Sparks said to me: “I
have nothing to say, Mr. Porter, except that we have sat quietly in our
chairs all the voyage, which has been a very stormy one, and watched
the engine moving as regularly as a clock, while the governor has been
in a state of incessant activity.”
The captain joined with him in giving me the following testimonials:
“Steamship ‘New York,’
“Pier 30, North River.
“_To Mr. Chas. T. Porter_:
“Sir: It affords me sincere pleasure to acknowledge the perfect
success of your patent marine governor, as applied to the engines of
the above ship.
“On our passage from Southampton we had an excellent opportunity
of testing its merits fully, and I can assure you it had complete
control over the engines at all times. Not the slightest racing
occurred, nor any of those sudden shocks that happen with the best
hand-throttling. It closed the valve at the right moment, and as
freely opened it again, thus maintaining a uniform speed throughout.
“To the proprietors of steamships, or engineers having charge of
marine engines, I can confidently recommend this most valuable
invention, wishing it the success so perfect a governor deserves.
“I am
“Respectfully yours,
“H. SPARKS,
“Chief Engineer.
“May 30, 1861.”
“I cordially concur in the approbation of Mr. Porter’s governor,
contained in the foregoing letter of the chief engineer. We had
several days of bad weather on the last passage, and the ship, being
very lightly laden, pitched excessively, so as to throw the screw at
times entirely out of the water.
“The motion of the engines and ship was at all times perfectly
steady; scarcely a jar was felt in the ship more than in calm weather.
“I would strongly recommend to all masters and engineers of screw
steamships to use this governor.
“G. WENKE,
“Master of the S. S. ‘New York.’
“New York, June 1, 1861.”
It may be supposed that with such an unqualified endorsement we would
have no difficulty in obtaining many orders. In fact, so long as simple
engines were used a good business was done in the manufacture of these
governors, but when compounding came into use it was found that they
regulated no more. The intermediate receiver held steam enough when
admitted to the low-pressure cylinder to run the engine away when the
screw came out of the water, and the use of marine governors entirely
ceased, and the engines have ever since been allowed to race without
any attempt to control them.
This governor was not, however, to vanish like the stone-dressing
machine. About the time when the patent on it expired, its principle
came to be utilized in shaft governors. I do not know by whom this
application of it, which afterwards became so extensive, was first made.
[Illustration: The Porter Marine Governor.]
On the “New York” I made my first and only observation on the subject
of electrolysis. I was required to put in a special valve to be
operated by the governor. I put in a throttle valve of steam metal in a
cast-iron chamber. The spindle was of steel, 2 inches diameter, and the
valve was secured on it by three steel taper pins ⁵⁄₈ inch diameter at
one end and ¹⁄₂ inch at the other. For some reason, what it was I have
now no idea, on the return of the ship I took this valve chamber out
of the pipe, and found something I was not looking for. The projecting
ends of these pins, fully ¹⁄₂ inch long, had been completely eaten
away in one round trip. I had to replace them with composition pins,
which I always used afterwards.
Directly after the success of my marine governor on the “New York” I
went West to attempt its introduction on propellers running on the
Great Lakes. This journey resulted in the same financial success that I
had achieved at Pittsburg; but some incidents make it interesting to me.
On taking my seat in a car for Albany I found my companion to be Mr.
Hiram Sibley, afterwards the founder of Sibley College of the Mechanic
Arts in Cornell University. When I lived in Rochester Mr. Sibley was
sheriff of Monroe County, of which Rochester is the capital or shire
town, and as a lawyer I was occasionally brought into some relations
with him. We had not met in eleven years, but we instantly recognized
each other. He was then enjoying the triumphant outcome of his amazing
foresight and boldness, and he loved to talk about his experience,
especially with an old Rochester man who had known his associates
there. In fact, he entertained me all the way to Albany.
On the first burst of enthusiasm over the invention of the telegraph,
companies had been incorporated in many of the States for the
establishment of lines. These companies, it was found directly,
could not even pay their running expenses, because their operations
were confined to their respective States. Mr. Sibley was the man
for the hour. He conceived the plan of buying up the stock of all
these companies, which could be got for very little, and after this
had been secured incorporating a company to operate throughout the
United States. It is difficult now to put ourselves back to that time,
when the vastness of such a scheme would take men’s breath away. Mr.
Sibley succeeded in interesting the financial men of Rochester in the
enterprise, and the Western Union Telegraph Company was formed. The
story of his struggles to hold his subscribers, resisting the appeals
of some of them for the sake of their families to be released from
their obligations, was very amusing. He was obdurate and enriched them
all.
A few years later Mr. Sibley conceived a plan for a telegraph line
to San Francisco, and at his request a meeting was held of parties
holding large interests in the Western Union Telegraph Company to
consider the proposition. This was referred to a committee, who in
their report pronounced the scheme utterly visionary, and indulged
in considerable merriment over its absurdity, and the proposal was
unanimously rejected. Mr. Sibley then got up and said, “Gentlemen, if I
were not so old a man I would build the line myself.” This declaration
was received with peals of laughter. Then he got mad and shouted over
the din, “Damn it, gentlemen, I’ll bar the years and do it”; and now he
had done it. “And this very day,” said he, “I have been solicited by
merchants in New York to let them have shares in California telegraph
stock at the rate of five dollars for one, men whom I had almost on my
knees begged in vain for help to build the line; but they could not get
the stock.” I asked him, “Don’t you have trouble from the Indians?” to
which he replied: “The Indians are the best friends we have got. They
believe the Great Spirit is in that wire; in fact, they know it, for
they have seen him. The linemen had shown them the electric sparks. The
only trouble we have had has been from the border ruffians of Missouri.
We are now building a line through Iowa, around the State of Missouri.”
On arriving at Buffalo I called first upon the firm of Shepard &
Company, who were the largest builders of engines for the lake
steamers. I did not succeed in persuading them that it would be for
their advantage to add to the cost of the engines they were building,
but they were very courteous and advised me to apply to the companies
owning the boats. I did not make much progress with them, but the
matter was left open for further consideration on my return from
Chicago. An official of one of the transportation companies showed
me over a new boat. I saw a valve in the steam-pipe at some little
distance from the engine, and asked him what it was. He told me that
was the cut-off. I asked him, “Why not place it on the boiler?” He did
not see the humor of the question, but replied to me quite seriously,
“Because it is a part of the engine.”
At the Shepard Works I said to the gentleman who conducted me over the
works, “I see you use the Corliss valve.” “Corliss valve, indeed!”
said he. “Come with me.” He then showed me their own engine driving
the shop, and fitted with the same valve, cutting off, of course, at a
fixed point. He said to me: “That engine has been running in that very
spot more than twenty years. Mr. Corliss once visited these works, and
I showed him around just as I am showing you around. He was very much
interested in the valves we were making, and asked me a great many
questions about them. It was not very long afterwards that we began to
hear from Providence about the Corliss valve.”
I went on to Chicago, arriving on a Saturday afternoon. I went to the
house of an uncle, the Rev. Jeremiah Porter, who was a man of some
local prominence, having been the first missionary sent by the American
Home Missionary Society to Fort Dearborn, which stood where Chicago
is before Chicago was. I expected to set out Monday morning to look
for customers, but I changed my mind, for that morning the telegraph
brought the news of the battle of Bull Run, which had been fought the
day before, while I was in church hearing my uncle preach. I did not
think any one would have much heart for business for some time to come,
so hurried back home as fast as steam could take me, not stopping in
Buffalo.
Some years afterwards I had an amusing experience in attempting to
introduce my governor into the British navy. I called upon Mr. John
Penn, to whom I had sold one of my stationary governors for his
own works and who had become very much interested in the Richards
indicator, and I thought he would surely adopt my marine governor. He
told me, however, that he must set his face against it like a flint,
and explained as follows: “I do business entirely with governments,
principally the English government, and I come in contact with the
official mind, and I have to adapt myself to it. Should I put one of
your governors on an engine, my competitors would say: ‘Mr. Penn is
afraid to send his engines to sea without a governor, they are made so
delicately. _Our_ engines, gentlemen, do not require any governor,’ and
they would take all the orders.”
Marine-engine builders generally did not seem to appreciate this
governor. While in Manchester I had an inquiry from Caird & Co. of
Greenock, the builders of the engines for the “New York,” and indeed of
the entire ship. They asked the price of my smallest marine governor.
I inquired the size of the vessel for which it was wanted. Their reply
was brief. “None of your business. We would like an answer to our
question.”
Some months after I received a letter from my foreman in New York:
“Mr. Porter, what in the name of common sense did you put such a
little governor on the ‘America’ for?” Caird & Co. had performed their
contract to supply a Porter governor, and had left a suitable one to be
ordered from my shop in New York.
Soon after the first arrival of the steamer “Kaiser Wilhelm der
Grosse,” about 1900 (I forget the year), I obtained a letter of
introduction to the chief engineer of that vessel, and called upon
him for the purpose of asking him to favor me with indicator diagrams
from its engines. In the course of conversation I said to him: “I have
rather a partiality for this line, for I put my first marine governor
on its first vessel, the old ‘New York,’ in ’61.” He replied to me: “I
remember that very well, Mr. Porter; I was an oiler on that ship.” He
had risen from that position to be chief engineer of the line. At that
time the Germans were commencing to form a steam marine. They had not
only to procure their vessels abroad, but also engineers to run the
machinery. They set in earnest about this development, and took out
of their polytechnic schools the brightest young men to put them on
foreign-built vessels and in foreign shops to learn the business, with
the wonderful results we are now witnessing, and the chief engineer was
one of those lads. He said to me: “I have an acquaintance in your town,
Montclair--Mr. Clemens Herschel,” a prominent civil engineer. “He was
an old friend and fellow student of mine in the polytechnic.” About the
diagrams, he said he would take a set for me on their next voyage. He
kept his promise. I have the diagrams now, and very instructive ones
they are.
CHAPTER IV
Engineering conditions in 1860. I meet Mr. Allen. Mr. Allen’s
inventions. Analysis of the Allen link.
Before resuming my narrative, it seems desirable to present a brief
sketch of steam engineering conditions forty years ago.
The science of thermodynamics had been established on the foundation
laid in the experiments of Joule, determining with precision the rate
at which, through the medium of water, heat is converted into dynamical
force. This science was, however, as yet without practical results.
The condensation of steam in the cylinder from the conversion of its
heat into mechanical energy was unregarded. The same was true also
respecting the far greater loss from the changing temperatures of the
surfaces with which the steam comes in contact in alternately entering
and leaving the cylinder. The action of these surfaces in transmitting
heat from the entering to the exhaust steam without its doing any work
was imagined by very few.
In the United States economy of steam was sought only by mechanical
means--by cutting off the admission of the steam at an early point of
the stroke in a single cylinder and permitting the confined steam to
complete the stroke by its expansion. By this means a large saving of
steam over that consumed in earlier practice was effected, and with
this gain the universal disposition was to rest content.
America was eminently the land of the cut-off system, an early
application of which was on steamboats. The earliest device for this
purpose was the elegant Stevens cut-off, which still keeps its position
on the class of boats to which it was first applied, though commonly
modified by the Sickles improvement. In this system the exhaust and
the admission valves are operated by separate eccentrics on opposite
sides of the engine, and all the valves have the amount and rapidity of
their opening and closing movements increased by the intervention of
wiper cams, those for the admission valves being very long and giving a
correspondingly greater enlargement of opening. The valves were double
poppet valves, moving nearly in equilibrium in directions vertical to
their seats. This cut-off was found to be capable of improvement in
one important respect. The closing motion of the valve grew slower as
the valve approached its seat, and while the piston was moving most
rapidly much steam passed through the ports at a lower pressure, and
so a great part of its expansive value was lost. This was technically
termed “wire-drawing.” To remedy this defect Mr. Sickels invented his
celebrated trip cut-off. The valve, lifted by the Stevens wiper, was
liberated by tripping the mechanism, and fell quickly to its seat,
which it was prevented from striking forcibly, being caught by water in
a dash-pot. The steam was thus cut off sharply and the economy was much
improved. The pressure used in this system was only about 25 pounds,
the vacuum being relied upon for the larger portion of the power.
On the Great Lakes a pressure of 60 pounds was commonly employed, and
the valves were the four cylindrical rotating slide valves afterwards
adopted by Mr. Corliss. What was called the cut-off was made by a
separate valve located in the steam-pipe somewhere between the engine
and the boiler.
On the Mississippi and its tributaries, much higher pressures were
carried, condensers were not used, and the admission and release of the
steam were generally effected by four single poppet valves, lifted by
cams against the pressure of the steam.
On land engines Mr. Sickels’ invention of the trip cut-off stimulated
inventors to a multitude of devices for working steam expansively. Of
these the one of enduring excellence proved to be that of Mr. Corliss.
He applied the trip cut-off to the rotating slide valve, and arrested
the motion of the liberated valve by an air-cushion. This proved a
satisfactory method, as the valve, moving in directions parallel to its
seat, did not need to be stopped at a determinate point. Mr. Corliss
applied the governor to vary the point of liberation of the valve, and
so produced a variable cut-off, which effected a large saving of steam
and regulated the motion of the engine more closely than could be done
by a throttle valve outside the steam-chest. This was by far the most
prominent of the numerous forms of automatic variable cut-offs, to all
of which it was supposed that the liberating feature was essential.
In England, when the steam was worked expansively, it was cut off by a
separately driven valve on the back of the main slide valve, the point
of cut-off being fixed; and the regulation was effected by means of the
throttle. This system was also largely employed in this country.
The compound engine was unknown in the United States. I once saw at
some place in New York City, now forgotten, a Wolff engine--a small
beam-engine, which had been imported from England. It was visited as a
curiosity by several engineers, and I remember Mr. Horatio Allen, then
president of the Novelty Iron Works, remarking, “It is only a cut-off.”
In the south of England the Wolff system was used to a limited extent.
I was much interested in the McNaught system, devised, I think, by
the same Scotchman who first applied a rotating paper drum to the
Watt indicator. The cotton and woolen mills, as their business grew,
felt the need of additional power, but dared not employ higher steam
pressures in their cylinders, because the beam centers of their engines
would not stand the additional stress. McNaught provided an additional
cylinder to carry a higher pressure, and applied this pressure directly
to the connecting-rod end of the beam. The exhaust from this cylinder
was taken into the old cylinder at the old pressure. This latter
cylinder then exerted the same power it always had done. The stresses
on the beam centers were not increased, but the power of the engine was
doubled, and only a little more steam was used than before. This method
of compounding was known as McNaughting, and became common in the
manufacturing districts of England and Scotland.
There was one feature which was common to all engines in America and
Europe, both ashore and afloat, and of whatever make or name, except
locomotives. That was the piston speed, which varied only from 200 to
300 feet per minute. This last was the maximum speed, to which every
new engine, however novel in other respects, was made to conform.
I come now to the turning-point in my career, and the reflection forces
itself upon me, how often in the course of my life incidents trivial in
themselves have proved afterwards to have been big with consequences;
and how events, sometimes chains of events, beyond my control, of
which indeed I had no knowledge, have determined my course. The same
must be the case in the lives of many persons, and the thoughtful mind
cannot look back on them without being impressed by the mysterious
interrelations of our being.
One morning in the winter of 1860-61, Mr. Henry A. Hurlbut, of the firm
of Swift, Hurlbut & Co., wholesale dealers in hats at No. 65 Broadway,
and who was interested in my governor manufacture, called upon me
to tell me that a friend of his, Mr. Henry A. Burr, manufacturer
of felt hat bodies at the corner of Frankfort and Cliff streets in
New York, had been having trouble with his engine. He thought my
governor was just what he needed, and asked me to accompany him to Mr.
Burr’s office, where he would give me the advantage of his personal
introduction. In the interview with Mr. Burr which followed, I did not
have an opportunity to say a word. After Mr. Hurlbut had explained
the object of our visit, Mr. Burr replied that he had had a great
deal of trouble with the regulation of his engine, and had thought
seriously of getting a Corliss engine in the place of it; but two or
three weeks before the builders of the engine had sent him a very
skillful engineer, and since he came there had been no further trouble,
so he should not need my governor. He invited us to see his engine,
in which--since it had been taught to behave itself--he evidently
took much pride. We found a pair of beam-engines of 5 feet stroke,
running at 25 revolutions per minute, made by Thurston & Gardiner of
Providence. They had the usual poppet valves and the Sickels cut-off.
This was made adjustable, and was regulated by the governor. At the
time of our entrance, Mr. Allen, the new engineer, was engaged on the
scaffold. Mr. Burr called him and he came down, and at Mr. Burr’s
request explained to us the variable liberating mechanism and what he
had done to make it work satisfactorily. The regulation did not appear
to me to be very close, and I made a determined effort to induce Mr.
Burr to substitute one of my governors. I showed him a cut of the
governor, and pointed out its combination of power and sensitiveness,
but all in vain. He was satisfied with things as they were, and I went
away crestfallen, having lost not only the sale of a governor, but also
an opportunity for a triumph in a very important place. But I did not
know to whom I had in fact been talking.
As we were leaving, Mr. Allen asked me if I would call some time and
see him--he had something he thought I would be interested in. I
called soon after. He told me he had a plan for a variable cut-off
with positive movements, which he thought would avoid defects in the
liberating gear. He had had it in his mind a good while, but did not
think it could be used, because the governor could not handle the block
in his link so as to maintain uniform motion, and he had been inclined
to abandon the idea; but when he heard me describing my governor to
Mr. Burr, it occurred to him that that governor would do it, and he
would like to explain his plan to me. He had no drawing, not a line;
the design existed only in his mind. He put down his ideas, as he fitly
expressed it, with chalk on the engine-room floor, and that rude sketch
represented the perfect system.
When his plan came to be analyzed, it was found that everything had
been thought out and provided for, with a single exception afterwards
provided by Mr. Allen, as will be described. But the wonder did not
stop there. Mr. Allen had remedied the defect in the link motion of
making a narrow opening for admission when cutting off early, by
employing a four-opening admission valve of unique design at each end
of the cylinder, and also by greatly enlarging the opening movements.
The four-opening valve required four seats in one plane, and it was
important that these should be as narrow as possible. For this purpose
Mr. Allen employed the Corliss wrist-plate movement to reduce the lap
of the valve, and, by an elegant improvement on this movement, he made
it available also to enlarge the openings. This improvement consisted
in the employment of two rockers having a common axis and separate
driving-arms, as well as driven arms, for each valve. The driving-arms
were made to vibrate a long way towards their dead points, and the
increased opening movement in arc thus obtained was imparted directly
to the valve. This combination of an enlarged opening with a reduced
lap was perhaps the most surprising feature of Mr. Allen’s system.
The four-opening equilibrium valve, afterwards invented by Mr. Allen
and since 1876 always employed, requires but two seats in one plane.
These could therefore be made wider. The division of the driving-arm
was then dispensed with, and the enlarged openings were obtained by
increasing the length of the driven arms.
That this remarkable system of ports and movements should have been
elaborated in the mind of a man who had no knowledge of mechanics
except what he had absorbed in engine-rooms must stand among the
marvels of inventive power.
The accompanying diagram represents the lines put down by Mr. Allen on
his engine-room floor and since retained, except that it is now adapted
to the more simple movement, with a single driving-arm on the rocker,
as previously described.
The eccentric is formed on the shaft coincident with the crank of the
engine, so that the two arrive at their dead points simultaneously.
The angular vibration of the line connecting the center of the
eccentric with the trunnions of the link is the same as that of the
connecting-rod.
The connecting-rod of the length always used by me, namely, six cranks,
makes the piston velocity at the head end of the cylinder 40 per
cent. greater than at the crank end. By this construction the valve
velocities were made to vary in the same ratio.
A connecting-rod five cranks in length would increase this difference
in piston velocities to 50 per cent., and one four cranks in length
would increase it to 66 per cent.
After Mr. Allen had explained his plan to me, I expressed my confidence
that my governor would meet its requirements, and observed that
it would enable a variable cut-off engine to be run as fast as a
locomotive. Somewhat to my surprise, he replied that he wanted his
cut-off compared with the liberating cut-off turn for turn; that it had
an advantage which he thought would cause it to be generally preferred
at the same speed.
[Illustration:
PORTER-ALLEN ENGINE.
DIAGRAM OF ADMISSION-VALVE MOVEMENTS.
RELEASE AND COMPRESSION
¹⁵⁄₁₆ OF THE STROKE
¹⁄₂ CUT OFF ¹⁄₂ CUT OFF
³⁄₈ CUT OFF ³⁄₈ CUT OFF
¹⁄₄ CUT OFF ¹⁄₄ CUT OFF
¹⁄₈ CUT OFF ¹⁄₈ CUT OFF
TO VALVE AT
CRANK END
MEAN POSITION OF ROD
RADIUS OF LINK
TO VALVE AT
HEAD END
A. POINTS OF ADMISSION AND CUT-OFF.
FOR DISTINCTNESS OF REPRESENTATION, THE THROW
OF THE ECCENTRIC IS SHOWN ¹⁄₄ THAT OF THE CRANK.
IN PRACTICE IT IS ONLY ¹⁄₁₂ THAT OF THE CRANK.
The Diagram Drawn by Mr. Allen on his Engine-room Floor.]
[Illustration: JOHN F. ALLEN]
I was then ignorant of his state of mind on that subject, or of what
had produced it. I learned these afterwards, and will state them here.
In one of our interviews, in reply to my question as to what had led
him to make this invention, he told me it was his experience when he
was engineer of the propeller “Curlew,” a freight-boat running on Long
Island Sound, between New York and Providence, which had a Corliss
engine. He became impressed with what he thought to be a serious defect
in the liberating system. The governor did not control the point of
cut-off, but the point of release; this point being at the beginning
of the closing movement of the valve, while the cut-off took place
near the end of that movement. When the engine was worked up to nearly
its capacity, as was the case in a ship, the port was opened wide,
and quite an appreciable time elapsed between the release and the
cut-off. During this interval the piston advanced considerably, and if
the engine ran fast enough it might get to the very end of the stroke
before the cut-off took place. He said that in smooth water they had
no trouble, but in the open ocean, going around Point Judith, it was
always rough, and sometimes in stormy weather the screw would be thrown
quite out of the water, and the engine, having no fly-wheel, would race
most furiously. The faster it ran the further the steam would follow,
and was pumped out of the boiler very rapidly. Springs were employed
to accelerate the closing movement of the valves, but in these cases
they seemed to be of little use, and were continually breaking. He saw
that this difficulty could be avoided only by a positive motion gear
which would enable the governor to control the point of cut-off itself;
and, accordingly, he set himself to work to devise such a system.
We know now that this judgment, formed from observations made under
very exceptional conditions, was not well founded. The difficulty in
question does not practically exist in engines having fly-wheels and
the present improved liberating gear, and running at moderate speeds;
but the experience naturally made a deep impression upon Mr. Allen’s
mind, and led to the invention of the positive motion system.
This he did not tell me at the time, so that I was at a loss to
understand his reluctance to admit what was really the great value
of his invention. However, I told him I would be willing to attempt
its introduction, provided he would allow me to apply it at once to a
high-speed engine; that being a field into which the liberating system
could not enter. We had quite an argument on this point. I told him
his invention interested me only because it would enable two or three
times the power to be obtained from a given engine without additional
stress on any part, the fly-wheel to be reduced in size, and the means
for getting up the speed of machinery to be largely dispensed with.
I represented to him also that a high-speed engine ought to be more
economical and to give a more nearly uniform motion.
He finally agreed to my condition, and I took him directly to the
office of Mr. Richards and engaged him to make an analysis and drawing
of Mr. Allen’s system under his direction, and soon afterwards gave him
an order for the plans for an experimental engine, 6×15 inches, to make
160 revolutions per minute.
As the diagram of the link motion was at first drawn, the center of the
trunnions vibrated in an arc which terminated at points _on_ the line
connecting the center of the engine shaft with the ends of the rocker
arms, and which in the diagram on page 48 is named “radius of link.”
I determined to work out this link motion myself on a large scale. For
this purpose I drew a diagram in which the throw of the eccentric was
4 inches, and the distance from the center of the shaft to that of the
trunnions of the link in their mid-position was 12 inches. I made a
three-point beam compass. Two of these points were secured permanently
on the beam, 12 inches apart. As one of these points traversed the path
of the center of the eccentric, the other could be made to traverse the
arc of vibration of the trunnions of the link.
I divided the former into 40 equal divisions measured from its
dead points, making needle-holes in the circle, in which the taper
compass-points would center themselves accurately. The paper was firm
and the points of division were fixed with extreme care; and they
lasted through all my experiments. I then set out 20 corresponding
divisions in the arc of vibration of the center of the trunnions.
These showed distinctly the modification of the motion at the opposite
ends of this vibration as already described.
The third point was adjustable on a hinged beam which could be secured
in any position. I drew two arcs representing the lead lines of the
link, or the lines on which the link would stand when the eccentric was
on its dead points. The third point was now secured on its beam at any
point on one of the lead lines, when the other points stood, one on the
dead point of the eccentric and the other at the end of the trunnion
vibration.
The apparatus was now ready for use, the corresponding points on the
circle and the arc being numbered alike. By setting the first two
points in any corresponding holes, the third point would show the
corresponding position of that point of the link at which it was set.
I thus set out the movements of six different points of the link, the
highest being 12 inches above the trunnions. These represented the
movements of the valves of the engine when the block was at these
points in the link. The apparatus being firm, it worked with entire
precision. To my surprise, it showed much the larger valve opening at
the crank end of the cylinder, where the movement of the piston was
slowest. That would not do; we wanted just the reverse.
I called Mr. Allen in and showed him the defect. After considering it
a few minutes, he said he thought it would be corrected by lowering
the trunnions, so that their arc of vibration would coincide with the
line of centers at its middle point, instead of terminating on it. This
was done, and the result was most successful. The lead was now earlier
and the opening wider at the back end of the cylinder, as the greater
velocity of the piston at that point required, and the cut-offs on the
opposite strokes more equal. The link has always been set in this way,
as shown in the diagram.
From this description of the link motion, it will be seen that the
correct vertical adjustment of the trunnions of the link was an
important matter. To enable this adjustment to be made with precision,
and to be corrected, if from wear of the shaft-bearings or other cause
this became necessary, I secured the pin on which these trunnions
were pivoted to the side of the engine bed in the manner shown in the
following figure. To hold the wedge securely, the surface of the bed
below was reduced, so that the wedge was seized by the flange. The
correct position of this pin was determined by the motions given to the
valves.
[Illustration: VERTICAL ADJUSTMENT OF SUSTAINING PIN FOR TRUNNIONS OF
THE ALLEN LINK]
I now took a more prominent part myself in steam-engine design. I had
got an idea from Mr. Sparks that took full possession of my mind. This
was the exceedingly unmechanical nature of the single or overhanging
crank. The engines of the “New York,” built by Caird & Co., of
Greenock, were among the first of the direct inverted-cylinder engines
applied to screw propulsion. They were then known as the steam-hammer
engines, their leading feature being taken from Mr. Nasmyth’s
invention. I am not sure but Caird & Co. were the first to make this
application. The forward engine had a single crank. The vital defect of
this construction became especially apparent in these vertical engines
of large power. The stress on the cap bolts during the upward strokes
and the deflection of the shaft alternately in opposite directions
over the pillow-block as a fulcrum were very serious. Mr. Sparks told
me that on his very first voyage he had a great deal of trouble with
this forward bearing, and it caused him continual anxiety. He got into
such a state of worry and apprehension that as soon as he reached New
York he wrote to the firm: “For God’s sake, never make another pair
of engines without giving a double crank to the forward engine.” The
reply he got was, to mind his own business: they employed him to run
their engines; they would attend to the designing of them. He told me
not long after that he had the satisfaction of seeing every ship they
built except his own disabled, either by a broken shaft or broken
pillow-block bolts. He attributed the escape of the “New York” from a
like disaster to his own extreme care. They did, however, adopt his
suggestion on all future vessels, and, moreover, added a forward crank
and pillow-block to the engines already built. This they evidently
found themselves compelled to do. I saw this addition afterwards on the
“Bremen,” sister ship to the “New York.” The added pillow-block was
supported by a heavy casting bolted to the forward end of the bedplate.
I went everywhere visiting engines at work and in process of
construction, to observe this particular feature of the overhanging
crank, which was universal in horizontal engines. In this class of
engines, running slowly, its defective nature was not productive of
serious consequences, because no stress was exerted on the cap bolts
and the shaft was made larger in proportion to the power of the engine,
as it had to carry the fly-wheel. But I was astonished to see the
extent to which the overhang of the single crank was allowed. Builders
seemed to be perfectly regardless of its unmechanical nature. First,
the crank-pin was made with a length of bearing surface equal to about
twice its diameter; then a stout collar was formed on the pin between
its bearing surface and the crank. The latter was made thick and a
long hub was formed on the back of it. I was told that the long hub
was necessary in order to give a proper depth of eye to receive the
shaft. This being turned down smaller than the journal, so that the
crank might be forced on up to a shoulder, the eye needed to be deep or
the crank would not be held securely. Finally, the journal boxes were
made with flanges on the ends, sometimes projecting a couple of inches.
Altogether, the transverse distance from the center line of the engine
to the solid support of the shaft in the pillow-block was about twice
what it needed to be. I also saw in some cases the eccentric placed
between the crank and the pillow-block. Fifteen years later I saw a
large engine sent from Belgium to our 1876 Exhibition which was made in
this manner.
I determined at once that such a construction would not do for
high-speed engines, and proceeded to change every one of these
features. The single crank could not be avoided, but its overhang could
be much reduced.
[Illustration: OLD AND NEW CRANKS AND JOURNAL BOXES.
THE CRANKS ARE SHOWN IN THE VERTICAL POSITION. CRANKS AND TOP AND
BOTTOM BOXES ARE SHOWN IN SECTION.]
The following sketches show the changes which were then made, and all
of which have been retained. The inside collar on the crank-pin was
dispensed with and the diameter of the pin was made greater than its
length, the projected area being generally increased. The shank of the
pin was made larger and shorter, and was riveted at the back. Instead
of turning the shaft down smaller than the journal to receive the
crank, I made it with a large head for this purpose. The keyway could
then be planed out and the key fitted above the surface of the journal,
and the joint was so much further from the axis that but little more
than one half the depth was required in the crank-eye.
Mr. Corliss had already discarded the flanged boxes. He also first
made this bearing in four parts. The wear in the horizontal direction,
the direction of the thrust, could then be taken up. For this purpose
he used two bolts behind the front side box only. I modified his
construction by making the side boxes wider and taking up their wear by
wedges behind both of them, thus preserving the alignment. One wedge
could also be placed close to the crank. The dotted lines show the
width of the side boxes and the location of the wedges. The shaft was
made with a collar to hold the bearings in place, and was enlarged in
its body. The substitution in place of the crank of the entire disk
carrying a counterweight completed these changes. This was the fruit of
my first lesson in high-speed engine designing, which had unconsciously
been given to me by Mr. Sparks. The oil passage in the pin was added
later, as will be described.
I had another piece of good luck. I happened one day to see in the
Novelty Iron Works the hubs being bored for the paddle-wheels of the
new ship for the Collins line--the “Adriatic.” These were perhaps the
largest castings ever made for such a purpose. I observed that they
were bored out only half-way around. The opposite side of the hole had
been cored to about half an inch greater radius, and three key-seats
were cored in it, which needed only to be finished in the key-seating
machine. The idea struck me that this would be an excellent way to bore
fly-wheels and pulleys. As commonly bored, so that they could be put on
the shaft comfortably they were bored too large, their contact with the
shaft could then be only on a line opposite the key, and the periphery
could not run perfectly true.
I adopted the plan of first boring to the exact size of the shaft and
then shifting the piece about an eighth of an inch, and boring out
a slender crescent, the opposite points of which extended a little
more than half-way around. The keyway was cut in the middle of this
enlargement. The wheel could then be readily put on to the shaft, and
when the key was driven up contact was made over nearly one half the
surface and the periphery ran dead true. I remember seeing this feature
much admired in London, and several times heard the remark, “I should
think the key would throw it some.”
To prevent fanning I made the fly-wheel and pulley with arms of oval
cross-section. These have always been used by me. They have done even
better than I expected. They are found to impart no motion to the air,
however rapidly they may be run.
[Illustration: Flanges on the Eccentric.]
[Illustration: Flanges on the Strap.]
As already stated, the Allen valve-gear required the position of the
eccentric to coincide with that of the crank, so that these should
pass their dead points simultaneously. To insure this and to make it
impossible for the engineer to advance his eccentric, which he would be
pretty sure to do if he could, I made the eccentric solid on the shaft.
This also enabled me to make it smaller, the low side being brought
down nearly to the surface of the shaft. The construction, moreover,
was substantial and saved some work.
All eccentrics that I had seen were flanged on each side to keep the
strap in place. I observed the oil to work out freely between the
flanges and the strap. This action would of course be increased in
high-speed engines. So I reversed the design, as shown in the above
sections of these two bearings at the top of the eccentric, putting the
flanges on the strap instead of on the eccentric.
It will be seen that the more rapid the speed the more difficult it
becomes to keep the oil in the first bearing, and the more difficult it
becomes for it to get out of the second one. I ought to have adopted
the same construction for the main shaft journal, but in all the years
I was making engines it never occurred to me. I contented myself with
turning a groove in the hub of the crank, as shown to prevent the oil
from getting on the disk.
The problem of crank-pin lubrication at high speed at once presented
itself and had to be met. I finally solved it in the manner partially
shown on page 54. A wiper was bolted on the back of the crank, and from
it a tube entered the diagonal hole in the pin. This always worked
perfectly. This wiper and the oil cup are shown on page 230. Other
devices have been employed by various makers of high-speed engines, but
I always adhered to this one. It has the advantage of being equally
applicable to double-crank engines. Aside from the above features, the
design for my exhibition engine was made by Mr. Richards.
CHAPTER V
Invention of the Richards Indicator. My Purchase of the Patent. Plan my
London Exhibition. Engine Design. Ship Engine Bed to London, and sail
myself.
The subject of an indicator directly presented itself. Mr. Allen
invited Mr. Richards and myself to his engine-room, and took diagrams
for us with a McNaught indicator. This was the first indicator that
either of us had ever seen. Indicators were then but little known
in this country. The Novelty Iron Works made a very few McNaught
indicators, almost the only users of which were the Navy Department
and a few men like Mr. Ericsson, Mr. Stevens, Mr. Sickels, and Mr.
Corliss. I told Mr. Richards that we must have a high-speed indicator
and he was just the man to get it up for us. He went to work at it,
but soon became quite discouraged. He twice gave it up. He could not
see his way. I told him I was not able to make any suggestion, but the
indicator we must have, and he had to produce it. After some months
he handed me a drawing of an indicator which has never been changed,
except in a few details. This important invention, which has made
high-speed engineering possible, came from the hands of Mr. Richards
quite complete. Its main features, as is well known, are a short piston
motion against a short, stiff spring; light multiplying levers, with
a Watt parallel motion, giving to the pencil very nearly a straight
line of movement; and a free rotative motion of the pencil connections
around the axis of the piston, which itself is capable of only the
slight rotation caused by the compression or elongation of the spring.
Elegant improvements have since been made, adapting the indicator to
still higher engine speeds; but these have consisted only in advancing
further on the lines struck out by Mr. Richards. In fact, this was
all that could be done--giving to the piston a little less motion,
lightening still further the pencil movement, and making the vertical
line drawn by the pencil more nearly a straight line.
[Illustration:
DIAGRAM TAKEN SEPTEMBER 13, 1861,
FROM THE FIRST ALLEN ENGINE
BY THE FIRST RICHARDS INDICATOR.
ENGINE, 6 INCHES BY 15 INCHES,
MAKING 160 REVOLUTIONS PER MINUTE.
THIS CARD WAS RUN OVER TWENTY TIMES.]
I took Mr. Richards’ drawing to the Novelty Iron Works and had an
indicator ready for use when the engine was completed. The engine was
made by the firm of McLaren & Anderson, on Horatio Street, New York,
for their own use. It was set up by the side of their throttle-valve
engine, and was substituted for it to drive their machinery and that of
a kindling-wood yard adjoining for which they furnished the power. It
ran perfectly from the start, and saved fully one half of the fuel. In
throttle-valve engines in those days the ports and pipes were generally
so small that only a part of the boiler pressure was realized in the
cylinder, and that part it was hard to get out, and nobody knew what
either this pressure or the back pressure was. I have a diagram taken
from that engine, which is here reproduced.
The indicator was quickly in demand. One day when I was in the shop of
McLaren & Anderson, engaged in taking diagrams from the engine, I had
a call from the foreman of the Novelty Iron Works. He had come to see
if the indicator were working satisfactorily, and if so to ask the loan
of it for a few days. The Novelty Iron Works had just completed the
engines for three gunboats. These engines were to make 75 revolutions
per minute, and the contract required them to be run for 72 consecutive
hours at the dock. They were ready to commence this run, and were
anxious to indicate the engines with the new indicator.
I was glad to have it used, and he took it away. I got it back after
two or three weeks, with the warmest praise; but none of us had the
faintest idea of the importance of the invention.
I remember that I had to go to the Novelty Works for the indicator,
and was asked by Mr. Everett, then president of the company, if we had
patented it, for if we had they would be glad to make them for us. The
idea had not occurred to me, but I answered him promptly that we had
not, but intended to. I met Mr. Allen at Mr. Richards’ office, and told
them Mr. Everett’s suggestion, and added, “The first question is, who
is the inventor, and all I know is that I am not.” Mr. Allen added, “I
am not.” “Then,” said Mr. Richards, “I suppose I shall have to be.”
“Will you patent it?” said I. “No,” he replied; “if I patent everything
I think of I shall soon be in the poorhouse.” “What will you sell it to
me for if I will patent it?” I asked. “Will you employ me to obtain the
patent?” he replied. “Yes.” “Well, I will sell it to you for a hundred
dollars.” “I will take it, and if I make anything out of it will pay
you ten per cent. of what I get.” This I did, so long as the patent
remained in my hands.
The success of the stationary and the marine governors and of the
engine and the indicator fired me, in the summer of 1861, with the idea
of taking them all to the London International Exhibition the next
year. The demonstration of the three latter seemed to have come in the
very nick of time. For this purpose I fixed upon an engine 8 inches
diameter of cylinder by 24 inches stroke, to make 150 revolutions per
minute, and at once set Mr. Richards at work on the drawings for it. I
thought some of speeding it at 200 revolutions per minute, but feared
that speed would frighten people. That this would have been a foolish
step to take became afterwards quite apparent.
[Illustration: JOSEPH E. HOLMES]
That summer I made application for space in the London Exhibition
of 1862, and soon after was waited upon by the Assistant United
States Commissioner, Mr. Joseph E. Holmes. So far as the engine to
be exhibited was concerned, I had nothing to show Mr. Holmes. The
drawings were scarcely commenced. I, however, took him to McLaren &
Anderson’s shop and showed him the little engine at work there and took
diagrams from it in his presence, and expatiated on the revolution in
steam-engineering that was there inaugurated, but which has not yet
been realized to the extent I then dreamed of. It was evident that
Mr. Holmes was much impressed with the assurance of the success of
the new system that the perfect running of this first little engine
seemed to give. I told him that the engine for the exhibition would
certainly be completed, and on that assurance he accepted my entire
proposed exhibit. I did not see him again until we met the next spring
in London, under the somewhat remarkable circumstances hereafter to be
related.
In spite of all efforts it was found impossible to complete the engine
and have it tested before shipment as I had intended. Indeed, as the
time approached after which no further exhibits would be received, two
things grew more and more doubtful. One was whether the engine could
be got off at all, and the other whether I could obtain the means to
make the exhibit. Finally I managed to get the engine bed finished and
immediately shipped it by a mail steamer.
A small, slow steamer chartered by the United States Commission and
loaded with exhibits had sailed previously, carrying the assistant
commissioner and a number of exhibitors and their representatives, who,
until they reached their destination, remained in blissful ignorance of
what happened directly after their departure.
But to return to my own movements. Mr. Hope one day said to me: “I
understand you shipped your engine bed last Saturday; what did you do
that for? You don’t know yet whether you can go yourself.” I replied:
“If I had not shipped it then, I should lose my space and would have
to abandon the exhibition altogether. If I find that I can’t go, the
bed can come back.” I redoubled my exertions to get the remaining parts
of the engine completed and to raise the necessary funds. The next
Saturday I shipped everything that was ready. On the following Monday,
by making a large sacrifice, I realized a sum that could be made to
answer, and on Wednesday I sailed on the Cunard steamer “Africa,”
leaving to my reliable clerk, Alexander Gordon, long President of the
Niles Tool Works, and now Chairman of the Board of Directors of the
Niles-Bement-Pond Company, the responsibility of seeing that everything
still wanting should follow as rapidly as possible.
I left, not knowing an Englishman in the whole island, to have the
parts of an engine, the first one from the drawings and the first
engine I ever made, brought together for the first time by I had no
idea whom, and assembled and put in motion before the eyes of the
world. But I had no misgivings. The engine had been built in my own
shop, under my constant supervision, and by workmen trained to the
greatest accuracy. The crank-pin I had hardened and ground by my friend
Mr. Freeland. I knew the parts would come together perfectly. The
result justified my confidence.
One incident of the voyage is worth recording. As we were leaving port
we passed the “China,” the first screw steamer of the Cunard fleet,
coming in on her maiden voyage.
We had some rough weather, sometimes with a following sea. I was much
interested at such times in watching the racing of the engines, when
occasionally both paddle-wheels would be revolving in the air in the
trough of the sea. The feature that especially attracted my notice was
that the faster the engines ran the more smoothly they ran. It was
certainly a fascinating sight to see these ponderous masses of metal,
the parts of great side-lever engines, gliding with such velocity in
absolute silence. The question what caused them to do so it did not
occur to me to ask.
[Illustration: ALEXANDER GORDON]
Being anxious to reach London as quickly as possible, after a tedious
voyage of twelve days, I left the steamer at Cork, to go through
with the mail. The custom-house inspectors first interested me. On
the little boat by which the mail is transferred from the ship to
the shore, two of the representatives of Queen Victoria were anxious
to know if I had any liquor or tobacco in my trunk, these being the
only dutiable articles. They were quite satisfied with my reply in
the negative. A personal examination they never thought of. Truthful
themselves, I moralized, they do not suspect untruth in others. Their
next question was, “Have you got the price of a glass of beer about
you?” I made them happy with a half crown, several times their modest
request, and they stamped me as an American free with his money. I
purchased a first-class ticket to London, and received the assurance
that I should go through with the mail. I was the only passenger on the
train of two coaches, besides the mail-van. It was late at night. The
regular passenger-train had gone some hours before. Not being up in the
English ways, I did not know how I might make myself comfortable, but
sat up all night, dozing as I could. I did not sleep after two o’clock.
In that high latitude it was already light enough to see fairly well.
After that hour the railroad ran through a farming country all the way
to Dublin. I was amused with the queer shapes of the fields. These
were generally small, and running into sharp corners, regardless of
convenience in cultivation. They were separated always by hedges and
ditches. A ditch was dug some two feet deep and three or four feet
wide, the dirt was thrown up into a bank to correspond on one side, and
on this bank was planted a hedge of hawthorn--“quick-set” they commonly
called it. These hedges were of all ages, from those young and well
kept to those in all stages of growth and dilapidation. I could have
passed everywhere from field to field through breaks in the hedges,
sometimes wide ones. I could not see of what use they were except for
hunters to jump over. Saw occasionally a laborer’s cabin, sometimes
a group of them. When an Irishman came out to sun himself, he always
stood higher than the eaves of his thatched roof. Occasionally a more
pretentious house would appear. These were all alike, painted white,
full of windows, very thin from front to back, and looked like waffles
set on edge. Never did I see a tree or a bush about a house to relieve
the appearance of barrenness, but there were often small trees in the
hedge-rows.
The railway station on one side of Dublin was about four miles from
the station on the opposite side, from which a short railway ran
to Kingston, a point a little distance south of Dublin, from which
the channel boats crossed to Holyhead. There being no other means
of conveyance, I rode through Dublin in an open van sitting on the
mail-bags. At the Kingston station an empty train stood waiting for the
mails. The regular passenger-train had gone some time before, but the
boat at Kingston was also waiting for the mail. I got into a carriage,
having ordered my trunk put into the baggage-van, but was ordered out
by the guard. I showed him my ticket, and was told that I would have
to see the superintendent. That official appeared, and told me this
train was for the mails. It had an empty passenger-coach. I showed him
my ticket and told him the assurance on which I had bought it, that I
should go through with the mails. He replied that the passenger-train
had gone, I should have been here to take it. Said he was very sorry,
but it was impossible. I got mad. My trunk stood on the platform. As
nobody would touch it, I took it up and put it into the open door of
the baggage-van myself. The superintendent ordered two men to take it
out, which they did. I told him of my great anxiety to reach London
that afternoon. All the reply he made was to repeat that he was very
sorry, but it was impossible, and I was compelled to stand there and
see that train move off, and fool away the whole day in Dublin. Does
the reader want to know what the matter was? If he does not know
already, he is as green as I was. I had not given the superintendent
two and sixpence. But I had more yet to learn about England and the
English, and much more serious.
CHAPTER VI
Arrival in London. Conditions I found there. Preparations and Start.
I reached London very early next morning, and drove directly to the
lodgings of my friend, Mr. Wellington Lee, the only American resident
in London whom I knew. These were on a short street extending from the
Strand down to the river, a short distance west of Temple Bar, the
ancient city gate, which was then standing. Who was Mr. Lee and what
was he doing in London? These were questions in which I had an interest
of which I was as yet entirely ignorant. The firm of Lee & Larned were
the first successful designers of steam fire-engines in this country.
More than seventy of these steamers had been built from their plans and
under their direction by the Novelty Iron Works in New York, and the
fire department of that city was completely equipped with them. One
of their engines had been sold to the city of Havre, and Mr. Lee had
gone over with it to test it publicly on its guaranteed performance.
Mr. Amos, one of the senior members of the great London engineering
firm of Easton, Amos & Sons, went over to Havre to witness this trial,
with a view to the manufacture of these steam fire-engines in London.
He was so much pleased that he determined to make the fire-engines,
and engaged Mr. Lee to take the direction of their manufacture. So
it came to pass that at this particular time Mr. Lee was in London
superintending the first manufacture of his steam fire-engines by this
firm.
After our salutations Mr. Lee said: “First of all I have something
to tell you.” Before relating this, I must mention something that I
knew before I sailed. About the time when the cargo of United States
exhibits started, the well-known Mason and Slidell incident occurred.
These gentlemen, commissioners sent by the Confederacy to represent
their cause before European governments, had sailed on a British
vessel flying the British flag. This vessel was overhauled on the high
seas by one of our cruisers, and the commissioners were taken off
and brought prisoners to New York. Mr. Lincoln made haste to disavow
this illegal proceeding, so singularly inconsistent with our own
principles of international law, and to make all the reparation in his
power. But a bitter feeling towards England was then growing in the
Northern States, and in a moment of resentment Congress hastily passed
a resolution repealing the law creating the Exhibition Commission and
making an appropriation for its expenses, and Secretary Seward issued
a proclamation dissolving the commission. The vessel carrying the
exhibits had been gone scarcely more than a day when this action of
Congress and Mr. Seward surprised the country.
I now take up Mr. Lee’s narrative. The news of this action, carried
by a mail steamer, had reached London several days before the arrival
of the exhibits. Under the pressure of an urgent demand the Royal
Commission confiscated the space allotted to the United States and
parceled it out to British exhibitors. Mr. Holmes on his arrival found
not a spot in the Exhibition buildings on which to set his foot. But he
was a man of resources. He went before the commission with an eminent
Queen’s counsel, who made the point that they had received no official
notification of any such action by the United States Government, but
had proceeded on a mere newspaper rumor, which they had no right to
do; and there was the United States assistant commissioner with his
credentials and a shipload of exhibits, and they must admit him.
The commissioners yielded most gracefully. They said: “Now, Mr. Holmes,
the American space is gone; we cannot restore that to you, but there
are unoccupied spots all over the Exhibition, and you may take up any
of these, and we will undertake that your whole exhibit shall be well
placed.” Upon this Mr. Holmes had gone to work and had been able to
find locations for every exhibit, except my engine.
[Illustration: WELLINGTON LEE]
“But only yesterday,” said Mr. Lee, “Mr. Holmes learned that an engine
ordered by the commission to drive the British exhibit of looms, of
which there were thirty-three exhibitors, had been condemned by the
superintendent of machinery, Mr. Daniel Kinnear Clark, and ordered
out of the building.” He added that Mr. Holmes went directly to Mr.
Clark and applied for the place for my engine, the bedplate of which,
thanks to my precipitate action, had arrived and was then on a truck,
in England called a lurry, waiting to be unloaded. In answer to Mr.
Clark’s questions, Mr. Holmes had given him his personal assurance that
I would be there, and the rest of the engine would be there in ample
time, and it would be all that he could possibly desire; and on that
assurance he had got the place for me.
I informed Mr. Lee that I also had something to tell _him_. I then gave
him the situation as already related. He looked very grave. When I had
finished he said: “Well, you are in a hole, sure enough; but come, let
us get some breakfast, and then we will see what Easton & Amos can do
for you.” After eating my first English mutton-chop in a chop-house
on the Strand, I accompanied Mr. Lee to their works in the Borough, a
long distance away, on the south or Surrey side of the Thames, to reach
which we crossed the Southwark bridge.
None of the partners had yet reached the office. Very soon Mr. James
Easton arrived. He was a young man about my own age. Mr. Lee introduced
me and told my story. The instant he finished Mr. Easton came across
the room and grasped my hand most cordially. “That’s the kind of pluck
I like,” said he; “we will see you through, Mr. Porter; we will build
this engine for you, whatever else may have to wait.” Directly he
added: “We have a good deal of ‘red tape’ here, but it won’t do in this
case. There will be no time to lose. Come with me.” He then took me
through the shops and introduced me to every foreman, telling them what
he had undertaken to do, and gave each of them the same instruction,
as follows: “Mr. Porter will come directly to you with his orders.
Whatever he wants done, you are to leave everything else so far as may
be necessary, and do his work as rapidly as possible.”
As I listened to these orders, I could hardly believe my senses or
keep back the tears. Coming on top of the devotion of Mr. Holmes they
nearly overcame me. The sudden relief from the pressure of anxiety was
almost too much. It seemed to me to beat all the fairy stories I had
ever heard. This whole-hearted cordiality of the first Englishman I had
met gave me a high idea of the people as a whole, which, I am happy to
say, a residence of over six years in England served only to increase.
Returning to the office, we found Mr. Lee, who said, “Now, Mr. Porter,
I think Mr. Holmes would like to see you.” Getting the necessary
directions, in due time I found myself in the Exhibition building
on Cromwell Road and in the presence of Mr. Holmes, who received me
joyfully and led me at once to Mr. Clark’s office. As he opened the
door, Mr. Clark looked up from his desk and exclaimed, “Good morning,
Mr. Holmes; where is that engine?” “Well,” replied Mr. Holmes, “here
is Mr. Porter, and the engine is here or on the way.” Mr. Clark
asked me a number of questions about the engine, and finally how
many revolutions per minute it was intended to make. I replied, “One
hundred and fifty.” I thought it would take his breath away. With an
expression of the greatest amazement he exclaimed: “What! a hundred
and fifty! B--b--b--but, Mr. _Porter_, have you had any experience
with such a speed as that?” I told him my experience with the little
engine, which did not seem to satisfy him at all. Finally he closed the
matter, or supposed he had done so, by saying: “I cannot allow such a
speed here; I consider it dangerous.” I decided instantly in my own
mind not to throw away all that I had come for; but I made no sign, but
humbly asked what speed I might employ. After a little consideration
Mr. Clark replied: “One hundred and twenty revolutions; that must not
be exceeded.” This he considered a great concession, the usual speed
of stationary engines being from fifty to sixty revolutions. I meekly
acquiesced, then made my plans for one hundred and fifty revolutions,
and said nothing to anybody. I had no idea of the gravity of my
offence. It was the first time since I was a child that I had been
ordered to do or not to do anything, and I had no conception of orders
except as given by myself. If there was any risk, I assumed it gaily,
quite unconscious how such a daredevil defiance of authority would
appear to an Englishman. Mr. Clark showed me my location, and gave
me an order for my engine-bed to be brought in immediately, and also
other parts of the engine as soon as they arrived. Trucks generally, I
was told, had to wait in the crowd about ten days for their turn to be
unloaded.
[Illustration: CHARLES T. PORTER
A.D. 1862]
I hurry over the time of erection. Everything arrived promptly and the
whole came together without a hitch, as I knew it would. The fly-wheel
and pulley and cylinder lagging I had left to be made in England. I
was at the works of Easton, Amos & Sons every morning at 6 o’clock,
and laid out the work for the day. I made the gauges for boring the
fly-wheel and pulley, which I had now learned how to do, and adjusted
everything about the engine myself, and knew it was right.
I had a talk with the foreman of the pattern-shop about the best
thickness of felt on the cylinder to be covered by the mahogany
lagging, in the course of which I remarked, “It is the air that is
the real non-conductor.” “Yes,” he replied, “and felt, you know, _is_
‘air’.”
I learned several things I did not know before, among others how
the English made a steam-pipe joint, using parallel threads and a
backing-up nut, packed with long hemp which was filled with a putty
made of red and white lead rubbed together dry.
I had great luck in the way of a driving-belt. An American exhibitor
of india-rubber belting asked the privilege of exhibiting a belt in
use on my engine, which I was glad enough to have him do. Otherwise
I hardly know what I should have done. The widest English belts were
12 inches wide, double, and sewn together from end to end with five
rows of sheepskin lacing. The belt ran on the knobs of this lacing.
English machinists then knew nothing of the hold of belts by excluding
the air. The ends of all belts were united by lapping them about two
feet and sewing them through and through with this same lacing. Fine
pounding these joints would have made on the pulleys. I got a governor
belt from him also. Both belts were united by butt-joints laced in the
American fashion. I did this job myself, and, indeed, I put the whole
engine together mostly with my own hands, although Easton, Amos & Sons
sent two of their best fitters to help me. I learned afterwards that I
should have had a sorry time driving my governor by a belt laced in the
English way.
In spite of all efforts and all our good luck, we were not ready to
start until a week after the opening day, May 1, and the exhibitors
were in despair, for none of them believed that this new-fangled
American trap would work when it did start at the frightful speed of
a hundred and twenty revolutions per minute, which they had learned
from Mr. Clark it was to make. Finally one day after our noon dinner I
turned on the steam, and the governor rose at the speed of one hundred
and fifty revolutions precisely. It was immediately surrounded by a
dense crowd, every man of whom looked as if he expected the engine to
fly in pieces any instant.
It was not more than two minutes after it started when I saw Mr. Clark
coming with his watch in his hand. Some one had rushed to his office
and told him the Yankee engine was running away. The crowd opened for
him, and he came up to the engine and watched it for some time, walking
leisurely around it and observing everything carefully from all points
of view. He then counted it through a full minute. At its close he
turned to me and exclaimed, “Ah, Porter--but,” slapping me cordially on
the shoulder, “it’s all right. If you will run as smoothly as this you
may run at any speed you like.”
And so the high-speed engine was born, but neither Mr. Clark, nor I,
nor any human being then knew what it was that made it run so smoothly.
I have since realized more and more what a grand man Mr. Clark then
showed himself to be. A small souled man might have regarded the matter
entirely from a personal point of view, and been furious at my defiance
of his authority. There are such men. I will show one to the reader by
and by. Officialism is liable to produce them. I was quite unconscious
of the risk in this respect that I was running. I have always felt that
I could not be too thankful that at this critical point I fell into the
hands of so noble a man as Daniel Kinnear Clark.
[Illustration: Mr. Porter’s Exhibit at the London International
Exhibition, 1862]
CHAPTER VII
My London Exhibit, its Success, but what was the matter? Remarkable
Sale of the Engine.
Thus, as the result of a remarkable combination of circumstances,
upon which I look back with feelings more of awe than of wonder, the
high-speed system made its appearance in the London International
Exhibition of 1862, installed in the midst of the British machinery
exhibit, under conditions more advantageous than any which I could have
imagined.
But the engine had a weak feature: it was wanting in an essential
respect, of which I was, and remained to the end, quite unconscious, as
will presently appear. Before entering on this subject I will give the
reader an idea of what the exhibit was like. The accompanying half-tone
from a photograph will, with the help of a little explanation, make
this quite real.
The location was in a narrow space between a side aisle and the wall
of the temporary wooden structure, 300 feet wide by nearly 1000 feet
long, which formed the machinery hall. The engine was crowded closely
by looms on both sides. Here were shown together the first high-speed
engine, the first high-speed governor, and the first high-speed
indicator. My marine governor could not be accommodated there, and had
to be shown elsewhere. I was so much afraid of deflection or vibration
of the shaft that I shortened up the length between the bearings and
placed the driving-pulley on the overhanging end of the shaft, which
for the light work to be done there answered sufficiently well. I
showed also the largest and the smallest sizes of my stationary-engine
governors. These were belted from the shaft to revolve so as to
stand always in positions coincident with those of the governor which
regulated the engine.
On a table between the railing and the head of the engine I showed
mahogany sectional models of the valves at one end of the cylinder in
the engine exhibited, and of the now well-known Allen slide valve, with
double opening for admission made by a passage over the exhaust-cup.
The Richards indicator is seen placed on the cylinder midway of its
length, and connected by pipes with the ends over the clearances, so
that in the familiar manner by means of a three-way cock the opposite
diagrams could be taken on the same sheet. After a few days’ use I
mistrusted that the lead lines were not correctly drawn, and I took
away these pipes, placing the indicator on the cylinder itself, at the
opposite ends alternately. The diagrams then taken showed that the
error from transmission through these pipes had been even greater than
I had feared. I have, of course, employed the close connection ever
since.
This identifies the time when the photograph was taken. It must have
been within a few days after starting.
The center of the eccentric coinciding with the crank, as already
stated, and the center line of the link being in the same horizontal
plane with that of the engine, I was able to take the motion of the
paper drum from the sustaining arms of the link instead of from the
cross-head. This was very convenient.
During the first two or three weeks the steam pressure was kept up to
75 pounds, as intended, and I was able to get diagrams cutting off
quite early, which were then erroneously supposed to show superior
economy. But when all the steam-eaters had got in their work the
pressure could not be maintained much above 40 pounds, and for that
exhibition the day of fancy diagrams was over. Gwynne & Co. showed
a large centrifugal pump driven by a pair of engines which always
brought the pressure down at the rate of a pound a minute. They were
not allowed to run longer than fifteen minutes at a time, but it took
a long time after they stopped before the pressure could be got up
again even to 40 pounds. Whenever I took a diagram somebody was always
standing ready to take it away, and so among my mementoes I have been
able to find none cutting off earlier than the one here represented.
On the wall at the back I hung the largest United States flag I could
find, with a portrait of President Lincoln. This seems all that needs
to be said about the photograph and the diagram.
[Illustration:
INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT
1862 DIAGRAM TAKEN FROM 1862
THE ALLEN ENGINE BY THE RICHARDS INDICATOR.
ENGINE, 8 INCHES BY 24 INCHES, REVOLUTIONS PER MINUTE, 150.
SCALE, 40 LBS. TO THE INCH.]
But what was the matter? I will clear the way to answering this
question by relating the following incident: Six months later, with a
feeling of bitter disappointment, I contemplated my engine standing
alone where the place had been thronged with surging life. All the
other exhibits had been removed. This was left in stillness and
desolation, and I was making up my mind to the necessity of shipping it
home again, its exhibition to all appearance absolutely fruitless--a
failure, which I was utterly at a loss to comprehend, when I had a
call from Mr. James Easton, the same man who had first welcomed me in
England. His firm had perhaps the largest exhibit in the Machinery
Hall, of a waterfall supplied by a centrifugal pump, and they had been
frequent observers of the running of my engine, which was quite near
them. Mr. Easton bluntly asked me if I thought my engine could be run
50 per cent. faster or at 225 revolutions per minute, because they
had concluded that it could be, and if I agreed with them they had
a use for it themselves. Under the circumstances I did not hesitate
long about agreeing with them in respect to both ability and price,
and the sale was quickly concluded. I noted an entire absence of any
disposition to take an undue advantage. Mr. Easton then told me that
they were troubled with lack of power every afternoon when the foundry
blower was on, and had long wanted to drive this blower independently.
It needed to make 2025 revolutions per minute to give the blast they
required, and they had planned to drive it by a frictional gearing,
nine to one, if my engine could run at the necessary speed. So
this most peculiar and exceptional opportunity for its application,
absolutely the only chance for its sale that had appeared, and that at
the very last moment, prevented my returning home in disappointment.
It is hardly necessary to add that the engine proved completely
successful. I shall refer to it again.
The point of the incident is this: It established the fact, the
statement of which otherwise no one from the result would credit for an
instant, that, from the afternoon when the black and averted looks of
my loom exhibitors were changed to smiling congratulations down to the
close of the exhibition, the engine never once had a warm bearing or
was interrupted for a single moment. It was visited by every engineer
in England, and by a multitude of engine users, was admired by every
one, and won the entire confidence of all observers in its speed, its
regulation, and the perfection of its diagrams; and yet in all that
six months not a builder ever said a word about building it, nor a
user said a word about using it; and, as week after week and month
after month passed without a sign, I became almost stupefied with
astonishment and distress.
The explanation of this phenomenon was entirely simple, but I did not
know it, and there was no one to even hint it to me. I was among a
people whose fundamental ideas respecting steam-engines were entirely
different from those to which I had been accustomed, and I knew nothing
about them, and so could not address myself to them. In the view of
every Englishman a non-condensing engine was rubbish. Those which were
made were small, cheap affairs, mostly for export. Neither a builder
nor a user could regard a non-condensing engine with the slightest
interest.
Now I do not think that in my limited sphere of observation at home
I had ever seen a condensing stationary engine, except the engine
which pumped out the dry-dock at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. In my mind
condensing engines were associated with ships and steamboats. At this
exhibition also there were shown only non-condensing engines. I did not
think of the reason for this, that in this part of London, far away
from the Thames, no water could be had for condensing purposes. I took
it all as a matter of course, though I was astonished at the queer lot
of engines in the company of which I found myself.
I was, of course, familiar with the development of the stationary
engine in England from the original type, in which the pressure of
steam below that of the atmosphere, and sometimes the pressure of the
atmosphere itself furnished the larger proportion of the power exerted;
but after all I carried with me my American ideas, which were limited
to non-condensing engines, and had no conception of the gulf that
separated my thoughts from those of the men about me.
My visitors always wound up with the same question, “How do you drive
your air-pump?” And in my innocence I uniformly replied, “The engine
is a non-condensing engine; it has no air-pump”; all unconscious that
every time I said that I was consigning the engine to the rubbish
heap. This reply was taken necessarily as a frank admission that the
high-speed engine was not adapted for condensing. Of course, then, it
had no interest for them. No doubt many wondered why I should have
troubled myself to show it there at all. If I had thought more deeply
I must have been struck by the unvarying form of this question, always
assuming the air-pump to be a part of the engine, but which, of course,
could not be used there, and only inquiring how I worked it; and also
by the fact that after getting my answer the questioner soon departed,
and I scarcely ever saw the same visitor again. But I did not think
deeply. Perhaps the conditions of excitement were not favorable to
reflection. All I thought was that this same everlasting question,
which at home I would never have heard, was getting awfully monotonous.
After a while this annoying question came to be asked less and less
frequently, and also the engine attracted less and less attention. The
engine had failed in a vital respect, and I did not know it. That the
fact of the engine being non-condensing should have been an objection
to it never once entered my mind.
But I doubt if I could have bettered the matter, however alive to this
difficulty I might have been. I showed all I had yet accomplished.
In the minds of my visitors it no doubt appeared impossible to run
an air-pump successfully at such a speed; the water and air would
be churned into foam, and the valves would not close in time. This
objection I was not prepared to meet, for I had not thought on the
subject at all. Moreover, it could not have been met in any way except
by a practical demonstration. For that demonstration I had yet to wait
five years.
There were many things connected with this season which were well worth
remembering. One of these was the visit of the jury. It was the only
time I ever met Professor Rankine. There were two or three Frenchmen on
the jury, and they engaged in an animated discussion of the question
whether the steam could follow the piston at so great a speed. I well
remember the sharp exclamation with which Professor Rankine put an end
to this nonsense, when he had got tired of it. “There is no limit to
the speed at which steam will follow a piston.”
One day I had a call from Mr. John Penn, Mr. William Fairbairn, and Mr.
Robert Napier, who came together on a visit of ceremony, and presented
me their cards. In return I presented to them the cards of the engine.
But their visit, like most others, closed with the same inevitable
question.
It was a delightful hour that Mr. F. W. Webb spent with me. He was
then assistant engineer of the London & Northwestern Railway under Mr.
Ramsbottom, afterwards Mr. Ramsbottom’s successor, and the pioneer
builder of compound-cylinder locomotives. He told me about the new form
of traveling-crane invented by Mr. Ramsbottom for the shops at Crewe,
which was driven by a flying-rope, a ³⁄₄-inch cotton cord, and also of
other inventions of Mr. Ramsbottom--among these the automatic cylinder
lubricator, in which the condensation of the steam was so rapid, from
the locomotive rushing through the atmosphere, that only the water
formed on the conical end of a bolt was permitted to drop into the oil,
other condensation running into a circular trough and back through an
external gooseneck pipe to the steam-chest; and of their experiments
to observe the rate of this condensation. For this purpose they used
soda-water bottles, which they found capable of resisting a pressure of
200 pounds on the square inch, and in which they could see the rapidity
with which the condensed water displaced the oil, thus leading to the
above device for limiting this action; also about the Ramsbottom piston
rings, which came to be, and still are, so largely used. These consist,
as is well known, of square wrought-iron rods, say ¹⁄₂ inch square,
two for each piston, sprung into grooves. What is not so generally
known is the way in which these rings were originated, which Mr. Webb
then described to me. As sold, these are not circular rings, but when
compressed in the cylinder they become truly circular and exert the
same pressure at every point. The original form was found for each size
in this way: A circular iron table was prepared, provided with a large
number of pulleys located radially and equidistant around its edge. A
ring having the section of the proposed rings, turned to the size of
the cylinder, and cut on one side, was laid on this table, and cords
were attached to it at equal distances passing over these pulleys.
Equal weights were hung on these cords, sufficient to expand this ring
to the extent desired. The form of the expanded ring was then marked on
the table, and to the lines thus obtained the rings were then rolled.
He told me also of the trough and scoop invented by Mr. Ramsbottom, and
now used the world over, for refilling locomotive tanks while running
at full speed. Being a locomotive man, Mr. Webb did not ask about the
way I drove my air-pump.
Mr. Clark formed a scheme to indicate all the engines in the
exhibition, twenty-four in number, all English except mine, so far as I
remember, and employed my indicator for the purpose, the diagrams being
taken by myself. Only two exhibitors declined to have their engines
indicated. As I afterwards learned, most of the engines were bought for
use there, as exhibitors would not exhibit non-condensing engines.
One of those who refused permission were Gwynne & Co., the principal
partner a nephew of my centrifugal-force friend of earlier days. They
exhibited a centrifugal pump supplying a waterfall. They employed Mr.
Zerah Colburn, then editor of _The Engineer_, to investigate their pair
of non-condensing engines and find out why they used so much steam. He
borrowed my indicator to make a private test. Of course, I never saw
the diagrams, but Mr. Colburn informed me that by making some changes
he had reduced the back pressure to 7 pounds above the atmosphere,
which he claimed to be as good as could be expected. No material
improvement in the engines was to be observed, however.
Some of the diagrams taken on these tests exhibited almost incredible
faults. The only really good ones were from a pair of engines made by
Easton, Amos & Sons, also to drive a large centrifugal pump, built
for drainage purposes in Demerara, and sustaining another waterfall.
These showed the steam cut off sharply at one third of the stroke by
separately driven valves on the back of the main slides. A mortifying
feature of this work for myself was that on testing the indicator Mr.
Clark found that the area of the piston, which was represented to be
one quarter of a square inch, was really considerably less than this,
showing lamentable inaccuracy on the part of the makers, as well as my
own neglect to discover it. This rendered the instrument valueless for
measuring power, but it showed the character of the diagrams all right.
The finest mechanical drawing I ever saw--or any one else, I think--was
shown in this exhibition. It was a drawing of the steamship “Persia,”
then the pride of the Cunard fleet, and was the only mechanical
drawing ever admitted to the walls of the National Gallery, where it
had appeared the year before. It represented side and end elevations
and plan, as well as longitudinal and cross-sections, was painted
and shaded in water-colors, and involved an almost incredible amount
of work. It was made by Mr. Kirkaldy, then a draftsman in the employ
of the Napiers, of Glasgow, the builders of the vessel. I am tempted
to refer to this, as it forms a prominent datum point from which to
measure the development of steam navigation in the brief space of forty
years. The vessel did not possess a single feature, large or small,
that now exists. It was of only about 3000 tons burden. It was an iron
ship built in the days of the rapid transition from wood to steel.
It was propelled by paddle-wheels. These were driven by a pair of
side-lever engines. The engines had each a single cylinder. The steam
pressure carried was nominally 25 pounds above the atmosphere, but
practically only from 15 to 20 pounds. Full pressure was not pretended
to be maintained. They had jet condensers. All forged work was of
iron. The vessel was steered by hand. The rigging, standing as well as
running, was of hemp. It was full bark-rigged.
[Illustration: FREDERICK E. SICKELS]
There I first met Mr. Frederick E. Sickels, the inventor of the trip
cut-off; that immortal man who conceived the idea of tripping the valve
mechanism of a steam-engine at any point in its opening movement,
thus releasing the valve and permitting it to be suddenly closed. He
had come over to exhibit his steam steering gear, which is now used
throughout the world. It was astonishing how little attention it
attracted. He had it connected and showed it in operation. While he
turned the wheel precisely as the steersman did, the steam did all
the work of moving the rudder and holding it in any position. Nobody
seemed to take the slightest interest in it. I attributed this largely
to his mistake in showing a very rough affair, the very thing which
he thought would add to its effect. He had an apparatus that had been
used on a coasting steamer which was captured by the Confederates and
employed by them as a blockade-runner, and afterwards captured by our
cruisers, taken into New York and condemned. He bought this gear out of
it at auction and sent it to the exhibition just as it was. He believed
that the more evidences of neglect and rough usage it showed, the
greater admiration its perfect action would inspire. He learned better.
Polished iron and brass and mahogany would have led people to believe
that he himself thought it was worth showing properly.
The picture gallery in the second story of the main building of this
exhibition was really wonderful. Its most prominent feature was a
collection of paintings representing the progress of British art from
the days of Hogarth. All Europe was represented. I was told that the
entire wall surface was seven eighths of a mile long.
We also had a gallery of American art, consisting of a number of
remarkable large photographs of the Yosemite Valley, California, and
one painting. Mr. J. F. Cropsey, an American landscape artist of
considerable celebrity at home, had formed a scheme for establishing
himself in London. He took with him a number of his works. His _pièce
de résistance_ was “Autumn on the Hudson,” which was greatly admired
and for which he was offered a large price, but he preferred to show
it in London. He had sent it to the National Gallery, and, to his
consternation, it was refused, the committee declaring that there were
no such colors in nature. It also offended the English taste, by which
our autumnal tints are regarded as “very gaudy,” so he hung it in Mr.
Holmes’ office at the exhibition. He and I had each a lot to learn
about the way things look to our cousins.
CHAPTER VIII
Sale of Governors. Visit from Mr. Allen. Operation of the Engine Sold
to Easton, Amos & Sons. Manufacture of the Indicator. Application on
Locomotives.
The governor seemed to please every one. In anticipation of a demand
for them, I had shipped a number to London, which met a ready sale.
The most appreciative persons as a class were the linen-manufacturers
of Belfast. One of them early took a license to sell them there. The
first one I sold in London was to my friends Easton, Amos & Sons. As
soon as they saw it in operation it struck them as the very thing they
needed. In connection with their engineering works they carried on the
manufacture of lead pipe by hydraulic pressure. The engine which drove
a large section of their machine tools also drove the hydraulic pumps
for this manufacture. It was a very trying service. The resistance was
very heavy and came on and off the engine instantly. The action of the
common governor was not prompt enough to control it, and they had to
employ a man handling a disk valve with a very short motion. He had to
keep his eye fixed on a column of mercury. When this rose he must open
the valve, and when it dropped he must shut it. It had been found that
this was a poor reliance for the instantaneous action required. They
got a governor from me at once. I received a message from them the next
day. The governor would not answer at all; would I come down and see
about it? I happened first to meet an old man, foreman of the turners.
“What is the matter?” “Matter! The governor won’t work, that’s what’s
the matter.” I was rather an impulsive young man and replied, “It will
work, or I’ll eat it.” He sharply responded, “If it does work I’ll eat
it, and I haven’t a tooth in my head.” Foolish old man! he was more
rash than I. I saw at a glance that the governor went through but half
its action. There was evidently some resistance in the valve, a common
fly-throttle. After they shut down at night I had the valve pulled out,
and found that the chamber was larger than the pipe and that the wings
of the valve were long and their points caught on the ends of the pipe.
The wings of the valve were soon shortened and rebedded in the chamber,
and when started again the governor controlled the motion of the engine
perfectly, to the great gratification of everybody, and the delight
of the boys, who had heard the old man promise to eat it. The valve
had been put in for my governor to work, and the fitters had put up a
job on me. The old man was not in the secret. So the laugh was on him
instead of on me.
Directly after this triumph I received an order from Mr. John Penn
for a governor to regulate the engine driving his marine-engine works
at Greenwich. This was the first and only engine I ever saw of the
grasshopper class, quite common, I learned, in earlier days. The
superintendent of his works afterwards told me, laughingly, that he
had a large account against me for loss of time; that he had become
so fascinated with the governor action that he had stood watching it
sometimes for twenty minutes. He knew by the position of the governor
every large tool that was running and what it was doing, if light or
heavy work, and especially every time a planer was reversed.
One day a gentleman asked me if I thought the governor could regulate
his engine. He was a manufacturer of the metal thread used in making
gold lace. A bar of silver, 2 inches in diameter and 2 or 3 feet long,
was covered with three or four thicknesses of dentists’ gold leaf,
and then drawn down to exceedingly fine threads, and the gold surface
was never broken. I have often wondered how thick that gold covering
finally was. The heavy drawing of the cold bars required a great deal
of power, and when they shot out the engine would run away and the fine
threads would be broken. No governor nor heavy fly-wheel would help
the matter, and they had to do their heavy drawing in the night. My
governor maintained the motion absolutely. Not only were the finest
threads not broken by the sudden changes in the heavy drawing, but the
occasional breakages that they had been accustomed to nearly ceased.
In this connection I cannot refrain from telling a good story on Mr.
Ramsbottom and Mr. Webb, although the incident happened the next year.
I received an order for a governor for the engine driving the shops of
the London & Northwestern Railway at Crewe. Soon after its shipment
there came a line from the office there that the governor was behaving
badly and I would have to go and see about it. I found that the engine
consisted of a pair of locomotive cylinders set upright on the floor
and directly connected above, the cranks at right angles with each
other, to the line-shaft, a plan which I have always admired, as a
capital way of avoiding belts or gearing. They were running at 120
revolutions per minute, and were connected in the middle of the shaft,
which was about 400 feet long. The governor was flying up and down
quite wildly. I had never seen such an action before, and was at a
loss what to make of it. I saw no fly-wheel, but it did not seem that
its absence could account for this irregularity. Indeed, with coupled
engines running at this speed, and only trifling changes of load, and
a governor requiring no time to act, a fly-wheel seemed superfluous.
Pretty soon it came out that the want of fly-wheel could not cause the
trouble, for they had two. Where were they? There was one at each end
of the shaft, close to the end walls of the building, where wall boxes
afforded excellent supports. Fly-wheels at the ends of 2-inch shafts
and 200 feet from the engine! I fairly shouted with laughter, told
them to take off their fly-wheels, and came home. The fly-wheels were
taken off, and there was no further trouble. Well, what should railway
engineers, absorbed in locomotive designs and everything pertaining
to railroading, be expected to know about fly-wheel inertia and shaft
torsion?
About midsummer I had the pleasant surprise of a visit from Mr. Allen,
whose gratification at the show I had made was unbounded. We saw much
of the exhibition together. Perhaps the most interesting exhibits in
the machinery department, to us both, were the working models shown
by the marine-engine builders. There were a large number of these,
generally not much over one foot in any dimension, but complete to
every bolt and nut, superbly finished, and shown in motion. They had
evidently been made regardless of cost. In the progress of engineering
science, everything represented by these elegant toys has long since
vanished. We were much impressed by a cylinder casting, 120 inches in
diameter, shown by Mr. Penn, one of a pair made for a horizontal engine
for a British warship, to work steam at 25 pounds pressure. Everything
there shown pertaining to steam engineering, except our own engine, was
about to disappear forever. How long before that also shall follow?
Soon after Mr. Allen’s return he sent me a drawing of his four-opening
equilibrium valve with adjustable pressure-plate. I realized the great
value of this most original invention, now so well known, but its
adoption required a rescheming of the valve-gear, and that had to be
postponed for some years.
In setting up the engine in the works of Easton, Amos & Sons, I had
a curious example of English pertinacity. Old Mr. Amos said to me,
“Porter, where is your pump?” “The engine has no pump.” “No pump!” “No,
sir; we consider a feed-pump as an adjunct to the boiler, never put it
on the engine, and generally employ independent feed-pumps which can
be adjusted to the proper speed. Besides, a feed-pump could not be run
satisfactorily at the speed of this engine.” He heard me through, and
then, with a look of utter disgust, exclaimed: “If a man should sell
me a musket and tell me it had no stock, lock, or barrel, these were
all extra, I should think it just about as sensible.” Nothing would do
but that this engine must have a pump. I had intended to cut off the
projecting end of the shaft, but Mr. Amos ordered this to be left, and
had an eccentric fitted on it, and set a vertical pump on the floor to
be driven by this eccentric, at 225 double strokes per minute. Also the
feed-pipe had to be over 50 feet long, with three elbows.
Of course, as the boys say, we had a circus. A mechanic had a daily
job, mornings, when the engine was not running, securing that pump
on its foundation. The trembling and pounding in the feed-pipe were
fearful. I suggested an air-chamber. They sent word to me that they had
put on an air-chamber, but it did no good. I went to look at it, and
found a very small air-chamber in the middle of the length of the pipe,
where it seemed to me more likely to do harm. At my suggestion they
got one of suitable size and attached it to the pump outlet, when the
noise and trembling mostly disappeared, as well as the disposition of
the pump to break loose. It did fairly well after that, and they made
it answer, although I do not suppose it ever one quarter filled.
Mr. Amos was the consulting engineer of the Royal Agricultural Society.
At this exhibition American reapers made an invasion of England. Mr.
Amos set his face against them, and in reply to my question, what
objection he made to them, he said, “We prefer to get our grain into
the barn, instead of strewing it over the field.” And yet this man, the
engineering head of this firm, was the only man in England, so far as I
knew, advanced enough to take up the Wolff system of compounding, and
who had bought my engine to run at 225 revolutions per minute, which it
continued to do with complete satisfaction until some years later, when
these works were removed to a location on the Thames, east of London,
when I lost sight of them.
During the latter part of the exhibition I learned that the McNaught
and the Hopkinson indicators were in common use in England; that one or
both of these were to be found in the engine-rooms of most mills and
manufacturing establishments, and that if the Richards indicator were
properly put on the market there would probably be some demand for it,
although at existing engine speeds the indicators in use appeared to
be satisfactory. A special field for its employment would doubtless
be found, however, in indicating locomotives. I felt sufficiently
encouraged to set about the task of standardizing the indicator, and
during the winter of 1862-3 made a contract with the firm of Elliott
Brothers, the well-known manufacturers of philosophical apparatus and
engineering and drawing instruments, to manufacture them according to
my plans.
This was my first attempt to organize the manufacture of an instrument
of any kind, and I set about it under a deep sense of responsibility
for the production of an indicator that should command the confidence
of engineers in its invariable truth. I found that the opportunity I
had enjoyed for studying the subject had been most important. The daily
use of the indicator which I had brought to the exhibition was an
invaluable preparation for this work.
I decided, first, to increase the multiplication of the piston motion,
by means of the lever, from three times to four times, thus reducing
by one quarter the movement of the piston required to give the same
vertical movement to the pencil, and, second, to increase the cylinder
area from one quarter to one half of a square inch. The latter was
necessary in order to afford sufficient room for springs of proper
size, and correct reliable strength in their connections.
The first problem that presented itself was how to produce cylinders
of the exact diameter required, .7979 of an inch, and to make an error
in this dimension impossible. This problem I solved in the following
manner: At my request Elliott Brothers obtained from the Whitworth
Company a hardened steel mandrel about 20 inches in length, ground
parallel to this exact size and certified by them. Brass tubes of
slightly larger size and carefully cleaned were drawn down on this
mandrel. These when pressed off presented a perfect surface and needed
only to be sawed up in lengths of about 2 inches for each cylinder.
Through the whole history of the manufacture that removed all trouble
or concern on this account.
The pistons were made as light as possible, and were turned to a gauge
that permitted them to leak a little. The windage was not sufficient to
affect their accuracy; a thickness of silk paper on one side would hold
the pistons tight; but they had a frictionless action, and the cover of
the spring case having two holes opening to the atmosphere, there could
be no pressure above the piston except that of the atmosphere.
[Illustration:
SPRING-TESTING INSTRUMENT.
USED IN THE MANUFACTURE OF THE RICHARDS INDICATOR.
Designed by Charles T. Porter.
LONGITUDINAL SECTION.
SCALE, HALF SIZE.
END VIEW]
The second problem was to insure the accuracy of the springs. This was
more serious than the first one. The brass heads of the springs were
provided with three wings instead of two, which mine had. The spring,
after being coiled and tempered, was brazed into the grooves in the
first two wings, and the third wing was hammered firmly to it. This
prevented the stress on the spring from reaching the brazed joints,
and these heads never worked loose. One head was made fast at once;
the other was left free to be screwed backward or forward until the
proper length of the spring was found. To insure freedom from friction,
I determined to adjust and test the springs in the open air, quite
apart from the instrument. For this purpose I had a stout cast-iron
plate made, with a bracket cast on it, in which the slides were held
in a vertical groove, and bolted this plate on the bench, where it was
carefully leveled. The surface of the plate had been planed, a small
hole drilled through it at the proper point, and a corresponding hole
was bored through the bench. A seating for the scales also was planed
in the bracket, normal to the surface of the block. The spring to be
tested, in its heads as above described, was set on the block, and a
rod which was a sliding fit in the hole was put up through the bench,
block, and spring. This rod had a head at the lower end, and was
threaded at the upper end. Under the bench a sealed weight, equal to
one half the extreme pressure on the square inch to be indicated by the
spring, was placed on the rod.
Between the spring and the scale I employed a lever, representing that
used in the indicator, but differing from it in two respects. It was of
twice its length, for greater convenience of observation, and it was
a lever of the first order, so that the weight acting downward should
represent the steam pressure in the indicator acting upward.
The weight was carried by a steel nut screwed on the end of the rod and
resting on the upper head of the spring to be tested. This nut carried
above it a hardened stirrup, with a sharp inner edge, which intersected
the axis of the rod, produced. A delicate steel lever was pivoted to
turn about a point at one fifth of the distance from the axis of the
rod to the farther side of the scale seat. The upper edge of this lever
was a straight line intersecting the axis of its trunnions. The short
arm of the lever passed through the stirrup, in which it slid as the
spring was compressed, while the long arm swung upward in front of the
scale. The latter was graduated on its farther side, and the reading
was taken at the point of intersection of the upper edge of the lever
with this edge of the scale.
The free head on the spring was turned until the reading showed it to
be a trifle too strong. It was then secured, and afterwards brought
to the exact strength required by running it rapidly in a lathe and
rubbing its surface over its entire length with fine emery cloth.
This reduced the strength of each coil equally. This was a delicate
operation, requiring great care to reduce the strength enough and not
too much. A great many springs had to be made, several being generally
required, often a full set of ten, with each indicator. This testing
apparatus was convenient and reliable, and the workmen became very
expert in its use.
The spring when in use was always exposed to steam of atmospheric
pressure. At this temperature of 212° we found by careful experiment
that all the springs were weakened equally, namely, one pound in forty
pounds. So the springs were made to show, when cold, 39 pounds instead
of 40 pounds, and in this ratio for all strengths.
This system of manufacture and testing was examined in operation by
every engineer who ordered an indicator, the shop on St. Martin’s Lane
being very convenient. They generally required that the indicator
should be tested by the mercurial column. The Elliotts, being large
makers of barometers, had plenty of pure mercury, so this requirement
was readily complied with, and the springs were invariably found
to be absolutely correct. We never used the mercurial column in
manufacturing, but were glad to apply it for the satisfaction of
customers.
I employed the following test for friction. The indicator when finished
was set on a firm bracket in the shop. The spring was pressed down as
far as it could be, and then allowed to return to its position of rest
very slowly, the motion at the end becoming almost insensible. Then a
fine line was drawn with a sharp-pointed brass wire on metallic paper
placed on the drum. The spring was then pulled up as far as possible
and allowed to return to its position of rest in the same careful
manner. The point must then absolutely retrace this line. No indicator
was allowed to go out without satisfying this test. The workmanship was
so excellent that they always did so as a matter of course.
Mr. Henry R. Worthington once told me, long after, that on the test of
an installation of his pump in Philadelphia, after he had indicated it
at both steam and water ends, the examining board asked him to permit
them to make a test with their own indicator, which they did the next
day. They brought another indicator, of Elliott’s make like his own,
but the number showed it to have been made some years later. “Would you
believe it,” said he, “the diagrams were every one of them absolutely
identical with my own!” I replied that the system of manufacture was
such that this could not have been otherwise.
[Illustration: Plan of Spring-testing Instrument.]
I wish to acknowledge my obligation to Elliott Brothers for their
cordial co-operation, their excellent system of manufacture, and the
intelligent skill of their workmen, by one of whom the swiveling
connection of the levers with the piston-rod was devised.
The indicator was improved in other important respects, but I here
confine myself to the above, which most directly affected its accuracy.
This soon became established in the public confidence. During my stay
in England, about five years longer, the sale of indicators averaged
some three hundred a year, with but little variation. The Elliotts
then told me that they considered the market to have been about
supplied, and looked for a considerable falling off in the demand, and
had already reduced their orders for material. Eight years after my
return I ordered from them two indicators for use in indicating engines
exhibited at our Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia. The indicators
had from the first been numbered in the order of their manufacture.
These came numbered over 10,000.
The indicators were put on the market in the spring of 1863, and I
sought opportunity to apply them on locomotives. In this I had the
efficient co-operation of Zerah Colburn, then editor of _The Engineer_.
The first application of them was on a locomotive of the London and
Southwestern Railway, and our trips, two in number, were from London
to Southampton and return. The revelations made by the indicator were
far from agreeable to Mr. Beattie, the chief engineer of the line. Mr.
Beattie had filled his boilers with tubes ⁷⁄₈ of an inch in diameter.
The diagrams showed the pressure of blast necessary to draw the gases
through these tubes to average about ten pounds above the atmosphere,
the reduction of the nozzles producing this amount of back pressure
throughout the stroke. Another revelation was equally disagreeable.
The steam showed very wet. We learned that Mr. Beattie surrounded his
cylinders with a jacket. This was a large corrugated casting in which
the cylinder was inserted as a liner. To keep the cylinder hot the
_exhaust_ was passed through this jacket. Mr. Colburn made both of
these features the subjects of editorials in _The Engineer_, written
in his usual trenchant style. The last one was entitled “Mr. Beattie’s
Refrigerators,” and produced a decided sensation.
Our next trips were made on the Great Eastern Road, one from London to
Norwich and one from London to Great Yarmouth. On these trips we were
accompanied by Mr. W. H. Maw, then head draftsman of the Great Eastern
Locomotive Drawing Office, under Mr. Sinclair, the chief engineer, and
by Mr. Pendred. These gentlemen were afterwards, respectively, the
editors of _Engineering_ and _The Engineer_.
[Illustration: Diagrams from English Locomotives taken with Richards
Indicator.]
The diagrams from the Great Eastern engines were, on the whole, the
best which were taken by us. On one of these trips I was able to
get the accompanying most interesting pair of diagrams, which were
published by me in the appendix to my treatise on the Indicator. One of
them was taken at the speed of 50 revolutions per minute, and the other
at the speed of 260 revolutions per minute, running in the same notch
with wide-open throttle. The steam pressure was higher at the rapid
speed. They afford many subjects of study, and show the perfect action
of the indicator as at first turned out, at this great speed. I learned
afterwards that the almost entire freedom from vibration at the most
rapid speed was due to the gradual manner in which the pressure fell
from the beginning of the stroke. This fall of pressure before the
cut-off I fancy was caused largely by a small steam-pipe.
Our last diagrams were taken from a locomotive on the London and
Northwestern, by the same four operators as on the Great Eastern trips.
We ran from London to Manchester. On our return trip Mr. Webb joined us
at Crewe, and accompanied us to London. I am sorry to say that in one
respect the revelation of the indicator here was almost inconceivably
bad. Mr. Ramsbottom did not protect his cylinders, but painted these
and the steam-chests black, and in this condition sent them rushing
through the moist air of England. If the steam cooled by “Mr. Beattie’s
refrigerators” was wet, that in Mr. Ramsbottom’s cylinders seemed to
be all water. A jet of hot water was always sent up from each of the
holes in the cover of the spring case to a height of between one and
two feet. We had much trouble to protect ourselves from it, and it
nearly always drenched the diagram. I never saw this phenomenon before
or since. I have seen the steam blow from the indicator cocks white
with water when the indicators were removed. But I never saw water
spurt through the spring-case cover, except in this instance. Truly, we
said to each other, Mr. Ramsbottom has abundant use for his trough and
scoop to keep water in his tanks. It was on this trip that I observed
how enormously the motion of a black surface increased the power of
the surrounding air to abstract heat from it. While we were running
at speed I many times laid my hand on the smoke-box door without
experiencing any sensation of warmth. I wondered at this, for I knew
that a torrent of fire issuing from the tubes was impinging against
the opposite surface of this quarter-inch iron plate. In approaching
Rugby Junction I observed that the speed had not slackened very much
when I could not touch this door, and when we stopped, although the
draft had mostly ceased, I could not come near it for the heat. At the
full velocity with which the air blew against this door the capacity of
the air to absorb heat evidently exceeded the conducting power of the
metal.
[Illustration: W. H. MAW]
CHAPTER IX
Designs of Horizontal Engine Beds. Engine Details. Presentation of the
Indicator at the Newcastle Meeting of the British Association for the
Advancement of Science.
Much of my time was now devoted to working out improvements in the
design of the engine, some of which had occurred to me during the
exhibition, and which I was anxious to have completed before bringing
the engine to the notice of builders. The first point which claimed my
attention was the bed. The horizontal engine bed had already passed
through three stages of development. The old form, in common use in
the United States, was a long and narrow box, open at top and bottom.
The sides and ends of this box were all alike, and their section
resembled the letter H laid on its side, thus ⌶. This on some accounts
was a very convenient form. The surface of the bed was planed, and
everything was easily lined from this surface. The cylinder was made
with two flanges on each side, which rested on the opposite surfaces of
the bed, permitting the cylinder to sink between them as desired. The
pillow-block rested on one or the other of these surfaces, according as
the engine was to be right or left hand. The guide-bars were bolted on
these opposite surfaces.
The first break in this monotony was made by Mr. Corliss, and was
remarkable for the number and the radical nature of its new ideas. The
cylinder was provided with broad feet near its ends, and was planted on
the foundation. The pillow-block was provided with similar supports and
was also secured to the foundation. The bed, so called, was a tie-beam
uniting the cylinder and pillow-block, and not otherwise supported.
It was of T section. The horizontal member was behind the center line
of the engine, and was made very deep in the middle of its length to
prevent deflection. The vertical member extended equally above and
below the former and carried the guides, which were top and bottom
V-grooves, between which the cross-head ran and the connecting-rod
vibrated. The cross-head was provided with shoes fitting these V’s,
and was adjustable vertically between them. The connection with the
cylinders was made by a circular head supported by curved brackets.
This connection was firm on one side only. The bed was reversible to
suit right- or left-hand engines by merely turning it over.
In the bed for my engine, Mr. Richards struck out another design, which
avoided some objections to the Corliss bed. The guides were supported
from the foundation, and the connection with the cylinder was more
substantial, but the reversible feature had to be sacrificed.
Mr. Richards’ bed, shown in the illustration facing page 70, was
designed in the box form, the superior rigidity of which had been
established by Mr. Whitworth. It was a box closed at the top and
flanged internally at the bottom. It rested on the foundation through
its entire length. The main pillow-block was formed in the bed, as were
also the lower guide-bars. The cylinder was secured on its surface in
the old-fashioned way.
[Illustration: Engine Bed Designed by Mr. Porter. Engraving made from
an Old Print.]
It occurred to me that the best features of the Corliss and the
Richards designs might be combined to advantage. This idea I worked
out in the bed shown in the accompanying illustration, taken from a
circular issued by Ormerod, Grierson & Co., of Manchester, and which
was made from a photograph of an engine sent by that firm to the Oporto
International Exhibition in 1865. It will be seen that this is Mr.
Richards’ bed with the cylinder bolted to the end after Mr. Corliss’
plan. The great strength of the bed enabled the supports under the
cylinder to be dispensed with. This left the cylinder free to expand by
heat, and made it convenient to attach the steam or exhaust connections
or both underneath. This bed has remained without change, except in one
important respect. I made the first cylinders with a bracket which was
keyed up from the base of the bed. In the illustration a corner of this
bracket appears. At the Paris Exposition in 1867 Mr. Beyer, of the firm
of Beyer & Peacock, the Manchester locomotive-builders, when he saw it,
told me I did not need that bracket. I then left it off, but found the
cylinder to wink a little on every stroke when the heavy piston was at
the back end. To find the weak place, I tried the following experiment
on an engine built for the India Mills in Manchester. I filed two
notches in the edges of the brackets on the bed, opposite each other
and about ten inches forward of the head, and fitted a piece of wire
between them. This wire buckled very decidedly on every revolution
of the engine, when the piston was at the back end of its stroke. I
then united these brackets into a hood, and lengthened the connection
with the surface of the bed, as it is now made. This affords a perfect
support for the cylinder. Experiments tried at the Cambria Iron Works
on a cylinder of 40-inch bore and 48-inch stroke, with a piston
weighing 3600 pounds and running at 100 double strokes per minute,
showed the back end of the cylinder standing absolutely motionless.
This experiment will be described hereafter.
[Illustration: Cross-head Designed by Mr. Porter.]
The cross-head which I designed at this time has always interested me,
not only on account of its success, but also for the important lesson
which it teaches. I abolished all means of adjustment. The cross-head
was a solid block, running on the lower guide-bars if the engine were
running forward, as was almost always the case, and these guide-bars
were formed on the bed. The pin was of steel, with the surface hardened
and ground truly cylindrical, set in the middle of the cross-head, and
formed with square ends larger than the cylindrical portion. These
were mortised parallel into the cross-head, and a central pin was
forced through the whole. The flats on the pin I afterwards copied
from a print. These prevent the formation of shoulders at the ends
of the vibration of the boxes. I would like to know to whom we are
indebted for this valuable feature. Every surface was scraped to
absolute truth. The lubrication was internal, as shown. There are many
of these cross-heads which have been running at rapid speeds in clean
engine-rooms from twenty to thirty years, where the scraping marks on
the lower bars are still to be seen.
The lesson is a most important one for the future of steam engineering.
It is this. Two flat cast-iron surfaces, perfectly true and incapable
of deflection, with the pressure equally distributed over a sufficient
area, protected from dirt and properly lubricated, will never have the
clean film of oil between them broken or even varied in thickness, and
will run together without wear perpetually and at any speed whatever.
The conclusion is also abundantly warranted that a tendency to heat
need not exist anywhere in even the least degree, in engines running at
the greatest speeds. This can always be prevented by truth of design
and construction, and the selection of suitable material. This fact is
abundantly established by varied experience with cylindrical as well
as with flat surfaces, and for other materials, though not for all, as
well as for cast iron.
The solid end connecting-rod appears in this engine. This was shown
to me by Mr. James Gulland, a Scotch draftsman at Ormerod, Grierson &
Co.’s. He did not claim to have originated it, but only told me that
it was designed in Scotland. I saw at once its peculiar value for
high-speed engines. Every locomotive designer knows the pains that must
be taken to prevent the straps on the crank-pins from spreading at
high speeds, under the pressure exerted by the transverse fling of the
connecting-rod. This solid end renders the connecting-rod safe in this
respect, even at thousands of revolutions per minute. For single-crank
engines, on which only it can be applied, it is invaluable. This solid
rod-end possesses also another advantage. The wear of the crank-pin
boxes and that of the cross-head-pin boxes are both taken up in the
same direction, so the position of the piston in the cylinder will be
varied only by the difference, if any, between the two. With a strap
on both ends, the connecting-rod is always shortened by the sum of
the wear in the two boxes. The solid rod-end enabled me to reduce the
clearance in the cylinder to one eighth of an inch with entire safety.
The piston never touched the head.
As this construction was shown to me, the wedge was tapered on both
sides. It seemed that this would be difficult to fit up truly, and it
also involved the necessity of elongating the bolt-holes in the rod, so
that the wedge might slide along in taking up the wear. I changed it
by putting all the taper of the wedge on the side next to the brass,
making the other side parallel with the bolt-holes. This enabled the
opening in the rod-end to be slotted out in a rectangular form, and
made it easy for the wedge-block to be truly fitted.
While on this subject I may as well dispose of the connecting-rod,
although the other changes were made subsequently, and I do not
recollect exactly when. The following shows the rod and strap as they
have been made for a long time. The taper of the rod, giving to it a
great strength at the crank-pin neck to resist the transverse fling,
was, I presume, copied by me from a locomotive rod. The rounded end of
the strap originated in this way. I had often heard of the tendency
of the cross-head-pin straps to spread. This was in the old days,
when these pins were not hardened, indeed were always part of the
iron casting. The brasses, always used without babbitt lining, would
wear these pins on the opposite acting sides only. Brass, I learned
afterwards, will wear away any pin, even hardened steel, and not be
worn itself. When this wear would be taken up, the brasses would bind
at the ends of their vibration, coming in contact there with the unworn
sides of the pin. To relieve this binding it was common for engineers
to file these sides away. All I knew at that time was that the straps
would yield and spread. It occurred to me to observe this deflection
in a spring brass wire bent to the form of a strap. The pressure being
applied on the line of the pin center, the deflection appeared to take
place mostly at the back, and so I stiffened it. Since the introduction
of the flats on the pin, which prevent the exertion of any force to
spread the strap, this form seems to be rather ornamental than useful.
[Illustration: Connecting-rod and Strap.]
To this strap I added a wiper for lubricating the cross-head pin
automatically. The drop of oil hung from the center of a convex surface
provided above the wiper. The latter was inclined forward, and its edge
partook of the vibration of the connecting-rod. On the backward stroke
this edge cleared the drop. At the commencement of the forward stroke
it rose to take it off.
A note of the change then made by me in stop-valves will conclude the
record of these changes. The valve and its seat had always been made
of brass. The latter was fitted in a cast-iron chamber, and, expanding
more than the iron, was apt to work loose. I disused brass entirely,
employing a cast-iron valve in the cast-iron seat. These always
remained perfectly tight, showing the additional cost and trouble of
brass to be unnecessary.
At the meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of
Science in 1863, held in Newcastle, I read before the Mechanical
Section a paper on the Richards indicator, illustrated by one of the
instruments and diagrams taken by it from locomotives. The paper was
very favorably received. The description of the action of the arms,
in preventing by their elasticity in combination with a stop any more
than a light pressure being applied to the paper, called out especial
applause. The president of the Mechanical Section that year was
Professor Willis, of Cambridge, the designer of the odontograph form
of tooth, which enables gear-wheels of the same pitch to run together
equally well, whatever may be the difference in their diameters. I
felt very deeply impressed at standing before a large assembly of
the leading mechanical engineers of Great Britain, and where so many
important things had first been presented to the world, where Sir
William Armstrong had described his accumulator, by which enormous
power is supplied occasionally from small pumps running continuously,
and where Joule had explained his practical demonstration of the
mechanical equivalent of heat.
On my journeys to Newcastle and back to London I met two strangers,
each of whom gave me something to think about. It happened that each
time we were the only occupants of the compartment. Englishmen, I
observed, were always ready to converse with Americans. Soon after
leaving London, my fellow-passenger, a young gentleman, said to me,
“Did you observe that young fellow and young woman who bade me good-by
at the carriage door? He is my brother, and they are engaged. He is
first mate on a ship, and sails to-morrow for Calcutta. He hopes on his
next voyage to have command of a ship himself, and then they expect to
be married.” I did not learn who he was, but he said they were making
large preparations to welcome the scientists, and added that he owned
about six hundred houses in Newcastle. Evidently he was the eldest son.
On my return my companion was an elderly gentleman, a typical Tory. He
waxed eloquent on the inhumanity of educating the laboring classes,
saying that its only effect must be to make them discontented with the
position which they must always occupy.
I told him I had thought of a motto for the Social Science Congress,
which was just then in session. It was a parody on Nelson’s celebrated
order, “England expects every man to do his duty.” My proposed motto
was, “England expects every man to know his place.” He did not see the
humor, but took me seriously, and thought it excellent.
CHAPTER X
Contract with Ormerod, Grierson & Co. Engine for Evan Leigh, Son & Co.
Engine for the Oporto Exhibition. Getting Home from Portugal.
I could do nothing with the engine in England unless it was put on
the market as a condensing engine. This fact was finally revealed to
me, and I applied myself to meet the requirement. The question as it
addressed itself to me was, not “How do you work your air-pump?” but
“How _are you going_ to work your air-pump?” My friends Easton, Amos
& Sons told me frankly that in their judgment I could not do it at
all. Their opinion was expressed very decidedly, that as a condensing
engine the high-speed engine was not to be thought of. This was not
surprising, seeing that the beam Wolff engines made by them ran at
only 25 revolutions per minute, which was the speed of beam-engines
generally, and all stationary engines were beam-engines; but it was
discouraging. I made up my mind that they did not know everything, and
I would show them a thing or two as soon as I got a chance. This I
found easier to get than I expected, when I had matured a satisfactory
system of condensation. My first plan was to use an independent
air-pump running at the usual slow speed and driven by a belt, the
speed being reduced by intermediate gearing.
I was able very readily to make an agreement on this basis with the
firm of Ormerod, Grierson & Co., of Manchester, for the manufacture of
the engines and governors, and we started on our first order on the
first day of January, 1864.
The ground occupied by these works bordered on the Duke of
Bridgewater’s canal from Liverpool to Manchester, where I one day saw a
cow and a woman towing a boat, a man steering.
A railway ran through these works, parallel with the canal, at about
300 feet distance, but it was not at all in the way. It was built
on brick arches, and the construction was such that the passing of
trains was scarcely heard. The arches were utilized for the millwright
shop, pattern shop, gear-cutting shop, and the storage of lumber and
gear-wheel patterns, the number and size of which latter astonished me.
On a previous visit Mr. Grierson had shown me several things of much
interest. The one most worthy of being related was a multiple drill,
capable of drilling ninety holes, ³⁄₄ inch diameter, simultaneously.
This had been designed and made by themselves for use in building a
lattice-girder bridge, for erection over the river Jumna, near Delhi,
to carry a roadway below and a railway above. The English engineers
then made all bridge constructions on this system, having no faith in
the American truss. One length of this bridge still stood in their
yard, where it had been completely riveted up for testing, after
which all the rivets would have to be cut out. The other lengths
had been shipped in pieces. The advantage of this multiple drill
was twofold--the ability to drill many holes simultaneously and the
necessary accuracy of their pitch.
I was especially interested in the massiveness of this tool and
impressed with the importance of this feature. The drills rotated in
place, and the table carrying the work was fed upward by two hydraulic
presses. The superintendent told me that they never broke a drill,
and that to exhibit its safety in this respect they had successfully
drilled a single hole ¹⁄₁₆ of an inch in diameter through one inch
of steel. He attributed this success partly to the steady feed, but
chiefly to absolute freedom from vibration. He said a toolmaker had had
an order for a similar drill, and on visiting this one pronounced its
great weight to be absurd. He made one weighing about half as much,
which proved a failure, from the liability of the drills to break. This
gave me one of the most valuable lessons that I ever received.
We soon had our first engine running successfully, in spite of some
annoyances. I insisted on having the joints on the steam-chest and
cylinder heads made scraped joints, but the foreman put them together
with the white and red lead putty just the same, so that work was
thrown away, and when we wanted to open a joint we had to resort to the
familiar wedges. The pipes were of cast iron, with square holes in the
flanges. The ends were left rough. They were put together with the same
putty. The joints were encircled by clips, which prevented the putty
from being forced outward to any great extent in screwing the flanges
together. What went inside had to work its way through as it was broken
off by the rush of steam and hot water. When the engine was started we
could not get much vacuum. On taking the pipes apart to find what the
matter was, we discovered that the workmen had left a wooden plug in
the condenser-nozzle, where it had been put to prevent anything from
getting in during its transportation. The proper mode of protection
would of course have been to bolt a board on the flange.
The worst trouble was from a blunder of my own. My exhibition engine
had cast-iron valves running on cast-iron seats, and the friction
between these surfaces under the steam pressure was so little that it
did not injure the governor action appreciably. But I could not let
well enough alone. Mr. Lee had told me that in the steam fire-engines
they used gun-metal valves on steel seats, which I thought must have
some wonderful advantages, so at considerable additional expense I
fitted up my first engine in the same way. The governor worked very
badly. I had the pleasure of demonstrating the fact that brass on steel
is the very best combination possible for producing friction. I went
back to cast-iron valves, when the trouble disappeared.
We had an order for an engine to drive the works of Evan Leigh, Son
& Co. Mr. Leigh was quite a famous man, the inventor of Leigh’s top
roller, used universally in drawing-machines. I was told he was the
only man then living who had invented an essential feature in spinning
machinery. I struck out a new design, which proved quite successful.
They wished to give 100 revolutions per minute to their main line of
shafting running overhead through the center of their shop. I planned a
vertical engine, standing on a bed-plate, which carried also an A frame.
The engine-room was located at the end of the shop. The line of shaft
passed through a wall-box and then 3 feet further to its main bearing
at the top of this upright frame. The latter was stayed from the wall
by two ample cast-iron stays. The fly-wheel was outside this frame and
carried the crank-pin. The shaft was continued quite stiff through the
wall-box, with long bearings. By this plan I got rid of gears. Belts
for taking power from a prime mover were then unknown in England. The
fly-wheel was only 10 feet in diameter, with rim 8×10 inches, and was
of course cast in one piece. It proved to be ample. The engine was the
largest I had yet made, 22 inches diameter of cylinder by 36 inches
stroke, making 100 revolutions. I was still tied to 600 feet piston
travel per minute. I did not venture to suggest any greater speed than
that; could not have sold an engine in Lancashire if I had.
I introduced in this engine a feature which I afterwards sincerely
wished I had not done, though not on my own account. This was a surface
condenser. It worked well, always maintaining a good vacuum. I shall
have more to say respecting this engine later, which will explain my
regret about the condenser. I had about this time the pleasure of a
visit from two American engineers, Robert Briggs and Henry R. Towne,
who were traveling together in England, and were at the trouble to look
me up. I took them to see this engine, and I am sorry to say they were
not so much carried away with the novel design as I was. But if I had
the same to do again I do not think I could do better.
The last time I saw that engine I found no one in the engine-room. I
inquired of some one where the engineer was, and was told I would find
him in the pipe-shop. I found him there at work. He told me he had not
been staying in the engine-room for a long time, he had “nowt to do,”
and so they gave him a job there.
When I went with Ormerod, Grierson & Co., they were deep in the
execution of a large order known as the Oporto Crystal Palace. Portugal
was behind every other country in Europe in its arts and manufactures.
In fact, it had none at all. At Oporto there was a large colony of
English merchants, by whom all the trade of the port was carried on.
These had conceived the idea of holding at Oporto an international
exposition, which idea was put into execution. Our firm had secured
the contract for all the iron-work for a pretty large iron and glass
building, and for the power and shafting for the Machinery Hall.
I was soon called on for the plans for an Allen engine to be shown
there. This was to be a non-condensing engine, 14×24, to make 150
revolutions per minute, and which accordingly was made and sent,
with two Lancashire boilers. I went on to attend the opening of the
exposition on the first of May, 1865, and see that the engine was
started in good shape.
I sailed from London on a trading-steamer for Oporto, and on the voyage
learned various things that I did not know before. One of these was how
to make port wine. I asked the captain what his cargo consisted of. He
replied: “Nine hundred pipes of brandy.” “What are you taking brandy to
Portugal for?” “To make wine.” “But what kind of brandy is it that you
take from _England_?” “British brandy.” “What is it made from?” “Corn.”
By this word he meant wheat. In England Indian corn is called maize. I
do not know whether “corn” included barley and rye or not.
We had the pleasure in Oporto of meeting a Portuguese inventor. In
England there then existed the rude method of announcing at each
principal seaport the instant of noon by firing a cannon by an electric
current from the Greenwich Observatory. The more accurate method now
in use substitutes sight for sound. This inventor proposed planting a
cannon for this purpose in an opening in a church tower, of which there
were plenty. The hammer, by the fall of which a pill of fulminate was
to be exploded and the cannon fired, was to be held up by a string.
The rays of the sun were focused by a burning-glass on a point, which
at the instant that the sun reached the meridian would reach this
string. The string would be burned off, and the cannon would go off.
In the rare case for Oporto of a cloudy day, or if for any reason
the automatic action failed, it would be the duty of a priest, after
waiting a few minutes to be sure of the failure, to go up and fire the
gun. The enthusiastic inventor urged it on the English. It was thought,
however, that the more feeble power of the sun’s rays in the higher
latitude of England would not warrant the application of this ingenious
invention there, and besides neither perforated church towers nor idle
priests were available for the purpose.
In order to get the full point of the following story it must be
remembered that at that time there was not a stationary steam-engine
in Portugal. English enterprise and capital had recently built a line
of railway between Lisbon and Oporto, and the locomotives on that line
furnished the only exhibition of steam power in the country. To the
educated classes of the Portuguese, therefore, the steam-engine to be
shown at the Oporto Crystal Palace was the object of supreme interest.
In one respect they used to have on the Continent a way of managing
these things which was better than ours. The exhibitions were
completely ready on the opening day. For example, in the French
Exposition of 1867, which was the last one I attended, the jurors
commenced their work of examination on the day after the opening, and
completed it in three weeks. The only exception, I think, was in the
class of agricultural machinery, the examination of which _had_ to wait
for the grain to grow. No imperial decree could hasten that. So the
Oporto Exposition was to be complete in all its departments when the
King of Portugal should declare it to be open.
I arrived in Oporto a week before the day fixed for the opening, and
found a funny state of affairs existing in the engineering department.
A very capable and efficient young man had been placed by our firm in
charge of their exhibit. I found his work finished. The engine and
shafting were in running order. Only the boilers were not ready, in
explanation of which I heard this statement: Some time previously an
Englishman had presented himself, bearing a commission, duly signed by
the executive officials, constituting him “Chief Engineer of the Oporto
Exposition,” and demanded charge of our engine and boilers, which were
all there was for him to be chief engineer of. Our man very properly
refused to recognize him, telling him that he had been placed in charge
of this exhibit by its owners, and he should surrender it to nobody.
But the new man had a pull. The managers were furious at this defiance
of their authority. On the other hand, the guardian of our interests
was firm. Finally, after much altercation and correspondence with
Manchester, a compromise had been arranged, by which our representative
retained charge of the engine and shafting, and the boilers were handed
over to the “chief engineer.”
I was introduced to this functionary, and received his assurance
that the boilers would be “in readiness to-morrow.” This promise was
repeated every day. Finally the morning of the opening day arrived.
The city put on its gala attire. Flags and banners waved everywhere.
The people were awakened to a holiday by the booming of cannon and the
noise of rockets, which the Portuguese sent up by daylight to explode
in the air. The King and Queen and court came up from Lisbon, and there
was a grand opening ceremonial, after which a royal procession made the
circuit of the building.
At the hour fixed for the opening the “chief engineer” was just having
a fire started under the boilers for the first time. I was, of course,
pretty nervous, but our man said to me: “You go and witness the opening
ceremonies. They will last fully two hours, and we shall doubtless be
running when you get back.” When at their conclusion I hurried through
the crowds back to Machinery Hall, there stood the engine motionless.
The door to the boiler-room was shut as tightly as possible, but steam
was coming through every crevice. I could not speak, but looked at our
man for an explanation. “The fool,” said he, “did not know enough to
pack the heads of his drum-bolts; he can get only two pounds of steam,
and it blows out around all the bolts, so as to drive the firemen
out of the boiler-room.” There was no help for it. The boilers had
to be emptied and cooled before a man could go inside and pack those
bolt-heads.
[Illustration: Attaching a Steam-drum to a Lancashire Boiler.]
I must stop here and explain how a steam-drum is attached to a
Lancashire boiler, or, at least, how it was in those days. The
accompanying section will enable the reader to understand the
description. The “drum” was of cast iron. The upper part, not shown,
was provided with three raised faces on its sides, to two of which
branch pipes were bolted, each carrying a safety-valve, while the
steam-pipe was connected to the third. The manhole was in the top. A
cast-iron saddle was riveted on the boiler, and was provided at the top
with a broad flange turning inward. This flange and the flange at the
base of the drum had their surfaces planed, and a steam-joint was made
between them with the putty. Square bolt-holes were cored in the flange
of the saddle, and corresponding round holes were bored in the flange
of the drum. The bolts were forged square for a short distance under
the heads, so that they would be held from turning in the square holes.
These bolts were inserted from the inside of the saddle, and were
packed by winding them, under the heads, with long hemp well filled
with this putty. As the nut on the outside was tightened the putty was
squeezed into the square hole around the bolt, and soon became hard.
This packing was what the “chief engineer” had omitted. The reader is
now prepared to appreciate the situation.
It was not long before the royal procession appeared at the extreme
end of the hall, the King and Queen in advance, and a long line of the
dignitaries of state and church, with a sprinkling of ladies, following
at a respectful distance. Slowly, but inevitably, the procession
advanced, between the rows of silent machinery and mad exhibitors,
until, arriving near us, the King stopped. An official immediately
appeared, of whom the King inquired who was present to represent the
engine, or at least I suppose he did, for in reply I was pointed
out to him. He stepped briskly over to me, and what do you think he
said? I defy any living Yankee to guess. With a manner of the utmost
cordiality, and speaking in English as if it were his native tongue,
he said: “I am extremely sorry that the neglect of some one has caused
you to be disappointed to-day.” _Me_ disappointed! It almost took my
breath away. Without waiting for me to frame a reply (I think he would
have had to wait some time), His Majesty continued cheerily: “No doubt
the defect will be remedied directly, and your engine will be enabled
to run to-morrow.” Then, looking the engine over quite leisurely, he
observed: “It certainly presents a fine appearance. I expect to visit
the exposition again after a few days, when I shall have more leisure,
and will then ask you to explain its operation to me.” He then turned
and rejoined the Queen, and the procession moved on, leaving me with
food for reflection for many a day. I had met a gentleman, a man who
under the most sudden and extreme test had acted with a courtesy which
showed that in his heart he had only kind feelings towards every one.
An outside imitation must have been thrown off its guard by such a
provocation as that. In reflecting on the incident, I saw clearly that
in stopping and speaking to me the King had only one thought, and that
was to say what he could to relieve my feelings of disappointment and
mortification. He had evidently been informed that I could not get
any steam, and took pains and went out of his way to do this; showing
a kindly and sympathetic feeling that must express itself in act and
conduct even towards a stranger. I left the next day for England with
some new ideas about the “effete monarchies,” and with regret that I
should see His Majesty no more.
One or two observations on the Portuguese peasantry may be interesting.
They did not impress me so favorably as did their King. On my first
arrival I wished to have the engine turned over, that I might see
if the valve motions were all right. The engineer ordered some men
standing around to do this. Six of them laid hold of the flywheel,
three on each side, and tugged away apparently in earnest. It did not
move. I looked at the engineer in surprise. He said, “I will show you
what is the matter,” ordered them all away, and himself pulled the
wheel around with one hand. Then he explained: “I only wanted you to
see for yourself what they are good for. We have had to bring every
laborer from England. These men are on the pay-roll, and spend their
time in lounging about, but no Portuguese man will work. Women do all
the work in this country.”
The exposition buildings were located on a level spot on a hilltop
overlooking the river Douro, at an elevation, I judged, of about 200
feet. They wished to surround them with a greensward. Between the heat
and the light soil, the grass could be made to grow only by continual
watering, and this is the way they did it. About 400 women and children
brought up water from the river in vessels on their heads. All day long
this procession was moving up and down the hill, pouring the water on
the ground, performing the work of a steam-pump and a 2-inch pipe.
I went to Portugal without a passport. Our financial partner told me it
would be quite unnecessary. He himself had just returned from Oporto,
where he went without a passport, and found that half a crown given
the custom-house inspector on his arrival and departure was all he
needed. I understood the intimation that if I got a passport, the fee
of, I believe, a guinea would not be allowed me. So, although I went
from London and could very conveniently have obtained a passport at the
United States legation, I omitted to do it.
On landing at Oporto the two-and-sixpenny piece opened the kingdom of
Portugal to me quite readily. Getting out, the process was different.
I found that the steamer on which I had come from London would not
return for a week or more after the opening of the exposition, and I
was impatient to get back. A line between Liverpool and Buenos Ayres
made Lisbon a port of call, and a steamer was expected _en route_ to
Liverpool in the course of three or four days after the opening; so
I determined to come by that. The morning after the opening I was
awakened early by a telegram informing me that the steamer had arrived
at Lisbon during the preceding night, having made an unexpectedly
quick run across the South Atlantic, and would sail for Liverpool that
evening. The railroad ran only two trains a day, and my only way to
get to Lisbon in time was to take the nine-o’clock train from Oporto.
The station was on a hill on the opposite side of the Douro. There
was only one bridge across the river, and that was half a mile up the
stream from the hotel and from the station. Oporto boasted no public
conveyance. So I hired a couple of boys to take my trunk down to the
river, row me and it across, and carry it up the hill to the station. I
got off with two minutes to spare.
On applying at the steamship office in Lisbon for a passage ticket,
I was informed by the very gentlemanly English clerk that they were
forbidden to sell a ticket to any one without a passport. “However,”
he added, “this will cause you no inconvenience. The United States
legation is on the second block below here. I will direct you to it,
and you can obtain a passport without any trouble.” By the way, how
did he recognize me as an American, and how was it that I was always
recognized as an American? I never could explain that puzzle.
On knocking at the door of the legation, it was opened by a colored
man, who informed me that this was a fête day, and that the minister
was attending a reception at the palace (this was the first time I ever
heard of a royal reception in the forenoon), but if I would call again
at three o’clock the passport would be ready for me. So, leaving with
him my address, I left, to amuse myself as best I could till three
o’clock.
On presenting myself at that hour I was informed by the same darkey
that the minister would not give me a passport; that he had bidden
him tell me he knew nothing about me; I might be an American or I
might not: at any rate, he was not going to certify that I was. I had
got into the country without a passport, and I would have to get out
without one for all him. I inquired if the minister were at home. “Yes,
sir,” replied the darkey, “he is at home, but he will not see you; he
told me to tell you so,” and with that he bowed me out and shut the
door.
I went back to the steamship office and reported my failure to my
friend the clerk. He drew a long whistle. “Not see you! What’s he
here for? He must be drunk; that’s it, he’s drunk.” After a minute’s
reflection he added: “We must see the Secretary of State; I am well
acquainted with him, and he will get you out of this mess directly. If
you will kindly wait till I have finished my correspondence, which will
occupy me for about half an hour, I will take you to his office. You
can amuse yourself with this copy of the _Times_,” handing it to me.
When we reached the office of the Secretary of State we found the
door locked. “Oh,” said he, “I had forgotten, this is a saint’s day,
and the public offices are closed. We must go to his house.” We found
the Secretary at home. I was introduced, and the Englishman told my
case, of course in Portuguese. As he proceeded I saw the official brow
darken. I woke up to the enormity of my offense. Little kingdom, big
dignity. I had defied their laws and corrupted their official. The case
looked serious. The Secretary, in fact, found it so serious that he did
not feel like taking the sole responsibility of its decision, but sent
out for two others of His Majesty’s advisers to consult with him. The
assembling of this court caused a delay of half an hour, during which
I had time to conjure up all sorts of visions, including an indefinite
immurement in a castle and a diplomatic correspondence, while the deuce
would be to pay with my business at home.
Finally the officials sent for arrived. The instant they entered the
room I was recognized by one of them. He had accompanied the King to
the opening of the exposition the day before, which the pressure of
public business or some game or other had prevented the Secretary of
State from doing. In fact, he had headed the procession behind their
Majesties and so had seen the graciousness of the King’s favor to me.
He spoke a few words to the Secretary of State, when, presto,
everything was changed. The court did not convene, but instead cordial
handshaking with the man on whom the beams of royal favor had shone.
I left my smiling friends with a passport or something just as good,
added my twelve pounds sterling to the account of the ship, and had
time before it sailed to eat a sumptuous dinner at the hotel. I was in
the land of olives, and ate freely of the unaccustomed delicacy, in
consequence of which I lost my dinner before the ship was well out of
the Tagus and have never cared much for olives since.
I was full of wrath against the United States minister, and determined
to send a protest to the State Department as soon as I reached
Manchester. But there I found something else to attend to and dropped
the matter. I read, however, with satisfaction, a few months after,
that the item of the salary of the minister to Portugal had been cut
out of the appropriation bill by the House of Representatives.
CHAPTER XI
Trouble with the Evan Leigh Engine. Gear Patterns from the Whitworth
Works. First Order for a Governor. Introduction of the Governor into
Cotton Mills. Invention of my Condenser. Failure of Ormerod, Grierson &
Co.
The Evan Leigh engine was not quite ready to be started when I left
England. On my return I found an unexpected trouble and quite an
excitement. The engine had been started during my absence, and ran all
right, but it was found almost impossible to supply the boilers with
water. Two injectors were required, and two men feeding the furnaces,
and everybody was agreed that the fault lay with the engine. The
boilers were a pair of Harrison boilers, from which great results had
been expected. These were formed of cast-iron globes, 8 inches internal
diameter, with 3-inch necks, held together by bolts running through a
string of these globes. They were an American invention, and naturally
Mr. Luders (who was introducing them in England) and I fraternized. I
felt greatly disappointed. I did not then see Mr. Leigh, but had the
pleasure of an interview with his son. This young gentleman denounced
me in good Saxon terms as a fraud and an impostor, and assured me that
he would see to it that I never sold another engine in England. He
knew that the boilers were all right. His friend Mr. Hetherington, an
extensive manufacturer of spinning and weaving machinery, and who had
taken the agency to sell these boilers, had had one working for a long
time in company with a Lancashire boiler, and there was no difference
in their performance. He finished by informing me that the engine would
be put out as quickly as they could get another.
I put an indicator on the engine, and show here the diagrams it took. I
could not see that much fault was to be found with those diagrams. Old
Mr. Leigh, after looking at them, said nothing, but he did something.
He went to an old boiler-yard and bought a second-hand Lancashire
boiler, had it carted into his yard and set under an improvised shed
alongside his boiler-house, and in two or three days it was supplying
the steam for my engine, and all difficulties had vanished. The
consumption of steam and coal fell to just what it had been calculated
that it should be, and everybody felt happy, except my friend Mr.
Luders, who, notwithstanding his grievous disappointment, had never
gone back on me, and young Mr. Leigh, who owed me an apology which he
was not manly enough to render. Repeated efforts were tried to make the
Harrison boilers answer, but the result was always the same, and they
were abandoned.
[Illustration: Diagrams from Engine of Evan Leigh, Son & Co. Sixteen
Pounds to the Inch.]
And, after all, the fault was largely mine. I did not think of it
till long afterwards, and it did not occur to anybody else, not even
to those most deeply interested in the boiler. My surface condenser
was the cause of all the trouble, and that was why I have to this day
deeply regretted having put it in. The oil used in the cylinder was
all sent into the boilers, and accumulated there. It saponified and
formed a foam which filled the whole boiler and caused the water to be
worked over with the steam as fast as it could be fed in. I have always
wondered why the engine, being vertical, should not have exhibited any
sign of the water working through it at the upper end of the cylinder.
The explanation after all appears simple. The water on entering the
steam chest mostly fell to the bottom and little passed through the
upper ports. The trouble from oil was not felt at all in the Lancashire
boiler. This, I suppose, was due to three causes. The latter held a far
greater body of water, had a much larger extent of evaporating surface,
and far greater steam capacity. I was always sorry that I did not give
the Harrison boiler the better chance it would have had with a jet
condenser.
In this pair of diagrams, which are copied from the catalogue of
Ormerod, Grierson & Co., the low steam pressure, 29 pounds above the
atmosphere, will be observed. This was about the pressure commonly
carried. The pressure in the exhibition boilers, 75 pounds, was
exhibited by Mr. John Hick, of Bolton, as a marked advance on the
existing practice.
In preparing for the governor manufacture I had my first revelation of
the utter emptiness of the Whitworth Works. Iron gear patterns were
required, duplicates of those which had been cut for me at home by
Mr. Pratt. The blanks for these gears were turned as soon as possible
after I reached Manchester, and sent to the Whitworth Works to be cut.
It seemed as though we should never get them. Finally, after repeated
urging, the patterns came. I was sent for to come into the shop and
see them. They were in the hands of the best fitter we had, who, by
the way, was a Swedenborgian preacher and preached every Sunday. The
foreman told me he had given them to this man to see if it was possible
to do anything with them, and he thought I ought to see them before he
set about it. I could hardly believe my eyes. There was no truth about
them. The spaces and the teeth differed so much that the same tooth
would be too small for some spaces and could not be wedged into others;
some would be too thick or too thin at one end. They were all alike
bad, and presented all kinds of badness. It was finally concluded to
make the best of them, and this careful man worked on them more than
two days to make them passable.
The first governor order that was booked was the only case that ever
beat me. I went to see the engine. It was a condensing beam-engine of
good size, made by Ormerod, Grierson & Co. to maintain the vacuum in a
tube connecting two telegraph offices in Manchester, and had been built
to the plans and specifications of the telegraph company’s engineer.
The engine had literally nothing to do. A little steam air-pump that
two men could have lifted and set on a bench would have been just
suitable for the work. They could not carry low enough pressure nor run
slowly enough. On inspection I reported that we should have nothing to
do with it.
The custom of making whatever customers order and taking no
responsibility was first illustrated to me in this curious way. I saw a
queer-looking boiler being finished in the boiler-shop. In reply to my
question the foreman told me they were making it for a cotton-spinner,
according to a plan of his own. It consisted of two boilers, one within
the other. The owner’s purpose was to carry the ordinary steam pressure
in the outer boiler, and a pressure twice as great in the inner one,
when the inner boiler would have to suffer the stress of only one half
the pressure it was carrying.
I asked the superintendent afterwards why they did not tell that man
that he could not maintain steam at two different temperatures on the
opposite sides of the same sheets. He replied: “Because we do not find
it profitable to quarrel with our customers. That is his idea. If we
had told him there was nothing in it, he would not have believed us,
but would have got his boiler made somewhere else.”
Perhaps the most curious experience I ever had was that of getting
the governor into cotton-mills. There was a vast field all around us,
and we looked for plenty of orders. This was the reception I met with
every time. After listening to the winning story I had to tell, the
cotton lord would wind up with this question: “Well, sir, have you got
a governor in a large cotton-mill?” After my answer in the negative
I was bowed out. I early got an order from Titus Salt & Son, of
Saltaire, for two large governors but these did not weigh at all with
a cotton-spinner; they made alpaca goods.
The way the governor was finally got into cotton-mills, where
afterwards its use became general, was the most curious part. A mill
in the city of Manchester was troubled by having its governor fly in
pieces once in a while. After one of these experiences the owners
thought that they might cure the difficulty by getting one of my
governors. That flew in pieces in a week. I went to see the engine.
The cause of all the trouble appeared at a glance. The fly-wheel was
on the second-motion shaft which ran at twice the speed of the main
shaft, and the gearing between them was roaring away enough to deafen
one. The governor was driven by gearing. The vibrations transmitted to
the governor soon tired the arms out. I saw the son of the principal
owner, and explained the cause of the failure of every governor they
had tried, and told him the only remedy, which would be a complete
one, would be to drive the governor by a belt. That, he replied, was
not to be thought of for an instant. I told him he knew himself that a
governor could not endure if driven in any other way, and that I had
hundreds of governors driven by belts, which were entirely reliable in
all cases. “But,” said he, “supposing the belt runs off the pulley.”
“The consequence,” I replied, “cannot be worse than when the governor
flies in pieces.” After wasting considerable time in talk, he said,
“Well, leave it till my father comes home; he is absent for a few
days.” “No,” said I, “if I can’t convince a young man, I shall not try
to convince an old man.” Finally, with every possible stipulation to
make it impossible for the belt to come off, he yielded his assent, and
I had the governor on in short order, lacing the belt myself, to make
sure that it was butt-jointed and laced in the American fashion.
More than three years afterwards, two days before I was to sail for
home, I met this man on High Street, in Manchester. It was during the
Whitsuntide holidays, and the street was almost deserted. He came up to
me, holding out both hands and grasping mine most cordially. “Do you
know,” said he, “that we have increased our product 10 per cent., and
don’t have half as many broken threads as we had before, and _it’s all
that belt_.”
[Illustration: Condenser and Air-pump designed by Mr. Porter.
(Cross-section)]
The tendency towards the horizontal type of engine, in place of the
beam-engine, began to be quite marked in England about that time. This
was favorable to the use of the Allen engine. The only thing that
seemed wanting to its success was a directly connected jet condenser.
No one believed that an air-pump could be made to run successfully at
the speed of 150 double strokes per minute. Yet this had to be done,
or I could not look for any considerable adoption of the high-speed
engine. This subject occupied my mind continually. When I returned
from Oporto, I had thought out the plan of this condenser, and at once
set about the drawings for it. No alteration was ever made from the
first design of the condenser, which I intended to show with the engine
at the coming Paris Exposition in 1867, and which I finally did succeed
in showing there, but under very different and unexpected relations.
The philosophy of this condenser is sufficiently shown in the
accompanying vertical cross-section. A hollow ram, only equal in weight
to the water which it displaced, ran through a stuffing-box at the
front end of the chamber, and was connected with an extension of the
piston-rod of the engine. So the center line of the engine extended
through this single-acting ram, which had the full motion of the
piston. It ran through the middle of a body of water, the surface of
which fell as the ram was withdrawn, and rose as it returned. A quiet
movement of the water was assured by three means: First, the motion of
the ram was controlled by the crank of the engine, and so began and
ceased insensibly. Second, the motion of the ram, of two feet, produced
a rise or fall of the surface of the water of only about one inch.
Third, the end of the ram was pointed, a construction which does not
appear in this sectional view, permitting it to enter and leave the
water at every point gradually. Both the condenser and the hot-well
were located above the chamber in which the ram worked.
The problem was to obtain complete displacement by means of solid
water without any admixture of free air, the expansion of which as the
plunger was withdrawn would reduce the efficiency of the air-pump.
To effect this object the air must be prevented from mingling with
the water, and must be delivered into the hot-well first. This was
accomplished by two means: First, placing the condenser as well as the
hot-well above the air-pump chamber, as already stated, and secondly,
inclining the bottom of the condenser, so that the water would pass
through the inlet valves at the side farthest from, and the air at the
side nearest to, the hot-well. Thus the air remained above the water,
and as the latter rose it sent the air before it quite to the delivery
valves. Pains were taken to avoid any place where air could be
trapped, so it was certain that on every stroke the air would be sent
through the delivery valves first, mingled air and water, if there were
any, next, and the solid water last, insuring perfect displacement.
I have a friend who has often asked me, with a manner showing his
conviction that the question could not be answered, “How can you know
that anything will work until you have tried it?” In this case I _did_
know that this condenser would work at rapid speed before I tried it.
The event proved it, and any engineer could have seen that it must have
worked. The only question in my mind was as to the necessity of the
springs behind the delivery valves. Experiment was needed to settle
that question, which it did in short order. At the speed at which the
engine ran, the light springs improved the vacuum a full pound, showing
that without them these valves did not close promptly.
The following important detail must not be overlooked. The rubber disk
valves were backed by cast-iron plates, which effectually preserved
them from being cut or even marked by the brass gratings. These plates
were made with tubes standing in the middle of them, as shown. These
tubes afforded long guides on the stems, and a projection of them on
the under side held the valves in place without any wear. They also
determined the rise of the valves. The chambers, being long and narrow,
accommodated three inlet and three outlet valves. The jet of water
struck the opposite wall with sufficient force to fill the chamber with
spray.
When the plans for this condenser were completed, and the Evan Leigh
engine had been vindicated, I felt that the success of the high-speed
system was assured, and looked forward to a rapidly growing demand for
the engines. We got out an illustrated catalogue of sizes, in which I
would have put the condenser, but the firm decided that it would be
better to wait for that until it should be on the same footing with the
engine, as an accomplished fact.
Suddenly, like thunder from a clear sky, I received notice that
Ormerod, Grierson & Co. were in difficulties, had stopped payment,
placed their books in the hands of a firm of accountants, and called a
meeting of their creditors, and the works were closed. Some of their
enormous contracts had proved losing ones. I had made such provision in
my contract with them that on their failure my license to them became
void. Otherwise it would have been classed among their assets.
CHAPTER XII
Introduction to the Whitworth Works. Sketch of Mr. Whitworth.
Experience in the Whitworth Works. Our Agreement which was never
Executed. First Engine in England Transmitting Power by a Belt.
I was still debating with myself what course to take, when I received
a note from Mr. W. J. Hoyle, secretary of the Whitworth Company,
inquiring if I were free from any entanglement with the affairs of
Ormerod, Grierson & Co., to which I was able to make a satisfactory
reply. Mr. Hoyle was then a stranger to me. It appeared that he was
an accomplished steam engineer, and had been employed as an expert
to test one of my engines in operation, an engine which we had made
for a mill-owner in Bradford. He had been very favorably impressed by
the engine, so much so as to form this scheme. He had been with the
Whitworth Company only a short time, and was struck with the small
amount of work they were doing in their tool department; and after
his observation of the engine at Bradford, learning of the stoppage
of Ormerod, Grierson & Co., it occurred to him that it would be a
good thing for his company to undertake the manufacture of these
engines. After receiving my answer to his preliminary inquiry, having
Mr. Whitworth, as he afterwards told me, where he could not get away,
on a trip from London to Manchester, he laid the plan before him and
talked him into it. I directly after received an invitation to meet Mr.
Whitworth at his office, and here commenced what I verily believed was
one of the most remarkable experiences that any man ever had.
[Illustration: WILLIAM J. HOYLE]
In the course of our pretty long interview, which terminated with
the conclusion of a verbal agreement, Mr. Whitworth talked with me
quite freely, and told me several things that surprised me. One was
the frank statement that he divided all other toolmakers in the world
into two classes, one class who copied him without giving him any
credit, and the other class who had the presumption to imagine that
they could improve on him. His feelings towards both these classes
evidently did not tend to make him happy. Another thing, which I heard
without any sign of my amazement, was that he had long entertained the
purpose of giving to the world the perfect steam-engine. “That is,” he
explained, “an engine embodying all those essential principles to which
steam-engine builders must sooner or later come.” This, he stated,
had been necessarily postponed while he was engaged in developing his
system of artillery, but he was nearing the completion of that work and
should then be able to devote himself to it.
I cannot perhaps do better than stop here and give my impressions of
Mr. Whitworth. He was in all respects a phenomenal man. As an engineer,
or rather a toolmaker, he addressed himself to all fundamental
constructive requirements and problems, and comprehended everything
in his range and grasp of thought, continually seeking new fields to
conquer. Long after the period here referred to he closed his long
and wonderful career by giving to the world the hollow engine shaft
and the system of hydraulic forging. At that time he was confidently
anticipating the adoption by all nations of his system of artillery.
He had made an immense advance, from spherical shot, incapable of
accurate aim and having a high trajectory, to elongated shot, swiftly
rotating in its flight and having a comparatively flat trajectory,
and which could hit the mark and penetrate with destructive effect
at distances of several miles. These fundamental features of modern
artillery thus originated with Mr. Whitworth. All his other features
have been superseded, but his elongated pointed rotating projectile
will remain until nations shall learn war no more; a time which in
the gradual development of humanity cannot be far away. Before I
left England, however, he had abandoned his artillery plans in most
bitter disappointment. He had met the English official mind. By the
authorities of the war and navy departments it had been unanimously
decided that what England wanted was, not accuracy of aim and
penetration at long range, but smashing effects at close quarters.
The record of that is to be found in the proceedings of the House of
Commons in 1868, only thirty-nine years ago. Think of that!
Mr. Whitworth was not only the most original engineering genius
that ever lived. He was also a monumental egotist. His fundamental
idea was always prominent, that he had taught the world not only
all that it knew mechanically, but all it ever could know. His fury
against tool-builders who improved on his plans was most ludicrous.
He drew no distinction between principles and details. He must not
be departed from even in a single line. No one in his works dared
to think. This disposition had a striking illustration only a short
time--less than a year--before I went there. He had no children. His
nearest relatives were two nephews, W. W. and J. E. Hulse. The latter
was a tool-manufacturer in Salford. W. W. Hulse was Mr. Whitworth’s
superintendent, and had been associated with him for twenty-four
years, for a long time as his partner, the firm being Joseph Whitworth
& Company. Lately the business had been taken over by a corporation
formed under the style of the Whitworth Company, and Mr. Hulse became
the general superintendent.
Mr. Whitworth was taken sick, and for a while was not expected to live,
and no one thought, even if he did get better, that he would ever be
able to visit his works again. Mr. Hulse had been chafing under his
restraint, and during Mr. Whitworth’s absence proceeded to make a few
obvious improvements in their tools, such, for example, as supporting
the table of their shaper, so that it would not yield under the cut. To
the surprise of every one, Mr. Whitworth got well, and after more than
six months’ absence, he appeared again at the works. Walking through,
he noted the changes that had been made, sent for Mr. Hulse, discharged
him on the spot, and ordered everything restored to its original form.
To return now to my own experience. Since Mr. Whitworth had been
absorbed in his artillery development he had given only a cursory
oversight to the tool manufacture. Mr. Hulse had been succeeded as
superintendent by a man named Widdowson, whose only qualification for
his position was entire subserviency to Mr. Whitworth.
[Illustration: Sir JOSEPH WHITWORTH]
My drawings and patterns were purchased by the Whitworth Company, and
I was installed with one draftsman in a separate office, and prepared
to put the work in hand at once for a 12×24-inch engine for the Paris
Exposition, where Ormerod, Grierson & Co. had secured the space, and
the drawings for which I had completed. If I remember rightly, the
patterns were finished also. While I was getting things in order, Mr.
Widdowson came into my office, and in a very important manner said
to me: “You must understand, sir, that we work here to the decimal
system and all drawings must be conformed to it.” I received this
order meekly, and we went to work to make our drawings all over, for
the single purpose of changing their dimensions from binary to decimal
divisions of the inch. There was of course quite a body of detail
drawings, and to make these over, with the pains required to make these
changes to an unaccustomed system, and make and mount the tracings,
took us nearly three weeks. When finished I took the roll of tracings
to Mr. Widdowson’s office. He was not in, and I left them for him. An
hour or so later he came puffing and blowing into my office with the
drawings. He was a heavy man, and climbing upstairs exhausted him. When
he got his breath, he broke out: “We can’t do anything with these.
Haven’t got a decimal gauge in the shop.” “You gave me express orders
to make my drawings to the decimal system.” “Damn it, I meant in halves
and quarters and all that, and _write_ them decimals.” So all that work
and time were thrown away, and we had to make a new set of tracings
from the drawings I had brought, in order to figure the dimensions in
decimals. He told me afterwards that when Mr. Whitworth commenced the
manufacture of cylindrical gauges he made them to the decimal divisions
of the inch, imagining that was a better mode of division than that
by continual bisection, and supposing that he had influence enough to
effect the change. But nobody would buy his gauges. He had to call them
in and make what people wanted. “And now,” said Mr. Widdowson, “there
is not a decimal gauge in the world.” He knew, too, for up to that time
they made them all. So Mr. Whitworth could make a mistake, and I found
that this was not the worst one that he had made.
While time was being wasted in this manner, the subject of
manufacturing the governors came up. Mr. Whitworth concluded that he
would first try one on his own shop engine, so one was bought from
Ormerod, Grierson & Co. I had a message from Mr. Widdowson to come to
the shop and see my governor. It was acting in a manner that I had
seen before, the counterpoise rising and dropping to its seat twice
every time the belt lap came around. “Total failure, you see,” said Mr.
Widdowson, “and I got a new belt for it, too.” I saw a chance to make
an interesting observation, and asked him if he would get an old belt
and try that. This he did, lapping the ends as before about 18 inches,
according to the universal English custom, which I had long before
found it necessary carefully to avoid. As I knew would be the case,
the action was not improved at all. I then cut off the lap, butted the
ends of the belt, and laced them in the American style, and lo! the
trouble vanished. The governor stood motionless, only floating up and
down slightly with the more important changes of load. Mr. Whitworth
was greatly pleased, and at once set about their manufacture, in a full
line of sizes.
He made the change, to which I have referred already, from the
urn shape to the semi-spherical form of the counterpoise. In this
connection he laid the law down to me in this dogmatic fashion: “Let no
man show me a mechanical form for which he cannot give me a mechanical
reason.” But Jove sometimes nods. They were to exhibit in Paris a large
slotting-machine. The form of the upright did not suit Mr. Whitworth
exactly. He had the pattern set up in the erecting-shop, and a board
tacked on the side, cut to an outline that he directed. He came to look
at it every day for a week, and ordered some change or other. Finally
it was gotten to his mind, the pattern was altered accordingly, and
a new casting made. This was set up in the shop, and I happened to
be present when he came to see it. “Looks like a horse that has been
taught to hold his head up,” said he. “Mechanical reason,” thought I,
fresh from my lesson. When finished the slotting-machine was tried in
the shop, and found to yield in the back. The tool sprang away from its
work and rounded the corner. Mr. Whitworth had whittled the pattern
away and ruined it. Instead of being sent to Paris, it was broken up.
My experiment with the governor proved the defect in the English system
of lacing belts. Every machine in the land, of whatever kind, tool or
loom or spinning or drawing frame, or whatever it was, driven by a
belt, halted in its motion every time the lap in the belt passed over
a pulley, sufficiently to drop my governor, when the same motion was
given to it, and no one had ever observed this irregularity.
I thought they would never be ready to set about work on the engine.
First, Mr. Widdowson ordered that every casting and forging, large
and small, must be in the shop before one of them was put in hand.
After this was done I found a number of men at work making sheet-iron
templets of everything. I saw one man filing the threads in the edges
of a templet for a ³⁄₈-inch bolt. When these were all finished and
stamped, an operation that took quite a week, a great fuss was made
about commencing work on everything simultaneously.
I went into the shop to see what was going on. The first thing to
attract my attention was the steam-chest, then made separate from the
cylinder. A workman--their best fitter, as I afterwards learned--was
engaged in planing out the cavities in which the exhaust valves worked.
I saw no center line, and asked him where it was. He had never heard
of such a thing. “What do you measure from?” “From the side of the
casting.” I called his attention to the center line on the drawing,
from which all the measurements were taken, and told him all about it.
He seemed very intelligent, and under my direction set the chest up
on a plane table and made a center line around it and another across
it, and set out everything from these lines, and I left him going on
finely. An hour later I looked in again. He was about his job in the
old way. To my question he explained that his foreman had come around
and told him I had no business in the shop, that _he_ gave him his
directions, and he must finish his job just as he began it.
I made no reply but went to Mr. Hoyle’s office, and asked him if he
knew what they were doing in the shop. He smiled and said, “I suppose
they are finally making an engine for you.” “No, they are not.” “What
are they doing?” “Making scrap iron.” “What do you mean?” I told him
the situation. He took his hat and went out, saying, “I must see this
myself.”
A couple of hours later he sent for me, and told me this. “I have been
all around the works and seen all that is doing. It is all of the same
piece. I have had a long interview with Mr. Widdowson, and am sorry to
tell you that we can’t make your engine; we don’t know how. It seems to
be entirely out of our line. The intelligence does not exist in these
works to make a steam-engine. Nobody knows how to set about anything.
I have stopped the work, and want to know what you think had better be
done about it?” I asked him to let me think the matter over till the
next morning. I then went to him and suggested to him to let me find
a skilled locomotive-erecter who was also a trained draftsman, and to
organize a separate department for the engine and governor manufacture,
and put this man at the head of it, to direct it without interference.
This was gladly agreed to. I found a young man, Mr. John Watts, who
proved to be the very man for the place. In a week we were running
under Mr. Watts’ direction, and the engine was saved. But what a time
the poor man had! Everything seemed to be done wrong. It is hardly to
be believed. He could not get a rod turned round, or a hole bored round.
In their toolmaking they relied entirely on grinding with “Turkey
dust.” I once saw a gang of a dozen laborers working a long
grinding-bar, in the bore, 10 inches diameter by 8 feet long, in the
tailstock of an enormous lathe. I peered through this hole when the bar
was withdrawn. It looked like a ploughed field. Scattered over it here
and there were projections which had been ground off by these laborers.
On the other hand, the planing done in these works was magnificent. I
never saw anything to equal it. But circular work beat them entirely.
I found that the lathe hands never thought of such a thing as getting
any truth by the sliding cut. After that they went for the surface with
coarse files, and relied for such approximate truth as they did get
upon grinding with the everlasting Turkey dust.
Mr. Whitworth invented the duplex lathe tool, but I observed that they
never used it. I asked Mr. Widdowson why this was. “Because,” said
he, “the duplex tool will not turn round.” After a while I found out
why. When our engine was finished, Mr. Widdowson set it upon two lathe
beds and ran it. Lucky that he did. The bottom of the engine bed was
planed, and it could be leveled nicely on the flat surfaces of their
lathe beds. The fly-wheel ran nearly a quarter of an inch out of truth.
He set up some tool-boxes on one of the lathe beds, and turned the rim
off in place, both sides and face being out. That, of course, made it
run perfectly true. I asked the lathe hand how he could turn out such
a job. He replied, “Come and see my lathe.” I found the spindle quite
an eighth of an inch loose in the main bearing, the wear of twenty
or thirty years. He told me all of the lathes in the works were in a
similar condition. That explained many things. The mystery of those
gear patterns was solved. Every spindle in the gear-cutting machine
was wabbling loose in its holes. I can’t call them bearings. Now it
appeared why they could not use the duplex tools. With a tool cutting
on one side, they relied on the pressure of the cut to keep the lathe
spindle in contact with the opposite side of its main bearing, and a
poor reliance that was, but with a tool cutting on each side, fancy
the situation. Then boring a true hole was obviously impossible. The
workmen became indifferent; they had no reamers, relied entirely on
grinding. I asked, Why do you not renew these worn-out bushings? but
could never get an answer to the question. Some power evidently forbade
it, and the fact is that no man about the place dared to think of such
a thing as intimating to Mr. Whitworth that one of his lathe bearings
required any fixing up, or that it was or could be anything short of
perfect. He (Mr. Whitworth) had designed it as a perfect thing; ergo,
it was perfect, and no man dared say otherwise.
Our engine work was finally, as a last resort, done by Mr. Watts on new
lathes, made for customers and used for a month or two before they were
sent out. Not only in England, but on the Continent and in America, the
Whitworth Works were regarded as the perfect machine-shop. I remember
a visit I had at the Paris Exposition from Mr. Elwell, of the firm
of Varrell, Elwell & Poulot, proprietors of the largest mechanical
establishment in Paris. After expressing his unbounded admiration of
the running of the engine, he said, “I warrant your fly-wheel runs
true.” After observing it critically, he exclaimed, “Ah, they do those
things at Whitworth’s!”
The fact was Mr. Whitworth had cursed the British nation with the solid
conical lathe-spindle bearing, a perfect bearing for ordinary-sized
lathes and a most captivating thing--_when new_. These hardened steel
cones, in hardened steel seats, ran in the most charming manner. But
they wore more loose in the main bearing every day they ran, and there
were no means for taking up the wear. It came on insensibly, and no
one paid any attention to it. The cream of the joke was that people
were so fascinated with this bearing that at that time no other could
be sold in England, except for very large lathes. All toolmakers had
to make it. I remember afterwards that Mr. Freeland, our best American
toolmaker, who, as I have already mentioned, went to England and worked
for some years as a journeyman in the Whitworth Works for the purpose
of learning everything there that he could, did _not_ bring back to
America the conical bearing.
The firm of Smith & Coventry were the first to fit their lathes with
the means for taking up this wear, which took place only in the main
bearing, where both the force of the cut and the weight of the piece
were received. They made the conical seat for the back end of the
spindle adjustable in the headstock and secured it by a thin nut on
each end. This then could be moved backward sufficiently to let the
forward cone up to its seat. This made it possible to use the solid
bearing, but it involved this error, that after this adjustment the
axis of the spindle did not coincide with the line connecting the lathe
centers; but the two lines formed an angle with each other, which grew
more decided every time the wear was taken up. This, however, was
infinitely better than not to take up the wear at all.
At that time the Whitworth Works were divided into four departments.
These were screwing machinery, gauges, guns and machine tools. The
first three of these were locked. I never entered either of them. The
latter also, like most works in England, was closed to outsiders.
No customer could see his work in progress. This department was
without a head or a drawing-office. It seemed to be running it on its
traditions. I once said to Mr. Hoyle, “There must at some time have
been here mechanical intelligence of the highest order, but where is
it?” They had occasionally an order for something out of their ancient
styles, and their attempts to fill such orders were always ruinous.
The following is a fair illustration. They had an order for a radial
drill to be back-geared and strong enough to bore an 8-inch hole. Mr.
Widdowson had the pattern for the upright fitted with the necessary
brackets, and thought it was such a good thing that he would make two.
The first one finished was tried in the shop, and all the gears in the
arm were stripped. He woke up to the fact that he had forgotten to
strengthen the transmitting parts, and moreover that the construction
would not admit anything stronger. There was nothing to be done but
to decline the order, chip off the brackets, and make these into
single-speed drills. This I saw being done.
Mr. Widdowson told me the following amusing story. The London _Times_
had heard of the wonderful performance of Mr. Hoe’s multiple-cylinder
press, and concluded to have one of them of the largest size, ten
cylinders. But, of course, Mr. Hoe did not know how to make his own
presses. His work would do well enough for ignorant Americans, but
not for an English Journal. The press must be made in England in the
world-renowned Whitworth Works.
Mr. Hoe sent over one of his experts to give them the information they
might need, but they would not let him in the shop. Mr. Hulse told him
they had the drawings and specifications and that was all they needed.
When the press was finished they set it up in the shop and attempted
to run it. The instant it started every tape ran off its pulleys, and
an investigation showed that not a spindle or shaft was parallel with
any other. They had no idea of the method that must be employed to
ensure this universal alignment. After enormous labor they got these
so that they were encouraged to make another trial, when after a few
revolutions every spindle stuck fast in its bearings.
Mr. Whitworth, absorbed in his artillery and spending most of his time
in London, of course had no knowledge of how things were going on in
his shop, of the utter want of ordinary intelligence.
I formed a scheme for an application of Mr. Whitworth’s system of end
measurement to the production of an ideally perfect dividing-wheel. In
this system Mr. Whitworth employed what he termed “the gravity piece.”
This was a small steel plate about ¹⁄₈ of an inch in thickness, the
opposite sides of which were parallel and had the most perfectly true
and smooth surfaces that could be produced by scraping. The ends of
the piece to be tested were perfectly squared, by a method which I
will not stop here to describe, and were finished in the same manner.
The gravity piece was held fast between two such surfaces. None of the
pieces were permitted to be touched by hand while an observation was
being made. If now one of these pieces were loosened the millionth of
an inch, the gravity piece would slide slowly down. If loosened two
millionths of an inch, the gravity piece would descend twice as fast,
and so on. I made a design for the application of this system to the
correction of the dividing-wheel, so that a difference of pitch of one
millionth of an inch could be shown and removed, the gravity piece
being made to descend at the same rate of motion to whatever tooth it
might be applied. I thought Mr. Whitworth would be interested in this
novel and important application of his method, and I showed it to him.
This was the encouraging and patronizing reply I received: “You had
better inform yourself, sir, about what already exists. You will find a
perfect dividing-wheel in my shop. What do you want better than that?”
This wheel had divided my governor gear patterns, but spindles wabbling
loose in their holes accounted for most of their defects.
The above recital is sufficient to show the conditions by which I found
myself surrounded and the kind of man I had to deal with.
It may be supposed that when my agreement with Mr. Whitworth was
concluded, the disappointment I had experienced on the stoppage of
Ormerod, Grierson & Co. was quite relieved. But that does not express
it. In fact, my revulsion of feeling could hardly be described. I
believed that I had met a piece of good fortune that was unparalleled.
I had got into the most famous machine-shop in the world, a shop in
which in years gone by had been originated almost everything then
regarded as most essential in machine construction. No one had ever
before introduced anything into that shop. Its business, in its various
departments, was confined to the manufacture of Mr. Whitworth’s own
creations. I should never have dreamed of such a thing as getting into
it. That I was there, and had been received so cordially, bewildered
me. I could scarcely believe it.
I knew also that Mr. Whitworth’s name was a tower of strength. His
influence with the public at large respecting everything mechanical
seemed really that of a magician. I felt that the fact that the
manufacture of my engine and governor had been taken up by Mr.
Whitworth placed them on an eminence at once.
I was conscious also that I was quite prepared to improve this
opportunity, grand as it seemed to be. The engine had been abundantly
proved. The success of the condenser I felt sure of, a confidence that
was found to have been fully justified. Everything on my part was in
readiness. The drawings and patterns for several sizes of the engines
were complete. I was certainly excusable for anticipating that I should
enter at once upon a rapidly growing and prosperous business.
With my rude awakening from this “dream of bliss” the reader has
already been made acquainted. The causes which had brought these works,
so far as their machine-tool department was concerned, down from such
a height of excellence as they must for a long time have occupied, to
such a depth of ignorance and helplessness as existed on my entrance
into them, I never fully knew. I heard that some years before there
had been an extensive strike in the works, and that Mr. Whitworth
had discharged a large body of skilled workmen and had filled their
places with laborers. They had a pretty large drawing-office--empty.
I was told that until a short time before my coming they had kept one
draftsman employed, but no one paid any attention to his drawings. Mr.
Widdowson regarded them merely as suggestions, and he and the foreman
pattern-maker altered them as they liked, and finally the farce of
having drawings made at all was abandoned. It was not found difficult
to run these closely shut works for a long time on their reputation.
The state of affairs was distressing enough. The few engines that we
could manage to finish we could only build, in many of their parts, on
new lathes, which were used by them as long as they dared to, before
sending them to their owners. But I kept up a brave heart. At any rate
the personal influence of Mr. Whitworth remained. Indeed I already saw
its value in many ways. Then the pattern-shop, foundry and smith-shop
were equal to our requirements, and I felt confident that Mr. Hoyle
could induce Mr. Whitworth to have the improvements and changes made,
especially in the lathes and boring-machines, which would make it
possible for us to do the work. Mr. Hoyle had become famous in the shop
as the only man who had ever been able to influence Mr. Whitworth.
He had lately given a striking example of his power. Mr. Whitworth
was, years before, the designer of the box frame, which gave to many
machine tools a rigidity incomparably superior to that which could be
got by any method of ribbing. This box system was then established in
universal use, both in England and on the Continent. Not long before my
coming Mr. Whitworth had been looking into the cost of the cores that
these box forms required, and concluded that he could not allow such
an expense any longer, and ordered a return to the method of ribbing.
The superintendent and foremen, to whom this order was communicated,
were amazed at so ruinous and indeed insane a step. No one else dared
to open his mouth; but Mr. Hoyle undertook the task of dissuading him
from it, and after a long struggle finally succeeded in inducing him to
rescind his order. So I confidently looked to him for the salvation of
the engine.
Then suddenly a new trouble arose. After a delay of some months, the
agreement between Mr. Whitworth and myself, reduced to writing by
his solicitor, was put into my hands for signature. I found that it
corresponded with our verbal agreement, except that Mr. Whitworth
reserved to himself the right to make alterations in the engine, in
any respect whatever, in his discretion. To say that I hesitated about
signing such an abandonment would not be true; I never thought of such
a thing as signing it. Mr. Whitworth was probably the only man in the
world who would have thought of making such a demand, and was certainly
the last man in the world to whom it should be granted.
The first thing he would probably have done would have been to make
the crank and cross-head pins run in solid bearings. I had regarded
his talk about “the perfect steam-engine” at our first interview as
idle words; but here was the provision for giving these words effect.
Indeed, he now assured me that the opening to his scheme afforded by my
engine formed his inducement for taking it up, and that he expected
me to understand that from what he then said. Here was a situation!
I knew that in the multifarious excursions of his restless mind the
steam-engine had never been included. These excursions seemed to have
led in all directions except that. About the steam-engine and its
“fundamental principles,” except those constructive principles that
it had in common with all machines, I was sure he had not the least
idea. The scheme was childish. I could only think of the little boy
who wanted a penny to go down-town. “What are you going to buy?” said
his amused father. “I don’t know; shall see something I want when I
get there.” This seemed to me, and correctly as I afterwards became
satisfied, to represent Mr. Whitworth’s “open-mindedness” on this
subject.
Now, Mr. Whitworth was the most dangerous man possible to be entrusted
with such a power. He could not work with anybody else. His disposition
was despotic. He looked only for servile obedience to his orders.
Besides this, he had no conception of the law of growth. In his own
mind he had anchored both tool construction and gunnery where they
were to remain forever, and he purposed to do the same thing with the
steam-engine, as soon as he should have time to attend to it.
So our agreement never was executed. I confidently expected him to
yield on this point, which I was settled that I would never do, and I
found in the end that he as confidently expected me to yield, which he
was settled that he would never do. Meanwhile we got along on a _modus
vivendi_ plan, which could only last through an emergency, and during
which, of course, nothing could be done towards settling the business
on a substantial foundation. The emergency in this case was getting
through the Paris Exposition. Before coming to that, however, I have
something else to relate.
We received an order from Pooley & Son, proprietors of the India Mills,
Manchester, for a horizontal condensing engine to drive the machinery
of their blowing-room, that in which the cotton is opened and cleaned
and receives its first carding operations. The growth of their business
had made it necessary for them to increase their power, which they
planned to do by driving this portion of their machinery separately.
This engine was interesting for two reasons. It was the first engine
ordered in England to which my horizontal condenser was applied, and
it was the first mill engine in England from which the power was
transmitted by a belt.
My business was transacted entirely with the younger Mr. Pooley, who
seemed to be the practical head of the concern. Our first meeting
has remained vivid in my recollection, as illustrating the English
brusqueness of manner.
Calling at his office in response to an invitation by post, I was met
on opening the door after the call “come in” by the abrupt question,
“What do you want?” I was not wholly unused to this kind of greeting
and so told him who I was and what I wanted, when of course his manner
changed at once. We became very good friends, and should he be living
and this meet his eye, I send him my salutation.
We had quite a discussion on the question of a belt. I urged it, and he
would not listen to it. My statement that belts were used exclusively
in cotton-mills in America had no influence. I discovered that it makes
all the difference in the world who tells a thing. After he had, as we
both supposed, made his final decision to follow the universal custom
and employ gearing, he happened to meet his friend Mr. Hetherington,
the same man already mentioned in connection with the Harrison boiler.
Mr. Hetherington had just returned from a trip to “the States,” and
had visited the Lowell and Lawrence cotton-mills, and this was part of
their conversation:
“Did you see anywhere power taken from a prime mover by a belt?”
“I did not see anything else.”
“Is that so? This is just what Porter told me, but I could not credit
it. Did they seem to give satisfaction?”
“That is what every one assured me. They would not use anything else.”
And so I received an order for a belt, 24 inches wide, to be imported
from America, with the clamps, rivets, and cement needed to put it on
endless, an operation of which no workman in England had any idea, so
I had to do it myself. I sent the order to Mr. Allen to be placed, and
received quite promptly a carefully selected belt, of hides of uniform
thickness, which gave the highest satisfaction.
The following is a copy of the bill for the first American belt ever
sent to England. I included an order for a side of lace leather, to
enable them to try the American style of lacing belts. This leather is
horse hide, their sheep-skin lacing would not be strong enough.
NEW YORK, December 15, 1866.
Mr. CHAS. POOLEY.
Bought of STEPHEN BALLARD,
(Successor to STEARNS & BALLARD),
Manufacturer of Every Description of Leather Belting,
Also, Dealer in Vulcanized Rubber Belting, Hose and Packing, Belt
Rivets, Belt Hooks, etc.,
Extra Quality Lacing Leather,
No. 333 Pearl Street, Franklin Square (Harpers’ Building).
====+==================================+=========+========
| 51 ft. 24-inch Donb Belt 692 | 352.91 |
| 2 lbs. Rivets 80 | 1.60 |
| 1 „ Cement | 1.00 |
| 1 Side Lacing | 5.00 |
| Cartage | .50 |
| 1 Cask | 1.25 |
| Insurance | 4.15 | 366.52
| Collection 2¹⁄₂% | | 9.16
| | +---------
| | | 375.68
I put this belt on quite loose. The bottom side was the tight one, and
the upper side hung in a loop nearly three feet deep. This exhibited
the uniform running of the engine in a striking manner. As is well
known, variations of speed produce waves in such a loop, the height of
which waves indicates the amount of these variations. This belt hung
motionless. The most careful observations on the loop did not indicate
that it was running at all. The engine had no fly-wheel; the belt drum,
10 feet in diameter, served this purpose also. This showed the value
in this respect of high speed, 150 turns per minute. This _absolute_
uniformity of motion surprised me, I knew nothing about the equalizing
action of the reciprocating parts of the engine, to which this
remarkable result was largely due. I was then absorbed in balancing,
which was as far as I had advanced, and in this case, as previously in
the governor, I “had builded better than I knew.”
The accompanying diagrams are from a duplicate of the Pooley engine
built at the same time for a Mr. Adams, a paper-maker in the north of
England. This engine was directly connected to the line of shaft. I was
called home from Paris to go to Mr. Adams’ mill and start that engine.
Mr. Adams’ mill was not yet connected, and I was obliged to return
to Paris after taking friction diagrams, of which the following are
examples.
[Illustration:
ATMOSPHERE
SCALE, 16 LBS. TO 1 INCH
ATMOSPHERE
SCALE, 16 LBS. TO 1 INCH
Diagrams from Engine Built for Mr. Adams.]
CHAPTER XIII
The French Exposition of 1867. Final Break with Mr. Whitworth.
The French Exposition of 1867 was the second in the series of
expositions held in Paris at intervals of eleven years, from the first
in 1856 to the last, thus far, in 1900. In this exposition the Emperor
Napoleon planned to celebrate his entrance uninvited into the select
circle of crowned heads by bringing all his new cousins to visit him
in his capital. He succeeded pretty well. Asia was represented by the
Sultan of Turkey and the Shah of Persia. All the sovereigns of Europe
were there (but not all at the same time) with the exceptions of
Victor Emmanuel, who said he was too poor to go, and Queen Victoria,
who could not be induced to leave her retirement. The sovereign
people of the United States were also pretty well represented. One
other “emperor” was not there. With the zeal of a new convert, Louis
Napoleon had attempted to take advantage of the circumstance that
the United States had business enough of their own to attend to, and
improve the opportunity to plant monarchical institutions on this
continent. Maximilian, a brother of the Emperor of Austria, the first
and last Emperor of Mexico, was installed under the protection of
French bayonets. Affairs in the United States did not take the turn
that Napoleon had hoped for, and in compliance with a courteous request
from the President that he would withdraw his troops from Mexico and
save him the disagreeable necessity of driving them out, the French
withdrew, leaving the unfortunate Maximilian a prisoner in the hands of
the Mexicans.
On a day in the summer of 1867, a grand function was celebrated in the
Palais de l’Industrie, the building on the Avenue des Champs Elysées
in which the exposition of 1856 had been held, for the distribution of
gold medals to the successful exhibitors in this exposition of 1867.
The Emperor presided, surrounded by sovereigns and their suites, and
an assembly of 20,000 invited guests and holders of season tickets.
In the midst of the ceremonies, an official entered and handed to the
Emperor an envelope. After reading its contents he crossed over to
the seat of the Austrian ambassador and placed it in his hands. After
reading it the ambassador withdrew with his suite, and the proceedings
were continued to their close. That evening the public learned what
this envelope contained. It was a cablegram announcing the execution of
the quondam emperor, Maximillian, by the Mexican government. From this
point the fall of Napoleon proceeded steadily until he became “the man
of Sedan.” This dramatic scene, marking the culminating point in his
career, has, I believe, escaped the notice of historians.
The main building of the exposition of 1867, the first one held on
the Champ de Mars, was designed on a plan that has not been repeated.
It was a long building with semicircular ends, built around a narrow
open court, the length of which was equal to that of its parallel
sides. It was divided among the nations as a Yankee would divide a
pie if baked in a dish of similar form, while the various classes of
exhibits occupied, in the several nations, spaces equally distant from
the central court. Thus, as assumed in the plan, the visitor passing
through any radial avenue would see all the exhibits from one country,
and passing through an avenue laid out around the central court would
see all the exhibits of one class. The fine arts were at the center,
much of the statuary in the open court, then decorative art, and so on,
class after class, until that of machinery which surrounded the whole,
except that outside of this were the restaurants of all nations.
The plan was practically on many accounts a failure, first, from the
exceedingly unequal lengths of floor spaces allotted to the different
departments, the mean length of the machinery court, for example,
being between two and three times that devoted to the fine arts, and,
second, that it was utterly inadequate to accommodate the exhibits
in many departments. There was no adaptability in the system. The
consequence was the erection, in the ample outside area of the Champ
de Mars, of an enormous number of separate buildings, by all nations,
for particular classes of exhibits, some of which buildings were quite
large.
Although I exhibited in the British section, I sympathized deeply with
the American exhibitors, who were having lots of trouble. Mr. Seward
had appointed as the United States commissioner an American gentleman
who had lived in France for twenty years, who was ignorant of America
and Americans in a phenomenal degree, and was indifferent and despotic
in his treatment of the helpless exhibitors, until their exasperation
reached such a pitch that I heard it said every one of them would be
glad to pull on a rope to hang him. I will give two illustrations.
Mr. Corliss had been persuaded by Mr. Pickering to send over an engine
to drive the United States machinery exhibit. When the engine arrived,
it was found that the commissioner, although he had been advised of
this arrangement, had paid no attention to it, but had purchased a
French engine and installed it already for this purpose. The Corliss
engine was set by the side of this one, and ran idle through the
exhibition; never had a belt on. To make the matter worse, the French
engine was run every Sunday, although the entire United States exhibit
was covered up, and, as it could not run longer than a week without
stopping for repairs, it was idle for this purpose every Monday, and
this arrangement was sustained by the commissioner.
As other nations were putting up separate buildings for the overflow of
their exhibits, the commissioner thought the United States should do
the same. So in the winter previous he had got a special appropriation
for this purpose through Congress, and erected his building. When
finished he found it was all a blunder: he had absolutely nothing to
put in it. The United States exhibitors were fully accommodated in the
main building. What does he do but order enough of them into the side
building to fill it, leaving unoccupied spaces in the main building. A
number of our most eminent firms were driven there, being refused space
in the main building. In the machinery court an enormous empty space
was rented by the commissioner to a concern manufacturing collars and
cuffs.
So far as space was concerned, the machinery department seemed to
have the place of honor. It surrounded all the other classes of
exhibits, and was much wider and higher than any other. It had a
central gallery which I was told was seven eighths of a mile around.
This gallery carried the shafting. The exterior location of this
department was necessary, in order to have proper connection with the
boilers and systems of piping for both steam and water. Except the
American section, which was only one half occupied, it was crowded
with exhibits. The engines exhibited in motion in the main building,
of which there were a large number, were all condensing engines, water
from the Seine being quite convenient.
[Illustration:
EXPOSITION UNIVERSELLE, PARIS, 1867.
DIAGRAM FROM THE
“ALLEN” ENGINE, EMPLOYED IN DRIVING MACHINERY
IN THE BRITISH SECTION, AND MANUFACTURED BY
THE WHITWORTH COMPANY, LIMITED, MANCHESTER.
ENGINE, 12 INCHES BY 24 INCHES, REVOLUTIONS PER MINUTE, 200.
SCALE, 16 LBS. TO THE INCH.]
I took to this exposition five engines. One of them was 12×24 inches,
making 200 revolutions per minute. I advanced the speed from 600 feet
to 800 feet per minute, to show what both the engine and the condenser
could do. After all, however, I did not show one half of what with
proper port areas the high-speed system was capable of. The ports
were insufficient, having been adapted to a speed of 150 revolutions
per minute. I took great satisfaction in showing the condenser to my
old friends, Easton, Amos & Sons, who were all there, at one time or
another, during the exposition. Before the exposition opened we had
on hand at the works four condensers, one for an engine the Whitworth
Company were building for themselves, two for the parties already
mentioned, and the one for the exposition engine. As this was the
first one required to be running, I had to make the first test of the
condenser in this public way, which I immensely enjoyed doing.
Through the influence of Mr. Whitworth, we received an order from
Trinity House, which is the British lighthouse board, for two engines
to drive the machinery of an electric light. The English and the French
governments each made an exhibit of such a light, at the summit of a
high tower. The current was produced by rapidly revolving magnets, a
large number of which were set in a wheel.
Everything in this English exhibit was in duplicate. The requirement
was that either engine should drive either or both electric machines.
This involved the use of four clutches and a lot of gearing. I measured
the power required by one machine, at the works in London where they
were made, indicating their shop engine with the light on and with the
light off. To make sure I repeated this three times. I found that one
of my engines, 6×12 inches, non-condensing, at 300 revolutions per
minute, would drive the two machines, with the steam pressure we were
to have, I think 70 pounds, and cut off at one quarter of the stroke,
while it was capable of following five eighths of the stroke. So two of
these engines were furnished. The exposition was well advanced before
this machinery was ready for its trial. A large crowd had assembled
to witness it. With both machines on, the engines could only crawl
along. The superintendent of the British mechanical section ordered
one machine taken off. There was very little improvement. Then this
royal engineer, detailed from the army, and whose qualifications for
his position consisted in absolute ignorance of anything mechanical,
declared the trial finished, and strutted off with the remark, “There
has been a great blunder made here in providing the power.” The men in
charge of the machinery looked at me quite speechless. I asked them to
throw off the other machine also. This was done, when it appeared that
both engines, with steam following five eighths of the stroke--for I
had indicators on both of them to show it--could not drive the gearing,
except at a snail’s pace. They were then driven to examine the gearing
for resistances, and found the teeth wedged in the spaces throughout.
This gearing was removed and proper running gears substituted for
it, and after ten days’ delay away went the engines at full speed. On
this second trial one engine could drive both machines, cutting off at
one-quarter stroke, precisely as my measurement of the power had shown.
They then ran perfectly through the exposition and were accepted by
Trinity House. Did the superintendent apologize to me for his hasty
judgment or congratulate me on my success? He never made the slightest
allusion to it.
My fourth engine, of the same size, had been spoiled for practical use
by having the upper half of the cylinder and steam-chest planed off, to
show the cylinder and valves in section. It was belted from the large
engine to run very slowly, and thus exhibited the valves and gear in
motion to the end of the exposition. Mr. Whitworth wanted his friend
Mr. Owen to purchase this model for the South Kensington Museum, but
it appeared to Mr. Owen that Mr. Whitworth ought to present it to the
museum. This I learned from Mr. Hoyle. What was finally done with it I
have forgotten, if, indeed, I ever knew.
My fifth engine, of the same size, 6×12 inches, I got up to show what
the capabilities of high speed really were, so far as smooth and
safe running were concerned. The reciprocating parts, which weighed
altogether only 40 pounds, were exactly balanced. I did this by rolling
the crank-disk on a boring-table, with 40 pounds hung on the crank-pin,
and cutting out the lead from the hollow disk opposite the pin, where I
had purposely put it in somewhat in excess, until the pin came down to
the horizontal position. This brought the inertia of the reciprocating
parts of the engine, at every point in the revolution, into equilibrium
with the horizontal component of the centrifugal force of the revolving
counterweight. The vertical component of this force, or rather its
upward stress, for downward it would be resisted by the whole mass
of the earth, remained to be dealt with. To prevent the whole engine
from being lifted at the crank end by this stress at every revolution
might have been accomplished by putting on a heavy fly-wheel; but for
my use I wanted a very small one. The fly-wheel I put on the shaft was
a solid disk, 18 inches in diameter and ¹⁄₂ inch thick, with a rim 1
inch square. The bed of the engine I filled with lead, and set it on
a block of Caen stone 3 feet thick and wide and 5 feet long. To this
stone it was firmly bolted, and I was ready for business. The governor
was speeded to hold the engine at 500 turns per minute. As it might
be difficult for some persons to count this speed, I put a little
pinion on the end of the shaft, engaging with a larger wheel, one to
ten. Fifty revolutions per minute could be accurately counted, and the
speed was put beyond dispute. I was guilty of one oversight: I did not
protect this gear. A French gentleman had the skirt of his frock-coat
caught in it, and I thought it never would be got out. The engine had
been running only two or three days, but the speed being then well
established, I took off the gear. I ought to have protected it instead,
and have had it to substantiate the big story I am going to tell, but
it never occurred to me.
The engine running idle, I commenced very soon the exhibition for which
I had made all this preparation. That was to hold the governor down
by pulling the end of the lever up and letting the engine fly; which
it did without a jar or a sound, only phantoms of the cross-head and
connecting-rod being visible. That was my daily amusement and must have
been repeated many hundred times in the course of the exposition, and
of course always attracted a crowd.
We had no means of counting the speed, but I judged it to be more than
2000 turns per minute. When I released the governor and the speed fell
gradually to 500 turns, it appeared to every one as if the engine
were going to stop. But the governor never reacted, and soon the eye
became accustomed to the slower speed. This presented quite a curious
phenomenon. The connecting-rod was especially adapted to this enormous
speed, by being made of the form already shown, and which I afterwards
adopted for all my engines. This engine never gave any trouble, and was
sold, I think to Ducommen & Co., the purchasers of the large engine.
The electric light with its engines was installed at the South Foreland
Lighthouse, on the Shakespeare Cliff, east of Dover, if I remember
rightly. We brought nothing back to England with us.
I went to Paris a few days before the opening of the exposition, and
found my main engine already in running order, installed next to the
Whitworth exhibit of tools, and selected by the imperial commission as
one of the engines employed to give motion to the machinery exhibited.
By an imperial decree, the opening ceremonial of the exhibition was
to take place on Monday, April 2, at 2 P.M., and everything was to be
absolutely completed before that hour. The engines were to have been
tested the previous Saturday. Every engine in the building was ready,
but the imperial commission itself was behind. There was no steam.
The first interview I had with the superintendent of the British
machinery department was on this Saturday, when he came around to
notify the several English engine exhibitors to be in readiness to run
their engines the next day, Sunday, in order to make sure that there
should be no hitch on Monday, I told him I should not run my engine on
Sunday. “Very well,” said he, “we will run it for you,” and stalked
off. Before going away I took out the pin at the end of the governor
lever connecting the governor with the valve motion and put it in my
pocket. Never heard any reproof, put the pin back on Monday, and when
they gave us steam the engine started off as if it had always been
running, and continued to do so until the signal for shutting down at 5
o’clock. I had my hand on the wheel of the stop-valve to close it, when
suddenly all the valve-rods of the engine bent and tangled up, and the
exclamation was heard on all sides, “The high-speed engine has come to
grief the very first day.”
On examination it was found that the cast-iron stuffing-box gland on
one of the valve-stems had fired, and was fast on the stem. One of our
troubles at the Whitworth works was the habit of the workmen, which may
have been common to all toolmakers, of making close fits. We had no
standard reamers nor any system whatever, and Mr. Watts, finding on his
inspection everything too tight to run, had to have holes enlarged and
stems reduced by grinding with Turkey dust. Sometimes this had to be
done over and over. He was very thorough, but this once he missed it,
with the above result. The case looked pretty bad, but luckily nothing
was broken, and when the exposition opened at 9 o’clock the next
morning every trace of the accident had disappeared and the engine ran
as if nothing had happened, and continued to do so for several months,
till the close of the exposition. We took pains that night, while we
were about it, to make sure against any repetition of that performance.
I had nearly forgotten to mention a little surprise that I had: The day
after my arrival a friend who had preceded me a few days said to me,
“Come with me; I want to show you something.” He led me through the
entire circuit of the machinery hall, and showed me engines with my
central counterweight governor brought to that exposition from every
country in Europe. I learned afterwards in conversation that, following
its exhibition in London, five years before, the use of this governor
on the Continent had become quite general.
The day after the opening I asked the superintendent when I ought to
expect a visit from the jury of award. I told him it was necessary
that I should return to Manchester to bring over my family, and I was
anxious not to miss the jury. “I would advise you,” said he, “to go at
once. The jury will not be organized for a week or more.” I left that
night, leaving the engine in charge of a young Frenchman to run it, and
was back in five days. The first thing this man had to tell me was:
“The jury were here yesterday. They did not stay but a few minutes. All
their remarks that I heard were in French, so I think they must all
have been Frenchmen. I heard them say, ‘An engine running at that speed
(200 revolutions per minute) will knock itself to pieces before the
exposition is over.” This although it was running in absolute silence
before their eyes. “They did not ask me any questions.” “What did
they say about the condenser?” (The Bourdon gauge showed more than 28
inches vacuum all the time.) “They laughed at that; said no engine ever
maintained such a vacuum,” which was quite true. I hurriedly sought out
the superintendent. In answer to my complaint he said flippantly, “Oh,
that visit was only preliminary. They will be around again in a few
days.” I have waited for that visit ever since. Never saw or heard of
the jury any more, but when the list of gold medal awards was published
my name was not on it.
I learned afterwards that the order to all the juries was to commence
their labors the morning after the opening of the exposition, and have
their reports in within three weeks. The superintendent must have been
officially informed of this order, and he deliberately misled me. I
have always wondered if this was his revenge on me for not having run
on Sunday as he ordered.
So far as concerns their judgment on the engine, “before the exposition
was over” it had won the admiration of every engineer in Europe. Mr.
John Hick of Bolton, then the leading builder of stationary engines in
England, and afterwards the head of the great engineering firm of Hick,
Hargreaves & Co., made a visit to the engine every afternoon during his
stay, sometimes watching it for a long time. It had a fascination for
him. He told me that no amount of testimony would have made him believe
that an engine could have been made to run so smoothly and silently at
such a speed, or to maintain such a vacuum. He said that if my engine
shown in London had made anything like so favorable an impression on
his mind, he would have made me a proposition for its manufacture;
but it did not. The reason for this I had learned long before, the
reason why it did not impress any one favorably, it was non-condensing.
He added that he had since made other arrangements which made such
proposition now impossible. I knew what those arrangements were. He had
two years before taken up the manufacture of the Corliss engine, under
the management of Mr. William Inglis, a Canadian engineer, by whom this
engine had been successfully introduced into England. I knew Mr. Inglis
well, and rejoiced in his success, as every one who knew him must have
done. As for any rivalry between us such a thing was never thought of,
there was room for both of us ten times over.
I was very courteously waited upon by a French engineer, who asked me
if I were acquainted with the Deluel vacuum-gauge. I told him that I
was not. He said that he was happy to introduce it to my notice. The
vacuum shown by the Bourdon gauge on my condenser was so remarkable,
especially with an air-pump running so swiftly, that it could not be
accepted with confidence by engineers, unless actually shown by the
mercurial column. The Deluel gauge was the only one in which this was
employed. With many apologies for what was indeed the greatest kindness
to me, he ventured to suggest that the Deluel gauge be placed on the
condenser. He kindly gave me the address of the firm in Paris. A sharp
Yankee will probably recognize him as an accomplished drummer for the
house. This did not occur to me, but I am under obligation to him all
the same.
I lost no time in getting a Deluel gauge, and the same night had the
condenser drilled to put it on. To my disgust no tap could be found to
fit its thread. So I had to drive a wooden plug in the hole. The next
day I called again at their store, nearly three miles from the Champ de
Mars, and told them of my predicament. With a profusion of regrets for
the inconvenience I had been put to, which he must have known that I
would be, the gentleman produced a set of taps, and kindly loaned them
to me, observing with evident pride that this was “a thread peculiar to
their house.” The Deluel gauge was put on that night, and next morning
I had the great satisfaction of seeing that its reading agreed with
that of the Bourdon gauge precisely.
I neglected to patent this condenser, so there was nothing to connect
me with it, and the next year coming home, where I had no occasion for
it, I quite lost sight of it. But at our Centennial Exhibition, nine
years after, I saw a large horizontal engine sent from Belgium with the
old familiar box behind the cylinder, and about twenty years after that
I had the pleasure of having the condenser described to me, as if I
were a stranger to it, by Mr. F. M. Wheeler, who mentioned particularly
the inclined bottom of the condensing chamber, the feature by which
the air was prevented from mingling with the water. He informed me
that it was a condenser then commonly used in Europe, and was seen in
all illustrations of horizontal condensing engines. I have forgotten
whether or not I told him what I knew about the origin of this
condenser.
At this exposition only the English had a building devoted to the show
of artillery. The principal features that I remember were the Whitworth
and the Armstrong systems, which were elaborately represented. I used
to say that the British lion here invited the other beasts to examine
his teeth.
The French and the English had each a large building on the bank of the
Seine devoted to naval exhibits. In the former I happened to be present
at a reception held by the young Prince Imperial, at which he received
the congratulations of, among others, many prominent Englishmen, some
of whom I recognized. How bright, then, seemed his prospects! How sad
his end! But how grand for France, her return to a free republic; long
may it live!
In the English naval exhibit three men made an exhibition of their
childish extravagance. Models were shown of a fleet of eight vessels,
each quite 10 feet long, completely and superbly finished inside and
out, and entitled “England’s Fleet of the Future.” The vessels, full
rigged, were built by Robert Napier. They were provided with engines
made by John Penn, and carried broadsides of Whitworth guns. Recalled
in the light of to-day, this costly show appears supremely ridiculous.
It did not present a single feature that has not long since vanished
and become almost forgotten. Both the prince and the toys furnish a
lesson to the moralist. How swiftly, as by a cyclone, has all that each
represented been swept away forever! What is there, in governments or
in mechanism, that shall endure?
It was my good fortune one day in the latter building to meet Admiral
Farragut. I heard him say, respecting this proud fleet, “When it is
built, some Yankee will come with a torpedo and blow it out of the
water.” One other terse reply of the old hero which I then heard is
worthy to be recorded. He was asked his opinion of the monitor. “A
machine to drown a man in like a rat, sir,” was his answer.
About midsummer I received an application from the firm of Ducommen
et Cie. of Mulhouse, a city in the southern part of Alsace, and an
important manufacturing center, whose people also had no foreboding
of what was so soon to befall them, for a concession to manufacture
my engines in France. They had a large exhibit at the exposition, and
impressed me quite favorably. I consulted with Mr. Hoyle and replied,
deferring action until a later period of the exposition. Some time in
September, not having received any other application, I accepted this
one. There I made a mistake. Just before the close of the exposition I
received a very flattering letter from the firm of Farcot et Cie., the
most eminent stationary engine-builders in France, and who showed the
largest engine at the exposition. Their works were near Paris, and on
their invitation, in company with Mr. Hoyle, I had visited them. They
stated that, having observed closely the performance of the engine
through all these months, they had become convinced of its excellent
and durable qualities, and solicited the right to manufacture the
engine in France. I had to pay the penalty for my premature action
in explaining to them with deep regret that this right was already
disposed of. My regret was deepened when, in the course of the
following winter, I received in Manchester copies of drawings according
to which Ducommen et Cie. proposed to construct the engines. The
changes they had made, all in the direction of complication, amazed me.
It seemed to have rained bolts and nuts. Every constructive requirement
of a successful high-speed engine was ignorantly sacrificed. After full
consultation Mr. Hoyle and I agreed that the case was hopeless, that
they would never do anything; and they never did. I have no photographs
of the Paris Exposition. It was a very singular thing that none were
taken there, so far as I ever heard.
Near the close of the exposition I had another visit from Mr. Allen. He
had been sent over by our associates to see for himself and to report
to them what I had really accomplished. He stayed with me a little
while after our return to Manchester. Mr. Whitworth treated us with
the greatest civility. On his invitation we rode out to his country
home and spent the day with him. This visit is worth recording. His
estate lay in Derbyshire, adjacent to Chatsworth, the well-known seat
of the Duke of Devonshire. It occupied a rather broad valley, extending
to the sky-line of high ranges of hills on each side, and comprised
three thousand acres. He told me that three adjoining estates fell
into the market, one after another, and he succeeded in getting the
whole of them. In the middle of this valley was a lower isolated hill,
containing stone quarries that had been worked from time immemorial,
and which, when he bought, were surrounded by unsightly heaps of
débris. Mr. Whitworth had closed the quarries, covered these heaps
with earth on which trees were then growing, and transformed the whole
into most picturesque ornamental grounds. After lunch Mr. Whitworth
took his cane and, with a step as sprightly as a schoolboy’s, led us
a tramp over this region. In the quarries he had formed galleries at
different elevations. Finally, at the top of the hill, commanding views
of his whole estate, he had leveled a space about 100 by 200 feet and
surrounded it with a rustic battlement of rocks. Here a grassy sward
smooth and level as a billiard table was used as a croquet ground,
this being at that time a universal outdoor game in England. He had a
democratic park. It had no wall, and wire fences were as yet unknown,
so he could not keep deer. But on his fields we saw many cattle
grazing. He told us he was raising blooded stock, and expected the next
year to commence annual sales. We observed the very pleasant house
beautifully located in the valley, but he told us he was planning to
remove it and build a baronial hall in its place. I learned afterwards
from Mr. Hoyle that he had for some time kept two London architects
employed on designs for this hall, which designs he then employed
another draftsman to combine into a plan to suit himself, but had not
as yet determined on anything. As he was an old man, and had no one in
the world to leave this estate to, I could account for his devotion to
it only by his restless temperament, that must always find some new
outlet for his energy.
I, however, did not want him to expend any of this energy in getting
a steam-engine to suit him, and so the passing months brought us no
nearer to an agreement. My experience with Ducommen et Cie. confirmed
me in my decision not to let the mechanical control of the engine in
England pass out of my hands, and Mr. Hoyle told me that he could not
advise me to do so. Mr. Whitworth was at that time in the death agonies
of his artillery system, and I did not meet him, but I learned through
Mr. Hoyle that he was highly indignant at me for presuming to take the
position I had done, and was immovably fixed in his own.
CHAPTER XIV
Study of the Action of Reciprocating Parts. Important Help from Mr.
Frederick J. Slade. Paper before Institution of Mechanical Engineers.
Appreciation of Zerah Colburn. The Steam Fire Engine in England.
After the close of the Paris Exposition I devoted myself in earnest
to the study of the action of the reciprocating parts of the engine,
and will here give a sketch of its development. In the high-speed
steam-engine the reciprocating parts were found to be a most essential
feature. Besides transmitting the pressure of the steam to the crank
they perform quite another office. It is their inertia, relieving the
crank from shocks on the dead centers, and equalizing the distribution
of the pressure on it through the stroke, that makes the high-speed
engine possible. I employed this inertia before I knew anything
about it. I had been occupied with the subject of balancing. I had
demonstrated practically that the centrifugal force of a weight equal
to that of the reciprocating parts, opposite the crank and at the
same distance from the center as the crank-pin, perfectly balanced
a horizontal engine, and had shown this fact conclusively at this
exposition.
The problem before me was, “What is it that makes my engine run so
smoothly?” I am not a mathematician, and so could not use his methods.
I got along by graphic methods and study of the motion of the piston
controlled by the crank. My recollection of the several steps of my
progress is quite indistinct. One thing I do remember distinctly, and
that is the help that I got from my friend Frederick J. Slade, who
was younger than I, but who died several years ago. Mr. Slade was a
mathematical genius. The firm of Cooper, Hewitt & Co. were at a later
date the pioneer makers in the United States of wrought-iron beams
and other structural shapes; and all their designs and computations
were the work of Mr. Slade. I had formed his acquaintance in London
in ’63. I met him again in Paris in ’67. He was then in France in the
employ of Abram S. Hewitt, investigating the Siemens-Martin process
of steel manufacture. He took much interest in the engine. One day he
brought to me a diagram representing the two now famous triangles, and
a demonstration of them which he had made, showing that the ordinates,
representing the acceleration or retardation of the piston motion at
every point, if erected on the center line of the engine, terminate in
a diagonal line, which, with a connecting-rod of infinite length, would
cross this center line at its middle point.
This exhibited at once the equalizing action of the reciprocating parts
in a cut-off engine, absorbing the excessive force of the steam at the
commencement and imparting it to the crank at the end of the stroke. I
feel myself more indebted to Mr. Slade than to any one else, and would
here record the tribute of my grateful acknowledgment.
On January 30, 1868, I had the honor of reading a paper on the Allen
engine before the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. The discussion
of the paper was postponed until the next meeting, April 30, and the
paper was ordered meantime to be printed and sent to the members.
The result was that on the latter date we had a very interesting
discussion. I may mention two things which occurred at the first
meeting, but do not appear in the report of the transactions. When the
secretary reached the statement that the acceleration of the piston
was greatest at the commencement of the stroke, the president of
the meeting, Sampson Lloyd, Esq., one of the vice-presidents of the
Institution, stopped the reading and said to me, “You do not mean,
Mr. Porter, that this is _on_ the commencement of the stroke, but at
a point near its commencement.” I was obliged to answer him that I
intended to say that precisely on the dead center, at the point where
motion in one direction had ceased and that in the opposite direction
had not yet commenced, at that precise point the stress on the crank
was at its maximum, the crank having brought the reciprocating parts
to rest, and then by a continuance of the same effort putting them in
motion in the reverse direction.
[Illustration: FREDERICK J. SLADE]
After the reading was concluded, Mr. E. A. Cowper took the floor,
and stated that I was entirely mistaken in my explanation of this
action, that this had been investigated by a gentleman whose name he
gave but which I have forgotten, and who had demonstrated that this
retarding and accelerating action was represented by a curve, which
approximately he drew on the blackboard, but which he excused himself
from demonstrating there, as it would require the use of the calculus
and would take considerable time. For this reason the discussion
was postponed. At the next meeting Mr. Cowper did not present this
demonstration, and long afterwards he wrote a letter to the editors
of _Engineering_, stating that on full investigation he had found
the retardation and acceleration of the piston to be represented by
triangles and not by a curve. At the discussion of the paper my view
was supported by all the speakers who addressed themselves to this
point, except Mr. Cowper. An especially careful and valuable exposition
of the action of the reciprocating parts was given Mr. Edwin Reynolds,
then of the Don Steel Works, Sheffield.
Zerah Colburn, the editor of _Engineering_, had always taken a
warm interest in my engine, and in the winter following the Paris
Exposition he invited me to furnish him the drawings and material for
its description in his paper. This I did, and from these he prepared
a series of articles written in his usual clear and trenchant style.
These will be found in Volume V of _Engineering_, the cuts following
page 92, and the articles on pages 119, 143, 158, 184, and 200.
Mr. Colburn’s articles in _Engineering_ are so interesting in
themselves that I think I need make no apology for quoting from them
his remarks on this subject of the inertia of the reciprocating
parts, and those in which is depicted the revolutionary nature of the
high-speed engine, as viewed at that time.
After a prelude, with most of which the reader is already acquainted,
Mr. Colburn says:
“When a steam-engine is brought from abroad to the very spot where the
steam-engine originated, and where it has received, so far at least as
numbers are concerned, its greatest development, and is claimed to be
superior to those produced here, and to be able to run advantageously
at a speed hitherto deemed impracticable, its promoters must not
expect to have much attention paid to its claims until such attention
has been actually compelled, and then they must be prepared for an
ordeal of severest criticism....
“In employing a high grade of expansion, especially with the
considerable pressure of steam now usually carried in stationary
boilers, two serious practical difficulties are met with. The first
arises from the injurious effect of the sudden application of so great
a force on the centers, which the beam-engine, indeed, cannot be made
to endure, and the second is found in the extreme difference between
the pressures at the opposite ends of the stroke, which is such that
the crank, instead of being acted upon by a tolerably uniform force, is
rotated by a succession of violent punches, and these applied when it
is in its most unfavorable position....
“In the Allen engine the action of high speed causes all the practical
difficulties which lie in the way of the successful employment of high
grades of expansion combined with high pressure of steam completely
to disappear. The crank receives as little pressure on the centers as
we please; none at all if we like; the force is applied to it as it
advances, in a manner more gradual than the advocates of graduated
openings and late admission ever dreamed of, and a fair approximation
is made to a uniform rotative force through the stroke. So that, in a
properly constructed engine, the higher the speed the smoother and more
uniform and more silent the running will be.”
After a page or more devoted to a demonstration of this action,
Mr. Colburn sums up the advantage of high speed in the following
illustration:
“Let us suppose that, in an engine making 75 revolutions per minute,
the reciprocating parts are of such a weight that the force required
at the commencement of the stroke to put them in motion is equal to
a pressure of 20 pounds on the square inch of piston. This will not
modify the diagram of pressure sufficiently to produce much practical
effect. But let the number of revolutions be increased to 150 per
minute, the centrifugal force of these parts as the crank passes the
centers is now equal to 80 pounds on the square inch of piston, and any
pressure of steam below this amount acts only as a relieving force,
taking the strain of these parts partly off from the crank. It makes no
matter how suddenly it is admitted to the cylinder, not an ounce can
reach the crank; but as the latter advances, and the acceleration of
the reciprocating parts becomes less, the excess of force not required
to produce this becomes, in the most gradual manner, effective on the
crank.
“It will be observed how completely the designer has this action of
the reciprocating parts under control. He can proportion their speed
and weight to the pressure of steam in such a manner as to relieve the
crank from the blow on the center to whatever extent he may wish. The
notion that the reciprocating parts of high-speed engines should be
very light is therefore entirely wrong. They should be as heavy as they
can be made, and the heavier the better.
“The advantages of more rapid rotation are largely felt in the
transmission of power. Engineers understand very well that,
theoretically, the prime mover should overrun the resistance. Motion
should be not multiplied but reduced in transmission. This can seldom
be attained in practice, but high speed gives the great advantage of
an approximation to this theoretical excellence. On the other hand,
slow-speed engines work against every disadvantage. Coupled engines and
enormous fly-wheels have to be employed to give a tolerably uniform
motion; often great irregularities are endured, or the abominable
expedient is resorted to of placing the fly-wheel on the second-motion
shaft. Then comes the task of getting up the speed, with the ponderous
gearing and the enormous strains. Slow motion also prevents the use of
the belt, immeasurably the preferable means of communicating power from
a prime mover.
“But how about the wear and tear? The question comes from friends and
foes alike. The only difference is in the expression of countenance,
sympathetic or triumphant. The thought of high speed brings before
every eye visions of hot and torn bearings, cylinders and pistons cut
up, thumps and breakdowns, and engines shaking themselves to pieces. It
is really difficult to understand how so much ignorance and prejudice
on this subject can exist in this day of general intelligence. The fact
is, high speed is the great searcher and revealer of everything that is
bad in design and construction. The injurious effect of all unbalanced
action, of all overhanging strains, of all weakness of parts, of all
untruth in form or construction, of all insufficiency of surface,
increases as the square of the speed. Put an engine to speed and its
faults bristle all over. The shaking drum cries, ‘Balance me, balance
me!’ the writhing shaft and quivering frame cry, ‘See how weak we are!’
the blazing bearing screams, ‘Make me round!’ and the maker says, ‘Ah,
sir, you see high speed will never do!’
“Now, nothing is more certain than that we can make engines, and that
with all ease, in which there shall be _no_ unbalanced action, _no_
overhanging strains, _no_ weakness of parts, _no_ untruth of form
or construction, _no_ insufficiency of surface; in which, in short,
there shall be _no_ defect to increase as the square of the speed, and
then we may employ whatever speed we like. ‘But that,’ interposes a
friend, ‘requires perfection, which you know is unattainable.’ No, we
reply, nothing unattainable, nothing even difficult, is required, but
only freedom from palpable defects, which, if we only confess their
existence, and are disposed to get rid of, may be easily avoided. It
is necessary to throw all conceit about our own work to the dogs, to
lay down the axiom that whatever goes wrong, it is not high speed,
but ourselves who are to blame, and to go to high speed as to our
schoolmaster.
“Among the many objections to high speed, we are often told that the
beam-engine will not bear it, and the beam-engine, sir, was designed
by Watt. In reverence for that great name, we yield to no one. The
beam-engine, in its adaptation to the conditions under which it was
designed to work--namely, a piston speed of 220 feet per minute and a
pressure of one or two atmospheres--was as nearly perfect as any work
of human skill ever was or will be; but we wonder why the outraged
ghost does not haunt the men who cling to the material form they have
inherited, when the conditions which it was designed to meet have been
all outgrown, who have used up his factor of safety, and now stand
among their trembling and breaking structures, deprecating everything
which these will not endure.
“A journal and its bearings ought not only never to become warm, but
never even to wear, and, if properly made, never will do so with
ordinary care to any appreciable extent, no matter how great speed is
employed. It is well known that there exists a very wide difference in
bearings in this respect, some outlasting dozens of others. Now, there
need be no mystery about this: the conditions of perfect action are
so few and simple that it seems almost idle to state them. The first
is rigidity of a shaft or spindle between its bearings; but everybody
knows that if this is flexible, just in the degree in which it springs,
the journals must be cast in their bearings, though in actual practice
this perfect rigidity is not once in a thousand times even approximated
to. The point of excellence in the celebrated Sellers bearing for
shafting is that it turns universally to accommodate itself to this
flexure of the shaft, and the result is a durability almost perfect.
“The second requirement, when we have a shaft capable of maintaining
perfect rigidity under all the strains it may be subjected to, is
abundant extent of bearing surface both in length and circumference,
a requirement, it will be seen, entirely consistent with the first.
It is a mistake to use journals of small diameter with the idea that
their enlargement will occasion loss of power on account of the
increased surface velocity, as, in fact, the coefficient of friction
will diminish in a greater ratio than that in which the velocity is
increased. In the Allen engine it is intended to make all shafts and
journals too large.
“But all is of little use unless the journal is round. High speed under
heavy pressure has a peculiar way of making it known when a journal is
not round, which, we suppose, is one of its faults. Now the difference
between a true cylindrical form and such an approximation to it as a
good lathe will produce in turning ordinarily homogeneous metal is
simply amazing; but when we compare with this the forms of journals as
commonly finished, the wonder is how many of them run at all at any
speed. When ground with a traversing wheel in dead centers, which have
themselves been ground to true cones, the only known method by which
a parallel cylindrical form can be produced, their inequalities stand
disclosed, and these are usually found to be greater, often many times
greater, than the thickness of the film of oil that can be maintained
in running. Then under pressure this film is readily broken, the metal
surfaces come into contact and abrasion begins. But a true cylindrical
journal swims in an oil-bath, separated from its bearing at every
point by a film of oil of uniform thickness, and sustaining a uniform
pressure, which cannot be anywhere broken, and which has very little
inclination to work out; and if it revolves without deflection and the
pressure per square inch of surface is not sufficient to press out the
lubricant, the speed is absolutely immaterial and wear is impossible,
except that due to the attrition of the oil itself, which on hardened
surfaces has no appreciable effect.”
From the illustrations contained in these articles, I copy only the
following pair of diagrams with the accompanying note.
[Illustration: Pair of Diagrams from 18×30 Allen Engine at South Tyne
Paper Mill, 108 Revolutions, Vacuum 28 Inches. Only Half Intended Load
on Engine.]
The winter of 1867-8 was devoted by me partly to watching the
dissolving view of my engineering prospects in England. It grew more
and more evident that through my difference with Mr. Whitworth all my
efforts and successes there would come to naught, as they did.
But my friend, Mr. Lee, had even worse luck than I had. It will be
some relief from the monotony of my reverses if I go back a little
and tell of a reverse that befell another man. Curiously enough, Mr.
Lee’s reverse came from the overwhelming character of his success. The
English engineers had their breath quite taken away and lost their
heads, with the result that Mr. Lee lost his position. He was ambitious
to show his steam fire-engine doing its utmost. If he had been wiser
and had realized the limit of what his judges could stand, he would
have shown about one half its capacity and all parties would have been
happy.
To understand how naturally this most unexpected dénouement came
about, we must recall what the English people had been accustomed to.
In London fires were rare and trifling. Buildings were low, built of
brick with tile roofs. Open grates afforded the means of cooking and of
warming sufficiently for their climate. Every tenant of a building who
called in the fire department was fined five pounds, which encouraged
careful habits. The apparatus itself was something quite ridiculous.
It consisted of little hand-engines, worked by about a dozen men. On
the side of a corner building occasionally one saw painted a distance
in feet and inches. This meant that by measuring this distance from
this corner out into the street and digging a little into the macadam
pavement, a connection would be found with the water-main. From this
the water was permitted to flow gently into an india-rubber saucer some
6 feet in diameter spread on the ground. Out of this saucer the engine
drew its water for a feeble little stream.
Mr. Lee’s engine, with Worthington duplex pump, was, on its completion,
exhibited before a large company of invited guests, principally
officials of the fire department and prominent engineers. The engine
maintained a vertical column of water, delivered from a much larger
nozzle than had ever before been used in England, and considerably
over 100 feet high. There was also a corresponding column of sparks
from the chimney of the steam-pump. The exhibition was made late
in the afternoon of a short winter day, and before it was over the
coming darkness showed the column of incandescent cinders to the best
advantage. The few Americans there enjoyed this miniature Vesuvius
hugely. The Englishmen were frightened out of their wits. Their
unanimous verdict was that the engine would evidently put out a fire,
half a dozen of them for that matter, but it would kindle twenty.
And this where the engine had been pushed to its utmost, and had not
kindled one fire. Easton, Amos & Sons instantly decided that they could
never sell a steam fire-engine under Mr. Lee’s management, and they
discharged him the next morning.
During the following season we had quite a steam-fire-engine
excitement. Some one, I have forgotten who, but think it was the Duke
of Sutherland, made a public offer of a thousand pounds sterling for
the best steam fire-engine, competition to be open to all the world,
the engines to be tested for six days in the park of the Crystal
Palace at Sydenham, in the month of July following. There were a
number of amusing incidents connected with that exhibition. One was
the following: The common council of New York City determined that the
city must have that prize, so they sent over engine No. 7, a favorite
engine, one of Mr. Lee’s make, and which had been three or four years
in service. A junket committee of the city fathers accompanied it. The
London Fire Department received this delegation with great enthusiasm,
and devoted itself to making them happy. They took entire charge of
their machine and exhibited it in London to admiring crowds. A few days
before the time fixed for the opening of the trial they took the engine
to Sydenham, where on the way to its station it accidentally rolled
down a hillside and was pretty well broken up. Mr. Lee being in London
was hurriedly sent for to see if it could be repaired in time for the
trial. He found that the injuries were of so serious a nature that
the repairs could not be completed in less than three weeks. So that
competitor was out of the way. Their sympathizing friends were full of
condolence, and assumed all the cost of the repairs. They also proposed
that when the engine was put in proper order they should have an
excursion down the Thames to Greenwich and have there an exhibition of
its powers. So a steamboat was chartered and a large party accompanied
the machine to Greenwich. On arrival there it was found that the two
nozzles, a large one and a smaller one for long-distance streams, which
had been taken especial charge of by the members of a fire company, had
been accidentally dropped into the Thames. The New York delegation were
glad to get their engine back to New York without further accident.
Easton, Amos & Sons also concluded that they would like that prize.
After they had taken the engine into their own hands, they found a
number of features which seemed to them to need amendment, so they
made some quite important changes. On the second day of the trial this
engine broke down and had to be withdrawn.
I have forgotten how many competitors remained in the field, but the
prize was awarded to a London firm, builders of hand fire-engines,
who had only lately taken up this new branch of manufacture. This
successful firm applied to the government for an order to supply
steam fire-engines for the protection of the public buildings. This
application was referred to Easton, Amos & Sons, the consulting
engineers of the government. This firm concluded if possible to have
this order given to themselves, and applied to Mr. Lee to recommend the
changes in his engine necessary to put it in proper working order. Mr.
Lee replied that it was only necessary to put the engine back in the
precise condition in which he left it. They finally agreed to do this,
and employed Mr. Lee to direct the work. When completed the engine was
tried in the gardens of Buckingham Palace, in competition with the
prize winner, before a large body of government officials. The Easton,
Amos & Sons engine proved its superiority on every point so completely
that the government immediately purchased it.
Some time before this, however, Mr. Lee had associated himself with a
capitalist for the manufacture of steam fire-engines in England, and
was then engaged on plans for them. His financial associate was Judge
Winter, by which title only he was known to us. He was an American, and
before the war was the proprietor of the Winter Iron Works in Georgia
(the precise location I have forgotten), the most prominent engineering
establishment in the Southern States, in which business he had become
wealthy. He will be remembered by some gray heads as having been an
exhibitor in the New York Crystal Palace in 1853. He sent to it a
steam-engine bearing the name of “The Southern Belle.” This stood in
the machinery department, close to a Corliss engine, the two being the
only engines of any size which were exhibited there. This engine was
beautifully finished, polished pretty much all over, but its working
features were of the most ordinary character. Mechanically it was
valueless.
Judge Winter was a determined opponent of secession, and on the
adoption of that ordinance by the State of Georgia, was compelled to
fly from the country. He then took up his residence in London, to which
he had transferred such portion of his wealth as he was able to convert
into money.
He took a deep interest in the new steam fire-engine, and spent part
of nearly every day in the office where Mr. Lee and Mr. Taylor, an
American engineer whom Mr. Lee had associated with himself, were
engaged on their plans.
The point of interest to myself in this story lies here. The old judge
had no sound mechanical education, but was very fertile minded. He
came almost every morning with a new idea that he wanted embodied. It
was always absurd. He generally protested vigorously against being
overruled. When he was furnishing all the money he could not see why he
should not be allowed to have _something_ to say about it. I happened
to be present in their office one morning when he got particularly
excited over their opposition. He was a stout party, and on this
occasion I had the fun of joining in the shout of laughter that greeted
him, when, after pacing the floor in silence for a few minutes, he
exclaimed, with his hand on the fabled seat of his sympathies, “I
thank my God that if there is one thing I am free from, it is pride of
opinion.”
My recollection of the above action of Easton, Amos & Sons and of Judge
Winter contributed materially to form my imagination of the predicament
in which I would certainly find myself, should I yield to Mr. Whitworth
the power to make whatever changes might occur to him in my engine.
CHAPTER XV
Preparations for Returning to America. Bright Prospects.
Having but little practical work to occupy me that winter, I devoted
myself to getting out for Elliott Bros. a second edition of my
instruction book to accompany the Richards indicator, and my paper
for the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and the illustrations and
material for Mr. Colburn’s articles on the Allen engine published in
_Engineering_.
I found in the library of the Manchester Philosophical Society a copy
of the twentieth volume of the “Memoirs of the French Academy of
Sciences,” containing the report of the experiments of M. Regnault to
determine the properties of steam, with the leaves uncut, of which I
was then able to make some use. I was anxious to obtain a copy of this
volume for myself, and also of Volume 21, containing other memoirs by
M. Regnault. This object I succeeded in accomplishing when in Paris
that winter through the kind interest of M. Tresca, the well-known
Sous-Directeur of the Ecole des Arts et Métiers. This was a matter of
so much difficulty, that a letter from M. Tresca to the publisher was
found not to be sufficient. It was necessary that M. Tresca should
personally identify me as the “savant” to whom he had given the letter.
I was then able to obtain both the volumes, which I brought home with
me on my return to America.
Now was the winter of my discontent made glorious summer, and all
the clouds that lowered about my enterprise in the deep bosom of
the ocean buried, by the receipt of a letter from Mr. Hope, telling
me that Mr. Allen’s report after his visit of inspection was of so
entirely satisfactory a character that, after full consideration,
it had been concluded to write me to leave everything in England in
whatever condition I might be obliged to, and return home and join with
Mr. Allen in the manufacture of the engines, for which ample capital
would be furnished. So in my ecstasy I went about quoting to myself
Shakespeare’s lines and applying them to my reviving fortunes. Mr.
Hoyle congratulated me warmly on this favorable turn in my affairs,
seeing clearly that I would never do anything with Mr. Whitworth,
unless on his own inadmissible terms.
After I had sobered down from my excitement, I began to consider the
matter carefully, and to determine upon the preparations that ought
to be made as a foundation for what, by judicious management, should
grow to be a great and profitable business. I fully realized the
responsibility that was devolved upon me, and determined that both in
foresight and prudence I would prove myself equal to its requirements.
I wrote a glad acceptance of the proposition and expatiated on the
advantage we should enjoy from what I had learned in England. I told
them that the selection of a suitable location was of the first
importance, and suggested that a plot of twenty or thirty acres should
be purchased in the environs of a large manufacturing town, affording
a good labor market and having good railway facilities, and where the
land could be got at farm prices. I would plan shops on a scale large
enough for a great business and of a form adapted for enlargement from
time to time, and build at first a small part, which as the business
grew could be added to without alteration. I asked them to look
about for the best place, but do nothing further until I got home,
when I would have carefully studied plans, embodying the most recent
improvements in building and tools to lay before them.
I then entered with enthusiasm into the preparation of my plans. The
model shop, now in common use, had then lately been designed by the
firm of Smith & Coventry, tool makers of Salford, which is a suburb
of Manchester, separated from it only by a narrow stream, the river
Irwell, and their plan had been at once followed by the firm of Craven
Brothers of Manchester, also tool makers. It was, of course, still
unknown in the United States.
The general idea of this shop was taken from the nave and side aisles
of Gothic cathedrals. The central and wider portion, which we may call
the nave, was one story in height and was commanded by the travelers,
and its floor was occupied by the largest tools only, and for erection.
The side aisles were two stories in height. The smallest work, of
course, was on the upper story, and tools and work of medium size on
the floors below, the latter being transported by carriages suspended
from the floor above. No rails were laid or gangways kept open on any
floor. All transportation of heavy objects was through the air. The
great value of this improvement, made by this firm in shop design, and
which has brought this design into general use, lay in its natural
classification of the work. Travelers were already quite common in
England, but under them large and small tools, often very small ones,
were found mingled quite promiscuously. Their shop had an entire glass
roof, made on the ridge and furrow plan, first used in the Crystal
Palace in Hyde Park for the International Exhibition of 1851. That roof
would not answer, however, in this climate, on account of our snow in
winter, so I had to plan a different one. But in every other respect
their plan was perfect. The columns, of course, at that time were of
cast iron. These were cast in pairs connected by a web, the longer
columns in each pair supporting the roof, the short ones the rails for
the travelers.
In Smith & Coventry’s shop the traveler was operated from the floor by
means of a loop hanging from a wheel on the crab. The arrangement was
exceedingly convenient in every respect.
I obtained full detail drawings of Smith & Coventry’s shop. The
accompanying outline presents a cross-section of this shop, and is
figured to the dimensions I proposed to adopt. I proposed to build
a length of only 75 feet, which by successive additions could be
extended to 500 feet if required. Moreover, at first the office,
drawing-office, pattern shop, and storeroom, besides the machine shop,
in short everything, except only the engine and boiler, smith shop and
foundry, were to be accommodated in this one building. I was greatly
pleased with my plan, and felt sure that it would commend itself to
my associates, as no shop possessing these conveniences then existed
in the United States. I, however, introduced one modification of the
English shops, or rather one addition. I had observed that reliance on
the traveler for local work involved a serious loss of time. I had
seen in various shops men standing idle, sometimes from fifteen to
thirty minutes, waiting for the traveler to be at liberty to come and
give them a lift. It appeared evident to me that the province of the
traveler was to fetch and carry; not to perform local work, unless of
the heaviest class. So for the latter purpose I provided swing cranes,
which could be operated by the workman himself without assistance. This
also enabled one traveler to cover a much longer extent of floor.
[Illustration: Cross-section of Machine Shop Proposed by Mr. Porter in
1868, after the Design of Smith & Coventry.]
Smith & Coventry had made numerous improvements on Mr. Whitworth’s
tools. I have already mentioned their arrangement which made it
possible to take up the wear of the lathe spindle bearings. In the
radial drill, an invention of Mr. Whitworth’s, as made by him, in order
to bring the drill to the right position longitudinally, the workman
was obliged to go to the end of the arm and turn the screw. From
this point he could not see his work, and had to guess at the proper
adjustment. I have seen him in the Whitworth works go back and forth
for this purpose three or four times, and have always doubted if he
got it exactly right after all. Smith & Coventry introduced an elegant
device by which the workman was able to make this adjustment without
moving from his place. They also first made the arm of the radial
drill adjustable vertically by power. By simply reversing the curve
of the brackets under Mr. Whitworth’s shaper tables, they made these
unyielding under the pressure of the cut. This firm also first employed
small cutting tools set in an arm which was secured in the tool-post,
and put an end to tool-dressing by the blacksmith, which had caused
a fearful waste of time, and also encouraged idle habits among the
workmen. This improvement has since come into common use. Their system
of grinding these small tools interested me very much. The workman
never left his machine. He was provided with a number of tools, set in
compartments in a box. When a tool became dull he took it out, set it
in the box upside down, and substituted another. A boy went regularly
through the shop, took up all the upside-down tools, ground them, and
brought them back. The grindstones were provided with tool-holders and
a compound screw feed, by which the tools were always presented to the
stone at the same desired angle, and were prevented from wearing out
the stone by running into grooves or following soft spots. The whole
surface of the stone was used uniformly and kept in perfect condition.
I picked up in that shop the solid wrench made with the elegant
improvement of inclining the handle at the angle of 15 degrees from
the line of the jaws; enabling it, by turning the wrench over, to be
worked within a radial angle of 30 degrees. This adapted it for use in
tight places. I brought the idea home with me and always supplied my
engines with wrenches made in that way. I offered the plan to Billings
& Spencer for nothing, but they did not think it worth making the dies
for. Mr. Williams was more appreciative. I believe it is now in quite
common use.
At that time toolmaking in this country, which has since become so
magnificently developed, was in many important respects in a primitive
condition, and I proposed to introduce into my shop every best tool and
method, adapted to my requirements, that I could find in England. For
this purpose I visited and carefully studied all the tool works of good
standing, and my final conclusion was that the best tools for design,
strength, solidity, facility of operation and truth of work were those
made by Smith & Coventry. This may be guessed from the few examples
I have given of their fertile mindedness and advanced ideas. So I
prepared a careful list of tools that I proposed to order from them
in time to be ready for use as soon as my shop should be completed. I
found also the remarkable fact that I could obtain these tools, duty
and freight paid, decidedly cheaper than corresponding inferior tools
could then be got from American makers.
Before bidding good-by to England, I must tell the luck I had in
endeavoring to introduce Mr. Allen’s double-opening slide valve, shown
in the general view of my London exhibit, now in common use the world
over. No locomotive engineer would even look at it. Finally I got an
order from Mr. Thomas Aveling for one of these valves with single
eccentric valve-gear, to be tried on one of his road locomotives or
traction engines. Mr. Aveling is known to fame as the inventor of the
road locomotive and steam road roller. He once told me how he came to
make this invention. He was a maker of portable engines in Rochester,
which was the center of a wheat-growing district. These engines were
employed universally to drive threshing machines. Horses were used
to draw both the machine and the engine from farm to farm. The idea
occurred to him that this was almost as foolish as was the practice of
the Spanish muleteers, in putting the goods they transported on one
side of the animal and employing a bag of stones on the other side to
balance them. Why not make the engine capable of moving itself and
drawing the threshing machine, and dispense with the horses altogether?
So he applied himself to the job and did it. Then it was found that
the self-propelling threshing-machine engines could draw a great many
other things besides threshing machines, and the business grew to large
proportions.
Mr. Aveling made an engine with valve and valve-gear from my drawings,
and I took a ride with him on it from Rochester to London, the engine
drawing two trucks loaded with the two halves of a fly-wheel. The
performance was entirely satisfactory. He said the engine was handled
more easily than any other he ever made, and it maintained its speed
in going up hill in a manner to astonish him, which was accounted
for by the double valve opening. The little engine ran very rapidly,
about 300 revolutions per minute, being geared down to a slow motion
of the machine, about 4 miles travel per hour. With a single opening
for admission it had admitted only a partial pressure of the steam,
but the double opening valve admitted very nearly the whole pressure
and made a sharp cut-off, all which I showed by the indicator. He
told me that he was then filling a large order for traction engines
for Australia, and this valve and valve-gear were the very thing for
them. I went back to Manchester happy in the satisfaction of having
accomplished one thing in the engine line at any rate.
A few weeks after, being in London, I went to Rochester to see how the
new valve-gear was progressing. The first thing I saw was my valve and
valve-gear hanging up in the storeroom. Mr. Aveling explained to me
that he had been advised by engineers, whose advice by his contract
with his financial partner he was obliged to follow, that the narrow
faces on my valve would wear away faster than the wider faces, and the
valve would come to leak, and if he put it on his engine it would ruin
his business. He did not believe it; it seemed to him absurd, but he
was powerless.
This was the nearest approach I ever made myself towards the
introduction of this valve. In 1875 I seemed to have a promising
opening. I received a note from Mr. M. N. Forney, then editor of
the _Railway Gazette_, calling my attention to this valve and its
description in his “Catechism of the Locomotive,” just published, and
stating that this was the only patented invention in the book.
He added that he had had conferences with Mr. Buchanan, foreman of the
New York Central and Hudson River Railroad repair shops in New York
City, about trying this valve on their locomotives, and Mr. Buchanan
would like to see me.
On my calling, Mr. Buchanan asked me what arrangement I was willing to
make. I replied that they might put the valve on six locomotives free
of royalty. If these valves worked well I would give them a license on
liberal terms. He said he had an express locomotive then in the shop
for which he was making new cylinders; these were already bored and the
valve seats planed, but not yet trimmed, and in this state there was
room to put in these valves, which he would do; they would be ready in
about a fortnight, when he would send me word, and would be glad to
have me go up to Albany and back on the locomotive and indicate the
engines. I have been waiting for that “word” ever since.
A few days after I met in the street an acquaintance, who asked me if
Mr. Buchanan had agreed to put the Allen valve on an engine. I replied
that he had. Why, said he, Buchanan will no more dare put that valve
on unless Commodore Vanderbilt orders him to, than he would to cut his
head off. He will never persuade the old man to give that order, and
you will never hear of it again; and I never did.
The recollection of another experience with Mr. Aveling has often
amused me. He had an order from the Chatham Dock Yard for a stationary
engine of perhaps 100 horse-power. It was to be inspected in operation
before its acceptance by the government. He wrote me to come down and
bring my indicator and assist him in exhibiting it running under a
friction brake in his shop.
At the hour appointed the inspector appeared, accompanied by
half-a-dozen young officers. He spoke to no one, observed the engine
in operation, took the diagrams from my hand, asked no question, but
proceeded to discourse to his followers on the engine. I could hardly
believe my senses as I listened to the absurdities that he gravely
got off; not a sentence was intelligible. I can see Mr. Aveling now
quietly winking at me, as we stood with respectful gravity till he had
finished, when he turned and marched off without noticing anybody. This
was my only personal encounter with the English official mind.
CHAPTER XVI
Return to America. Disappointment. My Shop. The Colt Armory Engine
designed by Mr. Richards. Appearance of Mr. Goodfellow. My Surface
Plate Work. Formation of a Company.
In June, 1868, having completed my preparations, I bade what has proven
to be a long good-by to England, and buoyant with anticipations turned
my face homeward. During the voyage my mind dwelt constantly on the
bright career for which it clearly appeared that my experience in
England was the fit preparation, and on my projected work, every detail
of which I revolved over and over in imagination.
The first thing after I got home I made an important discovery, one of
that kind which generally men have to make for themselves. My discovery
was this: Put not your trust in riches, especially when they belong
to another man. Mr. Hope had made the blunder of relying on a single
capitalist. I had expected to find at least half-a-dozen subscribers
to a capital of not less than $100,000. His single financial associate
and reliance was a gentleman of wealth, retired from active business,
and whom I introduce to the reader as Mr. Smith. Under his direction
Mr. Hope had written to me the invitation and promise to which I have
already referred. The wealth and the ideas of Mr. Smith seemed to be
in inverse proportion to each other. The greatness of the former was
represented by the smallness of the latter. He entered with earnestness
and energy into our work--according to his own plans. He paid no regard
to my suggestions, and instead of heeding my request to postpone
definite action until my return he hurried his scheme to completion
so that I would find everything settled beyond the possibility of my
interference.
In Harlem, then a somewhat remote and quite dead suburb of New York, on
Fourth Avenue between 130th and 131st streets, within a block or two of
the termination of the avenue on the Harlem River, he found a little
abandoned foundry, about 40 feet square, with a lean-to in the rear,
used for cleaning castings. It had been dismantled and idle for several
years, never, of course, had a floor, and the windows were broken. This
he hailed as the very place he wanted, and at once leased it for five
years at a small rent, with the ground belonging to it, extending from
130th to 131st Street, 200 feet front by 100 feet deep, and vacant,
except this building and a little office, 10×15 feet, on the upper
corner.
He then turned his attention to providing the “ample capital.” My
governor shop on West Thirteenth Street had during my long absence
been run quite successfully by my faithful foreman, Nelson Aldrich.
Mr. Smith planned to remove this shop to Harlem, and to furnish Mr.
Allen money enough to enable him to enter into an equal partnership
with me, adding the engine business to my governor manufacture.
Everything in my shop was appraised at the round sum of $10,000, and
this magnificent amount, as he regarded it, he advanced to Mr. Allen
_as a loan_. Mr. Allen had put his savings of several years into a
little home in Tremont, a village on the line of the railroad, some
three or four miles above the Harlem River. This place had cost him
$2500. Mr. Smith told Mr. Allen that he must secure him the repayment
of this loan, so far as he could do so, by the mortgage of his house
and lot. This demand caused Mr. Allen great distress and half killed
his wife. Mr. Smith was inexorable--no mortgage, no money. Mr. Allen
thought of a scheme for outwitting him, and the mortgage was executed
and the money paid over. He applied this first to making the premises
habitable, laying a floor and putting a floor above, which would give a
story under the roof, and the beams of which would carry the shafting
for driving the tools. He repaired the broken windows and put windows
in the front gable to light the new upper story, put on a new roof,
installed a portable engine and boiler, and equipped a little smith
shop in the lean-to. My tools, etc., were then moved into their new
quarters. These tools were all small. In order to make engines some
larger ones would be needed. Mr. Allen procured from the firm of Hewes
& Phillips, Newark, N. J., a very good planer, large enough to pass
work 4 feet wide and high, and a 20-inch lathe. When this installation
was completed, Mr. Allen had expended $7500. Then he stopped making
purchases and said nothing. The work of my governor manufacture was
resumed, and nothing more attempted. This was the state of affairs that
stared me in the face on my return. The shop had been running about a
fortnight. Mr. Smith told me he had supplied all the money he expected
to. Mr. Allen said he had not obliged himself to put all the money
loaned him into the business, and the amount for which he had mortgaged
his house was in a safe place, where it could be got when wanted to pay
off that mortgage.
I was stupefied. As I began to realize my utter helplessness, I broke
down entirely. What rational motive could any man have had in getting
me home and leaving me powerless to do anything? Had I imagined the
character of his plans I should have remained in England, signed
anything that Mr. Whitworth wanted me to, and trusted Providence and
Mr. Hoyle for the result. The absurdity of the case presented itself to
me sometimes in its humiliating and sometimes in its ludicrous aspect,
according to my mood. After a while I saw that I must reconcile myself
to the situation, and see what could be done under the circumstances.
We could only do a little business in making small non-condensing
engines. Not more than from 15 to 20 men could work in the shop. As
for facilities for handling machinery, there were none. We yet needed
several expensive tools. We had to make patterns; we must have money
to run the place until returns came in. I laid the matter before Mr.
Smith. First of all, that mortgage must be discharged; I would not
stir till that was done. He had overreached himself. I rejoiced that
Mr. Allen had got the better of him. It would be idle to set about the
business without at least $10,000 additional capital; this I finally
got, and, with the advance to Mr. Allen, made free from interest, by
assigning the entire indicator patents to Mr. Smith and Mr. Hope. As
it turned out, we bought that money at an enormous price; but we did
not know this at the time. We must have money and this was the only way
to get it. We congratulated ourselves that by any sacrifice we had
secured the sum of $20,000 and without the burden of interest.
Now I took heart and set at work in earnest, feeling sure that I could
soon bring the engine into a position that would command the means
required to do it justice. I ordered from Smith & Coventry a stationary
drilling machine, a 6-inch slotting machine, a bolt-threading machine,
and a set of cylindrical gauges, and had them all in place by the
time we were ready to use them. This bolt-threading machine was a
wonder, and has not been surpassed since. The rod was fed through a
hollow spindle, seized in the jaws of a self-centering chuck, and the
projecting end finished. The threading dies were backed by eccentric
wedges in a solid ring, which was turned out of the way during the
sliding operation. These were closed or opened by a lever which carried
a stud moving in a circular slot. This stud was brought up to a stop,
which could be set to cut threads of any depth. The threads were
finished in a single motion. For standing bolts, we threaded one end,
so that it screwed hard into its seat, and by moving the stop a trifle
the threads on the other end were cut deeper, so that the nuts turned
on it more easily. The rapidity, uniformity and precision with which
this was done could not be surpassed.
Smith & Coventry had lately commenced the manufacture of cylindrical
gauges, of which up to that time Mr. Whitworth had had the monopoly.
Flat gauges did not then exist. The above tools were almost incredibly
superior to those then made in this country. I was anxious for one of
their radial drills, but had no place to set it. I adopted the Franklin
Institute screw-thread, and obtained a set of hobs from William Sellers
& Co. I equipped our little office to accommodate one draftsman besides
myself, and soon had a good man at work, engaged mostly in preparing
drawings from the tracings I had brought from England. The story over
the shop, in the middle half of which a man could stand upright, was
made a pattern shop, and two patternmakers were soon at work there.
They found the shop very hot. The roof was covered with paper and
tar. I could not bear my hand on the under side of the roof boards. I
whitewashed the roof, making the whitewash rainproof, and this heat
entirely disappeared.
I have borne in mind this interesting result, the complete prevention
of heat absorption by changing the color of the surface to one
absolutely white; and am now proposing a similar change in brick boiler
settings and chimneys, using white enameled tiles, which also prevent
percolation of the external air.
I will improve the time while we are waiting for this preparatory
work to be finished by telling of two Allen engines already running
and made in the United States. The first one had been made by my old
friend Mr. Richards, the inventor of the indicator. He was at that time
the engineer of the Colt Armory in Hartford. They built a new shop
four stories in height and 500 feet long. Mr. Richards designed and
arranged the power in this shop and its transmission. He adopted the
Allen engine, with which he alone in this country was familiar. I have
written to Professor Richards for a description of these engines and
received the following reply:
“227 Edwards St., New Haven, Ct.
“October 9, 1903.
“_Dear Mr. Porter_:
“In a sort of way you rather stole a march on me, by writing me
before I had written to you, for it had been my intention for a
number of weeks to write, thanking you for the frequent mention of my
name in your ‘Reminiscences’ and for the kindly way in which you have
spoken of me. Your papers have interested me greatly and bring back
recollections of times which were for me very happy, when I first
made your acquaintance and afterwards enjoyed the intimacy which grew
up.
“My neglect to write came from my almost unsurmountable repugnance to
letter writing, which, if anything, grows yearly.
“I am as nervous as usual, but in excellent strength, and by putting
sulphur in my boots (and wearing the boots) am apparently pretty much
cured of rheumatism. My students and I get along together very well;
there are, however, so many of them now that I feel quite overwhelmed
at times. About fifty men come to my classes, and in my department
there are in all about one hundred and forty.
“Now for the Colt’s Armory engines. There are two pairs in line
with each other, vertical engines, Porter-Allen type, in the second
story and in the middle of the building, which is 500 feet long. The
line shaft, stretching 250 feet each way from the engines, forms an
extension of the engine crank-shaft. Between the engines are pulleys
driving the first-story line shaft beneath them and the third-story
line above. All 500 feet long. Cylinder bore, 12¹⁄₂ inches; stroke,
24 inches; speed, 130 revolutions per minute.
“The dimensions and general form of the running gear were made from
drawings sent to me by you. The valve-gear differs only in divorcing
the exhaust valves from the steam valves by placing them on the
opposite side of the cylinder and driving them from a separate
eccentric on that side, and not from the link.
“The framing for each engine of a pair is like a Porter bed standing
on end with two posts forming what would be the lower part of the bed
if it were lying down. There are therefore eight posts in the two
pairs of engines, which form the second-story columns of the framing
of the building, and the whole framing of the engines makes an
integral part of the building construction, being rigidly connected
with the beams of the fireproof flooring of all three floors. The
building is four stories high.
“The engines were started in 1867. They have been in continuous
service ever since. Ten or twelve years ago I had an opportunity to
measure the thickness of the crowns of the crank-pin boxes. They did
not differ perceptibly from the thickness marked on the drawing from
which they were made. Knowing the accuracy with which the work was
made to correspond with the drawings (gun-shop work), I am confident
that the wear of the box after twenty-six years of service had not
amounted to five one-thousandths of an inch. All the parts give
evidence of an almost indefinite durability.
“All the work except that on the governors was done in the shops of
the Colt company. The beds were cast in the foundry of one of the
distinguished old engine-builders of Hartford, who felt it his duty
to call on General Franklin, the general manager of the company,
to warn him that if Richards were permitted to put a number of 75
horse-power engines running at 100 revolutions per minute, in the
second story of a great building like the armory, disaster was
certain. The building would be shaken so terribly. The fact is that
any one standing on the third floor directly over the cranks would
not know, from the movement of the floor or from sound, that the
engines were running. The usual steam pressure carried when I was in
the armory was from 50 to 60 pounds. The boilers then were large, of
the drop-flue type.
[Illustration: Card from Allen Engine in Colt’s Armory.]
“Enclosed is a card taken in 1878 with the ‘pantographic’ indicator,
for which a silver medal was awarded me at Paris in that year. The
particular indicator with which this card was taken is in the Museum
of the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers.
“Very sincerely yours,
“C. B. RICHARDS.”
This bold and successful piece of engineering would have made easy the
introduction of these engines in New England.
[Illustration: Professor CHARLES B. RICHARDS]
The second engine had been built by a prominent iron works in New
York, from Mr. Allen’s drawings, for a paint mill in South Brooklyn.
Both names I have forgotten. Mr. Allen took me to see this engine
soon after I came home. It had then been running for a year or more,
and had given high satisfaction. Its local influence was found quite
valuable to us. This engine is memorable for the following reason: Ten
years afterwards, while building engines in Newark, I received from
Mr. Mathieson, manager of the National Tube Works in McKeesport, Pa.,
a letter containing an invitation to make him a tender for two large
Allen engines, the largest I had yet attempted, and which resulted
in my building these engines for him. After they were successfully
running, Mr. Mathieson told me how he came to write me. He said he was
the superintendent of the iron works in New York in which Mr. Allen
had this engine built, and was very much impressed by its advantages,
especially after he saw it in operation; and in planning this mill
these engines seemed to be just what he wanted.
[Illustration: Sectional and Front Elevations of One of the Two Pairs
of Porter-Allen Engines in the Colt Armory, Hartford, Conn.]
[Illustration: Porter-Allen Engines in the Colt Armory, Hartford, Conn.
Front View]
[Illustration: Porter-Allen Engines in the Colt Armory, Hartford, Conn.
Rear View]
[Illustration: Sectional and Side Elevations of One of the Two Pairs of
Porter-Allen Engines in the Colt Armory, Hartford, Conn.]
In preparing for the engine manufacture one of my first aims was
the production of true surface plates for finishing my guide-bars,
cross-heads, valves, and seats, and cylinder and steam-chest joints,
all of which I made steam-tight scraped joints requiring no packing.
This was a new departure in steam-engine work in this country. I
fancied myself an expert in the art, but found out that there was
one degree at least that I had not taken. I designed several sizes
of surface plates, intended primarily to fit the guide-bars of the
engines, and also straight edges 6 feet in length by 2¹⁄₂ inches wide.
These are represented in the accompanying cuts.
[Illustration: Surface Plates Designed by Mr. Porter.]
I found still working in my governor shop a man named Meyers. He was
the best fitter I ever had; had fitted every governor made in my shop,
the little engine or the parts of it that I took to England, and long
before had fitted my stone-cutting machine in Mr. Banks’ shop. This
man I taught all I knew about the art of producing true planes by the
system of scraping, and he produced surface plates and straight edges
that seemed to me quite perfect.
The following incident illustrates the general intelligence on this
subject at that time among skilled workmen in this country. As I was
inspecting Mr. Meyers’ first work in scraping, my foreman came along,
and after observing it quite a while remarked, “It is my opinion you
will never make a proper job of that, till you put it on the planer and
take a light cut over it.”
One day, not long after we started, George Goodfellow walked into my
shop. He had come from the Whitworth works, had been foreman there of
the upstairs room in which most of the fine scraping on their tools
was done. I had a slight acquaintance with him, but could not remember
having been in his room but once, and then only for a minute or two. He
had become disgusted with Mr. Widdowson and the way things were going
on under his management, and had resigned his position and emigrated to
the United States; found out where I was hiding, I never learned how,
and applied to me for a job, which I was glad to give him. I cannot
imagine any greater contrast than between Mr. Goodfellow and every
other man I met in the Whitworth shops.
I had then on hand two orders for standard surface plates and straight
edges, one from the Colt Armory and one from Pratt & Whitney. Mr.
Meyers had just finished work on these when Mr. Goodfellow appeared. He
had not been at work in the shop but a day or two when he asked me if I
had got the cross-wind out of those straight edges.
I made him the ignorant answer that they were so narrow the matter
of cross-wind had not occurred to me as important, as our planer did
very true work. He said nothing, but pulled a hair out of his head and
laid it across a straight edge at its middle point. He then inverted
another straight edge on it and swung this on the hair as a pivot. It
swung in one direction freely, but in the other direction the corners
caught and it was revealed that the surfaces were spirals. I gave
him the job of taking out this twist. He was occupied about two days
in making the three interchangeable straight edges quite true. When
finished I tried them with great satisfaction, the test showing also
their absolute freedom from flexure. The first swing on the hair pivot
was in each direction as if the upper straight edge were hanging in the
air. As this was repeated back and forth, I felt the surfaces gradually
approaching each other, the same increasing resistance being felt in
each direction of the swing, and finally they were in complete contact.
What became of the hair I could not find out. This refinement of truth,
so easily attained and demonstrated when we know how, was of course
a necessity. I made the engines at that time with the steam-chest
separate from the cylinder; so two long steam joints had to be made
between cylinder, chest, and cover.
I fitted up these standards, both surface plates and straight edges,
with their edges scraped also to true planes and all their angles
absolute right angles. For this and other purposes I made two angle
plates, each face 8 inches square, with diagonal ribs. These were
scraped so that when the two were set on a surface plate, either
surface of one would come in complete contact with either surface of
the other, and also when one or the other was set on its edges. This
angle plate also is shown.
For our screw-thread work I made a pair of steel 60-degree standards,
the truth of which was demonstrated as follows: The outside gauge being
set up on a surface plate, the inside triangular block set on the
surface plate passed through the former in exact contact, whichever
angle was up and whichever side was presented. From the cylindrical
gauges of Smith & Coventry I made flat inside and outside gauges of
steel with faces hardened, reserving the former for reference only.
I had wondered why this was not done in England. Presume they have
learned the importance of it long ago.
We could not advertise--the fact is I was ashamed to; but we had as
many orders as we could take with our very limited means of production.
Indeed, we had frequent applications which called for engines too
large for us to consider them. We had some applications from parties
who were short of power, and on measuring their engines with the
indicator always found that we could supply their requirements by
putting in smaller engines. In one case I remember we put in an engine
of just one half the size, and requiring but one quarter the weight of
fly-wheel, of the one taken out, and gave them all the additional power
they wanted, and more uniform motion. This would seem an extravagant
statement were not its reasonableness proved by the experience of
makers of high-speed engines generally. Sometimes the indicator showed
ludicrous losses of pressure between boiler and engine.
On account of his familiarity with the requirements of more exact
construction, I made Mr. Goodfellow my foreman after he had been with
me a short time, and he proved to be the very man for the position.
He made all my engines in Harlem and afterwards in Newark, and I was
largely indebted to him for my success.
Before the close of our first year Mr. Smith proposed that our business
be transferred to a company, to which he would pay in a little
additional money, in consideration of which, and of his previous
advances to the business, he demanded a controlling interest in the
stock. I did not like the idea, but Mr. Hope and Mr. Allen favored it,
and I consented. So the company was incorporated. Mr. Smith was made
its president, and one of his sons was made secretary and treasurer. He
transferred to this son and also to another one qualifying shares of
his stock, and both were added to the board of directors, that making
six of us. The admirable way in which this machinery worked will appear
by and by.
Mr. Smith proceeded at once to get out a catalogue and build on the
vacant lot a new business office, of quite respectable size and two
stories high, finishing the second story for Mr. Goodfellow with his
family to live in. When this building was ready Mr. Smith installed
himself in the office and busied himself in meddling and dictating
about the business, impressing me with the great advantage of having
a thorough business man at the head of it. If I ventured any word on
this subject, I always received the sneering reply, “What do you know
about business?” The following incident in this connection may amuse
the reader as much as it did me. I may mention in the first place that
when, as already stated, he with Mr. Hope acquired the entire indicator
patents, of which he assumed the individual management and so I always
supposed had secured the larger part, the first thing he did was to
repudiate my agreement with Mr. Richards to pay to him 10 per cent. of
the receipts from the patents, this being a verbal agreement (as all
the transaction was), and so Mr. Richards never received another penny.
One morning Mr. Smith came into my office and said, “Do you know
that the license to Elliott Brothers to manufacture the indicators
has expired?” I had licensed them only for seven years, not knowing
whether or not they would prove satisfactory licensees. “Well,” said
I, “suppose it has?” “Would you let them go on without a license?”
he demanded; “that shows how much you know about business.” “If it
were my affair,” I replied, “I should not stir it up. I see every
reason for letting it alone. It is the business of the licensee, if
he feels unsafe, to apply for the extension of his license.” With a
contemptuous sneer Mr. Smith left me and immediately wrote Elliott
Brothers, reminding them that their license had expired and requesting
an answer by return mail to say if they wanted to renew it.
He received the answer that I knew he would, for what good business man
ever lets such an opening go by him? They said they were just on the
point of writing him that they did not wish to renew unless on very
different terms. By the contract they made with me they paid a royalty
of £2 on each indicator sold at retail, and £1 10 shillings on each one
sold at wholesale. The selling price was £8 10 shillings. They made a
large profit on extra springs, of which they sold a great number at 10
shillings each, and which cost them about 2 shillings. They wrote at
length on the difficulty of holding the market against the competition
of cheap indicators selling at £4 (which was just the competition
against which the indicator was at first introduced but which had
long before ceased to be serious) and closed by saying that if Mr.
Smith would agree to accept one half the former royalty, they would
themselves make a corresponding reduction in their profits and would
be able to put the indicators at a price that would probably make the
business satisfactory. Otherwise they would find themselves compelled
to discontinue the manufacture altogether, which they should do unless
they received an affirmative reply at once. Of course they got the
affirmative reply. Mr. Smith had no alternative. They never reduced the
selling price one penny. They had no competition during the life time
of the patent, and their sales were enormous. The amount of royalties
lost during the remaining seven years of the patent was certainly not
less than $35,000.
The following is a story with a moral. The moral is, working to gauges
is an excellent plan, providing the gauges are mixed with brains. No
manufacturing system is perfect that is not fool-proof. If a mistake is
possible it is generally made.
A company of English capitalists were spending a good deal of money on
the west coast of South America in building railroads into and over
the Andes. One of these roads was intended to reach a famous silver
mine, from which the Spaniards, two or three hundred years before, had
taken large quantities of the precious metal, but which had long ago
been drowned out and abandoned. The railroad was to take up pumping
machinery by which the mine could be cleared of water and to bring
down the ore in car-load lots. For some purpose or other they wanted
a stationary engine in those high altitudes, and their agent in this
country ordered one from me. I was having my fly-wheels and belt drums
cast by Mr. Ferguson, whose foundry was on 13th Street, west of Ninth
Avenue, some seven miles distant from my shop in Harlem. He had a
wheel-lathe in which I could have them turned and bored, and they were
bored to gauges and shipped direct to their destinations. This time I
had two wheels to be finished, so I sent the gauges with a tag attached
to each describing the wheel it was for, but neglected to go and make a
personal inspection of the work. Some months after I received a bitter
letter from South America, complaining that they found the wheel had
been bored half an inch smaller than the shaft, and that they had to
chip off a quarter of an inch all around the hole where the barometer
stood at 17 inches, and physical exertion was something to be avoided.
The case was somewhat relieved by the fact that I always cored out a
larger chamber in the middle of the hub for the purpose of getting
rid of a mass of metal which would cause the hub to cool too slowly,
finishing only a length of two inches at each end of the hub, which
was 10 or 12 inches long. As the engine had been paid for on shipment
and ran well when put together, there was no great harm done, but I
was sorry for the poor fellows who had to do the work. Except the one
already mentioned in my first governor pulley, ten or twelve years
before, this was the only misfit I can recall in my whole experience.
Mr. Ferguson told me the best piece-work story I ever heard. He said
he had a contract for making a large number of the bases for the
columns of the elevated railroad; these castings were quite large and
complicated. He gave the job to his best molder, but the man could
turn out only one a day. He thought it was slow work and spoke to him
about it, but he protested that was all he could make. Mr. Ferguson
found he could never complete his contract at that rate, and as he was
paying the man three dollars a day, he told him he would pay him three
dollars for each perfect casting and asked him to do his best and see
how many he could turn out. The man employed a boy to help him, and
by systematizing his work he turned out six perfect castings every day
and drew his eighteen dollars with supreme indifference. This is a big
story to swallow, but the incident was then recent. I had the story
from Mr. Ferguson himself, and he was a sterling, reliable man, so that
there could be no doubt as to its absolute truth.
CHAPTER XVII
Mr. Allen’s Invention of his Boiler. Exhibition at the Fair of the
American Institute in 1870.
At that time the “Field boiler tubes” were attracting considerable
attention in London. These were designed to prevent the water from
being lifted from the closed bottom of vertical tubes over the fire,
which would cause them to be burned out. The Field tubes were smaller
internal tubes, provided at the upper end with three wings which
centered them in the middle of the external tubes, in which they
reached nearly to the bottom. They were made slightly bell-mouthed
at the top. The circulation was down the internal tube and upwards,
through the annular space. The bell mouth prevented these currents from
interfering with each other. One morning Mr. Allen said to me that
he had an idea that by inclining the tubes at a small angle from the
vertical a better circulation would be got than in the Field tubes.
He thought the steam as fast as formed would all go to the upper side
of the inclined tubes, and would rush up along that surface without
driving the water before it, and so the water would always be at the
bottom of the tube, no matter how hard the boiler was fired. I was
struck with the idea and determined to test it. I got the largest
test-tube I could find, 1¹⁄₄ inches in diameter and 15 inches long, and
set it in an adjustable support, and applied the flame of four Bunsen
burners, bunched together, at the bottom. In a vertical position the
water was instantly thrown clean out of the tube. At about the angle
of 20 degrees Mr. Allen’s idea was completely realized. The bubbles of
steam united in a continuous stream on the upper side and rushed up
with no water before them. With the most rapid generation of steam the
water remained solid at the bottom of the tube. The sight was a very
interesting one. I reasoned that if this satisfactory result was got
under a short column of water, and only the pressure of the atmosphere
and in a small tube, it could certainly be relied upon under a column
of water several times longer, under a pressure of several atmospheres
and in a much larger tube. The greater the pressure the smaller the
bubbles of steam would be. Those formed under one atmosphere were about
as large as kidney beans.
Mr. Smith was anxious to have us exhibit the engine at the Fair of the
American Institute in New York in the fall of 1870. This Institute was
then at the height of its usefulness, and its annual fairs were crowded
with exhibits and attracted wide attention. Mr. Allen and I consulted
about it, and on account of the liability of getting more hot water
than steam from the queer boilers that might be exhibited, we agreed
that, as the engine would have to be tested for economy, it would not
be safe to exhibit unless we could make a boiler according to Mr.
Allen’s plan to supply the steam. With this boiler we could certainly
get dry steam, and felt confident of getting it superheated.
Our recommendation to that effect was adopted, and we prepared to
exhibit two engines, one of them 16 inches diameter of cylinder by
30 inches stroke to make 150 revolutions per minute, and the other 6
inches in diameter by 12 inches stroke to make 300 revolutions per
minute, and a boiler. We also made to drive our own shop, to take the
place of the portable engine and boiler, an engine of the smaller size
above named, except that the cylinder was, by thickening its walls,
made 5 inches in diameter only. This was because this size would be
ample for the power we required, and I would be able to show the effect
of inertia of the heavy reciprocating parts in producing smooth and
silent running, much better than with a 6-inch cylinder, which would
have about 50 per cent. larger area with no greater weight in the
reciprocating parts, except only in the piston. This exhibition, as we
shall see, became of great importance. We made also an Allen boiler for
ourselves, of four sections; really, as it proved, three or four times
as large as we needed, but we could not well make it smaller.
This exhibition at the American Institute was in every respect a great
success, not a drawback of any kind about it. The little engine was
used by Merrill & Sons to drive their exhibit of forging machinery,
hammers and drops. The large engine gave motion to a miscellaneous
exhibit of machinery in motion. The exhibition of machinery in motion
closed each day for an hour from 12 to 1, and again from 6 to 7, but
I ran these engines continuously from 9 A.M. to 10 P.M., to show that
high speed asked no favors. There were five boilers, including our own,
from the start. The other four were smaller than ours. Another boiler,
the largest of all except ours, was started later, as will be told.
Ours had a brick flue and chimney, but only 30 feet high. Those of the
others were iron. There were a number of other engines and pumps and
pulsometers, all steam eaters.
It was found impossible to keep up steam. It fell to half pressure
every day before stopping time came.
One morning, about a week after the opening, on my arrival my friend
Mr. Lee, who was superintendent of the machinery department, came to me
and said, “Do you know what they are all saying about here?” “No,” I
replied. “Well,” said he, “you ought to know. It is that your engines
use all the steam, and your boiler does not make any, and that is
where all the trouble is.” I replied: “I am ready for them. You see
that valve up there. I put it in expressly to meet whatever questions
might arise. By closing it I can shut my system off from the general
steam connections and run my two engines from my own boiler, and will
try to get on without their assistance.” So a ladder was brought and
I went up and shut the valve. Directly my pressure rose to 70 pounds,
the pressure allowed; my automatic damper closed as nearly as it was
permitted to do, and the steam began to blow off. To prevent this, the
fireman had to set his door a little way open, and in this condition we
ran all day. In the rest of the show the steam ran down until at noon
there was barely 15 pounds pressure, but the wrath of the exhibitors of
machinery driven by other engines was blowing off. After the noon hour
the additional boiler was started and helped them a good deal, so that,
starting with 70 pounds at 1 o’clock, at 5 o’clock they still had 25
pounds pressure.
Mr. Lee asked me several times during the day to open the valve and
I refused to do it. Finally, at about 5 o’clock, he said to me, “If
you don’t open that valve, I shall.” “Well,” said I, “there will be a
number of the managers of the Institute here at this hour, I presume,
and if you will send for them and have them come here and see the state
of the case for themselves then I will open the valve.” So this was
done. Half a dozen of these gentlemen came and made an inspection of
the boilers and said to me: “We are quite satisfied. It is evident that
you have been supplying most of the steam and using very little.” So I
opened the valve and there was no further trouble. The assistance of
the large boiler added that day prevented any serious fall of pressure
afterwards.
A few days after the above incident a committee of the managers waited
on me and said: “We have heretofore had a good deal of trouble with
our steam supply, and would like next year to have a boiler that we
can rely upon. What will you ask to leave this boiler here for our use
next season?” I agreed with them for three hundred dollars, and so the
boiler remained for the next exhibition, when there will be something
more to be said about it and views of it will be shown. That winter
Barnum wintered his animals in that building, and paid me three hundred
dollars more for the use of the boiler to warm it. In my ignorance of
business these items of good luck came in very handy. Mr. Allen said he
never heard of a new thing so successful from the start.
The remark respecting my exhibit of engines and boiler at the fair of
the American Institute in 1870, that there was not a drawback of any
kind about it, must, however, be qualified in one respect. I was not
able to run my 16×30 engine at the speed of 150 revolutions per minute,
as I had intended.
A blunder had been made in the size of the driven pulley on the line of
shafting. It was smaller than specified, because the contractor for the
shafting put on a pulley he had, and this was not observed till we were
running, when it was too late to change it. The exhibitors of machinery
in motion all complained that their machines were running too fast, and
after two or three days the directors ordered me to reduce the speed
of my engine to 125 revolutions per minute, at which speed it was run
through the rest of the fair. I was much disappointed, but consoled
myself with thinking that perhaps this speed would please the general
public better than the higher one, the engine even then being three or
four times too large for its work.
The boiler gave me at the engine steam superheated 23 degrees all
the time. This I proved by transposing the thermometers. I had two
thermometers, duplicates, one on the steam-chest and the other on the
first boiler drum, in which the steam was not superheated. The former
indicated 23 degrees higher temperature. When these were exchanged the
same difference continued to be shown.
I was greatly interested in observing in my own and other engines the
relative amounts of initial cylinder condensation, as this was shown in
the steam blown from the indicator stop-cocks. I had one of these on my
steam-chest, and the steam blown from this was not visible until three
or four inches above it. That blown from the stop-cocks on my cylinder
had a very little tinge of white, showing the superheating to have been
lost and a slight initial condensation to take place. As the piston
advanced, the blowing steam became invisible, showing re-evaporation,
through the falling of the boiling-point on the expansion.
On other engines, of which several were exhibited, the observation
showed large amounts of initial condensation. From one of them I
remember the blowing steam looked like a white painted stick.
I observed that the steam only lost three degrees of its superheat in
passing through 25 feet of 6-inch pipe from the boiler to the engine.
For this comparison I placed a thermometer on the second steam drum, in
which the steam was superheated, where it showed about 26 degrees of
superheat. This measured the rate at which the heat was lost through
the felt covering of the pipe, and suggested an excellent method of
comparing the protective value of different coverings under absolutely
the same conditions.
The superheating of the steam for our own engine was not affected by
the connection of our steam-pipe with those of the other engines.
The explanation of this phenomenon seemed to be that as our boiler
generated far more steam than our own engines required, the current
was always _from_ our pipe into the connected pipes.
[Illustration: Diagram from Allen Engine, back end of cylinder, at Fair
of American Institute, 1870.]
I was here first made alive to the enormous waste of steam in the
feed-pumps, a separate one for every boiler, including our own. In
these the steam has to follow full stroke, at a pressure sufficient, on
the larger area of the steam piston, to overcome the pressure in the
boiler. Moreover, the extreme heat interval between the temperatures
of the entering and the exhaust steam and the slow motion, permitting
the walls of cylinder, heads and piston to be cooled very deeply by the
exhaust, produces the condensation of probably from five to ten times
as much steam as is usefully employed, differing according to the rate
of piston motion. I began to rather admire the practice of the English,
who knew nothing about boiler feed-pumps, except those on the engine,
and I certainly wonder that the genius did not arise long before he
did, who first thought of exhausting the feed-pump into the feed-water
under atmospheric pressure only, so returning to the boiler all the
heat received in the pump that is not converted into the work of
overcoming the boiler pressure and the atmospheric resistance or lost
in external radiation.
The above diagram represents the performance of this engine in its
regular work. It shows distinctly the compression curve, the points
of cut-off and release, and the back pressure required to expel the
exhaust. It will be seen that the expansion fell to 5 pounds below
the atmosphere. I have added to it a line representing the waste room
in ports and clearance, and the theoretical expansion curve plotted
according to the law of Mariotte, showing the expansion terminating 2.5
pounds above this curve, from the re-evaporation already noted and the
heat abandoned by the steam as the pressure fell.
After the close of the fair this engine was run on several days,
under a variety of loads applied by a Prony brake, in the presence
of a number of engineers and others who had been invited to witness
the trials. Of the diagrams taken on these trials, I find that I have
preserved only the two here shown, namely, a single friction diagram
from the back end of the cylinder, on a scale of 20 pounds to the inch,
and a diagram showing large power, taken from the front or crank end,
on a scale of 24 pounds to the inch. The former shows the trifling loss
from friction in this engine. I have measured this card, and find the
mean effective pressure, or difference between the areas showing the
excess of the forward over the back pressure, to be 1.1 pounds on the
square inch, which, assuming the opposite card to be equal with it, was
the friction of the engine. The exhaust line shows the power required
to reverse the direction of motion of the exhaust, which at the end of
the stroke was rushing back into the cylinder.
The latter is especially interesting as showing the identity of the
expansion curve with the theoretical, three points on which are marked
by the crosses. The sharp reaction of the indicator while the crank was
passing the dead center will also be observed.
After this trial I made a careful comparison of the diagrams taken
under the different loads with the friction diagrams, and found the
uniform results to be that the friction diagrams subtracted from the
diagrams taken under the load left in each case, of six different
loads, exactly the same effective work done that was shown by the brake.
[Illustration: Friction Diagram from Allen Engine at Fair of American
Institute, 1870.]
[Illustration: Diagram from Allen Engine, Fair of American Institute,
1870, cutting off at ¹⁄₄ stroke.]
From this I concluded that in these engines the use of the friction
brake is unnecessary; the friction is sensibly the same under all
loads, and the friction diagram only needs to be subtracted to learn
from the diagram the amount of effective work done.
The verdict of the judges, President Barnard of Columbia College,
Thomas J. Sloane, the proposer of the gimlet-pointed wood screw, now
in universal use, in place of the flat-ended screws formerly used, and
inventor of the special machinery required for their manufacture, and
Robert Weir, engineer in the Croton Aqueduct department, may be summed
up in the single expression from their report, “The performance of this
engine is without precedent.” For its success I was largely indebted,
first, to the remarkable circulation and steam-generating power of the
boiler, and, second, to the superheating of the steam in the second
drum.
CHAPTER XVIII
Demonstration to the Judges of Action of Reciprocating Parts.
Explanation of this Action. Mr. Williams’ Instrument for Exhibiting
this Action.
The subject of the equalizing action of the reciprocating parts of the
engine was not considered in the report of the judges. Indeed, the
speed of that engine, 125 revolutions per minute, was not sufficient
to develop this action to any important extent. But there was another
reason behind that. I invited the judges directly after the close of
the fair, but before making their report, to witness a demonstration of
this action in my little shop engine, which invitation was accepted by
them, and the following exhibition was made, but this was not alluded
to in their report, the reason of which will be given on a later page.
The engine had a 5-inch cylinder by 12 inches stroke, and its regular
speed was 300 revolutions per minute. I kept Saturday afternoon
holiday, one of the good things I had brought from England, and so on
Saturday afternoon I had a clear field for this exhibition.
I had previously prepared two governor pulleys to speed the engine up
to the increased speeds required, which speeds had been ascertained by
calculation. I was so certain of the correctness of this calculation
that I did not make any preliminary trial, did not think of such a
thing.
[Illustration: President F. A. P. BARNARD]
After running the engine for a short time at its usual speed, I changed
the governor pulley for the smaller one of the two I had prepared, by
which the speed would be increased to about 400 revolutions per minute,
and loosened the crank-pin brasses so that they were slack fully a
thirty-second of an inch. On starting the engine in this condition,
of course, it pounded violently on the crank-pin. As the speed was
gradually permitted to increase the knock softened, and just before the
governor rose it disappeared entirely, and at the calculated speed the
engine ran in entire silence.
After running in this manner for a while I prepared for the second
part of my show. I put the crank-pin brasses back to their usual
running adjustment, loosened the brasses of the cross-head pin fully a
thirty-second of an inch, and put on a larger governor pulley, which,
if I remember rightly, ran the engine at about 550 revolutions per
minute. Under these conditions we utilized only the inertia of piston,
rod and cross-head, without that of the connecting-rod.
On starting, the engine of course pounded heavily on the cross-head
pin. As the speed increased the same decrease in the noise was observed
as on the first trial, only later in the course of the acceleration,
and again just before the governor rose the pounding had completely
died away, and at the calculated speed the engine ran again in entire
silence.
Like everything else, this action seems mysterious until it comes to
be understood, when it is seen to be quite simple, as the following
explanation will show.
EXPLANATION OF THE ACTION OF THE RECIPROCATING PARTS OF A HORIZONTAL
STEAM ENGINE
Let us take a horizontal engine of 2 feet stroke, making 200
revolutions per minute, so having a piston travel or average velocity
of 800 feet per minute, which was my engine in the Paris Exposition of
1867.
We will suppose the piston to be driven through the crank, by which its
motion is controlled, the power being got from some other motor, and
that the cylinder heads have been removed so that the piston meets no
resistance. We will also disregard the effect of the angular vibration
of the connecting-rod, and assume the motion of the piston to be the
same at each end of the cylinder.
On each stroke the crank does two things: First, it increases the
motion of the piston from a state of rest to a velocity equal to the
uniform velocity of the crank-pin in its circular path: and, second,
it brings the piston to rest again, ready to have the same operation
repeated in the reverse direction during the return stroke.
At the mid-stroke the crank is at right angles with the line of
centers, and the velocity of the piston is 800 × ¹⁄₂π = 1256.64 feet
per minute, or 20.944 feet per second, and no pressure is being exerted
on the piston either to accelerate or retard its motion.
[Illustration]
The pressure of the crank during a stroke, first to impart motion to
the piston and second to arrest this motion, is represented by two
opposite and equal triangles. Let the line _AB_, in the above figure,
be the center line of a cylinder and its length represent the length
of the stroke. Let the line _AC_, normal to the line _AB_, represent
the force required to start the piston from a state of rest. Then the
triangle _AOC_ will represent the accelerating force that must be
exerted on the piston at every point in the half stroke to bring up its
velocity, until at _O_ this equals that of the crank-pin in its circle
of revolution, and the accelerating force, diminishing uniformly, has
ceased. The opposite equal triangle _BOD_ shows the resistance of the
crank required to bring the piston to rest again.
How do we know this?
I will answer this question by the graphical method, the only one I
know, and which I think will be understood by readers generally.
First, we observe that the distance the piston must move from the
commencement to any point in the first half of its stroke, in order
that it shall keep up with the crank, is the versed sine of the angle
which the crank then forms with the line of centers. So the table of
versed sines tells us where the piston is when the crank is at any
point in its revolution, from 0 to 90°.
[Illustration]
For example, let the quadrant _AB_ in the following figure represent
the path of the crank, and the line _AO_ that of the piston. Let _OF_
be the position reached by the crank. _AOF_ is the angle formed by the
crank with line of centers, and supposed to be 60°. _FE_ normal to _AO_
is the sine of this angle, and _AE_ the versed sine. The latter is the
distance traveled by the piston from the point _A_, and is .5, the
length of the crank being 1.
Secondly, we ascertain how far the piston must advance for every degree
or minute or second of the revolution of the crank in its quadrant
by merely subtracting from its versed sine that of the preceding
one. Thus the versed sine of 60° being .5, and that of 59° being
.4849619251, the difference .0150380749 is the motion of the piston, or
its mean velocity while the crank is traversing the 60th degree of its
revolution.
Thirdly, we want to know the rate at which the motion of the piston is
accelerated during any interval.
This acceleration is found by subtracting from the motion during each
interval that during the preceding one. For example, the motion of the
piston during the 60th degree being, as already seen, .0150380749, and
that during the 59th degree being .0148811893, the difference between
them, .0001568856, is the acceleration or amount of motion added during
the 60th degree.
By this simple process we find the acceleration of the piston during
the first degree of the revolution of the crank to be .0003046096,
and that during the 90th degree to be .0000053161. But this latter is
the amount by which the acceleration was reduced during the preceding
degree. Therefore at the end of this degree the acceleration has ceased
entirely.
Now, by erecting on the center line _AC_, at the end of each degree,
ordinates which are extensions of the sine of the angle, and the
lengths of which represent the acceleration during that degree we find
that these all terminate on the diagonal line _CO_. Thus, when the
crank has reached the 60th degree, and the piston has advanced half
the distance to the mid-stroke or to _E_, Fig. 32, the acceleration
during the 60th degree has been .0001523049, or one half of that during
the first degree.
But how do we know the amount of the accelerating force exerted by the
crank at the beginning of the stroke? This question is answered as
follows:
We find that for the first three degrees the accelerating force is, for
the purpose of our computations, constant, the diminution not appearing
until we have passed the sixth place of decimals.
Let us now suppose the crank 1 foot in length to make 1 revolution per
minute, so moving through 6° of arc in 1 second. At this uniform rate
of acceleration the piston would be moved in 1 second the versed sine
of 1° .0001523048 × 6² = .0054829728 of a foot.
A falling body uniformly accelerated by a force equal to its own weight
moves in 1 second 16.083 feet. Therefore this uniform stress on the
crank is
.0054829728
----------- = .000341,
16.083
which is the well-established coefficient of centrifugal force--the
centrifugal force of one pound making one revolution per minute in a
circle of one foot radius.
So we find that the height _AC_ of this triangle represents the
centrifugal force of the reciprocating parts which, in any case, we can
ascertain by the formula
_WRr²C_,
_W_ being the weight of the body;
_R_ being the length of the crank;
_r_ being the number of revolutions per minute, and
_C_ being the coefficient .000341.
This accounts for the fact that the reciprocating parts are perfectly
balanced by an equal weight revolving opposite the crank.
In my treatise on the Richards Indicator and the Development and
Application of Force in the Steam-engine, I have given a full
exposition of this action here briefly outlined, and to that the reader
is referred.
I have only to add that this computation is for horizontal engines.
In vertical engines the effect of gravity must be considered, adding
on the upward stroke and deducting on the downward stroke. Also the
counterbalance in the crank-disk of vertical engines must be limited to
the horizontal fling of the crank end of the connecting-rod, and all
balancing must be as nearly as possible in the same plane.
In this respect double-crank engines have this advantage, that one half
of the counterweight can be put on each side of the center line.
It is evident that the heavier the reciprocating parts and the more
rapid the speed the greater the security for smooth and silent running.
However loose the brasses and however sudden the impact of the steam on
the piston, and however early or late the admission, there can be no
sound or jar, if the inertia of the reciprocating parts is sufficient
to equal the force of the entering steam, and if this is in excess it
can do no harm. It is also evident that under these conditions at any
point in the stroke the change of pressure to the opposite side of the
crank-pin is made insensibly.
Some two or three weeks after this exhibition I received a note from
President Barnard asking me to call upon him. On my responding to
this invitation, he said to me that he had listened to my exposition
of this action before the Polytechnic Club of the Institute, but he
did not understand it; he had witnessed the experiments with my shop
engine, but while he could not question the action in silencing all
knock on the centers, still he did not understand it, and not until he
investigated the problem in his own way by the method of the calculus
did it become plain to him, and he could not see how I had ever been
able to arrive at the exposition of the action without employing that
method. This explains why the subject had not been considered in the
report of the judges. President Barnard afterward kindly gave me a copy
of his demonstration, to insert in my book on the Richards Indicator.
It seems appropriate to insert here the following letter received long
after from a very prominent engineer of that day.
“LONG BRANCH, N. J., Aug. 7th, 1872.
“Mr. CHAS. T. PORTER:
“_My dear Sir:_ Since I had the pleasure of reading the paper which
you read before the Polytechnic Club last winter, I have regarded
your demonstration as not less original than subversive. It is,
for the first time I believe, apprehended and asserted, not merely
that the _vis inertia_ of the reciprocating masses is not primarily
an adverse element in the economy of the crank-engine, but that a
certain amount of weight in the piston and its connections, and
in high-speed engines a very considerable amount, is an absolute
theoretical necessity.
“As this will be deemed rank heresy by folks who have been making
skeleton pistons of wrought iron, it is well perhaps that you are
entrenched at the outset behind the _experimentum crucis_ of loose
brasses.
“Very truly yours,
“JOSEPH NASON.”
The following figures represent an elegant invention of Mr. Edwin F.
Williams, which exhibits graphically the acceleration and retardation
of the reciprocating parts of an engine.
In these views, _A_ is the cross-head in its mid-position; _B_ is the
lath by which the paper drum of an indicator is actuated through the
cord _n_. The lower end of this lath is fixed in its position on the
cross-head by the stud _j_, on which it turns freely. _y_ is the end
of a vibrating arm, which permits the point of suspension of the lath
_B_ to fall below the position shown, as required in the motion of the
cross-head on account of the lower end of the lath being so fixed. _d_
is a cylindrical box, partly open, which is secured on the side of the
cross-head, in a position parallel with motion, by the arm _P_. The end
of this arm is on the stud _j_, inside the lath _B_. It is prevented
from turning on this stud by the set-screw _K_, and its fixed position
is further assured by the stud _r_.
In the box _d_ is the cylindrical weight _h_, running freely on
rollers, not shown, and bored to receive a spring _e_, of known
strength. This spring is secured in two heads, one of which is screwed
into the box and the other into the weight. The force required to move
the weight _h_ is thus applied to it through the spring.
The operation of this instrument is as follows: The cross-head being
at its mid-stroke, as represented, has acquired its full velocity. At
this point no force is being exerted, either to impart or to arrest its
motion. The same is the case with the free weight _h_. No pressure is
here being exerted, either to compress or to elongate the spring _e_.
[Illustration: JOSEPH NASON]
[Illustration:
Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 5
SCALE 40
265 REVS. PER MIN.
11¹⁄₄″ × 16″ PORTER-ALLEN.
Fig. 4
SCALE 40
265 REVS. PER MIN.
4.416 „ „ SEC.
Fig. 3
Apparatus for Graphically Showing the Acceleration and Retardation of
the Reciprocating Parts of an Engine.]
Let the motion be in the direction from the crank. The crank now begins
insensibly, by pulling through the spring _e_, to arrest the motion of
the weight _h_. This pull will increase in intensity to the end of the
stroke, when the weight is brought to rest, and the spring will become
correspondingly elongated. Then, by a continuance of the same pull, the
crank puts the cross-head and this free weight in motion in the reverse
direction. This pull gradually relaxes, until at the mid-stroke it has
ceased. The weight _h_ has acquired its full velocity again; all stress
is off the spring, and the spring and weight are back in the positions
in the box _d_ from which they started. This action is repeated during
the opposite half of the revolution, but in the reverse direction, the
pull being changed to a push, and the spring being compressed instead
of elongated. Thus at every point the position of this free weight
shows the amount of the accelerating or retarding force that is being
exerted upon it at that point, elongating or compressing the spring.
This varying accelerating or retarding force is recorded as follows:
A paper _b_, Fig. 2, is stretched on the surface _ff_. This surface
is the arc of a circle described about the center _j_, and is secured
on the lath _B_, so that as this lath vibrates by the motion of the
cross-head the different points in the length of the paper pass
successively under the pencil. This is set in the end of the long
arm _a_ of the right-angled lever-arms 4 to 1 seen in Fig. 2, which
is actuated by the rod _e_ passing centrally through the spring
and secured in the head _c_. This pencil has thus imparted to it a
transverse motion four times as great as the longitudinal motion of the
weight _h_ in the box _d_. The pencil is kept lifted from the paper (as
permitted by the elasticity of the arm _a_) by the cord _m_. By letting
the pencil down and turning the engine by hand, the neutral line _x_,
Fig. 2, is drawn. Then when the engine is running, on letting the
pencil come in contact with the paper, the diagonal lines are drawn as
shown on Fig. 2.
[Illustration: EDWIN F. WILLIAMS]
If the rotation of the shaft were uniform and there were no lost
motion in the shaft or connecting-rod, this diagonal line would
repeat itself precisely, and would be a straight line modified by the
angular vibration of the connecting-rod. On the other hand, these
lost motions and the variations in the rotative speed must be exactly
recorded, the latter being exhibited with a degree of accuracy not
attainable by computation and plotting, and their correctness would
be self-demonstrated. For this purpose this instrument must be found
highly valuable, if it is really desired to have these variations
revealed rather than concealed. Fig. 5 represents the inertia diagram
drawn by this instrument applied to a Porter-Allen engine running in
the Boston Post Office at the speed of 265 revolutions per minute.
Fig. 4 shows the same diagram with the transverse motion of the pencil
enlarged to correspond with the scale of the indicator, so exhibiting
the force actually exerted on the crank-pin at every point, which is
represented by the shaded area, and from which the rotative effect
on the crank can be computed. The steam pressure absorbed at the
commencement of the stroke by the inertia of these parts is represented
by the blank area above the atmospheric line _xx_. This is not all
imparted to the crank at the end on account of the compression.
I have myself had no experience in the use of this instrument, but I
do not see why it might not be so made that the diagonal line or lines
in Fig. 4 would be drawn at once. The variations of motion would thus
be shown much more accurately than they can be by the enlargement of
these small indications. This would require the spring _e_ to bear the
same relation to the inertia of the weight _h_ that the spring of the
indicator bears to the steam pressure on its piston area. The steam
diagram and the inertia diagram would then be drawn to the same scale.
A separate instrument would be required for each scale. It would seem
desirable that this instrument, which is not expensive, should be
brought before the public in this practical shape.
The 16″×30″ engine exhibited at this fair of the American Institute was
sold from the exhibition to the Arlington Mills, at Lawrence, Mass. For
a reason that will appear later, I have always regarded this sale as
the most important one that I ever made.
CHAPTER XIX
Boiler Tests in Exhibition of 1871. We Lose Mr. Allen. Importance of
Having a Business Man as President. Devotion of Mr. Hope.
The next year we were not exhibitors at the Institute fair, but our
boiler remained in its place and was run by the Institute. This boiler
and its setting are shown correctly in the accompanying reproduction
of a drawing made about that time, except that it consisted of nine
sections instead of six. At the close of the exhibition a boiler test
was made by the Institute, through a committee of which Professor
Thurston, at that time Professor of Mechanical Engineering in the
Stevens Institute, afterwards until his death Director of the Sibley
College of Mechanic Arts, in Cornell University, was the chairman. Five
boilers, including the Allen boiler, were tested, one on each day, in
a continuous run of twelve hours. The four besides our own were all
different from the boilers exhibited the year before.
A week was spent in preparation for this test. A large wooden tank was
constructed, in which was built a surface condenser, consisting of a
pile of sections of the Root boiler, laid horizontally, having a total
of 1100 square feet of cooling surface. The steam was exhausted into
the pipes which were surrounded by the cooling water, thus reversing
the construction of surface condensers.
[Illustration: Professor ROBERT H. THURSTON]
[Illustration:
ALLEN BOILER.
OF
80 HORSE POWERS.
_Area of Effective Heating Surface 810-Square Feet._
_ „ „ Grate „ 24 „ „_
_scale-1 inch-1 foot._
_Allen Engine Works._
_July-1872._]
Each boiler was tested by setting its damper and its steam-valve wide
open, so burning all the coal that could be burned by it under its
draft, and delivering freely all the steam that it made. This latter
entered the condenser at the top, and the water formed by condensation
was drawn off at the bottom, while the condensing water entered the
tank at the bottom and was drawn off at the top, the currents of
steam and water being thus opposite to each other, which was an ideal
construction. The condensing water at a temperature of 45.5 degrees
flowed in under the pressure in the city main and was measured in a
Worthington meter, and the temperature of the overflow taken. The
condensed steam was drawn off into a barrel and weighed, 300 pounds at
a time, and its temperature taken. This method was an excellent one.
Not having high chimneys, no boiler had a strong draft, as shown by the
coal burned per square foot of grate. Our draft was the strongest of
all. Only the Allen boiler and the Root boiler gave superheated steam,
and the competition between them was very close. The valve being wide
open, giving a free current into the condenser, the superheat of our
steam fell to 13.23 degrees Fahrenheit. Root’s superheat was 16.08
degrees.
Root’s boiler, the trial of which occupied the first day, blew steam
from the open try-cock, from water at 46 degrees Fahrenheit, in sixteen
minutes from lighting the fire. Next morning our boiler blew steam from
water at the same temperature, in twelve minutes, and Mr. Root holding
his watch could not resist the ejaculation, “Wonderful boiler!” The
Allen boiler, burning 13.88 pounds of coal per square foot of grate
per hour, evaporated one cubic foot of water per hour from each 17.41
square feet of heating surface. Root’s boiler, burning 11.73 pounds of
coal per square foot of grate per hour, required 23.59 square feet of
heating surface to evaporate one cubic foot of water per hour.
Our stronger draft, 13.88 against 11.73, accounted for 3.2 pounds of
the above superior evaporative efficiency, leaving 3 pounds to be
accounted for by the more rapid circulation in the Allen boiler. The
great value of the inclination of the tubes was thus established. The
report contains this sentence: “The Committee desire to express their
appreciation of the excellent general arrangement and proportions which
gave to the Allen boiler its remarkably high steaming capacity.”
The reader will observe in the plan of this boiler the pains taken
to maintain as far as possible parallel currents of the heated gases
through the boiler, and taking the flues off at the bottom, thus
bringing all the heating surfaces at the same distance from the furnace
into approximately equal efficiency.
RESULTS OF THE COMPETITIVE TRIAL OF STEAM BOILERS AT THE FAIR OF THE
AMERICAN INSTITUTE, NOVEMBER, 1871.
---------+-----------------+--------+
| | |
| Square Feet. | |
+--------+--------+ |
| | | |
| | | Ratio |
| | | of |
| | | heating|
| | | surface|
| | | to |
| Grate | Heating| grate |
Name. |surface.|surface.|surface.|
---------+--------+--------+--------+
| A. | B. | C. |
Root | 27 | 876¹⁄₂ | 32.5 |
Allen | 32¹⁄₄ | 920 | 28.5 |
Phleger | 23 | 600 | 26.1 |
Lowe | 37³⁄₄ | 913 | 24.2 |
Blanchard| 8¹⁄₂ | 440 | 51.8 |
---------+--------+--------+--------+
---------+----------------------------------------+------+
| | |
| Total Weights. | |
+-----+---------+-------+--------+-------+ |
| | | | | | Ratio|
| | | | | | of |
| | | | | | water|
| | | | | |primed|
| | | | | | to |
| | | | | | water|
| | Com- | | |Primed |evapo-|
Name. |Coal.|bustible.| Feed. | Steam. |water. |rated.|
---------+-----+---------+-------+--------+-------+------+
| D. | E. | F. | G. | H. | I. |
Root | 3800| 3185.5 |27896 |27896 | 0. | 0. |
Allen | 5375| 4527 |39670 |39670 | 0. | 0. |
Phleger | 2800| 2274 |20428 |19782.94| 645.06| 3.26 |
Lowe | 4400| 3705 |34000 |31663.35|2336.65| 6.9 |
Blanchard| 1232| 1047.5 |10152.5| 9855.6 | 296.9 | 3. |
---------+-----+---------+-------+--------+-------+------+
---------+----------------------------------------------------+
| |
| Mean Temperatures. |
+------+------+-------+-------+-------+------+-------+
| | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | |
| | | Water | | | | |
| | | of | | | | |
|Injec-| |conden-| Dis- | | Super| |
Name. | tion.| Feed.|sation.|charge.| Steam.| heat.| Flues.|
---------+------+------+-------+-------+-------+------+-------+
| J. | K. | L. | M. | N. | O. | P. |
Root |45°.94|45°.94| 58°.31|143°.1 |334°.6 |16°.08|416°.6 |
Allen |45°.5 |45°.5 | 63°.48|154°.76|330°.63|13°.23|345°.87|
Phleger |45°.65|45°.65| 54°.38|120°.83|321°.06| 0°. |503°.76|
Lowe |45°.0 |45°.0 | 54°.8 |131°.5 |319°.48| 0°. |389°.6 |
Blanchard|44°.4 |44°.4 | 49°.49|106°.14|323°.75| 0°. |221°.67|
---------+------+------+-------+-------+-------+------+-------+
---------+--------------+---------+
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | Total |
| | units |
| | per |
| Total | pound |
| British | of |
| thermal | com- |
Name. | units. |bustible.|
---------+--------------+---------+
| Q. | R. |
Root |32,751,834.34 |10,281.53|
Allen |46,387,827.1 |10,246.92|
Phleger |23,066,685.39 |10,143.66|
Lowe |37,228,739.072|10,048.24|
Blanchard|11,485,777.35 |10,964.94|
---------+--------------+---------+
---------+-------------------------------+---------------+
| | Actual |
| Apparent Evaporation. | Evaporation. |
+-----+---------+-------+-------+-----+---------+
| | | | | | |
| | | Per | Per | | |
| | | square| square| | |
| | Per |foot of|foot of| | Per |
| Per | pound | grate |heating| Per | pound |
|pound| of |surface|surface|pound| of |
| of | com- | per | per | of | com- |
Name. |coal.|bustible.| hour. | hour. |coal.|bustible.|
---------+-----+---------+-------+-------+-----+---------+
| S. | T. | U. | V. | W. | X. |
Root | 7.34| 8.76 | 86.09| 2.65 | 7.34| 8.76 |
Allen | 7.38| 8.76 | 102.51| 3.59 | 7.38| 8.76 |
Phleger | 7.26| 8.95 | 73.70| 2.83 | 7.07| 8.70 |
Lowe | 7.68| 9.12 | 75.06| 3.10 | 7.20| 8.55 |
Blanchard| 8.24| 9.69 | 99.53| 1.92 | 8.00| 9.41 |
---------+-----+---------+-------+-------+-----+---------+
---------+---------+----------+-------+--------
| | | |
| Equiv- | Square | | Effi-
| alent | feet | Coal, | ciency;
| evapo- |of heating| lbs. | actual
| ration | surface | per | evapo-
| of water| required | square| ration
| at 212° | to evapo-| foot, | of fuel
|Fahr. and| rate one | grate | divided
| atmos- |cubic foot|surface| by
| pheric | of water | per | theo-
Name. |pressure.| per hour.| hour. |retical.
---------+---------+----------+-------+--------
| Y. | Z. | Z. 1 | Z. 2
Root | 10.64 | 23.59 | 11.73 | 0.709
Allen | 10.60 | 17.41 | 13.88 | 0.707
Phleger | 10.49 | 22.74 | 10.13 | 0.699
Lowe | 10.40 | 21.63 | 9.71 | 0.693
Blanchard| 11.34 | 33.48 | 12.10 | 0.756
---------+---------+----------+-------+--------
The boiler had one defect, seen in the front view, cross-section. A
straight passage 2 inches wide was given to the gases between each pair
of tubes.
The boilers having all had a preliminary trial during the first week,
I observed the vapor arising from the exposed surface of the water in
the tank, and that this unmeasured loss of heat differed considerably
in the different boilers, and was enormously greatest on the trial of
the Allen boiler. I said nothing, but went down early on next Monday
morning and on my way bought a common tin cup about 3 inches deep and 4
inches in diameter, and secured it in one corner of the tank, immersed
to a quarter of an inch below its rim, and filled even full of water.
This was completed before the arrival of the Committee, and was at once
approved by them. I made it my business every day to note the fall
of the water level by evaporation from this cup. On the trial of the
Allen boiler only the water in the cup was all evaporated, and I had
to fill it again. The temperature of the water in the cup was always 8
degrees below that of the surrounding water. It was thus obvious that
the evaporation from the tank was greater than the fall of the level in
the cup would indicate. The Committee considered that this should be
increased as the tension of the vapors. The result was that the report
contained the following item: Units of heat carried away by evaporation
at the surface of the tank:
Root boiler 721,390.8 units
Allen boiler 1,178,404.5 „
Phleger boiler 378,371 „
Lowe boiler 692,055 „
Blanchard boiler 268,707 „
The same Bulkley pyrometer was used in all the furnaces to indicate the
temperature of the escaping gases. On Tuesday morning, when my boiler
was to be tried, I saw that before my arrival the pyrometer had been
set in the brick chimney, where the readings could be conveniently
taken by a person standing on the brick surface of the boiler chamber.
Its readings averaged 260 degrees Fahrenheit. I did not believe this
to be true. At about half-past two o’clock, when seven readings had
been taken, one each half hour, having got ready some bricks and mortar
and tools, I pulled the pyrometer out and filled up the hole. I then
knocked a hole in the side of the brickwork at the bottom, in front of
the flue, and set the pyrometer there. The reading rose to 405 degrees,
which was the temperature at which the gases then entered the flue,
and averaged about 385 degrees during the remainder of the sixteen
readings. Root’s average was 416 degrees, and Phleger’s (also tubular)
averaged 503. Obviously the readings taken before the pyrometer was
moved should have been rejected; but the boys who did this kind of work
added them all together, and our average temperature is printed 345.87
degrees, giving the boiler more credit than it was entitled to by about
40 degrees. I lost a little by this operation. While I was bricking up
the hole the fireman came around and told me I was spoiling his fire.
When I got the figures of water evaporated and coal burned, I found
that in that half hour I had only 900 pounds (three barrels) credited
to the boiler, instead of 1800 pounds (six barrels) during every other
half hour, being a loss of about .023 in water weighed in the barrel,
38,400 pounds, instead of 39,300 pounds, while, curiously enough, the
coal burned was rather increased.
The point of interest in this incident was the fact that the gases
had lost 125 degrees of heat in traversing a distance in flues and
chimney of less than 20 feet. This seems difficult to believe, but
they did. There was no leakage as the excellent draft clearly proved,
nor any other way of accounting for the discrepancy. The length of
the pyrometer tube exposed to the heated gases was the same in both
positions. The heat had been lost by radiation through the brickwork.
I have been waiting ever since for a chance to turn this knowledge to
useful account, but it has not come yet. I will content myself with
suggesting to somebody else the idea of facing the boiler setting,
flues and chimney, not only outside but inside also after leaving the
furnace, with white encaustic tiles, which will neither absorb nor
radiate heat appreciably. This will pay in maintaining the temperature
in a large degree to the top of the chimney, so increasing, perhaps
doubling, the strength of the draft. An enormous amount of heat must
be lost through the extended surface of the brick boiler setting. It is
always observed that the hotter a boiler-room is kept the greater the
efficiency of the boiler becomes. This is a slight indication of the
great gain which might be effected by the plan I propose.
Before this boiler trial we had lost Mr. Allen. He had conceived the
idea of the pneumatic riveter and the high-speed air-compressor to
furnish this riveter with power. In the latter he utilized the inertia
of the reciprocating parts, including two pistons, the steam and the
air piston. This he did with my cordial consent, and indeed there was
nothing patentable about that feature anyway. Mr. Allen thus became the
originator of the important system of pneumatic riveting, in its two
methods, by percussion and by pressure. Mr. Allen sold out his stock in
the engine company to Mr. Hope and Mr. Smith, and built a shop in Mott
Haven for the manufacture of the riveters and compressors. He took the
boiler in the fair in part payment, and sold it directly to a party who
had erected a wood-working shop at some point on the Harlem River.
The Croton water which had been fed to the boiler contained no lime,
but some sediment. Mr. Allen had the boiler taken down and brought
to our shop for inspection and cleaning. I determined to improve the
opportunity to observe the effect of the circulation on the deposit of
sediment, and the result of the examination proved most interesting.
Each inclined tube had been provided at the end with a brass plug, by
removing which it could be cleaned by the running out of the water
which it contained. This had not yet been done.
I took out the tubes on one side of one section, ten in all, five over
the furnace and five behind the bridge wall, and planed them in two
longitudinally, and had the following revelation: The tubes over the
furnace were entirely empty. In those back of the bridge wall a deposit
of sediment appeared, only about an inch deep in the first one, and
increasing regularly to a depth of 18 inches in the last one, which
was not the tube receiving the feed-water. So the water fed into the
last tube of each section deposited its sediment most largely in the
first tube it reached, in which the circulation was least active,
and had deposited it all before reaching the tubes over the furnace.
The remaining long tubes were then cleaned, the tubes cut in two were
replaced by new ones, and the boiler delivered to Mr. Allen. The next
stage in its history was very funny. The purchaser, to save the cost of
Croton water, fed his boiler from the Harlem River, and within a month
it was found to be filled solid with salt. What was done about it I
never heard.
I thought I could sell the boilers where, as in New York City, they
could be fed with water free from lime, and I made a few such sales,
but the inspiration which led me to employ the second drum for
superheating the steam had deserted me.
I came to the conclusion that by making the first drum a large one,
and not extending the nipples into the drum to trap a puddle of water,
as I had done, I could superheat the steam in one drum. That was a
blunder. I had underestimated the furious circulation, which carried a
large amount of spray into the drum. I was misled by the quiet position
of the water-level, as always shown in the glass gauge. Instead of
superheated steam, I found the boiler to give very wet steam. That
fault, of course, I could have remedied by returning to my first
design. But I was discouraged by other things. The first, of course,
was the impossibility of removing scale by any mechanical means. The
most serious discouragement was a cracked header. The inclined tubes,
on any plan for their use that I could then design, made cast-iron
headers necessary. I had taken great pains to obtain perfect castings,
making them of the best iron in baked molds in iron flasks, of uniform
thickness, ⁵⁄₈ in., and ³⁄₄ in. where threaded, with cores held
perfectly central and remarkably well vented, and felt that I could
rely on their soundness; but this defect showed that I could not. So
reluctantly I abandoned the manufacture of the boiler.
I believe, however, that there is yet a future for the inclined boiler
tube, with independent circulation in each tube, the whole made
entirely from forged steel; and that better results will be obtained
from it than any other form of boiler has as yet given. I have been
told by Chief Engineer Melville that all water admitted to the boilers
in the United States Navy is made pure enough for pharmaceutical
purposes. If this can be done in the navy, where sea water and the
mud of harbors have to be used, it can be done anywhere. Cooling
towers make it practicable to return all water to the boiler even from
non-condensing engines. Then only the waste needs to be made good, and
any water can be purified for this purpose. Oil or grease with the
feed-water is readily avoided. Only electrolysis remains to be provided
against, which can be done by avoiding the use of any alloy of copper
in contact with the water. We may then have boilers of the most durable
character and safe to carry any desired pressure.
The following incident near the close of my experience in Harlem
would be too ridiculous to print except for its consequence. One day
Mr. Smith sent me word that he would like to see me in his office.
When I entered he asked me, “What do you pay for the castings of your
governor arms and balls?” Of course he knew perfectly well, as he
had the bills and the books, but that was his way of introducing the
subject. I replied, “Forty cents a pound.” He held up both hands in
affected amazement, and exclaimed, “Forty cents a pound! Well, sir, I
can assure you of one thing, no more of this company’s money is going
to be squandered in that way.” I overlooked his insulting language and
manner, and said quietly, “Are you sure, Mr. Smith, that you have all
the information you need to form a correct judgment in this matter?” “I
am sure,” he replied, “what the market price is of copper and tin, and
that I can get castings made from our own metal at a price that will
bring the cost to not more than 25 cents a pound.”
“This, then, I presume, is all you know about the subject,” I said,
“and you ought to know a great deal more, which I will tell you. It is
necessary that I can rely upon getting a pure copper and tin alloy,
in the proportion known as gun-metal, on account of its strength,
its rigidity, and its wearing qualities. The latter is of especial
importance, because the governor joints are in continual motion under
the weight of the heavy counterpoise. Experience shows that this purity
cannot be relied upon where it is possible that any inferior metal can
become mixed with this alloy in even the smallest proportion. This for
us, not making our own castings, must be wholly a matter of confidence.
“Another risk must be avoided, that is, of getting bad castings. The
castings must not have the least imperfection. The time lost, through
finding defects that make it necessary to reject arms after more or
less work has been put on them, would soon wipe out all the little gain
you look for; as these castings, at 40 cents a pound, only cost about
five dollars a set, as an average of all the sizes.
“I made a careful study of this subject when I commenced the governor
manufacture about fifteen years ago, and found David Francis, who
had a small gun-metal foundry on Vestry Street, to be just the man I
wanted. No inferior metal ever goes into his place. He enjoyed the
entire confidence of manufacturers. He has made my governor arms and
balls ever since. I have never had a bad casting from him, and always
got the pure metal, and have paid him the same price that everybody
pays him for small castings. I consider the security that I have had
respecting this metal to have been fundamental to the great success of
my governors, and that I would be crazy to make any such change as you
propose.”
He made no reply, and I left him, supposing my statement to have been
perfectly satisfactory. What was my amazement when, a few days after,
he informed me that he had made a contract with a brass molder on Rose
Street for casting our governor arms, “subject to your approval, sir,”
and he asked me to visit the place and see what its facilities were.
I told him I would go, but that my position on the subject was already
well known to him. I found the place on a little lane, and that the
business done in it was making brass castings for plumbers. The
proprietor told me he had never made gun-metal castings, but he could
make any kind of composition, and I could rely on getting them of just
the metal I furnished him.
I reported to Mr. Smith that such an arrangement would be ruinous, that
his plan of furnishing the metal was most unbusinesslike. “What do you
know about business?” he shouted with a sneer. “I know,” said I, “that
if you should propose this plan to any well-informed, practical man,
he would laugh in your face, and tell you if you wanted to ruin your
business this would be as good a way as any to do it.” He replied,
“That is not the question, sir; the only question is, will you, or will
you not, approve the contract I have made?” “I will not,” I replied,
and walked out of his office.
A few days after I received a note from Mr. Hope, asking me to call
on him. I called next day, and he told me that Mr. Smith had been to
see him, with a bitter complaint of my insubordination and defiance of
his authority, which he would not endure, and he asked me to tell him
what the trouble was about. I told him substantially as above related.
“Is that all?” said he. I assured him that it was all the trouble that
I knew of. Mr. Hope replied, “I cannot express my amazement at his
interference with your management. That must be absolutely entrusted
to you, and he ought to see it. He is a rational man and I can easily
show him his error, and that you _must_ take the stand you have done. I
don’t think you will have any more trouble.”
I did not hear again from Mr. Hope for a fortnight, during which time
I had no occasion to meet Mr. Smith. Finally a letter came from him,
telling me that I must prepare for the worst; he had exhausted all his
efforts on Mr. Smith, and found him absolutely immovable, declaring
that I must go, I was of no use there, anyway. Mr. Hope said he told
him his conduct was outrageous and suicidal. If I went, that I would be
the end of the business. He snapped his fingers at that, saying, “Mr.
Goodfellow can make the engines, and I can sell them; what more do you
want?” He declared that no business could succeed unless the will of
the president was law. They had several very disagreeable conferences,
which Mr. Smith always closed by saying, “Repay me my investment in
this company,” which he figured at $24,000, “and I’ll give you my
stock.” He had announced to Mr. Hope his determination to call a
meeting of the directors to discharge me, and as he had a majority of
votes, having some time before given to each of his two sons qualifying
shares and had them elected members of the board of directors, he held
the power in his hands to do it.
Directly after, I received a copy of a notice of a regular meeting of
the board, convened strictly according to law. I could see no ray of
light. The night before the meeting I walked the Third Avenue bridge
half the night. The meeting was called to order by Mr. Smith at the
appointed hour. Mr. Hope was absent. Mr. Smith said Mr. Hope had sent
word to him the day before that he might be detained, but if so would
come up on the next boat, which ran hourly, and asked Mr. Smith to wait
that time for him.
So the meeting was adjourned for an hour, when Mr. Hope arrived.
Mr. Smith prefaced the resolutions discharging me from my position as
superintendent and electing Mr. Goodfellow in my place, by quite an
oration, setting forth the solemn sense of his Christian duty which
left him no alternative, and the necessity of proper subordination in
any business, if it was to be successful, and the especially aggravated
character of my offense, and the demoralizing nature of my example.
He was about to put the question on the adoption of the resolutions,
when Mr. Hope said, “Before you put this question to vote, Mr. Smith, I
would like to say a word. I have concluded to accept your offer. Here
is my certified check for $24,000 to your order, and I demand from you
the transfer to me of the stock in this company standing in your name
and the names of your sons.”
When the Smiths were gone (they left by the next boat) Mr. Hope and I
sat down to confer on the business of the company. When these matters
were concluded, I said to him, “Mr. Hope, if you had determined to make
this grand proof of your confidence in the engine and in myself, why
did you not tell me sooner, and save my wife and myself a great deal of
distress?”
“My dear fellow,” he replied, “I did not know till this morning that I
should be able to do it. That is why I was late.”
CHAPTER XX
Close of the Engine Manufacture in Harlem. My Occupation During a Three
Years’ Suspension.
In the autumn of ’72, following the above incident, we had a proof of
the sagacity of Mr. Smith in rejecting my plan for the establishment
of works for the manufacture of the engines, and taking a five years’
lease of an abandoned shanty. The property had changed hands, and we
received a note from the new owner, saying that he had purchased the
property with a view to its improvement. He should therefore be unable
to renew our lease, and he gave us six months’ notice, that we might
have time in which to make other arrangements before its expiration.
Here was a situation. To move and establish the business in a new
locality would require a large expenditure, and we had no money. The
natural thing to do would be to enlarge our capital. On consultation
with several parties, Mr. Hope found the financial situation at that
time would not warrant this attempt. The Civil War had ended between
seven and eight years before. Hard times had been generally anticipated
after its close, but to the surprise of capitalists these did not come.
The country continued to be apparently prosperous. The best observers
were, however, convinced that a financial reaction was inevitable, and
the longer it was delayed the more serious it was likely to be; an
anticipation that was more than realized in Black Friday in September,
1873, and the collapse of values and years of absolute stagnation that
followed.
For some time before that eventful day capitalists had felt anxious
and there had been a growing timidity and indisposition to invest in
any enterprise, however substantial it might be, so there was nothing
for us to do but to wind up our business and wait for more propitious
times, when we might attempt its revival.
In the winter of ’72-3 I had a call from my friend, J. C. Hoadley,
accompanied by Mr. Charles H. Waters, manager of the Clinton Wire Cloth
Company. Mr. Waters wished to obtain one of our engines. I told him I
was very sorry, but we should not be able to make one for him. I then
explained our situation. Our lease would expire in a month or two, and
could not be renewed, and we had made arrangements then to close our
business, had sold all our tools deliverable before that date, were
rushing two engines to completion, but absolutely could not undertake
another order.
“Never mind,” said he, “one of your engines I must have.” He then told
me that he was about to introduce a new feature in weaving wire cloth.
This was then woven in various narrow widths, according to customers’
orders, having a selvage on each side. He had satisfied himself that
this latter was unnecessary. The wire, being bent in weaving, had no
tendency to ravel, and he had planned a loom to weave the cloth seven
feet in width, and slit it up into narrow widths as required. In this
loom the shuttle alone would weigh a hundred and fifty pounds, besides
the great weight of wire it would carry; it had to be thrown nearly
twelve feet, and he wanted to make as many picks per minute as any
narrow loom could do. In order to make these throws uniformly, he
required absolutely uniform motion. From a careful study of slow-moving
variable cut-off engines, he had satisfied himself that none of them
could give him the uniformity of motion he needed. They were driven by
a succession of violent punches, these excessive amounts of force at
the commencement of each stroke were absorbed by the fly-wheel, the
velocity of which had to be increased to do it, and at the end of the
stroke its velocity had to be reduced in the same degree, to supply
the total failure of the force of the steam. This involved a variation
of speed which in ordinary business would not be regarded, but which
would ruin the action of this new loom. In the high speed of my engine,
and the action of the reciprocating fly-wheel, which compensated the
inequalities of the steam pressure without affecting the uniformity of
the speed, he found just what he needed, and that engine he must have.
I was astonished at the man’s penetration.
[Illustration: J. C. HOADLEY]
I was able to get from our landlord and purchasers of our tools the
necessary extension of time, and made the engine for him. It and the
loom were each a complete success. Mr. Waters told me long after that
he never observed a single variation from exact uniformity of motion,
without which his loom would have had to be abandoned.
I had one day the pleasure of meeting there the president of the
Lancaster mills, the only other great industry of Clinton, who had come
over expressly to examine the running of our engine. Before he left he
said to me that the engine certainly presented a remarkable advance in
steam engineering.
I saw there one thing that interested me greatly. That was, the method
of painting wire cloth. This was carried on in a large tower high
enough to enable a twenty-yard length of the “cloth” to be suspended
in it. This was taken through a tub of paint, and drawn slowly
upward between three successive pairs of rollers, the last pair of
india-rubber, held firmly together. By these the paint was squeezed
into every corner, both sides were thoroughly painted, and the surplus
paint removed, so that every mesh was clear, a uniform perfection
unattainable by hand painting, and two boys would paint in ten minutes
as much as a painter could paint in a day. I think this was an
invention by Mr. Waters.
With the completion of the engine for the Clinton Wire Cloth Company,
the manufacture of the high-speed engine was closed for three years,
from the spring of 1873 to the spring of 1876.
This long rest proved to be most valuable. Looking back upon it, I have
always been impressed with its importance at that very time to the
development of the high-speed system.
The design of the engine needed to be revised, and this revision
involved study, to which time and leisure were essential.
I had also an order from Elliott Brothers of London, to prepare a
new and enlarged edition of the pamphlet descriptive of the Richards
Indicator. I determined to make this a comprehensive book, embracing
new information required by the steam engineer, so far as I knew it.
This was published simultaneously in London and New York in the summer
of 1874.
I was enabled also to turn to account the report of the experiments of
M. Regnault, which I had been at so much trouble to get, and with the
help of English authorities to prepare and embody in this book Tables
of the Properties of Saturated Steam, which the American Society of
Mechanical Engineers honored me by adopting as its standard.
I felt warranted in giving to this edition an amended title, as
follows: “A treatise on the Richards Steam Engine Indicator, and the
Development and Application of Force in the Steam Engine.”
This also was a job requiring much time and undivided application. It
is needless to say that without this long and entire rest from business
neither of these tasks could have been undertaken.
I found in the Astor Library a remarkable old book, entitled “Canon
triangulorum,” published at Frankfurt in 1612, containing a Table
of Natural Trigonometrical Functions, computed for every minute of
arc, and extended to the fifteenth place of decimals. The column of
versed sines enabled me to prepare tables _exhibiting_ the rates of
acceleration and retardation of the motion of a piston controlled
by a crank, neglecting the effect of the angular vibration of the
connecting-rod. This effect was afterwards shown separately. For my
treatment of this subject, I must refer the reader to the book itself.
A little incident in connection with this work, which made a deep
impression on my mind, and has since afforded me some food for
reflection, seems worth relating. The printing was done in London,
and I did not see the proof, so I had to take especial pains with the
copy, having no opportunity to revise it. I was living in Harlem, and
at one time having no suitable envelope for mailing, and none being
obtainable there, I took a Third Avenue horse-car for an eight-mile
ride down to the New York post office, intending to get some envelopes
at a stationery store on Beekman Street, and mail the portion of the
copy which I then had ready at the general post office. I had hardly
taken my seat when Mr. Allen got into the car. He was living in Mott
Haven, and I had not seen him for a long time. Besides ourselves the
car was nearly if not quite empty. He came and sat down by me, and I
opened my copy and read to him something in which I knew he would be
interested. He said to me, in his gentle way, “You would not express
it exactly that way, would you?” On the instant it flashed on my mind
that I had made a stupid blunder, and I replied, “I guess I wouldn’t,”
and, thanking him for calling my attention to it, I left the car, and
returned home and corrected it. I have quite forgotten what the point
was, and if I remembered it, I would not tell. But I have often asked
myself who sent Mr. Allen there, saving me from publishing a mortifying
blunder. I expect some sweet spirit will tell me before long.
[Illustration: The Prototype of the Modern High-speed Engine, Fly-wheel
Side.]
[Illustration: The Prototype of the Modern High-speed Engine, Crank
Side.]
As soon as this book was off my hands, I devoted myself to the revision
and standardizing of the engine.
As made up to that time, it was not reversible, and the valves could
not be handled. It could not therefore be used in rolling-mills,
the field to which I felt already that it was especially adapted.
Moreover, every engine should be capable of being backed in starting,
as otherwise whenever it had stopped with the piston at a point later
than the latest point of cut-off, or say in the last half of the
stroke, which it would do half the time, it would need to be pulled
around by hand to a position in which one of the admission ports would
be open. This in a large engine, or one connected with extensive lines
of shafting, would be a serious matter, so much so that in some engines
little starting cylinders are required.
[Illustration: Longitudinal Section of Cylinder and Valves.]
[Illustration: Cross-section of Cylinder and Valves.]
[Illustration: Elevation and Plan of Valve Connections.]
I had also determined to use the equilibrium admission valves with
adjustable pressure plates, according to the drawings sent to me by Mr.
Allen in 1863, and to abandon the separate steam chest, and put the
exhaust valves on the opposite side of the cylinder.
Then the engine needed to be standardized, so as to cover the field
with the fewest number of sizes, symmetrically distributed. The
existing practice with all makers of engines had been to let the
purchaser dictate the size and speed of the engine he wanted, a
practice which resulted in a lot of patterns and drawings not adapted
to other people’s requirements, and not properly distributed. For an
organized manufacturing business, this habit must be entirely broken up.
Mr. Allen had in his shop in Mott Haven an unoccupied second story, in
which I had stored our patterns and drawings and drawing implements.
Here I established my quarters, and spent my working hours until this
second job was finished.
The two perspective views of opposite sides of the engine, show these
changes as they appear externally, and the remaining views show some
constructive details.
These latter show the exhaust valves transferred to the front side of
the engine, and located so as to drain the cylinder, and the admission
valves set at different elevations, to accommodate the differential
connection, the abandonment of the separate steam-chest, and this chest
with the exhaust chambers cast with the cylinder, with openings over
the valves; the levers by which the differential movements are given
to the admission valves; and the single-link rod, and the gab by which
this rod is unhooked, with the method of moving the admission valves by
hand.
In place of the levers on the steam rock shaft, I at that time drew
cast-iron disks, which being polished and vibrating in place I thought
very handsome. They gave me lots of trouble, till I learned enough to
get rid of them, the story of which I will tell by and by. The front
view shows the admission valve stems balanced by being extended through
at the back end, a feature which helped the governor action when high
steam pressures were employed, but which was abandoned as unnecessary
after I abandoned the disks on the rocker shaft.
[Illustration: First Arrangement of Exhaust Valves.]
The first two figures show the valves in section and the adjustable
pressure plate and mode of its adjustment. The closeness of the piston
to the head may be observed. I never allowed more than one-eighth inch
clearance, and never had a piston touch the head. This was because the
connecting-rod maintained a constant length, the wear of the boxes
being taken up in the same direction.
These illustrations show the exhaust valves after alteration made
several years later in Philadelphia. As first designed by me, these are
shown in the foregoing sectional views. As will be seen, the exhaust
valves lay with their backs towards the cylinder, worked under the
pressure of the steam in the cylinder, made four openings for release
and exhausted through the cover.
I consented to the change in Philadelphia because this arrangement
involved too much waste room, but the change was not satisfactory after
all. I had become possessed with the idea that the engine running
at high speed needed 50 per cent. more room for exhausting than for
admission. This was not the case. I have always regretted that I did
not retain this design, and content myself with reducing the exhaust
area.
The lightness of the piston in this view will be observed. This was a
special design for adapting the engine to be run at 200 revolutions,
giving 1200 feet piston travel per minute. The stuffing-box was a freak
which was abandoned.
The next figures show the valve-stem guides, rocking-levers,
coupling-rods and gab, which latter when thrown over unhooks the
link-rod, as is done on steamboat engines.
The following figures show the construction of the main bearing with
adjustments on opposite sides, by which the shaft is kept in exact
line, and shows also the solid support of the shaft quite out to the
hub of the crank. This view contains one error. The cap is not made a
binder. I relied on the strength of the thick continuous web of the bed
under the boxes in addition to the depth of the bed. But we once had
a bed break right here under enormous strain, and since then the caps
have been made binders. It will be observed that the wedges are drawn
upward to tighten the boxes. It is not necessary to explain why.
[Illustration: Main Bearing.]
[Illustration: Eccentric and Crosshead Pin Lubricator.]
[Illustration:
Front View
of Wiper
Section on
the Line a-b
Center Line
of Shaft
Crank-pin Lubricator.]
The above left-hand cut shows the automatic lubricator of the eccentric
and the cross-head pin. The stud _A_, on the eccentric strap and on the
strap of the connecting-rod, carries a curved blade, _a_, which at the
beginning of each forward stroke rises to take the drop of oil from the
stem of the sight-feed lubricator. This is set on an arm fixed on the
cap of the main-bearing and on a bridge between the upper guide-bars.
The drop is made sure to come to this central point by a wire _B_
filling the brass tube, grooved on opposite sides and terminating in a
point.
The automatic lubrication of the crank-pin presented a still more
serious problem. It was solved by the construction shown, in the right
hand view, which will be understood without further description.
It will be seen that here the oil tube is inclined, and the drop
follows it to a point on its lower side. Both these lubricators proved
absolutely reliable. The last one is equally applicable on double-crank
engines.
===============++===========++=========++===========================++
|| || || ||
Dimensions of || || || ||
Cylinders. || ||Travel of|| Indicated Powers. ||
-------+-------++Revolutions||Piston in++-------------+-------------++
| || of Crank || Feet per|| Without | With ||
Bore. |Stroke.||per Minute.|| Minute. ||Condensation.|Condensation.||
-------+-------++-----------++---------++-------------+-------------++
Inches.|Inches.|| || ||Horse Powers.|Horse Powers.||
| || || || | ||
6 | 12 || 350 || 700 || 25 | ||
7 | 12 || 350 || 700 || 35 | ||
8 | 16 || 280 || 746 || 45 | 60 ||
9 | 16 || 280 || 746 || 60 | 75 ||
10 | 20 || 230 || 766 || 75 | 100 ||
11.5 | 20 || 230 || 766 || 100 | 125 ||
13 | 24 || 200 || 800 || 130 | 160 ||
14.5 | 24 || 200 || 800 || 160 | 200 ||
16 | 30 || 165 || 825 || 200 | 260 ||
18 | 30 || 165 || 825 || 250 | 330 ||
20 | 36 || 140 || 840 || 320 | 400 ||
22 | 36 || 140 || 840 || 400 | 500 ||
24 | 42 || 125 || 875 || 480 | 620 ||
26 | 42 || 125 || 875 || 560 | 730 ||
28 | 48 || 112.5 || 900 || 670 | 870 ||
32 | 48 || 112.5 || 900 || 870 | 1140 ||
36 | 48 || 112.5 || 900 || 1100 | 1430 ||
40 | 48 || 112.5 || 900 || 1360 | 1750 ||
44 | 48 || 112.5 || 900 || 1600 | 2100 ||
-------+-------++-----------++---------++-------------+-------------++
===============++=========================++====================
|| Fly-wheels. ||
Dimensions of ||Made when Practicable to ||
Cylinders. ||Serve also as Belt-Drums.|| Driving Belts.
-------+-------++-------------+-----------++---------+----------
| || | Weight of || |
Bore. |Stroke.|| Diameter. | Rim. ||Velocity.| Width.
-------+-------++-------------+-----------++---------+----------
| || | ||Feet per |
Inches.|Inches.||Feet. Inches.| Lbs. || minute. | Inches.
6 | 12 || 3 | 350 || 3300 | 9 single.
7 | 12 || 3 6 | 400 || 3850 |10 „
8 | 16 || 4 | 650 || 3520 |12 double.
9 | 16 || 4 6 | 700 || 3960 |12 „
10 | 20 || 5 | 1300 || 3610 |14 „
11.5 | 20 || 5 6 | 1450 || 3970 |14 „
13 | 24 || 6 6 | 2100 || 4084 |18 „
14.5 | 24 || 7 | 2350 || 4400 |20 „
16 | 30 || 8 | 4000 || 4150 |26 „
18 | 30 || 9 | 4000 || 4670 |30 „
20 | 36 || 10 | 6000 || 4400 |38 „
22 | 36 || 11 | 6000 || 4840 |42 „
24 | 42 || 12 | || |
26 | 42 || 13 | || |
28 | 48 || 16 | || |
32 | 48 || | || |
36 | 48 || | || |
40 | 48 || | || |
44 | 48 || | || |
-------+-------++-------------+-----------++---------+----------
The powers are those given by an initial pressure of 85 lbs. on the
square inch, cut off at about one quarter of the stroke. For the
best economy steam should not be cut off earlier than this, unless
a higher pressure is carried. At the latest point of cut off, the
powers developed are double those given in the above Table. The
engines can be worked under locomotive pressures, with corresponding
increase of power.
After considerable study I finally adopted the above table of standard
sizes and speeds, covering the ground from 25 horse-power up with
nineteen sizes.
As the bed could not be reversed, I needed both a right-hand and
a left-hand bed for each size. I avoided half of this expense in
patterns by planning two diameters of cylinders with the same stroke,
and making one bed answer for both.
Until I found something else to do, I employed myself in preparing
complete drawings for three or four smaller sizes of engines; a work
which afterwards proved exceedingly useful.
CHAPTER XXI
Production of an Original Surface Plate.
I will introduce here a description of the method of producing an
original surface plate.
The production of mechanically true planes by the method of scraping
was first suggested by Mr. Whitworth, and was brought to perfection
in his works. Having had and having improved the opportunity there to
study this system, and having employed it largely in the manufacture
of high-speed engines, it seems to me that an account of it should
find a place in these reminiscences, especially as the importance
of mechanical truth is coming to be more and more realized in this
country. I will therefore describe the process of producing an original
standard surface plate.
The first point, of course, is the design. The square form, 30 inches
square, has been found most suitable. I could not, however, use this
form myself, a long surface plate being required for the guide-bars and
steam-chest joints of my engine.
The plate must be incapable of deflection. To insure this it is ribbed
on the under side with ribs seven inches deep, and is supported at
three points, equidistant from each other and from the center, so that
its equal support cannot vary, whatever may be the surface on which it
stands. It is provided on two opposite sides with handles, by which it
can be lifted and rotated. The arrangement of the ribs and feet is here
shown.
It must be cast of hard and close-grained iron, which will possess the
most durable qualities, in a baked mold without a cope, so that the
gas shall escape most freely. As cast, the plate should be one inch
thick. About three eighths of an inch is planed off, removing all
dirt, and leaving a perfectly sound surface, with a thickness of about
five eighths of an inch. Three of these plates are made. After these
have been planed, their edges squared and steel handles put in they are
delivered to the fitter.
[Illustration: Surface Plate for Producing a True Plane.]
I will first describe the tool used in scraping. Originally this was
a hooked tool, and the scraping was done by a drawing motion. Two of
these tools were employed, one for the roughing work, in which the
hook projected downward about three quarters of an inch, and the other
for fine scraping. In the latter the hook projected downward only
about one quarter of an inch, and absolute freedom from vibration was
aimed at. These tools were used for a number of years, but afterwards
a radical change was made. The modern method is to employ a single
straight tool, like a carpenter’s chisel, about an inch and a quarter
wide and an eighth of an inch thick, with a square end. This end is
slightly curved, and its corners are rounded to avoid scratching the
plate. The scraping is done by a pushing motion.
This tool has been found preferable on all accounts. Projections
needing to be removed are in front of the tool, instead of being
covered by it. The tool is perfectly rigid, and can be inclined to
the surface at any desired angle. The cutting edge is a square angle,
and being well supported keeps sharp for a considerably longer time
than when it is an acute angle, and when ground or honed two edges are
formed. Moreover, the pushing motion is preferred.
Two of the plates only are first brought together. For disclosing the
high points, one of these is covered with a raddle made of finely
sifted red lead and oil. This is made quite stiff, and all of it that
can be removed by the palm of the hand is rubbed off, leaving only a
very thin uniform film on the surface. Any dust having been carefully
removed from both surfaces by a soft brush, one of these plates is
inverted on the other, and at one corner each plate is marked in the
edge with a prick-punch. The upper plate is then rubbed about on the
lower one for, say, half a minute. When lifted off, the high portions
of the surfaces are shown on one plate by the raddle put on, and on
the other by that rubbed off. The workman then gives to these parts
of the surfaces a general scraping, giving to his tool a long sweep,
say from four to six inches. This is repeated two or three times, the
stroke being shortened each time, and the upper plate being placed in
a position at right angles with its last one, which can be determined
by the prick-punch marks. This change of position is necessary to
avoid a cross-wind or spiral form. The scraping should now extend over
the entire surfaces, and these should have a general uniform bearing
on each other, with the points of contact uniformly distributed and
equally distinct. The work should be continued in the same way until
all these requirements are fulfilled.
Now appears the use of the third plate. The two surfaces thus formed
are sure to be, one of them convex and the other concave, in some
corresponding degree. The workman now numbers the plates, by numbers
stamped in the edges, these being marked Nos. 1 and 2, and the third
plate No. 3. No. 2 is now set aside, and No. 3 is scraped to fit No.
1. It is thus made a duplicate of No. 2. Next, No. 1 is set aside
and Nos. 2 and 3 are brought together. Supposing these to be convex,
they will bear together at the middle point, on which the upper plate
will rock, and the degree of their convexity will thus be shown. The
workman then in the same manner scrapes these plates equally to the
best of his judgment, until their entire surfaces are brought together,
with equal distribution of the points of contact. These two surfaces
will now again be, one convex and the other concave, though in a much
less degree. The next step is to apply No. 1, which is concave, to
either No. 2 or No. 3, and scrape it to fit. It is then applied to
the other, of which it has now been made a duplicate, and the same
process is repeated, until the three plates can be interchanged in any
way, and will have a uniform general bearing on each other, with equal
distribution and distinctness of the points of contact. We have thus,
in a general way, produced three demonstrated true planes, but the
surfaces are yet far from the desired approximation to absolute truth.
Now follows the fine scraping, which is not attempted until general
truth has thus been established. The object of this is to multiply the
points of contact and perfect their equal distribution and prominence.
For this operation no raddle is used, but the surfaces are rubbed
together dry. When the plates are separated, the points of contact
shine like stars. Here skill and care are pre-eminently required. The
scraping takes off only a dust. If too strong depressions may be made
deeper than before, and requiring the reduction of the entire surface.
The superiority of the modern tool is now especially shown. By lowering
the angle of the tool, the workman presents the slightly curved edge
to the surface in a position as nearly parallel with it as he desires.
Interchanges similar to the former ones are now repeated, until the
bright points are brought as close together as is desired, with uniform
distribution and distinctness. The tedious operation is now finished,
and these bright points remain as witnesses.
The three plates were necessary to the production of one. They have
also a permanent use. They are indispensable to the preservation of the
true plane, which it has cost so much patient labor to produce. The
date of their completion is stamped on their edges. Then plates 1 and
2 are put away in the store-room, their surfaces carefully protected
from rust or injury, which last is best avoided by inverting one on the
other, and No. 3 is put into use. A prominent use is for the production
of smaller plates or straight-edges adapted to special purposes. After
a while, perhaps in a little while, this plate loses its truth by
unequal wear. Indeed, speaking with absolute truth, it may be said that
the first time this plate is used it is ruined. But by taking pains to
use different parts of its surface as equally as possible, it may be
kept in fair condition for some time. It can at any time be restored to
its original condition by scraping it to No. 2, taking the same pains
to turn it one quarter way around at every rub. In the course of time
No. 2 will itself become worn unequally, when its truth can be restored
by rubbing it on No. 1. Finally the three plates can all be restored to
their original condition by rubbing them together interchangeably as at
first. Thus the true plane can be absolutely perpetuated.
The importance of this work can only be realized when we consider
that the true plane affords the only means by which true cylindrical
work also can be either produced or verified. It is thus seen to be
fundamental to all mechanical truth.
CHAPTER XXII
Efforts to Resume the Manufacture. I Exhibit the Engine to Mr. Holley.
Contract with Mr. Phillips. Sale of Engine to Mr. Peters.
In the years ’74 and ’75 I was filled with eagerness to get the
engine on its legs again, and tried a number of schemes in vain. One
morning I read in the paper that Alexander L. Holley had just returned
from Europe, where he had been making a tour of the steel-making
establishments, studying both the Bessemer and the open hearth or
Siemens-Martin processes, on a scheme of interchanging improvements in
manufacture between American and foreign licensees under both these
systems.
It occurred to me that Mr. Holley might be the very man I wanted. If
he could be got to recommend the engine to the steel-makers, they
might take it up for their own use. I had not applied the engine in
rolling-mill work, but felt sure that it would prove especially adapted
to that service. So I called on Mr. Holley at his home in Brooklyn.
I had never before met him, but I found that he knew something about
the engine from its exhibition in Paris, and from his brother-in-law,
Frederick J. Slade, then an officer of the New Jersey Steel Company,
and who was one of the engine’s warm admirers. I have already mentioned
Mr. Slade and the help he gave me while in Paris in solving the problem
of piston acceleration.
[Illustration: ALEXANDER LYMAN HOLLEY]
So I found no difficulty in arranging with Mr. Holley to take a trip
with me, and visit some of my engines in operation, for the purpose of
forming a judgment as to its suitability for the use of his clients.
This he agreed to do as soon as he had finished the report of his
trip, on which he was then engaged. Our inspection took in the engines
running in New York and Brooklyn and vicinity and in New England,
finishing with the engine at the Arlington Mills in Lawrence. They were
all found to be on their best behavior, but Mr. Holley told me that the
engine at Lawrence, which was running there at its intended speed of
150 revolutions per minute, impressed him more than all the rest put
together; not that it was doing any better, for they all ran equally
well, but solely because it was larger. It made him awake to the great
possibilities of the engine.
On his return Mr. Holley prepared a report on the performance of the
engine, and cordially endorsed it as sure of ultimate general adoption.
But he found capitalists to be absolutely dead. Not even his great
influence could awaken in them the least interest. The time for the
promoter had not yet come. And still my success in winning Mr. Holley’s
support proved to be vital to my subsequent progress.
As a last possible resort I finally thought of Mr. Phillips of Newark.
The firm of Hewes & Phillips had become dissolved by the death of Mr.
Hewes, and so, by purchase of Mr. Hewes’ interest from his heirs, Mr.
Phillips was the sole proprietor of the largest engineering works in
New Jersey. That concern had some time before the death of Mr. Hewes
given up the manufacture of steam-engines, a style made by them having
proved unsuccessful, and confined themselves to making machine tools.
In this line their business was exceedingly dull, being disastrously
affected by the depressed and stagnant condition of the times.
I found Mr. Phillips ready to listen to me. He said that what he
knew about the engine was favorable, although he had not heard of it
for the last two or three years, but he was willing to consider a
proposition to take up its manufacture. I told him frankly that I had
no proposition of that kind to make. I wished to get the manufacture
of the engine revived, but to retain the business in my own hands,
to carry it on myself in my own name, with the view of gaining for
the engine a reputation that would enable me to command the capital
necessary to establish its manufacture in works that I had long before
planned for that purpose, and in which I could devote myself to the
development and building up of the business; that I hoped to be able to
reach this point in the course of two or three years, when probably
the anticipated financial revival would fill his works with business in
his own line of toolmaking.
He said that my proposal was entirely inadmissible, that he could not
permit any independent business to be carried on in his establishment,
and stated firmly the impossibility of any arrangement of the kind I
suggested, which would be something quite unheard of. I stood firmly
on my own position, but was obliged to leave him without any sign of
yielding on his part. The negotiation was, however, renewed, exactly
how I cannot now recall, but it ended in my carrying my point. We
finally concluded a bargain, in which I held onto the business, but,
of course, had to insure to him pretty much all the profits. This I
did not mind, my object was to obtain a position, which it will be
seen I fully accomplished, but did not know what to do with it. I was
conscious that I could never have made this arrangement but for the
extreme stagnation of the times; but was not aware of an additional
reason which impelled Mr. Phillips to agree to my terms, when he found
he could not do any better. What this reason was will appear pretty
soon.
The arrangement was to go into effect as soon as I got an order.
This was my next job. I learned that Mr. Peters, a manufacturer of
high-grade knit fabrics in Newark, all which, by the way, were sold by
him to importers in New York, was carrying on also a manufacture of
light oilcloths in Newark in temporary quarters, and was building a
large structure for this purpose in East Newark, the building now and
for many years past occupied by the Edison lamp manufactory, and was in
the market for an engine. I called on Mr. Peters, and got from him the
privilege of submitting an estimate for this engine. For this purpose I
went to his then present works, and measured the amount of power he was
using, and found that one of my 8×16 engines would give him that power
with the additional amount he wished to provide for.
On calling with my estimate early one morning, I found Mr. Peters ready
to bow me out. He told me that he had been informed that the high-speed
engines had proved a failure, and the manufacture of them had been
abandoned three or four years ago. I said to him, “Mr. Peters, I would
like to make you a proposition.” He replied that he would hear it.
I then said, “Your engineer, Mr. Green, I suppose never saw a
high-speed engine, but he strikes me as a fair-minded, cool-headed man.
I have three engines made by me in Harlem, and which have been running
from four to six years, two in New York and one at the J. L. Mott Iron
Works at Mott Haven. These can all be visited in one trip. I propose
that you send Mr. Green to see them in operation, and talk with the
engineers and owners and learn all about them, and that you suspend
your decision until you get his report.” “That is a fair offer,” said
he. “I will send him to-day.” I called again the next day, and found
Mr. Peters ready to throw the order into my hands. Mr. Green told me
afterwards what his impressions were. In the most cool manner, entirely
free from any excitement, he said: “My only wonder is that everybody
does not use this engine and that all builders don’t make it. I got the
same report everywhere. Would not have anything else. Costs less money,
occupies less space, burns less coal, needs less attention, never cost
a cent for repairs, never anything the matter, never varies its speed.”
And so I began business in Mr. Phillips’ shop, where I continued for
four years, the most delightful period in my active life. I had Mr.
Goodfellow in his old place as my foreman, and three or four of my
best men back again at the work they loved. Everything went smoothly
and harmoniously, and the business grew steadily until the orders
thrust upon me became larger than I could have filled if I had had the
whole works to myself. In re-introducing the engine to the public, I
determined to change its name. I had been asked occasionally what I had
to do with the Allen engine. It struck me that I had a good deal to do
with it. Starting from Mr. Allen’s single eccentric link motion, and
four-opening equilibrium valve and my own governor, I had, with the
help which I have been happy to acknowledge, created the high-speed
engine, had solved every problem, theoretical and practical, which it
involved, and designed every part of it. So I felt it to be proper that
it should thereafter be known as the Porter-Allen engine.
The following incident illustrates the ease with which everything
down to the smallest detail may unconsciously be prepared to insure a
disaster at some time.
Mr. Peters’ engine-room was a long, narrow room on one side of the
boiler-room, from which was the only entrance to it directly opposite
the guide-bars of the engine. The door opened inward, and the latch
was not very secure. They burned soft coal, which was wheeled in on an
elevated plank and dumped into a heap in front of the furnace.
One day, about a year after the engine was put in, there was a great
wind blowing. A gust of unusual force blew the engine-room door open at
the instant when a barrowful of coal was being dumped, and carried a
cloud of its dust over the guide-bars. The engine was soon brought to
a standstill. All the faces of cross-head and guide-bars were deeply
scored. It was found, however, that when these were cleaned up and
scraped over to remove all projections that they ran as well as ever,
the grooves proving good oil distributors, but they were not so pretty
to look at.
One day, two or three weeks after we commenced work on this engine,
Mr. Phillips’ bookkeeper came to me and said: “Mr. Peters’ engine is
contracted to be running on the first of May, is it not?” “Yes.” “Do
you think it will be ready?” I replied that the work was in a good
state of forwardness, and I thought most likely it would be running
before that time. I should say that was a size for which I had made the
revised drawings already, and the old cylinder pattern had been readily
altered to the new style. “Well,” said he, “Mr. Phillips is a little
short to-day, and he would be much obliged if you would give him your
note for a thousand dollars to come due, say, the fifteenth of May.” So
I gave him the note, the engine was ready on time, accepted and paid
for, and the note met at maturity.
This was the beginning of a uniform process, which continued for four
years. It was disclosed that Mr. Phillips’ financial position was the
same as my own, neither of us had a cent of money. The way we managed
was this. I always afterwards required payments in instalments, one
quarter with the order, one quarter when the engine was ready for
shipment, and the balance when running satisfactorily. Thus with my
notes we got along famously. My orders were always from first-class
parties, engines always ready on time, always gave satisfaction, and
promptly paid for. I had many thousands in notes out all the time,
and never had to renew a note. Mr. James Moore of Philadelphia, the
celebrated builder of rolling mill machinery, once long after remarked
to me, “I keep my bank account in the shop.” It occurred to me that I
had always done the same thing.
Directly after we got running I received a letter from William R.
Jones, superintendent of the Edgar Thompson Steel Company, running a
rail mill recently started at Braddocks by Carnegie Brothers, saying
that they were in need of an engine to drive a circular saw at a
very high rate of speed to cut off steel rails cold. They had been
recommended by Mr. Holley to get one of mine, and if I could furnish
a suitable engine immediately he would order it. Fortunately I could.
While I was building engines in Harlem, the city of Washington, D.
C., went into the system of wooden pavements, and the contractor
obtained an engine from me for sawing up the blocks. About the very
time I received Mr. Jones’ letter I had learned that the wooden
pavement system was being abandoned in Washington for asphalt and the
sawing-mill was closed. I at once wrote to the contractor making him an
offer for the engine. I received by return mail a reply accepting my
offer, and adding most complimentary words concerning the engine. These
I remember closed by saying that his admiration of it was such that if
he were able he would put the engine in a glass case and keep it there
as long as he lived.
The engine proved just right for Mr. Jones’ use. I went myself to
Braddocks to see it started. All were much interested in the governor
action, I as much as any one, for I had never before seen this
particular application of it. In sawing through the head and web and
bottom flange of the rail, the width of section being cut varied
continually, and the gentle rising and falling of the counterpoise,
adjusting the power to the resistance, while the engine kept, so far
as the eye could detect, a uniform motion, had about it a continual
fascination. The success of this engine brought me several orders for
governors, the most important of which was one from Mr. Jones himself
for governors and throttle valves for his blooming mill and rail-mill
engines. I got up for him balanced piston valves which operated
perfectly. In iron valves and seats of this character it had been
found, where the steam contained primed water, that their edges wore
rounded, and their action in regulating the motion became less and less
satisfactory. I knew that these boilers primed badly, and avoided this
defect by setting brass rings in the edges.
The following illustrations show this regulating valve which I designed
and made in two sizes.
[Illustration: Mr. Porter’s Regulating Valve.]
The brass liner for the lower seat was passed through the upper seat
by being made thinner than the upper liner. Those for the valve were
made ¹⁄₈ inch too long, and guttered in the lower edge. They were then
driven down by a set and sledge on an anvil. By going around them three
times the lower edges were spread out to fill the chamfer, and the
flanges brought down to their seats. Those for the lower valve were put
in in halves.
[Illustration: WILLIAM R. JONES]
CHAPTER XXIII
Experience as Member of the Board of Judges At the Philadelphia
Centennial Exhibition.
One day in April I was surprised to receive by mail a commission as
a member of the Board of Judges in Group Twenty of the Philadelphia
International Exhibition. I was at a loss to know how I got it, but
learned afterwards that I had been appointed on the recommendation of
Mr. Holley, who was consulted by the commissioners about the judges
in several groups. The exhibition was opened on May 1, but the judges
were not to assemble until the 24th, and on that day we had quite a
ceremony in the judges’ hall. The American judges were seated at one
side of the hall and rose to receive the foreign judges who filed in
from some place where they had been corralled, while a fine band played
the national airs of all nations that had any airs. After a time spent
in welcoming and responsive addresses, we were marched to a large café
and given luncheon, after which the different groups were organized.
There I had the pleasure of first meeting Mr. James Moore, also
Professor Reuleaux of Berlin and Colonel Petroff of St. Petersburg; and
Emil Brugsch the interesting Egyptian commissioner, also serving as a
judge in our group. I observed that these foreigners used the English
language more accurately than I did. We organized by the election as
president of Horatio Allen, formerly president of the Novelty Iron
Works (then extinct), he being the oldest and the biggest man among
us. Under Mr. Allen’s administration we had a fine illustration of
how not to do anything--of endless preparation and never getting to
work. He had an interminable series of subjects for discussion and
was accustomed to say: “These questions must be all settled before
we can enter upon the discharge of our duties, gentlemen.” This had
the effect upon our foreign judges that they absented themselves from
our meetings. I remember Mr. Moore saying to me: “Porter, if you and I
had had this work to do we would have had it half done by this time.”
Directly after that Mr. Moore resigned, ostensibly pleading want of
time to attend to it, but really disgusted at the waste of time. Our
work was in a state of chaos. The field was very extensive, as it
embraced all exhibits pertaining to steam and water except locomotives.
One morning I came to the meeting with a copy of the catalogue on which
I had divided the exhibits into three classes, lettered A, B, and C:
class A embraced steam-engines and their accessories, class B boilers
and their accessories and class C pumps and their accessories; I had
prefixed these letters to the names of all our exhibits according to
their class. At this meeting, at which I had procured the attendance of
the foreign judges, this classification was unanimously adopted, and
the judges formed themselves into these classes accordingly. Our work
was then undertaken in earnest; it was found to be really too extensive
to be accomplished otherwise.
Mr. Charles E. Emery was appointed a judge to fill the vacant place
made by Mr. Moore’s resignation, and he proved most efficient. As is
well known, medals were not awarded, but brief written reports were
made on those exhibits which were deemed most deserving; these reports
were signed by all the judges.
[Illustration: Professor FRANCIS REULEAUX]
The firm of E. P. Allis & Co. of Milwaukee, exhibited a sawmill.
This exhibit consisted of two large circular saws, each driven by a
horizontal engine. The two engines were united by a common shaft on
the ends of which the cranks were set at right angles with each other.
The center lines of these engines were nearly 20 feet apart; the shaft
carried two belt drums 8 or 10 feet in diameter, one of them near to
the bed of each engine; at the middle of the shaft was a fly-wheel
about 16 feet in diameter. The rim of this fly-wheel was in eight or
ten segments, with an arm attached to the middle of each segment; the
segments were bolted together and the arms were bolted to a hub on
the shaft. The saws were set behind the cylinders, and the belts were
carried from the drums on the shaft past the cylinders to smaller drums
on the saw arbors. On starting these engines the two bearings of the
main shaft heated so badly that the engines had to be stopped. The
gentleman in charge of the exhibit applied to me for advice. I told him
that although his shaft was large it was long, and the weight of the
fly-wheel bent it so much that the two journals ran on the inner edges
of their bottom boxes, which caused the heating. I told him he did not
need the fly-wheel at all; the cranks being quartering, the momentum
of the belt-drums was amply sufficient to maintain uniform motion, and
I advised him to take off the fly-wheel. This he did at once, leaving
only the hub on the shaft; the engines then ran with cold bearings and
uniform motion throughout the exhibition. They had made a cut-off gear
for these engines, but it was found not to suit the purpose and was
taken off. This firm then did a great stroke of business: they came to
the sensible conclusion that they could do a great deal better than
to attempt to work out a new system of engineering for themselves, so
they offered to Mr. Edwin Reynolds, the manager of Mr. Corliss’ works,
and to his head draftsman, inducements sufficient for them to leave
Mr. Corliss’ employment and take the same positions in the Allis works
at Milwaukee for the manufacture of the Corliss engine there. With the
magnificent result of this action the engineering world is familiar.
We had all sorts of queer experiences. One day I was demanded by Mr.
Jerome Wheelock to tell him _why_ the engine exhibited by him was not
a _perfect_ engine. I glanced over the long slender bed, a copy of the
Corliss bed without its rigidity, and declined to answer his question.
Mr. Emery was more compliant; on receiving the same demand, he kindly
pointed out to Mr. Wheelock one respect in which his engine could
hardly be considered perfect; the steam was exhausted into a large
chamber embracing the lower half of the cylinder from end to end. This
comparatively cold bath produced the condensation of a large quantity
of the entering steam. From the middle of this chamber a pipe took away
the exhaust from the opposite ends of the cylinder alternately. Mr.
Wheelock admitted the defect, and said in future he would avoid it, so,
as I learned, having two exhaust pipes instead of one, he gave to each
pipe one half the area of the single one.
I had the pleasure of renewing my acquaintance with Professor Sweet,
who was superintending the exhibit of the mechanical work of his boys
at Cornell; this was very creditable and included quite a show of
surface plates.
The Corliss engine in this exhibition was far the most imposing, and to
the multitude the most attractive single exhibit ever shown anywhere.
It consisted of two distinct engines, each having a cylinder 40 inches
in diameter, with 10 feet stroke of piston, the motion of which was
transmitted through cast-iron walking beams to cranks set at right
angles with each other on the opposite ends of a common shaft. This
shaft made 36 revolutions per minute and carried a gear-wheel 30 feet
in diameter; this wheel engaged with a pinion 10 feet in diameter on
the line of shaft under the floor, giving to this shaft a speed of 108
revolutions per minute.
One day I said to Professor Sweet: “Do you know, Professor, that an
engine with a single cylinder of the same bore as these and 5 feet
stroke directly connected with a line shaft and making 150 revolutions
per minute, with a fly-wheel 10 or 12 feet in diameter, would exert
more power than is afforded by this monster and would run with far
greater economy, because the internal surfaces to be heated by the
condensation of the entering steam would be one piston instead of
two, two heads instead of four, and 5 feet length of exposed cylinder
instead of 20 feet?” He replied: “That is all very true, but how would
you get the steam in and out of the cylinder properly with a piston
travel of 1500 feet per minute?” I was not prepared to answer that
question on the instant, but I afterwards found no difficulty about it.
The accompanying figures illustrate this engine and my high-speed
equivalent drawn to the same scale; it will be seen that the small
engine occupies about one tenth of the floor space needed for the large
one, and would cost less than ten per cent. of the money. It would also
have a more nearly uniform motion, the impulses received by the crank
being 300 per minute, against only 144 per minute received by both
cranks of the large engine, besides which in the latter the full force
of the steam is exerted at the commencement of each stroke and falls
to nothing at the end, while in the smaller engine, by the inertia of
the reciprocating parts, the forces exerted at the opposite ends of
the stroke would be practically equalized. The reader will doubtless
inquire, as Mr. Green did why, with these enormous advantages, does not
everybody use the high-speed engines and every builder make them?
[Illustration: The Corliss Engine Exhibited at the Centennial
Exhibition.]
[Illustration: Porter-Allen Engine Equal in Power to the Exhibited
Corliss Engine.]
At this exhibition the Bell telephone was first shown to a select
company, among which were President Grant and Dom Pedro, the last
emperor of Brazil. This exhibition was given on Sunday, that being the
only day when silence could be had. Human speech, both in talking and
singing, was transmitted through the whole length of the main building,
about 1800 feet; it has since been transmitted somewhat further.
The exhibitors of hand pumps all talked about the ease with which their
own pumps could be worked; one man touched bottom in this respect.
He had set his pump so that the spout was nearly on a level with the
surface of the pool from which it drew its water; he boldly claimed
that his pumps required no power at all. I was invited, as I suppose
multitudes were, to take hold of the handle and see for myself that
his claim was true. I never heard of but one man who I think would be
satisfied with this demonstration; that was the engineering editor of
the New York _Tribune_. Shortly before this he had published an account
of a wonderful pump invented by a Mr. George, which he concluded by
saying that the superiority of Mr. George’s pump lay in the fact that
at each stroke not the whole column of water had to be lifted, but only
that which was to be discharged. We had a waterfall maintained by a
centrifugal pump, which received its water on one side only; the maker
evidently knowing nothing about the method of balancing these pumps by
admitting the water equally on the opposite sides.
The boiler-makers abounded. My old acquaintance, the Harrison boiler,
turned up. Mr. Allen urged a favorable award to Mr. Harrison because
of the motives of humanity by which he knew Mr. Harrison was actuated
in designing that boiler. A Mr. Pierce invited all the judges to visit
his boiler and hear him explain it. He informed us that this boiler had
been the subject of three scientific tests by Professor Thurston, but
he did not tell us the results of those tests.
As we were coming away Professor Reuleaux said to me: “That _is_
foolishness, isn’t it?”
An inventor named Smith came several times to our judges’ room to urge
upon us the merits of his boiler. He had two on exhibition, one in
use in the boiler-house and the other in Machinery Hall; these were
quite different from each other. One day not long after the close of
the exhibition I received a note from a stranger requesting me to call
upon him at the Astor House. I thought, “This man doubtless wants an
engine, but his time is too precious to come out to Newark,” so at the
hour appointed I was there. When I entered the room the first object I
saw was a sectional model of this Smith boiler, and I found that the
gentleman wanted to know our reasons for overlooking that boiler. I
replied to him that I had a question to which I would like an answer at
his earliest convenience; we observed that the two boilers exhibited
by Mr. Smith were quite different from each other, and I saw that this
model differed in essential details from both of them, and I would
like to know which one he wished us to approve of and bade him good
afternoon.
One day afterwards I happened to be in Mr. Holley’s office in New
York when a man came in with a drawing of a boiler which he wished
Mr. Holley to recommend. Mr. Holley turned him over to me, and he
explained to me that the great novel feature of his boiler was that
the feed-water was admitted by spraying it into the steam space, thus
avoiding the cooling of any part of the boiler by its admission at one
point; so I found one freak boiler that was not at the exhibition.
We had a fine exhibit of steam fire-engines. I think every maker in
this country was represented, and we had a trial of these engines
lasting three or four days. The committee desired to make a thorough
comparative test of their performance, but the man (a lieutenant in the
navy) appointed to keep the record put down so few items that we found
we had no record at all. We could only guess how he came to do this.
An exhibitor from Canada brought an engine that presented a very fine
appearance; it was made up of a collection of what he believed to be
the best features of every steam-engine made in the United States. The
experts looked his machine over and saw where he had got every one of
them, but his different appropriations did not work well together; his
engine broke down every day and he worked all night to be ready for the
next day’s trial. It afforded a good commentary on the narrow-minded
laws of Canada, which forbade a citizen of the United States from
taking out a patent there.
The show of steam-engines was not large, and the indicator was not
applied to any engines, so I had no use for the indicators I had
imported from England. If I remember rightly, we had only two engines
from abroad, one of these sent by the Government of Brazil. This was
what was called a “table” engine, in which the cylinder stands on
a table in a vertical position and two connecting-rods extend down
from the cross-head and connect with the crank under the table. It
was copied from a Scotch elementary drawing-book from which I learned
mechanical drawing. One of these engines had been made by Mr. Hoe
to drive the press of the New York _Daily Times_ when that paper
was started in 1851 or 1852. The other foreign engine was made by a
Brussels manufacturer with the assistance of the Belgian Government. It
had an American cut-off which was used by Mr. Delamater on his engines,
and it had the eccentric between the main bearing and the crank, giving
to the latter therefore three or four inches of unnecessary overhang;
it had my condenser, which I learned was then coming into considerable
use on the Continent.
[Illustration: Col. ALEXIS PETROFF]
The only American engines I now recall besides the Corliss were the
Buckeye and the Brown engines, and our awards to these engines did not
do them any harm; the Corliss engines were not within our jurisdiction
and we were not permitted to say anything about them; Mr. Corliss was
not a competitor but a patron of the exhibition.
Mr. Frederick E. Sickels made an extensive exhibit of his various
inventions, the models of which had been loaned to him for that purpose
by the Patent Office. Only two of these inventions came within our
province: the first was what is known as the celebrated trip cut-off,
patented by him in the year 1842; the latter an arrangement patented in
1848. The former invention was an improvement on the Stevens cut-off,
already in general use in steamboats on our Eastern waters. The Stevens
invention was applied to equilibrium valves, rising and falling in a
direction vertical to their seats. It enlarged the opening movement of
the valve in a degree increasing as the speed of the piston increased,
by means of the device known as the wiper cam; but the closing motion
of the valve, being the reverse of the opening movement, grew slower
and slower, until the valve was gently brought to its seat. It was
found that during the closing of the port a great deal of steam blew
into the cylinder through the contracting openings, with very little
addition to the useful effect. Mr. Sickels conceived the idea of
liberating the valve just before the opening movement was completed
and letting it fall instantly to its seat, which would effect a sharp
cut-off and a great economy in the consumption of steam. This action
involved the difficulty that the valves would strike their seats with
a violent blow, which would soon destroy both. This difficulty Mr.
Sickels met by the invention of the dash-pot. This apparatus performed
two functions: when its piston was lifted above the water it left a
vacuum under it, so the pressure of the atmosphere on this piston was
added to the weight of the valve and the pressure of the steam on it
to accelerate its fall. This was arrested by the piston striking the
surface of the water just in time to prevent the valve from striking
its seat, but not soon enough to prevent the complete closure of the
port. This nice point was determined by the ear. The engineer first
let water out of the dash-pot gradually, until he heard the valve
strike its seat faintly; then he admitted water drop by drop, until the
sound had died away. For these inventions and for his steam steering
gears the judges made an award.
Our foreign judges were enthusiastic about them; Horatio Allen had
fought Mr. Sickels during his whole business life and would never allow
a Sickels cut-off to be applied in the Novelty Iron Works. For example,
the directors of the Collins steamship line adopted the Sickels
cut-off, but it was put on only two of their ships, the “Arctic” and
the “Baltic,” the engines of which were built at the Allaire works. The
“Atlantic” and “Pacific,” which were engined at the Novelty Works, did
not have it, Mr. Allen absolutely refusing to allow it. To my surprise
Mr. Allen signed this award with a cordial expression of admiration of
Mr. Sickels’ genius; he had softened in his old age.
The following is a copy of this award.
INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION, 1876.
UNITED STATES CENTENNIAL COMMISSION,
PHILADELPHIA, 3d August, 1876.
REPORT ON AWARDS.
“Group No. XX.
“Catalogue No. 1027.
“Product, Models of Improvements in Steam-engines.
“Name and address of exhibitor, Frederick E. Sickels.
“The undersigned, having examined the products herein described,
respectfully recommend the same to the United States Centennial
Commission for Award for the following reasons, viz:
“These exhibits possess great historical interest.
“In the year 1842 Mr. Sickels patented the trip or liberating
cut-off, an invention which, in a variety of forms, has come into
use wherever steam-engines are made. In applying this invention to
poppet valves, Mr. Sickels prevented these valves from striking their
seats by his invention of the dash-pot, in which he availed himself
of the incompressibility, the indestructibility and the divisibility
of water, and which is now employed for this purpose in all such
applications.
“In 1848 he patented an improvement in the method of controlling
motive power, by which method steam is applied at the present time to
various uses, notable among which is the steering of steam vessels,
the steersmen turning the wheel precisely as in steering by hand, but
all the force being exerted by the steam.
“CHARLES T. PORTER,
“Reporting Judge.
“Approval of Group Judges,
HORATIO ALLEN, CHAS. E. EMERY, EMIL BRUGSCH,
F. REULEAUX, N. PETROFF.”
[Illustration: JAMES MOORE]
After our work was finished and I had gone home the awards were made
public; to my astonishment the award to Mr. Sickels was not among them,
so I wrote to General Walker, who was our medium of communication with
the Commission, asking the reason for this omission. He replied that
the award had been thrown out by the Committee of Revision. “Committee
of Revision!” I had never heard of such a thing. I asked for an
explanation and I learned that the judges did not make awards, they
only recommended them; the awards were made by the Commission after
they had passed the scrutiny of the Committee of Revision. Well, who
were the Committee of Revision? I learned that the Commission consisted
of two commissioners from each State appointed by the Governor; Mr.
Corliss was a commissioner from Rhode Island. At a meeting of the
commissioners Mr. Corliss proposed the novel scheme of a Committee of
Revision, to which the action of the judges should be submitted for
approval before the awards were made. The idea seemed to please the
members of the Commission, as tending to magnify their own importance,
and it was adopted; as a matter of usual courtesy Mr. Corliss was made
chairman of the committee, and the committee threw out the award to
Mr. Sickels. I made careful inquiry and could never learn that the
Committee of Revision threw out any other award, so it seemed evident
that with the throwing out of this award to Mr. Sickels the object of
its existence was accomplished.
In the Corliss valve system the liberation of the valve was the
fundamental idea; this was applied by him to valves moving in the
direction parallel with their seats. It not being necessary to arrest
their motion at any precise point, they were caught by air cushions
at any points after they had covered their ports. Mr. Corliss had
appropriated the liberating idea, according to “the good old rule, the
simple plan, that they may take who have the power, and they may keep
who can,” and all this machinery had been devised by him to prevent
the historical fact that the liberating idea had been invented by Mr.
Sickels from appearing in the records of the exhibition. By all this
enormous expenditure of ingenuity and influence he succeeded in giving
to this fact a prominence and importance which it would never otherwise
have had, besides advertising his efforts to suppress it.
Mr. Horatio Allen’s life-long aversion to Mr. Sickels was caused by
professional jealousy. Mr. Allen conceived himself to be an inventor,
and for years had been cherishing a cut-off invention of his own. The
original firm was Stillman, Allen & Co., and for years Mr. Stillman had
prevented the Novelty Iron Works from being sacrificed to Mr. Allen’s
genius, but later Mr. Allen had obtained supreme control of these works
by an affiliation with Brown Brothers, the bankers, his principal
stockholders, and Mr. Stillman sold out his interest and retired from
the firm. Mr. Allen, having a clear field, now determined to put his
invention on the new steamer of the Collins line, the “Adriatic,” and
American engineers were amused at the display of this amazing absurdity
on the largest possible scale. In this construction there were four
valves; each valve was a conical plug about six feet long and had four
movements; first it was withdrawn from its seat a distance of three
inches so that it could be rotated freely, then it was rotated first
to draw off the lap. Up to this point theoretically the port had not
been opened, but the steam had been blowing into the cylinder or out
of it, as the case might be, through these enormous cracks; the valves
then rotated further to produce the opening movement, for either
admission or release; the rotation was then reversed until it reached
its original position, then the fourth movement brought it to its seat.
It is probable that the ship would have gone to sea working steam
after this ridiculous fashion, if the complicated mechanism required
to produce the four movements had not broken down at the trial of the
engines at the dock, beyond the power of Mr. Allen’s genius to remedy;
so the valves had to be removed and the Stevens valves and Sickels
cut-off were substituted for them. The story that any sane man ever
designed a four-motion steam-engine valve, and that he made the first
application of it on the largest steamship, except the Great Eastern,
then in the world, is such a tax on credulity, that I was glad to find
the following corroboration of it in a letter to “Power,” from which I
copy the essential portion.
[Illustration: EMIL BRUGSCH]
“In one of Mr. Porter’s ‘Reminiscences,’ which I have mislaid, he
gives an account of the alterations to the last steamer of the E. K.
Collins lines, the ‘Adriatic.’ His description of Horatio Allen’s
cock-valves and their motions is absolutely correct. The writer made
the greater part of the detail drawings by which the new valves and
the Sickels cut-off were placed on the ‘Adriatic.’
PETER VAN BROCK.
Jefferson, Iowa.”
These engines, as further designed by Mr. Allen, were afterwards
described by Zerah Colburn in the London _Engineer_ in his usual
caustic style. His description began with this expression: “These
engines are fearfully and wonderfully made.”
I had hoped that my old friend Daniel Kinnear Clark might turn up as
the English member in our group of judges at the Centennial Exposition,
but in this I was disappointed. The English judge in our group was Mr.
Barlow, son of the celebrated author of “A Treatise on the Strength of
Materials,” which, if I remember rightly, was the first authoritative
treatise on that subject. Mr. Barlow, however, was not of much help to
us; he came late and attended but one meeting. That, I remember very
well, was the meeting at which I presented my classification. He left
Philadelphia with his son to visit Niagara Falls, and we never saw him
again. I remember his giving me a very cordial invitation to visit him
when I should find myself in England.
Two of my English engineering acquaintances appeared at this
exhibition. One of them was a judge in the group which embraced
sewing machines. I remember asking him what was the most interesting
mechanical device he had seen at the exhibition; he told me it was
the automatic tension in the Wilcox & Gibbs sewing machine. In a walk
with him through Machinery Hall one day, I called his attention to a
locomotive built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works. After looking it over
cursorily he remarked that he did not see anything particular in it. I
could not help replying, “That may not be the fault of the locomotive.”
I had thought him a light weight in England, and that superficial
remark confirmed my opinion. The other friend, as I am proud to call
him, I have always considered mechanically the most interesting man
I ever met. It was Mr. Smith, of Smith & Coventry, the machine-tool
builders of Salford. Mr. Smith was the brains of the concern. He had
come over to learn what America could teach him, and the only thing he
took back, so far as I know, was the twist-drill, the manufacture of
which was begun by that firm after his return. I shall have something
to add later to what I have already said respecting his wonderful
improvements in machine tools. In one of the pleasant walks we took
together, our attention was arrested by the exhibit of Riehlé Brothers,
the celebrated scale manufacturers of Philadelphia. Among other novel
and interesting features of their exhibit this firm showed a ³⁄₄-inch
bolt broken by a stress applied to it through a nut of only one half
the standard thickness, or three eighths of an inch deep, and that run
on loosely by hand. This astonishing revelation drew from Mr. Smith
the ejaculation, “Why, old Whitworth lied.” Mr. Whitworth had stated
that he had ascertained by experiment that a nut to be as strong as the
bolt must have a depth equal to the diameter of the bolt, and this had
been accepted as mechanical truth by the entire engineering world, no
one ever thinking to make the simple measurement which would show that
the force required to strip the threads of any bolt in a nut of this
standard depth would be nearly three times the strength of the bolt. He
was, of course, highly interested in the wonderful steelyards made by
this firm, which would weigh anything that could be lifted by a crane.
His only discovery respecting machine tools was, that their manufacture
in the United States was generally very inferior.
It was fortunate that I had prepared the drawings according to my
revised model for three or four sizes of the engines, as otherwise I
should not have been able to accept the position offered me at the
Philadelphia exposition. I received two more orders before May 24, and
two more during the summer, but with the preparations I had made and
Mr. Goodfellow’s familiarity with the work, everything went on smoothly
during my absence.
CHAPTER XXIV
Engine Building in Newark. Introduction of Harris Tabor.
After my return from Philadelphia the first order I received was a very
important one. On the advice of Mr. Holley, the Albany and Rensselaer
Iron and Steel Co. of Troy, N. Y., decided to order from me two engines
for the new roll trains they were about to establish; this being the
first opportunity I had of applying my engine in what proved to be its
most important field. These were a 22×36-inch engine to drive a 16-inch
train for rolling light steel rails, and an 18×30-inch engine to drive
an 8- or 10-inch train for rolling merchant steel. These engines did
not run rapidly; the first was a direct-connected engine making only
75 revolutions per minute; the second made only 112 revolutions per
minute, but was belted to drive the train at twice that speed.
Mr. Corning, president of the company, did not like the slow way in
which the rails were turned out of the former train. I happened to
be standing with him observing this work when he asked a boy why the
billets were not fed to the rolls faster. The boy replied, “Because
the gentlemen at the hooks could not catch them, sir.” Where are the
gentlemen at the hooks to-day, when rails 200 feet long are turned out
of the rolls?
These engines stood near each other, the trains extending in opposite
directions. The battery of boilers was located at a considerable
distance from them. I set between them a vertical steam receiver,
four feet in diameter and twelve feet high. This receiver performed
two functions: it maintained the steam pressure at the cylinders and
separated the steam from the water carried over. This latter was
accomplished by admitting the steam at the top of the receiver by a
pipe extending two thirds of the way to the bottom, draining the water
from the bottom by means of a Nason steam trap, and taking the dry
steam to the engine from the top of the receiver. This was my first
application of this method, which afterwards proved most valuable in
cases of greater importance. These engines were of the highest interest
to me, as their successful running opened the door to that important
field.
While they were still lying on the floor of the shop ready for
shipment, I had an opportunity of submitting them to the criticism of
William R. Jones, the manager of the Edgar Thompson Steel Works, to
whom, as already related, I had sold a small engine and governors for
his large ones. I had not made these engines properly in one respect,
as he pointed out to me that, for rolling-mill uses, they must be made
capable of being run backwards by hand from any position, a requirement
of which I had been ignorant. I soon made the necessary additions to
the valve-gear which enabled this to be done. I never knew how Mr.
Jones came to make this opportune visit, but undoubtedly Mr. Holley
sent him.
I had another visitor before these engines were shipped. It was the
manager of the Laclede rolling mill at St. Louis, accompanied by his
engineer. They had designed a system of driving several trains of rolls
from one engine, the power of which was to be transmitted through
gearing. They were greatly fascinated by the appearance of the engines,
and gave me an order for a large engine on the spot.
This engine afforded me a curious experience. When it was started,
teeth were broken out of the gear at the very first revolution, and I
received a telegram from them telling me of this misfortune and that I
must come to St. Louis immediately and see what was the trouble with
_the engine_. I was too busy to go myself, but Mr. Phillips kindly
permitted his engineer, Mr. Collins, to go in my place. Mr. Collins
took with him everything necessary to expose the defect, whatever
it might be, which we expected would be found in the gearing. Among
other things he had the pattern-maker prepare for him two or three
short pieces of lath about two inches wide and one eighth of an inch
thick; these latter proved to be all that he needed. On his arrival the
proprietors assured him there could be no fault with the gearing, for
they had it made by the most eminent engineering firm in St. Louis.
The members of this firm showed him triumphantly the broken pieces and
directed his attention to the perfect soundness of the metal, as proved
by the fractured surfaces. His first experiment was to whittle an end
of one piece of lath to fit exactly between two teeth of a wheel at one
end of the space. To his amazement he found that this templet would
not fit in any other space around the whole wheel, every one was in
some degree or other too large or too small; neither would the templet
fit in the opposite end of the same space. This one experiment settled
the matter; the engine, to be sure, had broken the gears, because the
larger teeth of the driving-wheels had wedged into the smaller spaces
of the driven wheels. How such work could be produced was a puzzle to
Mr. Collins; as for myself, I have never wondered at any imperfection
in gearing since my experience with Mr. Whitworth’s work. The owners
of the rolling mill applied for advice to Samuel T. Wellman, the
manager of the Otis Steel Works at Cleveland. He gave them the sensible
advice to abandon altogether the plan of driving through gearing, and
to drive each train by a separate engine, directly connected, which
my high-speed engine would enable them to do. This was the first I
heard of Mr. Wellman, with whom I was afterwards to have such pleasant
relations.
While on the subject of gearing I will state a couple of incidents.
One of my first small engines I sold to Mr. Albright of Newark, a
harness-maker. Half of the power of the engine was to be transmitted
to an adjoining building driving a vertical shaft through a pair of
miter gears. It was required that these should run noiselessly, which
at 350 revolutions per minute seemed a difficult thing to accomplish.
I had the gears cut in the best gear cutter I knew of, and fitted
them to run in a lathe, the spindle of the driven gear running in a
frame made for the purpose, and being provided with a friction wheel
and brake. To make sure that the same teeth and spaces should always
come together, I made a prick-punch mark on one tooth and behind the
corresponding space. When started at 350 revolutions they rattled
finely. The resistance of the friction brake was sufficient to make
the points of contact on the teeth mark themselves well in 15 minutes’
running. I then took them down and carefully removed the bright spots
on the surface with a scraper. The next time the noise was more than
half gone, and four successive scrapings by a skillful workman cured it
entirely. There is this encouragement in correcting gearing, that its
subsequent running always tends to improve the truth of the surfaces;
they wear to a more general contact.
One day I had a letter from Mr. Barclay, the miller for whom I had made
my first engine in Harlem, and which I arranged to drive his millstones
by belting. He told me he had moved his mill from Harrison Street to
a building on North Moore Street, New York, and he found there was
something the matter with the engine. (In these cases there is always
something the matter with the engine.) It used to drive three runs of
stones, now it would only drive two, and he burned a great deal more
coal than before. He wanted me to come and see what the matter was.
The moment I opened the door of his mill I knew what the matter was. I
heard the roar of rough gearing and was pretty mad. I told him I hoped
he liked that music, for it cost him more than half the coal he was
burning to keep it up. I gave him a sharp piece of my mind for changing
the system of driving from that which I had provided without consulting
me on the subject. I told him when he threw out his gearing and put the
pulleys and belts back just as I made them, he would find the engine
would give him the same power that it had done for five or six years in
its old location.
[Illustration: ROBERT W. HUNT]
In the first engines which I built in Newark the governor had a more
or less uncomfortable action. This annoyed me exceedingly. It did not
sensibly affect the running of the engine, but was a drawback to the
appearance of the engine in motion. I was utterly at a loss how to
account for it, so I finally determined I would solve the problem by
a comparison of two engines of the same size. One of these was the
smaller engine for the rolling mill at Troy, where the action of the
governor was quite satisfactory; the other was an engine I had made
for the Newark Lime and Cement Company, in which the action of the
governor was very unsatisfactory. After some weeks of comparison I
gave the problem up: I could get no light on the subject. Soon after
I had occasion to go to Troy and found my smaller engine running at
double its former speed or at 224 revolutions per minute. Mr. Robert
W. Hunt, the general superintendent, informed me that they planned to
employ this speed when rolling steel to finish at very small sizes,
which they were then doing for the first time. The action of the
governor which had before been so perfect was now most abominable; the
counterpoise flying up and down furiously between the extreme points
of its action. I told Mr. Hunt that something was hindering the action
of the governor, and asked him if he would have an examination made
and let me know what he found. A few days after I received a letter
from him saying he had found nothing at all, but he added that that
order had been completed and the engine was running at its old speed,
and the governor was working as well as ever. In an instant the truth
flashed upon me; it was the inertia of those polished cast-iron disks
on the rocker-shaft which I had thought so much of that caused all
the trouble. This inertia, increasing as the square of the speed, had
offered four times the resistance to the reversing of their motion
when the speed of the engine was doubled, and the pressure of the link
which was necessary to overcome this resistance held the block fast.
The governor could not move it until it had accumulated sufficient
force by change of its speed; then it moved it too far, and so it was
kept in constant violent motion from one end to the other of its range
of action. I was thoroughly ashamed of myself that when I had made the
subject of inertia a study for years this action should have been going
on so long, the most prominent thing before my eyes, and I never saw
it. I had use enough at once for my new insight as will appear.
The Gautier steel works, which had been located in Jersey City, were
removing to Johnstown, Penn., having formed an alliance with the
Cambria Iron and Steel Company. Mr. Stephen W. Baldwin, then manager
of the Gautier Company, had given me an order for an engine suitable
for driving at 230 revolutions per minute their ten-inch train, or it
may have been an eight-inch. I went to Jersey City and made a careful
measurement of the indicated power required to drive this train. The
engine used was rather a large one, with a large and heavy fly-wheel
running at slow speed and driving the train at this rapid speed by
means of a belt. I found that my 10-inch by 20-inch engine directly
connected with the train would, at 230 revolutions per minute, be
capable of furnishing twice the power they were then using. I built an
engine of that size with a fly-wheel about 8 feet in diameter, shipped
it to Johnstown, and sent George Garraty, my most trusty erecter, to
set it up. I should say that Mr. Baldwin had meantime severed his
connection with the Gautier Steel Company, and it was then in the hands
of parties who were strangers to my engines. I received a letter from
Garraty stating that on his arrival he had found them just about to
send the engine back; everybody about the works had agreed that a man
who sent that little engine to drive that train to roll steel was a
fool. At his solicitation they promised to do nothing until they should
hear from me. I then wrote to the president, Mr. Douglas, stating I had
carefully measured the utmost power which that train had required at
Jersey City, and had furnished an engine capable of supplying double
that power with ease, and I was sure he would run no risk in setting
it up. This he consented to do. While Garraty was erecting the engine
they were making preparations in the mill to stall it if possible.
There was great excitement when it was started; the furnace men worked
like beavers and succeeded in feeding billets to the train twice as
rapidly as ever before, but they could not bring down its speed in the
least. Finally they lowered the steam pressure, but the engine did
not stop until they had brought this down to 40 pounds. Then a great
shout went up, not for themselves but for the engine, which had shown
itself capable of doubling the output of that train, and telegrams
were hurried off to the stockholders of the concern in New York and
Philadelphia to relieve their anxiety. Garraty left that night and
reported himself to me the following morning. After giving an account
of the success of the engine he added: “But the governor is working
very badly; they have not noticed it yet as they have thought only of
the running of the train, but they will.” By a remarkable coincidence
I had that very morning received the letter from Mr. Hunt which had
opened my eyes to the cause of this bad action; the day before I could
not have understood it.
[Illustration: STEPHEN W. BALDWIN]
Within twenty-four hours after my interview with Garraty I had started
for Johnstown, carrying with me two light steel levers to replace those
disks. In that time I had made the drawings and had the levers forged
and finished, joint-pins set and keyways cut, perfect duplicates of
the disks in all their working features. When I told my purpose to Mr.
Douglas he smiled and said for the life of him he could not see what
disks on the rocker-shaft had to do with the governor action. However,
they had not yet started their night shift, so I might have the engine
after 6 o’clock, but it must be ready for use at 6 o’clock the next
morning. I told him that as the change would probably occupy me less
than an hour, I thought I might safely assure him on that point. I
engaged a machinist with the engineer to help me at 7 o’clock in the
evening and amused myself the rest of the day about the mill. The
furious governor action was so irritating I did not stay long in the
engine-room. In the evening we had the disks off and the levers on and
all connected up, ran the engine idle for a few minutes to see that all
was right and I was back in my hotel within the hour, which illustrated
the advantage of working to gauges. I had taken off 29 pounds weight,
that being the difference between the weight of the disks and the
levers. Next morning I went down to see the effect of this change. It
seemed magical. The governor appeared to have gone to sleep, it was not
taking any interest in the activity about it; the counterpoise stood
at about the middle of its range of action, only moving lazily a short
distance up or down occasionally. After calling Mr. Douglas in to see
what disks on the rocker-shaft, with their motion reversed 460 times a
minute, had to do with the governor action, and hearing his expressions
of admiration, I took the next train home. As might be supposed I was
not long in eliminating all traces of this blunder from drawings and
from engines already made.
I had an order from John W. Hyatt of Newark for a 6×12-inch engine to
make 450 revolutions per minute, to drive an attrition mill running
at 900 revolutions per minute, in which he pulverized bones to dust
for manufacturing artificial ivory. This was the highest number of
revolutions per minute that I had ever employed, and perhaps it was
the most absolutely silent running engine that I ever made. Not
long after its completion I had a call from a young gentleman who
introduced himself to me as Harris Tabor. He told me he had invented
a steam-engine indicator which he thought would be superior to the
Richards indicator, as the pencil movement was very much lighter and
would draw a straight vertical line. He said he called in the hope
that I might give him an opportunity to test his indicator on a very
high-speed engine. I told him I thought I could do just what he wanted.
I took him down to Mr. Hyatt’s place where the engine was running with
the indicator rig on it which I had been using; he was, of course,
greatly pleased with this remarkable opportunity. He took a number of
diagrams with his indicator, and they proved to be quite free from the
vibrations which were produced by the Richards indicator at the same
speed. I gave him a certificate that these diagrams had been taken by
his indicator from a Porter-Allen engine at a speed of 450 revolutions
per minute. With these he started for Boston to see Mr. Ashcroft. With
the result of that interview the engineering world is familiar. To
my great regret not one of the diagrams taken at that time has been
preserved either by Mr. Tabor, Mr. Ashcroft or myself, an omission
that none of us can account for. The Hyatt plant was afterwards, I
understood, removed to Albany, N. Y.
I had a singular experience with another 6×12-inch engine which I sold
to William A. Sweet, elder brother of Prof. John E. Sweet, for use in
his spring manufactory in Syracuse, N. Y. Mr. Sweet had two batteries
of boilers set at some distance from each other and at different
elevations; these were connected by a pipe which was necessarily
inclined. About the middle of the length of this pipe a stop-valve
had been introduced, and when this valve was shut the pipe in the
upper end of it was, of course, partly filled with water. My engine
received its steam from the bottom of this pipe below the stop-valve.
The boilers at the lower end were one day overloaded, and while I
happened to be present Mr. Sweet himself opened the stop-valve for
the purpose of getting an additional supply of steam from the upper
battery, but he did not get it. What he did get was a charge of solid
water, which brought my engine to an instantaneous stop from a speed
of 350 revolutions per minute. I was standing near the engine and saw
shooting out from the joint of the back cylinder head a sheet of water,
which at the top struck the roof of the building. On examination it
was found that the steel key of the fly-wheel had been driven into the
wrought-iron shaft almost half an inch and the shaft was bent. The
engine suffered no other injury; the bolts of the cylinder head had not
been strained to their elastic limit, and the nuts did not require to
be tightened. The shaft was straightened, new key-seats were cut for
the fly-wheel, and the engine worked as well as ever--a pretty good
proof of its general strength.
[Illustration: HARRIS TABOR]
I had a couple of funny experiences arising out of my new way of boring
fly-wheels and belt-drums. I sold an engine to Mr. Westinghouse for his
original shop in Pittsburg, before the appearance of the Westinghouse
engine. They erected it for themselves. I received a telegram from
their superintendent, reading: “The hole in your wheel hub is oblong,
what shall we do about it?” To which I wired back: “Put the wheel on
the shaft and drive in the key.”
Another superintendent discovered the same unaccountably bad piece of
work, and did _not_ communicate with me. He did the best he could by
centering the shaft in the hole and filling the spaces on each side
with thin iron scarfed down on each edge. Then the key would not enter
the keyway; so he reduced it until it would. Then the wheel ran an
eighth of an inch out of truth. Then he unstopped the vials of his
wrath and poured out their contents on my devoted head.
I had an order from Mr. Mathieson, manager of the works of the National
Tube Company, at McKeesport, Penn., for two engines, 28 and 32 inches
diameter, with 48 inches stroke. The interest of this story centers in
the former of these engines, which made 125 revolutions per minute. One
day the governor spindle stuck fast in its column, an accident I never
knew to happen before or since, whether caused by a tight fit or for
want of lubrication I do not know. Of course the engine ran away like
mad. Mr. Mathieson and I were in the engine-room; the last I saw of him
his coat skirt was nearly horizontal as he rushed through the door. The
engineer ran to screw down the starting-valve. I thought that would be
too long a process and ran in front of the fly-wheel to unhook the gab.
On the instant, however, I feared what might be the possible effect in
the cylinder of instantly arresting the motion of the admission valves
at an unknown point in the stroke at that speed, and I did not do it.
In a few seconds the engineer had the valve closed, and the engine soon
slowed down. The fly-wheel, which was 20 feet in diameter, did not
burst, and I was confident it would not. I never had an accident to a
fly-wheel, but this was the most severe test to which my fly-wheels
were ever subjected. I have heard of many accidents to fly-wheels, in
which it was evident that they were so carelessly made it seemed as if
they were intended to burst on a moderate acceleration of their speed.
This fly-wheel was necessarily made in halves in order to transport it,
and the joints were so made as to be as strong as the section of the
rim. As the accompanying drawing will show, they were held together by
two steel loops opened out of the solid and shrunk in. It will be seen
that any section of cast iron at this point was equal to the section
of the rim, while the steel loops were stronger. The halves of the hub
were held together by bolts and steel rings.
I sold an engine for a rubber manufactory in Cleveland, Ohio, and some
months after received a letter from the proprietor saying he had been
adding to his machinery and the engine would not drive it all and would
not give its guaranteed power, and he wanted me to come immediately
and see what was the matter with it. On going into the boiler-room I
saw that the steam-gauge showed only 55 pounds pressure. I asked the
engineer why he carried so little pressure, and he told me that the
safety-valve was set to blow off at 60 pounds, which he considered
to be all the pressure a boiler ought to carry; that he had been an
engineer several years on the Lakes, where 60 pounds was the greatest
pressure allowed. I asked the proprietor if he had his boiler insured;
he said he had, in the Hartford Boiler Insurance Company. I said I
supposed that company had an agent in Cleveland. He said: “Yes, and his
office is around the corner on this block, and if you want to see him I
presume I can have him here in ten minutes.” Pretty soon he appeared,
and I said to him: “I understand you have insured this boiler.”
“Yes.”
“Have you made a personal examination of it?”
“I have.”
“What would you consider a safe pressure to carry?”
“One hundred and twenty pounds.”
[Illustration: Mr. Porter’s Fly-wheel.]
“Would you hold it insured at that pressure?”
“Certainly, it would be perfectly safe.”
“Now,” said I to the proprietor, “you will observe that my guarantee
of power assumes a pressure of 85 pounds, and you have no excuse for
not carrying that pressure, and if you do so you will have no trouble;
as for the practice on the Lakes, if you will come to New York we will
show you that on our river and sound steamboats the practice is to
carry only 25 pounds pressure.” He readily agreed to carry the higher
pressure, which he found ample; so I was fooled into going to Cleveland
pretty much for nothing. Afterwards I went there to a better purpose.
CHAPTER XXV
Engine for the Cambria Iron and Steel Company.
The uniform success of my rolling-mill engines encouraged the Cambria
Iron and Steel Company, of Johnstown, Penn., again on the advice of Mr.
Holley, to order from me an engine to drive their rail-train. For this
purpose I made the largest engine I had yet made, 40-inch cylinder by
48-inch stroke. It was altogether too large to be built in the Hewes
& Phillips Iron Works, so I had the parts, except the valve-gear,
constructed in three different establishments in Philadelphia. The
bed, which weighed 40,000 pounds, was cast and finished at the I. P.
Morris & Company’s works, the cylinder was cast and finished by Mr.
James Moore, who also turned the shaft, and the crank-disk was turned
and bored by William Sellers & Co. The several parts were not brought
together until they met at Johnstown. The Cambria Company made their
own fly-wheel. I spent considerable time while the work was in progress
in traveling between Newark and Philadelphia, carrying measuring-rods,
templets and gauges. I put the engine together myself, and everything
came together without a hitch, which confirmed me in the belief that
putting engines together and taking them down again in the shop was a
great waste of time and space, and the manufacturing system which I was
planning in my mind I intended should be wholly a manufacture of pieces
to be kept in stock, and orders filled by shipment of the separate
parts direct from the storehouse.
The boilers at Johnstown were located over the heating furnaces,
utilizing their waste heat, and were scattered all over the works. The
largest steam-pipes were 8 inches in diameter. I gave them an order
to make a steam-receiver 5 feet in diameter and 15 feet high, to be
set close to the cylinder of the engine. They made it 18 feet high,
the width of the sheets favoring this greater height. I took the steam
by an 8-inch pipe entering at the top of this receiver and extending
down 12 feet; from the top of the receiver I took the steam over to
the engine by a 12-inch pipe. I drained the water from the bottom of
this receiver by the largest Nason trap, from which a one-inch stream
of water was delivered continually. I set in the side of this receiver
four try-cocks, one above another four feet apart. From the lowest, six
feet from the bottom, the steam blew as white as a sheet, from each one
successively it blew with less color, and from the upper one it was
quite invisible. I set a steam-gauge on this receiver, and it showed
that when the greatest resistance was on the engine the pressure did
not fall more than three pounds. This assurance of dry steam in the
cylinder was vital to the success of the engine.
The engine was started at 80 revolutions per minute. This was the same
speed at which their old engine was supposed to run, but practically
its speed had always fallen to 60 revolutions whenever two passes were
in the rolls together. I should say here that the new engine was set
at the opposite end of the train from the old one, and the only change
made was disconnecting the old engine and connecting the new one. The
advantage was found in the fact that with the new engine four or even
five passes could be in the rolls simultaneously and the speed of the
engine never fell sensibly below 80 revolutions per minute. The result
was that the first week the train turned out 2400 tons of rails instead
of 1200 tons, which was the former limit. This latter was a product of
which they had been quite proud and which they claimed exceeded that of
any other mill. Mr. Daniel N. Jones, their chief engineer, increased
the speed of the engine five revolutions per minute each week for four
successive weeks by changing the governor pulley for a larger one.
This he did every Sunday when the mill was idle, increasing the speed
finally to 100 revolutions per minute and the production to 3000 tons
per week. He prided himself on doing this without the men at the hooks
finding it out, which if they had done might have made trouble. This
seems a very small thing to say when for many years the output of a
rail-train has been 3000 tons a day without the aid of human hands;
but at that time it was considered an immense achievement. It was also
a remarkable thing for the company financially, as directly after a
greatly increased demand for steel rails appeared and the price rose to
$60 per ton, at which it was maintained for some time.
[Illustration: DANIEL N. JONES]
This thoughtful act of Mr. Jones was an example of his magnificent
co-operation with me in all my work.
Mr. Jones had insisted that the cylinder should have a support at
the back end, as he felt sure that without it the running of the
piston, weighing 3600 pounds, would produce a deflection; so a
support was built under the end of the cylinder, which was cast with
a corresponding projection underneath. These surfaces were planed
parallel with each other, but I took pains to secure a space between
them sufficient to admit a sheet of paper, and when the engine was
running I was able to draw a sheet of paper through that space without
its being seized, showing the support of the cylinder from the bed to
be sufficient, as I had claimed it would be. Mr. Jones laughed.
[Illustration: Connection of Arms and Rim in Mr. Fritz’ Fly-wheel]
The fly-wheel which the Cambria Company made for this engine interested
me greatly. The hub and arms were cast in one piece as a spider and,
of course, were free from internal strain. The rim was also cast in
one piece. The manner in which the arms were united to the rim is shown
in the accompanying cut. The spaces at the sides and end were ⁵⁄₈
inch wide; these were filled with oak, into which long slender steel
wedges were driven from each side, as many as they would contain. This
wonderful fly-wheel, I learned, was the invention of Mr. John Fritz,
made while he was superintendent of the Cambria Works.
The engine had many visitors, among whom I particularly remember Mr.
Otis and Mr. Wellman, whom I happened to meet there. Their visit
resulted in an order for an engine of the same size to drive the new
plate-mill which Mr. Otis was about building. I received also three
other orders for duplicates of this engine, one from the Pennsylvania
Steel Company, one from the Bethlehem Steel Company, and a second order
from the Cambria Company themselves. The order from the Bethlehem
Steel Company was given me by Mr. John Fritz, then its superintendent
and engineer, the inventor of the three-high train of rolls, and the
designer of all their machinery for rolling both rails and armor-plates.
An incident connected with the order from the Cambria Company I will
mention, as showing the contrast between the brutal and the considerate
way of doing business. I received a telegram from the Cambria Company,
reading: “You are wanted here at once about another engine.” I learned
afterward that this telegram as written by Mr. Powell Stackhouse, the
general manager, did not contain the last three words, but read: “You
are wanted here at once.” Mr. Stackhouse had written this telegram and
laid it on his table for a boy to take to the telegraph operator. At
that moment Mr. Jones came into his office and read the telegram, when
the following conversation took place:
_Mr. Jones_: “It will never do to send this in that shape.”
_Mr. Stackhouse_: “Why not?”
_Mr. Jones_: “It will break Porter all up.”
_Mr. Stackhouse_: “How so?”
_Mr. Jones_: “The only thing he can think of will be that some great
disaster has happened to his engine.”
No answer. Mr. Jones thereupon added the words “about another engine,”
which changed somewhat the impression which the telegram was calculated
to produce.
[Illustration: JOHN FRITZ]
These orders for four more engines of the largest size on my list
were afterwards supplemented by a similar order from the Albany and
Rensselaer Iron and Steel Company, making in all five, or with the one
then running six from the same patterns.
The more rapid rolling was found to possess advantages beyond the
merely increased output. It insured a uniform excellence in the
product, which could not otherwise be attained even by the utmost
care, and it effected several important economies. Mr. Jones had
recently completed and put in operation a new blooming-train, then
the largest in the world, for which the size of the ingots to be
rolled was increased from 12 inches square to 17 inches square at the
base, and the capacity of the Bessemer converters was increased in
the same proportion. The output of this mill was much greater than
the rail-train could dispose of, and a large pile of cold blooms had
accumulated in the yard. A force of about thirty men was employed in
chipping out all defects in these blooms which might cause rails to be
classed as “seconds.”
After my engine had been started it was soon observed that, between the
shorter time of exposure and the greater rapidity with which heat was
imparted to the rails by the rolling, the original heat of the blooms
was very nearly maintained to the end of the process, every defect was
welded up, and a perfect rail was produced, so the chipping of the
blooms was no longer necessary.
It was not a great while before the accumulation of the blooms in the
yard was disposed of and the hot blooms were brought directly from
the blooming-mill. These, of course, were more readily reheated, and
moreover, to the surprise of the workmen, less power was required to
roll them, and the rolls endured much longer without needing to be
re-turned. The explanation was that the cold blooms had never been
thoroughly heated in the middle. This was the beginning of maintaining
the original heat of the ingot, which has since been turned to such
great advantage.
CHAPTER XXVI
My Downward Progress.
I had now reached the top of my engineering career; I had devoted
myself for twenty years to the development of the high-speed engine
and to the study of the best means and method of its manufacture, and
had introduced into it designs and workmanship of an excellence before
unknown in steam-engine construction. I had solved all the theoretical
problems involved in the running of high-speed engines, and, starting
from Mr. Allen’s inventions of the single eccentric link and the
four-opening balanced valve with the adjustable pressure-plate, and my
governor, had designed every constructive feature and detail of this
engine.
I had been for four years carrying on the business of the manufacture
of these engines in my own name as sole proprietor, but, as already
stated, without a cent of capital. I had in this time built between
forty and fifty engines of every size on my list, from the smallest
to the largest, except two, the 44-inch diameter cylinder having been
added after my time. Considering my business as an organization, I had
been president, secretary, treasurer, general manager, chief engineer,
inspector, and draftsman. At any rate, the duties belonging to all
those positions had been performed by me with satisfactory results. I
made every drawing, both general and detail, with my own hands, having
only the help of a young man who made my tracings, and when he had
time helped me with my section lining. At that time blue-printing had
not come into use; drawings were made on white drawing-paper and were
inked in, and the tracings were made for the shop; I began to use the
blue-print system when I removed to Philadelphia.
Every one was loyal to me, I could always rely upon my instructions
being faithfully followed, so the work ran as smoothly as the engines
themselves; we were, however, much hindered by the poor tools we had to
use. These were a fair average of American tools at that time, but Mr.
Goodfellow and myself estimated their output to average only about one
half that which we expected in our contemplated works. Besides this,
I could not establish piece-work prices or introduce any systematic
methods. I became gradually swamped with orders. These outgrew the
capacity of the Hewes & Phillips Works, or of that portion which I
could use. Before I left there, besides the four large orders already
named, amounting altogether to $48,000 f.o.b., without fly-wheels, and
which could not be handled in these works, I had accepted orders for
smaller engines sufficient to bring the aggregate up to $125,000. These
latter were more than I could manage alone, so I had arranged to have
some of these also made, or partially made, in other shops.
From this point my path sloped steeply downward to the grave of all my
hopes; in about two years and eight months the business had dwindled
to practically nothing, and I, as the party held responsible for this
result, was turned out of the Southwark Foundry into the street. At
the bottom this was entirely my own fault. No one could ask to be
associated with a better body of men than were those who united to sink
their money in the manufacture of the Porter-Allen engines.
My aim had been to reach a point where I could command the capital
necessary to establish my business according to the plan which I had
cherished ever since my return from England, but on a much larger scale
than I then contemplated. I had now reached that point. Parties who
were finding themselves enriched by my engine were ready to pour out
their money like water for my use; but there was something else that I
needed even more than their money, without which indeed, as the event
proved, their money was of no use at all. That was their respect for
me and confidence in me as a strong business man; my record would have
sufficiently justified that confidence, but of this they were ignorant.
They had no means to form a judgment of me except what I did then and
there. I never thought of this supreme requirement, and in response
to their request made them an offer which, regarded from their point
of view, appeared so unbusinesslike that they could form only one
conclusion, that while unquestionably I could make engines all right,
in matters of business I was a mere baby whose opinion on business
matters was not to be regarded seriously.
How came I to do myself, and them also, as the victims of their
mistaken judgment, this injustice? My whole life was bound up in the
engine; I cared nothing for money except to develop its manufacture;
I felt that every dollar paid to myself would leave so much less for
this purpose. I asked nothing for the good-will of my business, for I
was not selling it; they were putting money into my business, which,
of course, I would continue to carry on as I had done. This was my
mistaken view. I consulted fully with Mr. Hope, whose interest was
equal with mine, and he viewed the matter precisely as I did. Although
standing at the head of his profession as a fire underwriter, he had
not the special business training or experience that would enable him
to give me the advice I needed, so I told them that if a company should
be formed to manufacture the engines with $800,000 capital, I would
assign to it my patents for $100,000 of its stock, the value of which
I assumed I would increase several fold in a few years. Beyond this I
assumed everything and made sure of nothing, so our minds never came
together. I did not assert myself because it never occurred to me that
I needed to do so.
They could not understand my position. They could not appreciate
my sentiment. They were business men, and did business on strictly
business principles. What their position was I came to understand
later. From the fact that I did not stipulate for it they concluded
that I did not expect the presidency of the company, but had yielded it
to them, which they accepted, of course, in accordance with the general
usage that capital takes the direction of a business which it knows
nothing about, relying upon skilled experts in its various departments.
Thus by my failure to realize their necessary position and to lay
before them a thoroughly business-like proposition, demanding for
myself the practical direction of the business and a proper sum for the
patents and the good-will of the business, and assuring to them the
safety and disposition of their money the enterprise was doomed from
the start.
An excellent opportunity seemed to offer itself for going right on with
my business without the delay which would be involved in the erection
of new works. The Southwark Foundry was in the market for sale. These
were the old engineering works of the firm of S. V. Merrick & Sons;
they were famous works before the war, when they were largely devoted
to the manufacture of municipal gas and water plants, having, I think,
a monopoly of this class of work, for which they were especially
equipped. During the war they had built engines for some government
vessels. A few years after the war the elder Mr. Merrick died, and his
two sons, J. Vaughan and William H. Merrick, retired from business,
and these works were closed. In company with several of the gentlemen
interested I was shown over the works by William H. Merrick and was
very favorably impressed with them. They covered a large plot of
ground, the front extending from Fourth to Fifth streets on the south
side of Washington Avenue, in Philadelphia; they were favorably located
with respect to transportation facilities, a branch of the Philadelphia
and Baltimore Railroad ran through this avenue to the Delaware River,
and two switches from these tracks entered the works, one going to the
foundry and one to the erecting-floor. This floor was commanded by
three cranes, operated by power, the largest I had ever seen, while
an annex to the foundry was commanded by a steam-crane of equal size,
and the main foundry floor was provided with an overhead traveler, the
only one at that time in the country. The machine-shop was a large
three-story building, the first and second floors of which, as well
as the erecting-shop, were filled with tools, some of them of large
size. I was particularly impressed by the great planer, the largest in
the country, capable of passing objects twelve feet square. The office
was provided with a large fire-proof vault which was carried up to the
second story for the use of the drawing-office.
I expressed myself decidedly in favor of purchasing these works. I
could form no judgment respecting the tools, all their working parts
being coated with a composition of white lead and tallow; but I did not
care much about them, because I should speedily fill the works with the
latest improved tools, most of which I expected to import from England.
A contract was immediately made for the purchase of these works, in
part payment for which the Merrick brothers were to accept stock in the
proposed company. Thus they became numbered among our stockholders.
I was next invited to attend a meeting of a few gentlemen held at the
office of the Cambria Company to arrange a slate for the action of the
subscribers at a meeting which had been called for organization. This
first meeting was full of surprises to me. I went into it expecting the
gentlemen to say to me: “Of course, Mr. Porter, you will accept the
office of president?” quite unconscious that I had made it impossible
for them to think of such a thing, but quite conscious that no amateur
in that position could by any possibility make the business successful,
unless he should commit the management entirely to my hands and content
himself with being a mere figurehead.
Mr. Townsend, the president of the Cambria Company and the leading
mover in this enterprise, called the meeting to order and announced
that the first question to be settled would be the name of the company.
I remarked: “There can be but one name for it: the Porter-Allen
Steam-engine Manufacturing Company.” Then Mr. William H. Merrick spoke
up: “I don’t know about that; of course, no one can imagine that the
manufacture of these engines can employ all the resources of these
great works; there is a vast amount of work of the character formerly
carried on in them which will naturally flow back to them, and I think
the door should be left open for its return.” I expressed my amazement
at such a view; I had not come there to revive any old business, but to
make the Porter-Allen engine and nothing else; that it must be obvious
to any observer that my business only required suitable means for
carrying it on to grow to great proportions, and the resources of these
works, whatever they were, would need to be greatly enlarged for its
use, and besides the name ought to describe and advertise the business.
When a vote was taken every man voted for the historic Philadelphia
name of the “Southwark Foundry,” to which they added “and Machine
Company,” and I discovered that my views had no weight at all. I had
afterwards the pleasure of being asked by my friends occasionally what
good I supposed that name would do my business.
The next subject was the selection of a president, and my next
discovery was that I was not even thought of. If any one had been asked
why he had not thought of me he would, from his point of view, very
properly have replied that “to commit the interests of this company to
a man who had shown so little ability to look out for his own interests
did not impress him favorably.” Every vote was cast for William H.
Merrick, and I was selected as vice-president, with charge of the
manufacturing.
A day or two after, the meeting was held which had been called for the
purpose of hearing the report of the patent expert and organizing the
company. At this meeting the expert was not prepared to report, as an
application for the reissue of an important patent was still pending.
Mr. Merrick moved that a temporary organization be then effected, so
that we might proceed at once with work on pressing orders. On my
assurance that this reissue was certain to be allowed, the motion was
adopted and a temporary board of directors was elected. Mr. Merrick
and myself were elected president and vice-president respectively. Mr.
Merrick told me afterwards that he made the motion because he knew that
those twenty-one gentlemen there assembled could never be got together
again if this meeting should prove fruitless.
The directors held a meeting immediately after, and at this meeting I
presented a letter which I had written to the chairman of the meeting
called for organization, setting forth the requirements of the engine
for the latest and most improved tools and asking for an immediate
appropriation of $100,000 for their purchase, as time was of the utmost
consequence. To this Mr. Merrick replied that such action would be
entirely unnecessary, saying: “I assure you gentlemen, and I assure
Mr. Porter, that for a long time to come he will find in these works
everything he can possibly desire.” Of course I could make no reply to
this positive statement, and the matter was dropped. We immediately
took possession of the works, and a large force of men were put at
work cleaning the tools and getting them in working order; I also had
my drawings, patterns, and all work in progress brought from Newark
and from all shops where it had been commenced. Prominent among these
latter were the bed, cylinder and shaft of the first of the 40×48-inch
engines which were then ready for finishing.
In about two weeks from the date of this meeting Mr. Goodfellow came
into the office pale and trembling with excitement, and addressing
himself to me, Mr. Merrick sitting on the opposite side of the table,
said: “Mr. Porter, I give it up; we might just as well be set down
in a cotton-mill to make steam-engines; there is not a tool in the
place that has not spoiled every job that has been put in it, from the
day we came here. I don’t believe another such lot of antiquated and
worn-out rubbish exists on the face of the earth.” This was not news
to me, as I had spent much of my time in the shop. Our most serious
disappointment was the condition of their great planer; we had hurried
the above-mentioned engine bed on it as soon as it arrived, and when
it had been planed the surface plate was laid on the guide-bars, which
were 7 feet 6 inches long, and it was found to rock on two diagonal
corners more than an eighth of an inch, showing a cross-wind of over
half an inch in the whole length of the planer bed; this of course
rendered the tool useless in its present condition. I had found that
the means for boring the 40-inch cylinder and for finishing the shaft,
as well as for doing the other work for this engine, were all equally
useless, and I proposed to Mr. Merrick that these parts should all be
sent back to the shops from which they had been brought and finished
there, and the engine altogether built in outside shops, just as I had
built the first one. This he flatly refused to do, saying he would not
make such an exposure of our condition. Our plight may be understood
when I state that it was over a year before we could deliver that
first large engine, although every effort was made to complete it, the
castings and forgings waiting for many months.
“But,” exclaims the reader, “why, when this state of affairs was
first discovered, were not steps instantly taken to remedy it?” The
answer to this question involves a very different subject. When I had
received in Newark a letter from Mr. Merrick requesting me to send on
my patents for examination by an expert, I was suddenly reminded that
I had omitted to obtain the reissue of the latest patent which Mr.
Allen had obtained, namely, the one for his adjustable pressure-plate,
which had been so shockingly muddled by the Washington agent of the
patent solicitors that when we received it we could not understand the
specification, and the claims were absolutely meaningless. However, I
had said to myself, there will be time enough to have it reissued when
it becomes necessary, as applications for reissue are always passed
upon immediately. But before sending the patents on, I prepared myself
a new and clear specification for that patent and put it in my pocket.
In two or three days I followed the patents to Philadelphia and met
the patent solicitor; he told me all the patents seemed to be well
enough except this one, and this he could make nothing out of. I told
him how that came to be such a muddle, that I always intended to get
it reissued and now would employ him to do it. I produced the amended
specification I had prepared for that reissue; he read it and handed it
back to me, saying it would be of no use to him. I instantly thought of
the protest of Mr. Perker: “Really, Mr. Pickwick, really, my dear sir,
when one places a matter in the hands of a professional man he must not
be interfered with; indeed, he must not, my dear sir, really.” I made
an humble apology for my presumption, but asked him if he would get
the application in the next day at farthest, that the reissue might be
received in time for him to report on it at the meeting called for the
organization of the company, then some days distant. He made no reply.
I soon found that I had fallen into the hands of a traitor who intended
to use his professional power to strangle my enterprise in its birth,
and who never did give up his prey until it was torn from his fangs.
Not hearing from him for a day or two, I called to see what was the
matter, and was stunned by his telling me that he had determined not
to apply for a reissue, but to report against me on the patent as it
stood, saying that a reissue could not be got, and if it was it would
be good for nothing. I attempted to argue the matter with him, but
found him firm. I then went directly to the office of Morgan & Lewis,
the attorneys for the company, and told the story. Mr. Morgan said, “I
will go and see him at once;” so we went together. The expert repeated
his determination to Mr. Morgan, and, anxious that the latter should
understand the merits of the case, I presented it to the expert as
plainly as I knew how, Mr. Morgan being an attentive listener. Many
months afterwards I realized the vital importance of the lesson I then
gave to Mr. Morgan. The expert persisted in his determination, but
consented to see Mr. Morgan again the next day. On our way back I said
to Mr. Morgan: “It seems to me that this man does not see the point of
the application because he won’t see it; he doesn’t want to see it.”
Mr. Morgan made the rather enigmatical reply: “It seems very plain to
me.”
The next day Mr. Morgan made the point to the expert that he could not
afford to take such a position as that--he could not sustain it. He
then consented to make the application, but added what he had already
said to me, that he had no idea it would be granted, and if it was,
it would be good for nothing. It will hardly be credited that he was
over two months in preparing this application, getting it into a form
in which he was sure it could not be allowed. When it was finally
shown to me I could not understand it. It contained two references,
the pertinence of which I could not see; he assured me, however, that
it was the very best that could be done, although he said he had very
little hopes that it would be allowed. Sure enough, in a few days the
rejection was received from Washington and a meeting was called to
hear his report. He used very strong language in making this report,
saying: “This rejection is final and the case is hopeless,” and walking
over to where I was sitting, he shook a paper in my face with an air
as if I had been a detected felon and he held in his hand the proof
of my rascality, saying: “This is a paper I received from Washington
this morning that settles your hash, sir.” When he sat down the silence
might have been felt. Every one shrank from what appeared to them the
inevitable and final step, the adoption of a resolution to the effect:
“Whereas Mr. Porter has failed to keep his agreement with us, the whole
matter be now dismissed from our further consideration.”
I did not allow them much time for reflection, but rose and made a
little speech as follows: “Mr. Chairman, I have but a single word to
say. I have taken this case out of the expert’s hands; I expect to
go to Washington to-morrow morning and return in the afternoon, and
when I come back I shall bring this reissue with me.” No one said a
word, but I knew what was in every man’s mind: “What a fool, when our
great Philadelphian authority has spoken, to imagine that _he_ can do
anything to change the result!” However, there was no disposition to
cut me off by any precipitate action, and the meeting adjourned subject
to the call of the chair, every one feeling that it was a mere waste of
time.
The next morning I was received by Mr. Fowler, the accomplished
chief examiner in the class of steam-engines, with his usual extreme
courtesy. He told me that he felt very sorry at finding himself
obliged to reject my application, but the very precedents cited in
the application itself left him no alternative. “However,” he added,
“if you have anything new to present I shall be most happy to receive
it.” In reply I handed to him the specification which had already
done duty so ineffectively with the expert and in which I had not
changed a syllable. He read it through with fixed attention, and the
instant he finished he exclaimed: “Why, Mr. Porter, it is perfectly
obvious that you are entitled to this reissue, and the cases cited
in the application have nothing to do with it; but why was not this
presented to me in the first place?” I told him I had prepared it for
that purpose and placed it in the hands of the expert, who, after
reading it, returned it to me, saying it would be of no use to him.
Mr. Fowler instantly asked me if I had prepared any claims. I told him
I had, because I could not get any one to prepare them for me; but it
was a new business to me, and I had asked the advice of the expert
about them, who, after reading them, returned them to me without any
suggestion, merely remarking: “If you get these allowed you will be
doing very well.” The moment Mr. Fowler glanced at them he exclaimed:
“Oh, Mr. Porter, we cannot allow any such claims as these; they are
functional claims, which the Patent Office never allows.” Then,
evidently seeing my helpless condition in the hands of a traitor, he
instantly added: “I shall be occupied this morning, but if you will
call at three o’clock I will have two claims prepared for you which
will be allowed.” So the expert had let me go to Washington with claims
that he knew could not be allowed, and sure that my errand would be
fruitless. But he did not imagine that the examiner would see through
his treachery and thwart it. At three o’clock our interview was brief;
as I entered Mr. Fowler’s room he handed me a paper, saying: “These
have been allowed; you will receive the reissue in the course of
three or four days, and it will appear in next week’s _Gazette_. Good
afternoon.”
I suppose that I never looked on a countenance expressing more
amazement than did that of Mr. Merrick when next morning I handed
him the copy of the claims and told him my brief story. He said he
could hardly believe his senses. Taking the paper, he started for Mr.
Townsend’s office, and in the course of an hour all the parties in
interest had been apprised of my easy triumph. The reissue arrived as
promised, was placed in the expert’s hands, and a meeting was called
to receive his report. I thought my troubles were all over; the case
was an absolutely simple one, there was no pretense that the invention
was not new, and he _must_ report in its favor, no matter how reluctant
he might be to do so. What was my amazement and fury when he quietly
stated to the meeting that he had no report to make; that the case
involved very serious questions which would require much time for their
consideration; that the granting of the patent was nothing--it was the
business of the Patent Office to grant patents, not to refuse them,
but whether or not they would be sustained by the courts was entirely
another matter, about which in this case he had very grave doubts.
I now did what I never did before or since, and what no good business
man, who is accustomed to accomplish his purposes, ever allows himself
to do: I, who always prided myself on being destitute of such a thing,
lost my temper. And not only my temper, but, like Tam O’Shanter, I
lost my reason altogether. Already driven frantic by the frightful
condition of affairs at the works, which had been protracted over three
months by this man’s machinations, and which he threatened to continue
indefinitely while he should endeavor to find some means to accomplish
his purpose of wrecking my business, without an instant for reflection
I shouted, regardless of all proprieties: “You rascal! What was the
Patent Office doing a week ago when you reported to these gentlemen
that this reissue had been refused, that the decision was final and
the case was hopeless; what were they doing then, I would like to
know? Were they granting patents or refusing them? The fact is, you
are either a traitor or know nothing about your business, and you may
hang on either horn of the dilemma you like,” and I sat down, having
in these few seconds done myself and my case more harm than anybody
else could have done in a lifetime. I did not reflect that I could not
have the sympathy of my audience; they knew nothing of the state of
affairs at the works--this they had been kept in ignorance of,--nor of
the consistent course of treachery which this man had been following.
All they could see was that I had used outrageous language, for which
they could not imagine any justification, toward an eminent patent
lawyer who enjoyed their confidence, and they naturally supposed that
was my usual way of doing business. The chairman coldly informed me
that the lawyer was their patent adviser and nothing whatever could be
done until his report on the reissue should be received. I had entered
the room expecting to receive the congratulations of every one on the
bold coup by which I had saved my business. I left it unnoticed by any
one. The reader will not be much surprised to learn that it was months
before we heard from him again--months more of frantic helplessness.
About the first of August I called at the expert’s office and was
informed that he had gone on his vacation and would be absent about
six weeks, and the case could not be taken up until his return. In my
desperation I called upon Mr. Townsend and made to him a clean breast
of our helpless condition, and offered to pledge all our stock as
security for a loan of the money necessary to buy a few of the most
indispensable tools. He replied to me: “Suppose the report of the
expert shall be adverse and the enterprise be abandoned, what do you
think your security will be worth?”
I succeeded in saving one order from the wreck in rather a singular
manner. This was an order from Mr. Lewis, of Cincinnati, the projector
of the cottonseed-oil business, for an 18×30-inch engine to drive
the machinery of their first oil-mill at Houston, Texas. I had built
in Newark an engine of the same size for Senator Jones of Nevada, to
drive an ice-making plant which he was establishing in the city of New
Orleans. Word came to me sometime that spring that this enterprise had
proved a failure, the work had been abandoned, and the engine, their
only asset of value, was for sale. I instantly bought it and sent a man
down to transport it to Houston and erect it there. Mr. Lewis wrote me
from Cincinnati an indignant letter at my sending him a second-hand
engine. I replied to him, stating first it was my only possible way
of filling his order at all, as I did not know when we should be
able to build an engine in our new works, and, second, that it was
a new engine, having been run only a few weeks, long enough to show
its excellent condition and not so long as engines are often run in
public exhibitions, from which they are always sold as new. Mr. Lewis
gracefully accepted my explanation, and the engine was in readiness
for them to grind the coming cottonseed crop. The next summer we had
a call from the agent of that mill, who had come North during their
idle interval, while they were waiting for their next crop, to make his
report at Cincinnati, and had come out of his way to tell us of the
wonderful manner in which that engine had carried them through their
first season, which he concluded by saying: “That is the engine for
the cottonseed-oil business.” After he had gone I said to Mr. Merrick:
“That is an old story to me; everybody says that is the engine for
their business, whatever their business may happen to be.”
What did I do with myself during that six months? Well, I was not
altogether idle. First I found all the drawers in the drawing-office
filled with piles of old drawings which Mr. Merrick ordered to be
preserved and which we piled up on the floor of the unoccupied third
story. Out of the contemplation of that confused heap I evolved a new
system of making and keeping mechanical drawings, which I described in
the following paper, read the next year before the American Society of
Mechanical Engineers:
“The system of making and keeping drawings now in use at the works of
the Southwark Foundry and Machine Company in Philadelphia has been
found so satisfactory in its operation that it seems worthy of being
communicated to the profession.
“The method in common use is to devote a separate drawer to the
drawings of each machine or each group or class of machines. The idea
of this system is keeping together all drawings relating to the same
subject-matter. Every draftsman is acquainted with its practical
working. It is necessary to make the drawing of a machine and of its
separate parts on sheets of different sizes. The drawer in which all
these are kept must be large enough to accommodate the largest sheets.
The smaller ones cannot be located in the drawer, and as these find
their way to one side or to the back, and several of the smallest lie
side by side in one course, any arrangement of the sheets in the drawer
is out of the question.
“The operation of finding a drawing consists in turning the contents
of the drawer all up until it is discovered. In this way the smaller
sheets get out of sight or doubled up, and the larger ones are torn. No
amount of care can prevent confusion.
“In the system now proposed the idea of keeping together drawings
relating to the same machine, or of classifying them according to
subjects in any way, is abandoned, and in place of it is substituted
the plan of keeping together all drawings that are made on sheets of
the same size, without regard to the subject of them. Nine sizes of
sheets were settled upon as sufficient to meet our requirements, and
on a sheet that will trim to one of these sizes every drawing must be
made. They are distinguished by the first nine letters of the alphabet.
Size A is the antiquarian sheet trimmed, and the smaller sizes will cut
from this sheet, without waste, as follows:
“A, 51″×30″; B, 37″×30″; C, 25″×30″; D, 17″×30″; E, 12¹⁄₂″×30″; F,
8¹⁄₂″×30″; G, 17″×15″; H, 8¹⁄₂″×15″; I, 14″×25″.
“The drawers for the different sizes are made 1 inch longer and wider
than the sheets they are to contain, and are lettered as above. The
drawers of the same size are distinguished by a numeral prefixed to the
letter. The back part of each drawer is covered for a width of from
6 to 10 inches, to prevent drawings, and especially tracings, from
slipping over at the back.
“The introduction of the blue-printing process has revolutionized the
drawing-office. Our drawings now are studies, left in pencil. When
we can find nothing more to alter, tracings are made on cloth. These
become our originals and are kept in a fire-proof vault. _This system
is found admirably adapted to the plan of making a separate drawing for
each piece._ The whole combined drawing is not generally traced, but
the separate pieces are picked out from it. _All our working drawings
are blue-prints of separate pieces._
“Each drawer contains fifty tracings. They are 2¹⁄₂ inches deep, which
is enough to hold several times as many, but this number is all that is
convenient to keep together. Each drawing is marked in stencil on the
margin in the lower right-hand corner, and also with inverted plates
in the upper left-hand corner, with the letter of the drawer and the
number of the drawing, as, for example, 3F-31; so that whichever way
the sheet is put in the drawer, this appears at the front right-hand
corner. The drawings in each drawer are numbered separately, fifty
being thus the highest number used.
“For reference we depend on our indices. Each tracing when completed is
entered under its letter in the numerical index, and is given the next
consecutive number. From this index the title and the number are copied
into other indices, under as many different headings as possible.
Thus all the drawings of any engine, or tool, or machine whatever,
become assembled in the index by their titles under the heading of
such particular engine or tool or machine. So also the drawings of any
particular piece, of all sizes and styles, become assembled by their
titles under the name of such piece. However numerous the drawings,
and however great the variety of their subjects, the location of any
one is, by this means, found as readily as a word in a dictionary. The
stencil marks copy, of course, on the blue-prints, and these, when not
in use, are kept in the same manner as the tracings, except that only
twenty-five are placed in one drawer.
“We employ printed classified lists of the separate pieces constituting
every steam-engine, the manufacture of which is the sole business of
these works, and on these, against the name of every piece, is given
the drawer and number of the drawing on which it is represented. The
office copies of these lists afford an additional mode of reference,
and a very convenient one, used in practice almost exclusively. The
foreman sends for the prints by the stencil marks, and these are thus
got directly without reference to any index. They are charged in the
same way, and reference to the numerical index gives the title of any
missing print.
“We find the different sizes to be used quite unequally. The method
of making a separate tracing of each piece, which we carry to a great
extent, causes the smaller sizes to multiply quite rapidly. We are
also marking our patterns with the stencil of the drawings, as well as
gauges, templets, and jigs.
“It is found best to permit the sheets to be put away by one person
only, who also writes up the indices, which are kept in the fire-proof
vault.
“We have ourselves been surprised at the saving of room which this
system has effected. Probably less than one fourth the space is
occupied that the same drawings would require if classified according
to subjects. The system is completely elastic. Work of the most diverse
character might be undertaken every day, and the drawings of each
article would find places ready to receive them.”
It will be observed that in planning the sizes of sheets I was limited
to antiquarian paper. Now no limitation exists. I should to-day
increase the number of sizes.
The whole summer passed, many had taken trips to Europe and back, when
about the middle of September Mr. Morgan notified the chairman that he
had received the expert’s report and requested him to call a meeting of
the subscribers to hear it. I went to the meeting with mingled hope and
apprehension. Mr. Morgan read a long letter from the expert containing
an elaborate argument against the patent which he concluded by saying
that he could not recommend its acceptance. When Mr. Morgan had
finished reading the letter he continued: “Mr. Chairman, I am tired of
this man’s delays and quibbling, and I now advise you that Mr. Porter
has performed his contract, and it only remains for you to perform
yours.” This was the harvest from the seed I had sown six months before.
The following is the Reissue on which the patent expert hung up our
business for six months. The specification was written by me, the
disclaimer and claims were written by Chief Examiner Fowler.
UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE
JOHN F. ALLEN OF BROOKLYN, ASSIGNOR TO GEORGE T. HOPE, OF BAY RIDGE,
N. Y., AND CHARLES T. PORTER, OF PHILADELPHIA, PA.
_Balanced Valve._
SPECIFICATION forming part of Reissued Letters Patent No. 9303, dated
July 20, 1880.
Original No. 167865, dated September 21, 1875. Application for
reissue filed June 2, 1880.
_To all whom it may concern:_
Be it known that I, JOHN F. ALLEN, formerly of the city, county,
and State of New York, but now of Brooklyn, New York, have invented
certain new and useful Improvements in Balanced Slide Valves, of
which improvements the following is a specification.
My invention relates to that class of balanced slide-valves in which
the valve is practically relieved from the pressure of the steam,
this pressure being sustained by a plate supported above the valve,
but so nearly in contact with it that the space between them will not
admit steam enough to affect the valve. Such plates are designated as
“pressure” plates, and have been made in some instances adjustable,
in order that they may be closed up to the valve as the faces of the
valve and its seat become worn. Heretofore such adjustments have been
affected by different mechanical devices, among which there was, in
one instance, a spring to move the plate laterally or crosswise of
the valve while the pressure of the steam held the plate down; and in
other instances screws were used to move the plate in two directions,
both in line with the movement of the valve, and to hold the plate in
its adjusted position. All of these devices, however, are liable to
objections well understood by engineers.
It is the object of my invention to obviate these objections in
a balanced slide-valve; and to this end my improvements consist
in utilizing the pressure of the steam for giving motion to the
pressure-plate down inclined supports and toward the valve; in
employing supports inclined to the face of the valve at a steep
angle, considerably exceeding the angle of repose of the metal,
so that the pressure of the steam on the upper surface of the
pressure-plate may be relied on for giving to it the above-described
motion, and in employing an adjustable stop to prevent the pressure
of the steam from forcing the pressure-plate into too close contact
with the valve.
In the accompanying drawings, which form part of this specification,
Figure 1 is a transverse section through a steam-chest in which my
improved balanced slide-valve is applied, the section being on the
line _x x_ of Fig. 2, and Fig. 2 is a longitudinal section on the
line _y y_ of Fig. 1.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
The valve A is fitted upon its seat in the steam-chest B, and moved
to and fro over the ports in the usual manner. The back of the valve
is a plane surface, parallel with its face. Along the sides of the
steam-chest I provide two parallel guides--one, _b_, inclined
downward and outward, and the other, _b¹_, inclined upward and
outward, as shown in Fig. 1, from a point in the same plane with
the back of the valve and at an angle considerably greater than the
angle of repose of the metal. Theoretically, the plate should move
down its inclined supports if the angle of inclination exceeds at
all the angle of repose; but practically, under conditions, often
unfavorable, existing in the steam-chest to render the action
certain, this angle should be largely in excess, as shown in the
model and drawings. In the instance shown I have provided chambers G
at the ends of the steam-chest, through which the steam may pass over
the ends of the pressure-plate to the ports; but any other approved
passage for the steam may be provided.
The pressure-plate C fits snugly in the steam-chest lengthwise, and
moves freely in it crosswise. This plate has an opening in the top
and a hollow center, so that the steam entering at the top passes
through the center and into the chambers G, at the ends of the
steam-chest. The bottom of this plate has a plane surface, parallel
with the back of the valve A, and beyond this plane surface it has
lateral inclines _c c¹_, parallel with the lateral inclines _b b¹_
on the sides of the steam-chest, so that when the plate is in place
its lateral inclines rest upon and fit closely to the inclines on the
chest, thus supporting the plane surface of the bottom of the plate
close to the top of the valve.
The width of the plate being less than that of the chest B, it will
be seen that the plate in this position would have a certain range of
movement upon the inclines crosswise of the steam-chest.
A screw-stop, H, passes through the steam-chest, and bears upon the
adjacent side of the pressure-plate, which will still be free to be
moved crosswise of the valve.
The operation is as follows: The stop H being adjusted to the point
at which it is desired to maintain the pressure-plate, the pressure
of the steam will act upon the plate and tend to force it down the
inclines _b b¹_ crosswise of the valve and against the stop, which
will thus determine the range of movement of the plate and the
relation between its plane surface and the back of the valve. At the
same time the stop, being entirely independent of or disconnected
from the plate, can be readjusted as required to compensate for
any wear upon the surfaces of the valve or its seat, and the steam
will at all times maintain the plate at the point determined by the
adjustment of the stop. This adjustment is, of course, made without
opening the steam-chest.
I do not claim the employment of inclined supports by a movement
along which the pressure-plate is caused to approach or to recede
from the valve, since this device has been already the subject of
patent; but
I claim as my own invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent--
1. A balance-valve provided with a pressure-plate acted upon by
steam-pressure and having a downward and lateral movement through
means of steep inclines, as shown, as and for the purpose set forth.
2. A balance-valve provided with a pressure-plate reposing upon steep
inclines, as shown, and suitable means for limiting its movement upon
the inclines, the said plate being held down by steam-pressure, as
and for the purpose set forth.
JOHN F. ALLEN.
Witnesses:
DE WITT BOGARDUS,
J. W. DURBROW.
Mr. Morgan’s advice was received by the meeting with a feeling of
relief from a long suspense; it was at once accepted unanimously,
and the temporary organization was made permanent. The directors
immediately convened. Before proceeding to the transaction of business
one of the directors said to me: “Mr. Porter, you have now been in the
Southwark Foundry for six months, and I understand that not a single
engine has been sent out from that place in all that time; will you
tell us why this is so?” I had then an opportunity of witnessing a
nobility of soul such as few persons meet with in the whole course of
their lives. Mr. Merrick rose and said: “I will save Mr. Porter the
trouble of answering that question. Mr. Porter has not sent a single
engine out of these works because he has not had a single tool with
which he could make an engine. I thought I knew all about those tools
when, last March, I assured you and Mr. Porter he would find everything
he could possibly desire, when the fact was I knew nothing about them.
I have been through those tools carefully with Mr. Goodfellow and
have seen for myself that not one of them could produce work fit to
be put in these engines. While I am about it I wish to make another
confession: I said then, and you all agreed with me, that it could not
be expected that the manufacture of these engines could employ all the
resources of that great establishment, and so we left the door open for
the return to it of the class of work which had formerly occupied it;
but from what I have myself seen in the six months I have been there
I am able to say to you that if the works had possessed the resources
which I really believed they did possess, these would have been
insufficient to meet the demand for these engines which has come to us
from all parts of the country and for many different kinds of business.
Mr. Porter knew what he wanted and the demand that might reasonably be
expected; I had no conception of the one or the other. It is a great
pity that we did not then give him the means he asked for, and I hope
this will be done now.”
Mr. Henry Lewis spoke up and said: “What did Mr. Porter ask for? I
have no recollection of his asking us for anything at all.” None of
the directors could remember anything about it; the letter which I had
addressed to the chairman had even disappeared. Luckily, however, I
had made a copy of it, and I produced the letter-book, in which it was
the first letter copied, and read them this copy. I should say here
that I have inquired at the works for this letter-book, but have been
told by Mr. Brooks, the president, that all correspondence more than
twenty years old having no legal value had been destroyed. When I had
finished, Mr. Lewis exclaimed: “Did you write that letter?” “I did,
sir,” I replied. “Well,” he said, “I suppose I must have heard it, but
I have not the faintest recollection of it.” All said the same thing
except Mr. Merrick, as it had brought out his reply.
This illustrates the indifference of the directors at that time to
anything that came from me. An earnest disposition was now manifested
to make all the amends possible; the $100,000 which I had asked for was
immediately appropriated. In view of the utter barrenness of the works
I was asked if it had not better be made $200,000, but this I did not
favor. I told them I would rather proceed more slowly, especially as
many of the old tools might be made serviceable when we should have
perfect tools with which to refit them. So at last I had triumphed at
every point, but at what a cost, O, what a cost!
With a number of other engineers I attended, by invitation, a meeting
held at the office of the _American Machinist_, February 16, 1880,
which determined upon the organization of the American Society of
Mechanical Engineers, and soon after I had the honor of being invited
to read a paper at the first regular meeting of this society, held in
the auditorium of the Stevens Institute at Hoboken, N. J., on the 7th
of April following. The date of this meeting, it will be observed, fell
during the time when the Philadelphia expert was racking his brains to
concoct for me an application for a patent reissue which he felt sure
could not be allowed.
I read the following paper:
“This association can vindicate its right to exist only by exerting
a constant beneficial influence upon engineering practice in all its
departments. At the outset of its career it should take a progressive
attitude, planting itself upon sound principles of construction, aiming
to inspire the engineers of our country with the highest conception of
mechanical truth, and to diffuse a correct understanding of the means
and methods by which this truth is to be attained.
“As one subject of primary importance, I wish to present that of
strength in machine tools. Truth of construction, facility of
operation, and range of application are all, in one sense, subordinate
to this fundamental quality of strength; for they are in a greater or
less degree impaired where adequate strength is not provided.
“But what _is_ adequate strength? On this point there exists among the
makers and users of tools a wide diversity of opinion. On examination
it will be found that this diversity coincides with the diversity in
mechanical sensibility. As the mechanical sense is developed, there
arises in just the same degree the demand for greater strength in
machine tools.
“To the mechanic who has never formed a notion of a division of an inch
more exact than ‘a bare 32d,’ one tool, if it can in any way be kept
from chattering, is as good as another, and better if it is cheaper.
“To those, on the other hand, who demand in every piece, as it comes
from the tool, the closest approach to perfection, both in form and
finish, a degree of strength in the tool appears, and is demonstrated,
to be indispensable that to the former class seems as absurd as the
results attained by means of it appear incredible.
“In this country, as indeed all over the world, the standard of
mechanical truth has been very low. It is here, however, as everywhere,
rapidly rising. The multitude are being educated up to the standard
of the few. In this work members of this association have borne and
now bear an honorable part. Just in the degree that the standard of
mechanical excellence is raised must the demand become more general for
greater strength in machine tools, as indispensable to its attainment.
“But what is the standard of strength? The anvil affords perhaps its
best illustration. It is a strength enormously beyond that which
prevents a tendency to chatter, a strength that under even the heaviest
labor prevents the least vibration of any part of the tool, or any
indication of effort more than if the object being cut were a mass of
butter.
“It will be seen that this absolute solidity in machine tools, while
truth cannot be attained without it, enables also mechanical operations
generally to be performed with far greater expedition, and the
subsequent work of the finisher to be in any case much diminished and
often dispensed with entirely.
“We are enabled in most cases to come at once to the form desired,
whatever may be the quantity of material to be removed, and always
to finish the surface with a degree of truth and polish otherwise
unattainable, dispensing in a great measure with the use of that
abomination, the file.
“Now, with this standard in our minds we look over the face of the land
and behold it covered with rubbish.
“It is curious to observe how ingenious toolmakers have generally been
in trying to avoid this quality of strength, and how deceptive an
appearance in this respect many tools present.
“It is interesting also to note how little this quality of solidity
adds to the cost of castings. The addition is merely so much more
pig-iron and really not that, because in the stove-plate style the
forms are more complicated, the patterns more expensive and frail, and
the cost of molding is greater. But what signifies even a considerable
increase in the first cost of a tool that in daily use is to perform
the work of many and is to place its possessor on a mechanical eminence?
“It is not the purpose of this paper to enter into details,
interesting and important as these are, but to draw attention to the
subject in a general way. The improvement observed quite recently in
this respect, as well as in other points of tool construction, is
highly gratifying and encourages the expectation of still further and
more general progress.”
The following summer I employed some of my leisure time in making the
plans for a couple of machine tools. One of these was a double-drilling
machine for boring the boxes of connecting-rods, there being then
no such machine in existence to my knowledge. I had been planning
such a machine in my mind as long ago as when I was in the works of
Ormerod, Grierson & Co., in Manchester, England, in 1864-5. This
tool was designed first to bore the two boxes simultaneously and
rapidly, and, secondly, to bore them with absolute accuracy in their
distance apart and in the intersection by their axes of the axis
of the rod at right angles in the same plane, and all this without
measurement or setting out or the possibility of error. The other tool
was comparatively a small affair. I utilized an old milling-machine
for facing simultaneously the opposite sides of nuts and taking the
roughing and finishing cuts at the same time. The ends of the nuts were
first faced on a special mandrel which insured their being normal to
the axis of the thread. A string of these nuts was then threaded on a
mandrel fitting the top of their threads and some 15 or 18 inches long,
on which they were held against a hardened collar, the diameter of
which was equal to the distance between their opposite finished faces.
The cutting tools were set in two disks about 12 inches in diameter;
they were set about an inch apart alternately in two circles, one about
one eighth of an inch inside the other, and were held in position by
set-screws in the periphery. The cutters in the outer circles did the
roughing; those in the inner circles were set projecting about 0.001
of an inch beyond the roughing tools and finished the surfaces. The
mandrel was set between centers, and the string of nuts was supported
from the table at the middle of its length. The nuts were secured in
position by a dividing plate on the forward center-bearing. What was
done with the two drawings I will state presently.
My success, as already related, came so swiftly and completely after
six months of anxiety as to be almost overwhelming. The more I thought
about it the more ecstatic I became; all my disasters had been of a
nature the effect of which time would soon efface. I was full of high
anticipations, I could see no cloud in the sky; I awakened to my old
zeal and energy and set myself eagerly to the work of providing new
equipment, unable to realize the real helplessness of my position.
Little did I dream that I was already doomed to drink to its dregs the
bitter cup of responsibility without authority. That story will come
soon enough; now I will ask the reader to accompany me in my work of
filling the shop with new tools.
My principal orders were sent to my old friends, Smith & Coventry,
in England. Among others I sent one for my double-drilling machine
with the drawings. I received a reply from them stating that they had
just furnished a similar machine to the firm of Hick, Hargreaves &
Company, the eminent engine-builders of Bolton, and that they thought
I would prefer their design for this machine, of which they sent a
blue print, to my own. I should think I did prefer it; it was simply
wonderful. It presented one feature of especial interest, which was
that the two drills were driven independently and when not employed
on connecting-rods could be applied to any other drilling work. So I
ordered that tool, and its work fully justified my expectations. I
ordered from them several planers, the largest one passing a body five
feet square. The planers they sent me had two novel features which
filled me with admiration. The tables were provided with broad, flat
shoes running on corresponding flat guides, the sideways wear being
taken up by an adjustable gib on one side. This construction enables
the bearing surfaces to be made one true plane from end to end, making
cross-wind impossible. The next feature by which these planers were
distinguished was the mode of lubricating these surfaces. Each guide
was provided in the middle of its length with an oil-well which was a
large square box, formed in the casting. In the middle of this box was
a small rod on which two levers were pivoted, the arms of which were
of equal length. At one end these arms carried a roller, and at the
other end a weight considerably heavier than the roller. The roller was
thus kept up against the under side of the shoe, while its lower side
ran in the oil; thus the lubrication was effected by the revolution of
this roller, which needed to be only one half the width of the face
lubricated; this was found to be the perfection of lubrication. The
tables were very stiff and were provided only with T slots from end to
end for holding the work.
I built a one-story addition to the erecting-floor, about 40×100 feet,
occupying a space which had before been used mostly as a stable. I
divided this into two bays by columns, and provided each bay with an
overhead traveler of about five tons capacity, worked by rope loops
hanging to the floor. These were also made for me by Smith & Coventry.
I ordered from Mr. Moore, of Philadelphia, one or two of the heavy
and powerful lathes built by him for turning chilled rolls. I also
ordered a six-foot square planer from the Hewes & Phillips Iron Works
in Newark, which they made expressly heavy, having become infected with
my ideas on that subject. From Pratt & Whitney I ordered one large
lathe and one or two small planers, and other tools from several other
American makers.
In one instance only I was disappointed; that was the case of a 12-foot
horizontal turning and boring machine. On examining the blue-prints
which were sent me at my request, I was struck with the lightness of
the table, and conditioned my order on this being made twice as heavy,
which was done. If I had made the same requirement for every other part
of the machine, I should have done a good thing for both the builders
and myself. The table ran on a circular track, which was superbly
designed. This track consisted of a circular trough perhaps 8 or 10
inches wide, and in the middle of it a bearing surface for the table,
raised perhaps half an inch above the bottom of the trough and half
an inch lower than its sides. This bearing surface was about 6 inches
wide and was intersected by diagonal grooves about a foot apart. Oil
could stand in this trough above the level of the bearing surfaces. I
made a little improvement on the method of supplying the oil. As sent,
a dose of oil was poured through a hole in the table, which was filled
with a screw plug when not required to be used. I screwed a plug into
that hole to stay, and drilled a hole in the bottom of the trough, in
which I screwed a ³⁄₈-inch pipe that I carried under the bottom of
the machine, and up behind one of the uprights to a higher level, and
in the end of this pipe I screwed a sight-feed oil-cup. I provided a
drain-pipe, which would maintain the oil in the trough at the desired
level, while it was fed to the trough continually, drop by drop, as
required. This table came with an imperfectly finished bearing surface.
I set several men at work to bed these surfaces properly, and did a
fine job of scraping on them. When it was finished, I pulled the table
around with one hand, it floating dry on the air caught between the two
surfaces. When we came to use the tool it chattered, and would do so
however light the cut we were taking; every part of it was too light
and vibrated, except the table. After all, it was the best tool of this
kind and size that I could have got in this country. If made of proper
strength I should have been able to use four cutting tools in the work,
each leaving a perfectly smooth surface; but that was a degree of
strength and usefulness that builders at that time had not dreamed of.
One of the first of our smaller engines, 10×20 inches, I built for
ourselves, setting it in a location convenient for transmitting power
to both the machine- and erecting-shops.
The job of taking the cross-wind out of the great planer interested
me perhaps more than anything else, on account of its difficulty. It
was a long time before I could decide how to go about it; besides the
cross-wind, the guides were not parallel; at one end the V’s on the
table bore on one side, and at the other end on the opposite side. I
finally made an apparatus consisting of two V’s about three feet long,
and connected by a cross-bar on which was set a spirit-level having
a ground bubble. Another similar level was set on top of one of the
V’s. With this apparatus, which was strong enough and was finished in
the most perfect manner, and a brass wire, I was able to determine
beforehand what was necessary to be done at every point in the guides.
To finish this job on the bed, and afterwards on the V’s under the
table, required fully three months’ work, including the time spent in
preparing the apparatus, a job I could not begin until I had our new
planers. When it was done I was able to make a perfect job of the great
engine beds already mentioned, and other work which was waiting for it.
Among the old tools was one large drilling-machine, the size of which
and the strength of its framing impressed me very favorably; but when
we came to use it we found it would not drill a round hole. This defect
could doubtless have been remedied by grinding the spindle, when we got
a tool in which to do it, and fitting new boxes. It was determined,
however, by Mr. Goodfellow and myself, that it would not be worth while
to bother with it, because it had been so badly designed that the two
traversing screws for the compound table, with which it was furnished,
were located centrally, and so crossed each other exactly under the
spindle. It was therefore impossible to use a boring-bar in this tool,
and its usefulness was ridiculously disproportioned to its size. The
contrast between it and the Smith & Coventry drill, which was set in
its place, was really wonderful. We had no trouble in disposing of
this and all other rejected tools to parties who were delighted to get
them cheap. It took us about six months to get rid of all the rubbish
and fill the works with the best tools then obtainable, though still
deficient in many respects, as, for instance, the great planer, which
had only one cutting tool on the cross-slide, whereas a planer of that
size should be provided with four cutting tools--two on the cross-slide
and one on each upright, and should be twice as heavy.
One of the first engines we sold was to D. M. Osborne & Co., the
celebrated makers of mowers and reapers in Auburn, for driving their
rolling mill. This was 18×30-inch engine, making 150 revolutions
per minute, and was the fifth engine I had furnished to different
industries in my native town.
Twenty-five years afterwards I saw this engine running. They had
increased its speed. By means of a large ball on projections of the
forked lever they were able to vary the speed from 200 revolutions to
250 revolutions per minute, according to the sizes they were rolling.
I observed that, as our facilities for doing work were increased, the
belief that I was unable to execute orders became general through
the country, and applications, at first numerous, dwindled to almost
nothing. United and well-directed action would soon have put a new face
on matters, but now I was to meet with obstacles that time could not
overcome.
Mr. Merrick was an amiable and high-toned gentleman, whose sole aim
was to do his duty; but he was exactly the wrong man for the place.
He was not an engineer or mechanic. In the firm of S. V. Merrick &
Sons he had been the office man. He was entirely a man of routine. He
seemed obtuse to a mechanical reason for doing or not doing anything.
Of course he knew nothing about my business. He was impressed with the
idea of the omnipotence of the president, which in his case was true,
as the directors would unanimously approve of whatever he might do. He
at once deprived me of the power of appointment and discharge in my own
department, arrogating all authority to himself. In addition he was
naturally a very reserved man, I may say secretive. He consulted me
about nothing. I never knew what he proposed to do or was doing until I
found out afterwards. He had grandly confessed his first two blunders,
but unfortunately he continued to make mistakes equally serious to the
end of the chapter.
About the first order we had was from a company formed for lighting
the streets in Philadelphia with arc lights, of which Thomas Dolan, a
prominent manufacturer in Philadelphia, was president. Our order was
for eight engines, 8×16 inches, to drive eight Brush dynamos each of
40-light power. The order was given to Mr. Merrick. I never saw Mr.
Dolan; his own mill was at the northern end of the city, and he met
Mr. Merrick by appointment at lunch in the business center, to which
conferences I was never invited. When the plant was in operation I
heard incidentally that they had a new engineer at the electric-light
works, and I thought I would go up and make his acquaintance. I went
the same evening. I was met at the door by a stranger who politely
showed me the plant. I did not introduce myself. He asked me if I were
interested in electric lighting. I told him I was not but might be. He
said it was his duty to warn me against the use of high-speed engines;
he should not have advised these, but found them already installed
when he took charge of the place, and he was doing the best he could
to make them answer for the present, but the works would be greatly
enlarged after a while, when these engines would be gotten rid of and
proper engines substituted in place of them. He called his assistant
to corroborate his statement of the difficulty they had in getting
along with them. I listened to these outrageous falsehoods and looked
around and saw the eight engines running smoothly and silently at 280
revolutions per minute, each engine exerting the power of four engines
of the same size, at the old maximum speed of 70 revolutions per
minute, and giving absolutely uniform motion without a fly-wheel, and
said nothing.
The next morning I made an early call on Mr. Dolan at his office. I
introduced myself to him, although I think he knew me by sight. I told
him the state of affairs I found at the electric-light station and
received from him in reply the following astounding statement. He said:
“Mr. Porter, when this company was formed I selected the Southwark
Foundry as our engineers. I had previously become acquainted with the
running of some of your engines and had come to the conclusion that
they were just what we needed; accordingly I ordered our first engines
from you. I assumed the engineering department of this enterprise to be
in your hands, and that you would be represented here by an engineer
selected by yourselves and devoted to your interest. Accordingly, when
your men had finished their job I applied to your president to send me
an engineer. He sent me a workman. That was not the kind of man I asked
him for; the engines were in charge of workmen already from your own
works. I wanted an educated man who could represent us in the courts
and before the city councils--in short, an engineering head for this
business, now in its infancy, but which was expected to grow to large
proportions. He ought to have known what I wanted, or if he did not he
should have asked me; his whole manner was entirely indifferent, he
seemed to take no interest in the enterprise.
“Seeing I could get no help from Mr. Merrick, I applied to
William Sellers for an engineer. He sent me a young man from his
drawing-office, and I soon found out he was not the man I wanted;
he knew nothing about a steam-engine--was merely a machine-tool
draftsman--so I found I must rely upon myself. The only man I could
think of was this man I have. He had done some good work for me two
or three years ago in repairing one of my engines, so I offered him
the position, which he accepted. I knew nothing of his engineering
preferences; he seems to be doing very well, and I am afraid he will
have to stay;” and stay he did.
The result was most remarkable. A demand for electric-lighting plants
was springing up in all parts of the country. This became widely
known as a pioneer plant, and was visited daily by parties who were
interested in such projects. These visitors were met at the door by
the engineer and his assistant and were warned, just as I was, to have
nothing to do with a high-speed engine. They were always business
men, quite ignorant of machinery, and with whom the testimony of two
practical men who had experience with the engines and were actuated in
their advice by a sense of duty was conclusive. The result was that we
never had a single application to supply engines for electric lighting.
Yes, we did have one application; a man came into the office when I
was there alone and gave me an order for his mill and apologized to me
for giving it. He said the place where he was obliged to locate his
lighting plant was so limited, he found he could not get in the engine
he wanted.
This result I felt especially exasperated at when a year afterwards the
secretary of the lighting company, who had his office at the station,
told me that he had done something of which he knew his directors would
not approve; he had sold every light they were able to furnish. He
had felt safe in doing this, because no one of the engines had failed
them for an instant. For his part he could not see what those men were
there for--they had absolutely nothing to do except to start and stop
the engines as required and attend to the oiling. Their principal
occupation seemed to be waiting on visitors.
This great disaster would have been avoided if Mr. Merrick had
conferred with me with respect to Mr. Dolan’s most important request.
We should have had a man there who would have told the truth about
the engines, and would have impressed every visitor with the enormous
advantage of the high-speed engine, not only for that service, but also
for every use to which steam power can be applied.
It will be observed that this disaster was widespread and continuous.
It not only caused a great immediate loss, but its ultimate injury was
beyond all computation. Its effect was that the Porter-Allen engine was
shut out of the boundless field of generating electricity for light
and power purposes, a field which was naturally its own.
The following story is too good to keep, although the incident had no
effect that I am aware of to accelerate my downward progress. While
in Newark I had built for Mr. Edison an engine for his experimental
plant at Menlo Park. The satisfaction this engine gave may be judged
by what follows: One day I had a call from Mr. Edison, accompanied by
Charles L. Clarke, his engineer. They had been walking very rapidly,
and Mr. Edison, who was rather stout, was quite out of breath. As soon
as they were seated, without waiting to recover his wind Mr. Edison
began, ejaculating each sentence while catching his breath: “Want a
thousand engines.” “Thousand engines.” “Want you to make the plans for
them.” “Have all the shops in New England working on the parts.” “Bring
them here to be assembled.” “Thousand engines.” In the conversation
that followed I gently let Mr. Edison down, not to the earth, but in
sight of it. The result was that two or three weeks afterwards I was
injudicious enough to accept from him an order for twenty-four engines,
luckily all of one size and type. This was to be a rush order, but it
called for new drawings and patterns, as he wanted a special proportion
of diameter and stroke, larger diameter and shorter stroke than those
in my table. Before the drawings and patterns were completed, Mr.
Edison, or the people associated with him, discovered that they had no
place to put more than six of these engines, so the order was reduced
to six. These were for a station which was being prepared on the west
side of Pearl Street, a few doors south of Fulton, New York City. Three
of these engines were finished first. After they had been running a
few days a defect of some kind, the nature of which I never knew, was
discovered, and Mr. Edison’s attention was called to it. He charged it
to the engine, and exclaimed impetuously, “Turn them out, turn them
out!” It was represented to him, however, that they could hardly do
this, as they were under contract for a considerable amount of light
and power, and the current was being furnished satisfactorily. “Well,”
said he, “we’ll have no more of them at any rate,” so the order for
the remaining three engines was countermanded, and three Armington &
Sims engines were ordered in place of them. When these were started
the same difficulty appeared with them also. A fresh investigation
disclosed the fact that the difficulty was entirely an electrical one,
and the engines had nothing to do with it. Mr. Clarke claimed that had
been his belief from the beginning. So the thousand engines dwindled to
three engines sold and three thrown back on our hands. The two triplets
ran together harmoniously until in the development of the electrical
business that station was abandoned.
Directly after we began to do work, Mr. E. D. Leavitt brought us the
business of the Calumet and Hecla mine. This was then the largest
copper mine in the country, owned by a Boston company of which Mr.
Agassiz, son of the great naturalist, was president. He brought it to
me personally on account of his admiration for the engine, and also
for the character of work which I had inaugurated. His first order was
for an engine of moderate size. While that was building he brought
us a small order for a repair job, amounting perhaps to a couple of
hundred dollars. That work was spoiled in the shop by some blunder and
had to be thrown away and made over again. By accident I saw the bill
for that job; a green boy brought it from the treasurer’s desk for Mr.
Merrick’s approval. We both happened to be out, and by mistake he laid
it on my side of the table. I came in first, picked it up and read it,
and saw that it was for the full amount of the material and work that
had been put on the job. It seemed to me quite double what it ought to
be. I laid it on Mr. Merrick’s side and, when he came in, told him how
I came to see it, and I thought it should not be sent, being so greatly
increased by our own fault. “Oh,” said he, “they are rich; they won’t
mind it.” I said: “That is not the question with me; I don’t think it
is just to charge our customers for our own blunders.” He smiled at
my innocence, saying: “If a machine-shop does not make its customers
pay for its blunders, it will soon find itself in the poorhouse.”
“Well,” said I, “I protest against this bill being sent.” However, it
was sent, and in the course of a few days a check came for the full
amount, and Mr. Merrick laughed at me. Weeks and months passed away and
we had heard no more from Mr. Leavitt, when I met him in New York at
a meeting of the council of the Society of Mechanical Engineers. When
the meeting was over he invited me to walk with him, and said to me: “I
suppose you have observed that I have not visited the Southwark Foundry
lately.” I told him I had observed it. He then said: “Do you remember
that bill?” I told him I did very well, and how vainly I had protested
against its being sent. He said: “When that bill was brought to me for
approval, I hesitated about putting my initials to it until I had shown
it to Mr. Agassiz. I told him what the job was and the bill was quite
twice as large as I had expected. He replied, ‘Pay it, but don’t go to
them any more,’ and I have taken our work to the Dickson Manufacturing
Company at Scranton.” I realized that I had lost the most influential
engineering friend I had since the death of Mr. Holley. I heard some
years after, and believe it, though I do not vouch for its correctness,
that the work sent to the Dickson Manufacturing Company through Mr.
Leavitt had in one year exceeded one hundred thousand dollars.
[Illustration: E. D. LEAVITT]
Some time previous to these events, Mr. Merrick had done a very
high-handed thing. Assuming supreme power as president of the company,
he had invaded my department, and, without a word to me, had appointed
over Mr. Goodfellow a superintendent to suit himself, reducing Mr.
Goodfellow to be general foreman of the machine-shop, to take his
orders from the new superintendent and not from me, whereupon Mr.
Goodfellow resigned, and accepted a position as master mechanic in
the Pennsylvania Steel Works, and by his advice the engine ordered by
them from me was taken from the Southwark Foundry in its incomplete
condition and finished by themselves under Mr. Goodfellow’s direction.
Mr. Merrick then filled Mr. Goodfellow’s place with another friend of
his own as general foreman, a man who would have been as valuable as
a stick of wood but for his incessant blunders. I was fully alive to
the arbitrary nature of this usurpation, but was entirely helpless,
knowing perfectly well that the directors would sustain the president
in whatever he did.
With the coming of the new superintendent, the fatal change took
place. He came, first of all, full of the superiority of Philadelphia
mechanics, and, second, feeling that in the nature of things I must
be entirely ignorant of anything mechanical. I was nothing but a New
York lawyer; never did a day’s work in a shop in my life; had gone into
a business I was not educated to and knew nothing about. My presuming
to give orders to mechanics, and Philadelphia mechanics too, filled
him with indignation. He would not take an order from me--perish the
thought--and as for my drawings, he would depart from them as much as
he liked.
All this appeared by degrees. I observed on the floor several cylinders
fitted up, in which the followers for the piston-rod stuffing-boxes
were made sliding fits on the rods. I asked him why he had made them in
this way when they were drawn and figured to be bored ¹⁄₃₂ inch larger
than the rod. He replied, “Because this is the way they ought to be.”
I told him every one of them would be fired before the engine had run
an hour; that I wanted him to bore those followers to the drawings,
as well as the cylinder heads back of the stuffing-boxes. “It shall
be done, sir,” said he. On examining them after this had been done, I
found he had turned as much off from the outside of the followers as he
had bored out of the hole. I asked him why he had done that. He said he
supposed if I wanted the inside to be loose, I wanted the outside to
be loose too. I told him I did not. He asked me why. I told him he was
not there to argue with me; I wanted him to throw those followers away
and make new ones precisely to the drawings, and I saw to it myself
that it was done. I went to Mr. Merrick about this matter, and can
the reader imagine what his reply was? “My advice to you, Mr. Porter,
is to leave all such matters to the superintendent.” Think of it; an
amateur president assuming the direction of my business, and giving
such advice to me, who never had left the least thing to anybody, and
without considering the fact that the action of his superintendent
would be ruinous, except for my interference. I realized that I was
absolutely alone, but I felt very much like fighting the whole world.
The above incident is a fair sample of my constant experience. I was on
the watch all the time. Many times I required the work to be done over
when the superintendent departed from my drawings, and in doing it over
he generally contrived to ruin the job, and would say, “Just according
to your orders, sir.” I was reminded of a story told of Dr. Beman, a
minister of Troy, N. Y., whose wife was peculiar, to say the least.
On a certain occasion the presbytery met in Troy, and one evening he
invited its members to his house, and told his wife to provide just a
light supper. When they were ushered into the supper-room there was
nothing on the table but lighted candles. “A light supper,” said she,
“just as you ordered, sir.”
[Illustration: SAMUEL T. WELLMAN]
I proposed to appoint an inspector to represent me. The general foreman
said if an inspector were appointed he should resign, and Mr. Merrick
forbade it. Was ever a man in so helpless and ridiculous a position?
[Illustration:
February 2nd
Porter-Allen Engine--40×48
Otis Iron and Steel Co.
93 Rev. } Cleveland,
84 Lbs. } April 14, 1882]
The second of the large engines which I finished was for the Otis Steel
Works. I went to Cleveland myself to start the engine and found that
Mr. Wellman, the general manager, had it running already. Mr. Otis, the
president, was very much pleased with it, and well he might be. This
was the first mill to roll plates from the ingot to the finish without
reheating. These were the kind of diagrams it made. It will be observed
that these were taken at different times and under different pressures.
Unfortunately the right hand one is the only diagram I have from the
crank end of the cylinder. In rolling these heavy plates the changes
were made instantaneously from full load to nothing and from nothing to
full load. The engine made 93 revolutions per minute, and it will be
seen that the changes were made by the governor in a third of a second
or less, the speed not varying sensibly. Mr. Otis said to me: “Oh, Mr.
Porter, what shall I do with you? You cannot imagine the loss I have
suffered from your delay in furnishing this engine.” I said: “Mr. Otis,
you know the terrible time I have had, and that I have done the very
best I could.” “Yes,” he said, “I know all about it.” He had, in fact,
been to Philadelphia and seen for himself. He added: “You make a small
engine suitable for electric lights; what is the price of an engine
maintaining twenty-five arc lights?” I told him $1050. “Well,” said
he, “you strike off the odd fifty and let me have one for a thousand
dollars, and we will call it square,” so I had some sunshine on my way.
I present a portrait of this just man. The engine is now running as
good as new after twenty-five years, and the company five or six years
afterwards put in another 48×66-inch to drive a still larger train.
I had a funny experience at the Cambria Works which has always
seemed to me to have been prophetic. In August, 1881, the Society of
Mechanical Engineers held a meeting in Altoona, and the Pennsylvania
Railroad Company gave us an excursion to Johnstown to visit the works
of the Cambria Company. The anticipations of the members were expressed
by Jackson Bailey, then the editor of the _American Machinist_. As
I was going through a car in which he was seated he called out to
me, “This is your day, Porter.” The party was taken in charge by
Mr. Morrell, the general manager. Our route took us first to their
new blast-furnaces, where considerable time was spent in examining
their new and interesting features. Next we came to my second engine,
started some two months before. The engine was just being slowed down;
we were told there were not yet furnaces enough to keep the train
running continuously, so they were shut down from half an hour to an
hour between heats, and a heat had just been run off. We went next to
see my rail-mill engine, which had raised the output of that mill 150
per cent. That too had been shut down. They had just broken a roll, a
most rare accident and one which I had never before seen or heard of
there. “Well, gentlemen,” said I, “at any rate I can show you my engine
driving a cold saw.” Arrived at the spot, we found that all still, and
were told that sawing cold rails was not a continuous operation, we had
hit upon the noon hour, and the men had gone to their dinner. That was
the end of the show, as far as I was concerned. The Gautier Works were
a mile away and were not included in our visit, so we were entertained
with the great blooming-mill in operation and the casting of the
enormous ingots for it, and after the customary luncheon and speeches
we returned to Altoona.
[Illustration: CHARLES A. OTIS]
One day the superintendent came into the office and told me he had
tried my machine for facing nuts and it would not work. I felt
disappointed, because I had confidence in it. I went out to see what
the matter was, and at a glance I saw that it had been ingeniously
arranged not to work. The feed had been made rapid and the cutting
motion very slow, so that the tools could not take their cuts and the
slow-moving belt ran off the pulleys. I did not reduce the feed-motion,
but increased the speed of the cutters and the belt some eight or
ten-fold, when the trouble vanished. I never knew anything to work
better than that tool did.
[Illustration: Porter-Allen Engine 40″×48″ #207
Dash pot for Governor.]
The burning anxiety of the superintendent was to show up my ignorance.
A first-rate chance to do so soon seemed to present itself. The
counterpoise of the governor of the Otis engine dropped instantly to
its seat when a plate struck the rolls and as instantly rose to the top
of its range of action when it left them. This made a noisy blow which
was disagreeable and might in time cause an accident. Mr. Wellman sent
me a sketch of a device he had thought of for arresting this motion by
air-cushions. I told the superintendent to have that apparatus made
and make the air-cushions four inches in diameter. He said four inches
diameter would not answer; they must be eight inches. “No,” said I,
“four inches diameter is ample; make them four inches.” A few days
after he called me into the shop to try my four-inch air-cushions. I
found the apparatus secured in a vise in a vertical position. I took
hold of the lever and lifted the piston; it met with no resistance
until it struck sharply against the end of the chamber. For a moment
I was stunned by the man’s audacity, and threw the piston up and down
again to make sure it was not a dream. I then turned my back on the
superintendent and called to a boy to find Mr. Fulmer, the foreman
of the second floor, and tell him I wanted him here. In a moment he
appeared, and I said to him: “Mr. Fulmer, I want you to make a new
piston for this apparatus and make it a proper fit; you understand.”
Mr. Fulmer bowed assent. I added: “There will be time to-day to get it
into the sand, and it can be finished early to-morrow. When it is ready
for my inspection come yourself to the office and let me know.” About
the middle of the next forenoon Mr. Fulmer called for me. I went in
and found the piston arrested at each end of its motion by a perfect
air-cushion. “All right,” said I, “see that it is shipped to-day.”
Mr. Fulmer was an excellent mechanic and a man of good general
intelligence; he would have made the piston a proper fit in the first
place if he had not been expressly ordered to make it loose and
useless. The superintendent, on his persistent assumption that I was
a fool, had actually expected me to say when I tried the apparatus:
“Oh, I see, four inches diameter will not do. You will have to make it
eight.”
Some time in 1881 or 1882 I had a queer experience with an engine for
the New York Post Office. It was to take the place of an engine then
running. The engineer of the Post Office informed me that this engine
had a cylinder twelve inches in diameter. I told him it looked to me
from the external dimensions that the diameter must be fourteen inches
and asked him to take off the back head and measure it for me. He wrote
me a few days after that he found that he could not get the back head
off, but I might rely upon it being twelve inches. So I did rely upon
it being fourteen inches, furnished an engine accordingly, and found it
to be the size needed.
[Illustration: DANIEL J. MORRELL]
Some time after the engine was started I received a line from the
Postmaster saying they were much disappointed in it. They expected a
gain in economy, but they were burning more coal than before, also that
the engine pounded badly. I went to New York to see what the matter
was. The engine seemed to be working all right except for the knock, so
I made my way down to the sub-cellar. There was nothing there but the
boilers and the engineer’s desk. On the cellar stairs, after I had shut
the door behind me, I heard a loud sound of escaping steam. The boilers
were under the middle of the building; a four-inch steam-pipe ran from
them a distance of about eighty feet, suspended from the ceiling, to a
point under the engine, then turned up through the floor to the under
side of the steam-chest. The exhaust pipe, of the same size, came
from the engine through the floor and was carried parallel with the
steam-pipe to the middle of the building and upward through the roof.
The two pipes were about eighteen inches apart, and in the vertical
portions under the ceiling they had been connected by a half-inch pipe
having a globe valve in the middle of its length. The valve-stem was
downward and the valve set wide open. The noise I heard was caused by
the steam rushing through this pipe. I computed that about as much
steam was being thus blown away as was used by the engine. My first
impulse was to call upon the Postmaster and tell him what I had found,
but I decided not to bother him. I could not reach the valve to close
it, but discovered a box used for a step to an opening in the wall, so
I brought that out and standing upon it was able to close the valve;
then the noise ceased and I put the box back.
There was no one in the cellar but a boy firing the boilers. I asked
him if he knew who put that pipe there. He knew nothing about it, but
supposed our men put it there when they set up the engine. I hunted
up the engineer and asked him the same question, and got the same
answer. I went to the people who did the engineering work for the Post
Office and who had put in the pipes; they knew nothing about it. I
could find out nothing, but had to content myself with telling the
engineer that I had closed the valve and relied upon him to keep it
closed. I asked him what he thought caused the thump in the engine;
he said he had not the slightest idea, but he would try to cure it.
I contented myself with writing to the Postmaster that I had removed
the cause of the waste of steam and hoped he would now find the engine
satisfactory. Soon after Mr. Merrick was in New York for two or three
days. When he came home he said: “I have cured the thump in that Post
Office engine.” “How did you do it?” I asked. He replied: “I gave the
engineer a twenty-dollar gold piece, and when I went to see it the next
morning the thump was gone.” I should add that when the old engine was
taken down I had the back cylinder head removed, which was done without
difficulty, and found the diameter fourteen inches. “For ways that
are dark and tricks that are vain” this engineer was “peculiar” in my
experience.
I had brought with me from Newark an order from the Willimantic Linen
Company, who were manufacturers of cotton thread, for two engines
for quite an interesting application. They were building a new mill
entirely unique in its design, which has never been repeated, being an
ignorant freak. It was a one-story mill 800 feet long and 250 or 300
feet wide, intended to contain five lines of shafting. Each line was
independent and drove the machinery for all the successive operations
from opening the cotton bales to packing the spools of thread. These
lines of shafting 800 feet long were to be in the basement and to drive
these machines by belts through the floor, the engine to be in the
middle of each line. For this purpose I supplied a pair of condensing
engines, 11 inches diameter of cylinder and 16 inches stroke, making
350 revolutions per minute, with their cranks set at right angles
with each other in the line of shafting. These required no fly-wheel
and would start from any position. I had a great deal of trouble with
this order on account of the delay in its execution, so much so that
before the first engine was finished the order for the second one was
countermanded, and this order was placed with the Hartford Engineering
Company, a new concern which was foolish enough to undertake the same
speed. However, after my first engine was started they found themselves
face to face with an impossibility and had to throw up their contract,
whereupon the president of the company became very civil and asked me
to be kind enough to make the second engine for them, which I was quite
happy to do, as I had on hand the peculiar bed for these engines, which
I did not break up after the order was countermanded, but had it set up
against the wall of the shop in readiness for what might happen. These
two engines were both in successful operation when my own operations
ceased; the remaining three engines were to be added as their business
required.
The engineer of that company was an original investigator. He had a
battery of return-tubular boilers, each one crammed full of tubes
according to the usual methods of boiler-makers. He provided himself
with pieces of lath one inch wide, one eighth of an inch thick, and
four inches long, and laid one in the front end of each tube in one
of his boilers and left them there for twenty-four hours. He had made
a diagram of his boiler on which he numbered every tube and put a
corresponding number on every piece of lath. In taking them out they
presented an astonishing revelation, which he showed me. Some of the
pieces were burned almost to a coal and some were scarcely discolored,
while the great body of them presented various effects of heat between
these extremes. These showed distinctly the enormous differences in
the temperature of the gases passing through the different tubes, and
that fully one half of the tubes did little or no work in evaporating
the water. They taught a lesson which boiler-makers, who count every
additional tube they can get into a boiler as so much added heating
surface and rate their boilers accordingly, have no anxiety to learn,
but which I afterwards turned to good account, as will be seen.
About the last and the most interesting engine that I built
while in Philadelphia was one for the firm of Cheney Brothers,
silk-manufacturers, of South Manchester, Conn. This was a
cross-compound, the first and the last compound engine that I ever
built, and it is the only engine in this country to which I applied
my condenser. The cylinders were 12 and 21 inches in diameter, the
stroke 24 inches, and the shaft made 180 revolutions per minute. The
condenser presented a new design in one respect; the air-pump was
double-acting and made only 45 double strokes per minute, being driven
by a belt from the engine shaft and the motion reduced by gears 1 to
4. This engine ran perfectly from the start, and I looked forward with
confidence to a demand for many more of the same type. The diagrams
made by it are here reproduced.
[Illustration:
Scale, 1″ = 32 Lbs.
Atmosphere
Scale, 1″ = 16 Lbs.
Atmosphere
Diagrams from my First and Only Compound Engine.]
I have a pleasant memory connected with this engine. The silk-mill is
located in a very large park, scattered about which are the residences
of different members of the family. About twelve years after the
engine was built, in company with my wife, I was visiting relatives in
Hartford, from which South Manchester is about twelve miles distant.
One day we were driven over there with our friends to make a social
call. On our arrival I left the party to make a visit to my old engine.
The mill seemed to have been changed very much, and I lost my way.
Finally I recognized, as I thought, the old engine-room and went in.
My engine was not there, but in its place stood another engine, a pair
of tandem compounds of much larger dimensions. These had evidently
just been erected, as they stood idle. “Oh, dear,” said I to myself,
“my engines have been superseded for some reason or other.” While I was
indulging in that reflection the engineer came in. I introduced myself
and said to him: “I see that my old engines have been supplanted.” “Oh,
no,” said he, “your engines are all right; they are running just where
they always have been. They have built a new mill twice as large as the
old one, and your engines have been giving such satisfaction they have
ordered another pair of compounds from the Southwark Foundry, and these
are the engines; they have not been started yet, as the mill is not
ready for them and won’t be for a month.”
He directed me to the old engine-room, where I found my engines gliding
away as though they had been erected yesterday. At that time I regarded
these engines as only a stepping-stone to far higher things. I was
engaged on a plan for a great development of the high speed system,
but which has not materialized. I still consider it as on the whole
superior to the turbine, a superiority, however, which may never be
established.
In the spring of 1881, in our anxiety to revive the manufacture of the
engine, we were foolish enough to send one to the Atlanta exhibition.
We eagerly believed the promises of the agent that we should find all
the machinery that we wanted to drive, and sent an engine finished with
great care, and a skillful man to erect and run it. We also printed the
heading of a lot of diagrams, to be given to visitors. The facts were
found to be that we had nothing to drive but an idle line of shafting
and one Clark’s spool-winder, while the exhaust main was so small and
choked with the exhausts from other engines that we had a back pressure
of ten pounds above the atmosphere; so we could take no diagrams; and
the fact that we did not take any was used as a conclusive argument
against high-speed engines; so the exhibition did us harm instead of
good.
I pass over other distressing experiences at the works, and come at
once to the final catastrophy in the late fall of 1882.
Another exhibition opened in the fall of 1882, for which I made great
preparations, and from which I anticipated important results. This
was the exhibition of the New England Manufacturers’ and Mechanics’
Institute, held in Boston. I obtained an important allotment of space
with plenty of machinery to drive, and, besides a fine engine, sent
a large exhibit of our finished work, in the parts of several sizes
of engines, expecting to attract the attention of all New England
manufacturers. I prepared for a regular campaign. I rented an office
and engaged a young man to represent us in Boston as our agent, and
another, Mr. Edwin F. Williams, to travel and solicit orders and
take the charge of erecting engines. Our engine arrived without a
piston. Mr. Merrick had thought he had found a defect in the piston,
and ordered another one to be made. When we came to put the engine
together in the exhibition, this piston would not enter the cylinder.
On examination it was found to have been turned conical, the bases
of the two cones meeting in the middle, so the middle was one eighth
of an inch larger in diameter than the faces. We had to get a coarse
file and file down the middle of the piston all around until it would
enter the cylinder. Then I had a great disappointment--the greatest I
ever experienced--the engine thumped badly on both centers. The only
way in which we could stop the thumping was by shutting off the steam
until the initial pressure was brought down to the height reached by
the compression of the exhaust. In this plight we had to run through
the exhibition. We could not take a diagram and had to watch the engine
constantly, for whenever the pressure rose ever so little too high in
the cylinder it would begin to thump. I attributed this to the shocking
condition of the surface of the piston. I could not comprehend how this
should cause the thump, but it must be that, for I could conceive of
nothing else that could produce it. This thump made my exhibition a
total failure, and necessitated the abandonment of all my plans.
At the close of the exhibition I went home utterly discouraged. When I
went into the shop the first person I met was the foreman of the lower
floor, where the engine had been built. I told him of the plight in
which I found myself placed and to which I attributed my failure. The
fellow gave me the lie direct, saying with a conceited smirk: “It is
impossible, Mr. Porter, that any such work as you have described can
have gone out of this establishment.” I turned on my heel and left him,
and in less than half a minute I saw at a distance of fifty feet a
22-inch piston being finished for an engine we were building for the
Tremont and Suffolk Mill. The workman had finished turning the piston
and was then cutting the grooves for the rings. The reflection from
the surface showed me the same two cones meeting in the middle. I went
up to the lathe, the back side of which was toward me, and told the
workman to stop his lathe and bring me a straight-edge. This rocked on
the edge in the middle of the piston, opening nearly one eighth of an
inch on each face alternately. I sent a boy to find the foreman and
asked him what he thought of that and left him. I had influence enough
to have both the foreman and the workman discharged that night. Think
of it; superintendent, general foreman, the foreman of the floor, and
workman, altogether, never saw what I detected at a glance from the
opposite side of the shop.
I want to stop here to express my disgust with the American system of
making the tailstock of a lathe adjustable, which enables either an
ignorant, careless or malicious workman to ruin his work after this
fashion. To their credit, English tools have no such feature.
The very next day we received a call from Mr. Bishop, the engineer of
the works of Russell & Irwin at New Britain, Conn., to tell us that
their engine just put in by us had a very bad thump which he was afraid
could not be cured as it was evidently caused by the piston projecting
over the admission ports when at the end of its stroke. “Impossible,”
I exclaimed; “I never made such an engine in my life.” I should here
state that in experimenting with the first little engine that I made
before I went to England, I at first made the piston project over the
port one quarter of an inch, and the engine thumped. I satisfied myself
that this was caused by the impact of the entering steam against the
projecting surface of the piston, driving it against the opposite side
of the cylinder; this was aggravated in high-speed engines. In this
case the engine made 160 revolutions per minute and the steam was
admitted through four simultaneous openings, so it entered the cylinder
with great velocity. I turned a quarter of an inch off from each face
of the piston, and the thump disappeared. I then made it a law from
which I never varied, that the piston should come to the admission
port and not project over it at all, and this feature was shown in
every drawing.
Mr. Bishop replied to me: “It does project, Mr. Porter; it projects
seven eighths of an inch over the port at each end of its stroke, for
I have measured it.” I rushed up to the drawing-office and called for
the horizontal sectional drawing of that cylinder, and there I saw the
piston not only drawn, but figured--projecting seven eighths of an inch
over the port. I felt as though I were sinking through the floor. That
was what had ruined my Boston exhibition and sent me home disgraced and
broken-hearted and the badly fitting piston, shameful as that was, had
nothing to do with it. The first question that occurred to me was: “How
came this drawing to exist and I to know nothing about it?” The answer
to this question was simple.
When the first pair of Willimantic engines was started I was
disappointed in their economy, and made up my mind that the excessive
waste room was accountable for it. The proportion of cross-section
area to the stroke being fifty per cent. greater than in my table of
sizes increased in the same degree the proportion of waste room to the
piston displacement. I felt that there was need here for improvement.
By far the greatest amount of waste room was in the exhaust ports. I
accepted a modification of the exhaust valves by which this item of the
waste room was reduced fully one half and made a new pair of cylinders
for this engine. The improvement in the economy was so marked that I
determined to change the exhaust valves of all the engines. Only the
exhaust valves and ports needed to be changed. These were drawn anew in
pencil and carefully studied and approved of by me. It was necessary
that the entire combined cylinder drawing should be retraced, but this,
except only the exhaust ports and valves, was to be copied over the
existing tracings. This did not require my attention, and I gave no
thought to it. Here was the superintendent’s opportunity. In copying
these tracings he had only to move the straight line representing
each face of the piston on the longitudinal section of the cylinder
seven eighths of an inch, thus adding this amount to the piston at
each end, and shorten the cylinder heads to correspond, and the job
was done; and there did not exist among the large number of persons in
the drawing-office and shop who must have been aware of this change,
loyalty enough to let me know anything about it.
We had also recently finished two engines for the Cocheco Mill at
Dover, N. H., and about this time we received a letter from the
superintendent of that mill expressing his admiration of the engines in
every other respect, but complaining of a bad thump in the cylinders.
He said he would be glad to invite the superintendents of other mills
to see them, but he could not show the engines to anybody until that
thump was cured.
I went directly to the president and demanded authority to change the
pistons and heads of these engines. To my astonishment he refused
point-blank, saying he had spent money enough on these alterations, and
he would not spend another cent. I replied to him that there was one
other alternative and that was to abandon the business, to which he
made no reply. But why did I need to go to the president; why not make
these changes myself? The answer to this question is very humiliating
to me. An account had been made up of the cost of the alterations here
described and presented to the board of directors, showing this to
amount to $20,000. I was aghast at this statement; I had never seen
a figure pertaining to the business, except the single bill already
mentioned. I told the directors that any good pattern-maker would have
taken the contract to alter those exhaust valves and ports on our
twenty sizes of cylinders for an average price of fifty dollars each,
and made a profit of fifty per cent. in doing it. The cost of the new
drawings and the price of cylinders for the Willimantic engine could
not more than double this sum, and by some hocus-pocus this $2000
had been changed to $20,000; probably by transfer from other losing
accounts. The president replied that was the cost of the alterations
as it appeared on the books, and the directors, without making any
investigation, adopted a resolution that no further alterations should
be made unless expressly ordered by the president.
I did not believe that in making this addition to the length of the
piston the superintendent had any intention to wreck the business. He
could have had no idea of its fatal nature; his only thought was to
make a considerable further reduction of waste room and gratify his
itching to change my drawings. But of course doing this without my
knowledge was criminal, and should have caused his instant discharge;
but his whole conduct from the beginning had been the same and the
president had sustained him. I had no opportunity to pursue this matter
further.
On receiving the president’s refusal I determined to appeal to the
directors, but first I thought I would lay the matter before Mr. Henry
Lewis, whom I regarded as the most open-minded of all. What was my
amazement when, after listening to my statement, he replied: “We shall
sustain the president, Mr. Porter.” Then I knew the end had come. It
was idle for me to butt against the Philadelphia phalanx. A day or two
after a committee of the directors headed by Mr. Shortridge, called at
the office and asked to see our order book. This showed that in more
than a month preceding we had not received a single order. On this
state of affairs it was evident to the directors that a change must be
made in the management. I had long realized that the great gulf that
I had dug between the stockholders and myself, as already described,
had never been filled. Neither the directors as a body, except on the
single occasion already mentioned, nor any director individually, had
ever conferred with me on any subject whatever. They knew nothing,
except what they might have learned from the president; he had no
mechanical knowledge or ability to form a mechanical judgment,
and the superintendent influenced him in a degree which to me was
unaccountable. His want of comprehension of the business was shown in
his answer to the life-or-death question which I had presented to him.
The next day I received a communication from the directors requesting
me to send in my resignation, which I promptly did. Mr. Merrick was
also requested to resign. This was evidently a put up job, to let
me down easy. Mr. Merrick had for some time expressed a wish to be
relieved from his position which he found very uncomfortable.
The directors elected as president one of their own number, who had
nothing else to do, to sit in the president’s chair and draw his
salary, and committed the practical management of the business to an
oily-tongued man who had never seen a high-speed engine, and whose
qualifications for the position were that he was a friend of one of the
directors and was a Philadelphian, and who I learned received a large
bonus for leaving his own business and accepting the position vacated
by me.
[Illustration: BENJAMIN F. AVERY]
CHAPTER XXVII
My Last Connection with the Company.
I will close this account of my engineering experience by relating two
incidents.
Among the orders which I brought from Newark was one from the firm of
B. F. Avery & Sons, plow-manufacturers, of Louisville, Ky., the head of
which had first established the manufacture of plows in the Southern
States. Mr. George Avery, one of the sons, had come to me and asked
for a list of the engines I had running, and took the pains to visit a
number of them, also those of other prominent builders, and as a result
of this extended comparison he brought me his order for an 18×30-inch
engine, with strong expressions of the manifest superiority of the
high-speed engine. This engine was about the first one I finished
in the Southwark Foundry. By great carelessness it was permitted to
go out without the crank-pin being hardened and ground, which was
contrary to my invariable practice. The man who erected the engine
left the crank-pin boxes too loose, and young Mr. Avery, who was quite
an amateur mechanic, undertook to tighten them up; he succeeded in
heating the pin and causing it to be badly torn. He made the best job
of it that he could with a file, and the engine ran in that crippled
condition.
Soon after I left Philadelphia, they concluded they ought to have a
hardened crank-pin and wrote to the Southwark Foundry respecting it.
They received a reply that it would be necessary to take the shaft
out and send it to Philadelphia, and their works would need to be
interrupted about three weeks. The firm then wrote to me in New York
asking me to come to Louisville and examine the engine and advise them
what to do, which invitation I accepted. The letter to the Southwark
Foundry had been written by their manager, and in it he stated that the
engine pounded so badly that it could be heard two blocks away, it was
so wasteful it was almost impossible to keep up steam for it, and that
they lived in such dread of its breaking down that their hair was all
turning white. I felt that this letter, after making full allowance
for its obvious exaggerations, reflected pretty badly, not only on
the engine, but also on the boilers. These were two return-tubular
boilers which I had designed myself. I had reflected a good deal on
the observation shown to me by the engineer at Willimantic, and had
felt that tubular boilers needed a better vertical circulation. This
was limited by the small space left for the descending currents, the
sides being filled with tubes almost touching the shell. So I allowed a
space five inches wide between the shell of the boiler on the sides and
bottom and the nearest tubes, as it was evident to me that the water,
filled with bubbles of steam, would rush up among the tubes fast enough
if the comparatively solid water at the sides could only get down. I
also left off the upper row of tubes to allow more space above them
for the steam, and from this arrangement I anticipated very superior
results.
On my arrival in Louisville I thought, before presenting myself at
the office, I would go into the works, which was open to everybody,
and see what the state of affairs really was. I was directed to the
boiler-house, on entering which I saw that one of the boilers was idle.
My first thought was that it had been disabled by some accident, and
their being limited to one boiler accounted for the difficulty they
experienced in supplying the engine with steam. I asked the fireman,
who I found sitting in a chair, what had happened to put this boiler
out of commission. He said, “Nothing at all. They used both boilers at
first, but after a while they thought they did not need both, so they
shut one down, and it has been shut down ever since.” “Well,” said
I, “you must have to fire pretty strong to make one boiler answer.”
“No,” said he, “I have been firing boilers over twelve years and this
is the easiest job I have ever had.” He then showed me his thin fire
and damper two thirds closed. So in two minutes I was relieved from a
load of anxiety about both boiler and engine, for I had before me the
evidence of their phenomenal economy, and I gave the manager credit for
one good square lie. I then asked him the way to the engine-room; he
told me, “Right through that door.” I listened for the pound that could
be heard two blocks away and heard a faint sound. On opening the door,
which was opposite the crank, it was more distinct. There was no one in
the engine-room, but while I was looking the engine over the engineer
came in. I introduced myself and asked how the engine was doing. He
said, “Very well, all but that little knock in the crank-pin.” I asked
him if he had any trouble with it. He said, “None at all.” “No worry or
anxiety?” “Never thought of such a thing,” he said.
A number of years after I met in New York a young gentleman, Mr.
Benjamin Capwell, now of the firm of Kenyon, Hoag & Capwell, 817
Broadway, New York, who had been in the office of B. F. Avery & Sons at
that time. I told him this story. He said he was not at all surprised;
the boys in the office heard this manager every day dictating letters
just as full of falsehoods as this one. I learned afterward that he
held his position through a cabal in the company, and that soon after I
was there the president succeeded in getting rid of him.
I was now ready to call on the president, Mr. Samuel Avery. He told
me they would like very much to have a hardened crank-pin put in the
engine, but of course they could not afford to interrupt their work
seriously for that purpose. I replied there would be no difficulty
about that. The present pin might be pressed out and a new one inserted
in a few hours; all our work being made to gauge, the new pin would be
sure to fit. I told him he might safely send an order to the Southwark
Foundry to make the new pin, if they would agree to put the work into
the hands of Mr. Williams, who was then in their employ, who should
direct the manufacture of the pin without any interference, and himself
go to Louisville and do the job. The Southwark Foundry agreed to these
conditions, and the work was soon done.
While engaged on this proof I wrote to Mr. Williams for an account
of setting this pin, and received from him the following interesting
letter.
It will be seen that he took the safer but far more laborious method,
as no one then in the works could assure him about the crank having
been bored to gauge.
It reads to me as if he found himself obliged to enlarge the hole just
that one thirty-second of an inch.
The method of verifying the alignment of the pin with the shaft by
means of a ground bubble level was originated by me in Newark; where I
found also that the pin could be thrown by riveting.
42 Broadway, N. Y., Oct. 21, 1907.
CHAS. T. PORTER, Montclair, N. J.
_My Dear Mr. Porter_: In reply to your request of 14th addressed Cold
Springs, I am pleased to give you such account of the crank pin work
at B. F. Avery & Sons, at Louisville, in 1883, as my memory will
admit of.
When I was instructed to do this work I received a letter from you
stating that a new crank pin was to be put in and that it should be
“hardened in a furnace,” allowing it to remain in a crucible with the
carbon at a lowered heat for ten hours.
This was done and resulted in a fine job of hardening. The pin was
then ground true and smooth. Don’t think I ever saw a prettier job.
The old pin had to be taken out and the new one put in. The exact
diameter of the old shank was not definitely known. It was thought
advisable therefore, to make the new shank about ¹⁄₃₂″ larger than
the drawing dimension; so it would surely be large enough to admit
of drawing the hole which I proposed to do by hand. Before leaving
the works I had a hollow cast iron cylinder or trial plug made, about
twice the depth of the crank pin hole in length, about ¹⁄₁₀₀″ smaller
than the shank of the new pin and slightly tapered at one end.
We cut the bead off the old pin and tried a hydraulic jack on it, but
it would not start. We then drilled five or six 1″ holes in the shank
and the pin came out easily. The hole was then calipered and found
to require considerable dressing. The crank shaft was then tried for
level and found by turning in various positions and by using a very
sensitive level, to deflect from the horizontal approximately ¹⁄₂ of
1000th of an inch per foot in length.
The hole was then enlarged by use of file and scraper, its adjustment
being proven as the work progressed by frequent trials of level
placed within the hole, at various points in the revolution of the
shaft. Finally, the trial plug was worked into the hole and used as
a surface plate, the “high” spots being scraped down and the plug
found to line with the shaft and the hole by caliper, found to be
approximately ³⁄₁₀₀₀″ smaller than the shank of the pin. The pin was
then forced in and found to stand nearly true. The small untruth
was easily corrected in riveting up the back and the pin was thrown
approximately ²⁄₁₀₀₀″ away from the center line of shaft rotation to
offset the deflection that would be occasioned when running by the
impact of the steam admission on centers.
I think it quite likely that the pin during the twenty-four years’
service up to the present date has worn scarcely a measurable amount.
Very truly,
E. F. WILLIAMS.
P. S. I saw the engine about 15 years ago and it was running very
smoothly.
Some time after I had left, the company found that they needed a
descriptive and illustrated catalogue of the engine, and they had no
one to write it; so they came to me, and in my office in New York I
prepared one for them, for which they gave me the credit by printing
on the title-page and cover the line, “By Charles T. Porter.” I took
the same pains with this that I should have done had I owned the whole
place.
The following letter, referring to an engine made by me in Newark, was
sent by the addressee to the Southwark Foundry with an order while I
was engaged on their catalogue. They made a blue-print of it and sent
it to me for insertion.
YOUNGSTOWN, O., Dec. 21st, 1882
MR. F. L. WATERS--
_Mankato Minn._
_Dear Sir_--
_Your favor recd, making enquiry how we like the Porter Allen Engine:
would say, we have now run it four years, it has never failed one
minute or cost one cent for repairs nor varied a revolution from its
speed, are using it now non-condensing but think of using a condenser
before long. As we use it in connection with our water power, which
is variable, sometimes too high and sometimes too low, making up
the deficiency with the Engine, be it all or little, we do not know
just how much coal we require for a Barrel in case we had no water,
this much I think I know. That it is the finest Engine made, Simple,
durable, and Economical, and always ready for effective duty._
_We run a Buckeye in the Diamond Mill and a good Engine at our mine,
but the Porter-Allen is my favorite by all odds, ours is 13×24, 160
Revolutions (never more nor less). They are now designed to run 200
Rev. for that size._
_If neatness effectiveness durability and Economy & Steadiness is any
object to you, you will always be glad you bought a Porter-Allen, or
I am vastly mistaken._
_I know that has been my experience. We now run constantly day &
night the year round (Sundays excepted)._
_Respectfully Yours_
HOMER BALDWIN
With the preparation of this catalogue my part in the development and
introduction of the high-speed engine seems to have ended.
CHAPTER XXVIII
The Fall and Rise of the Southwark Foundry and Machine Company. Popular
Appreciation of the High-speed Engine.
The reader may be amused by some examples which came to my knowledge
of the achievements of the new management. The expensive new vice
president was of course a mere figurehead, as he knew nothing of
the engine or the business or my system of work, so Mr. Merrick’s
superintendent had a free hand.
He adhered to his long pistons, and obtained silent running by an
enormous compression of the exhaust steam, commencing soon after the
middle of the return stroke and rising to initial. This involved a
corresponding premature release of the steam during the expansion.
Between the two, about one-third of the power of the engine was
sacrificed, and they were in continual trouble from the failure of the
engines to give their guaranteed power.
I had always advocated giving our attention as much as possible to
large engines, where all the profit lay. My views had so much weight
that, unknown to me, Mr. Merrick and his superintendent were, before I
left, planning a smaller engine, to be called the “Southwark Engine,”
intended to drive isolated incandescent lighting plants. As soon as
I had been gotten rid of the manufacture of this engine proceeded
actively. It was largely exhibited and advertised, much to the neglect
of anything else. This was pursued persistently until over twenty
thousand dollars had been sunk in it, when it was abandoned.
They had an order from the Pennsylvania Steel Company for an engine to
drive a rolling mill which they were about to establish at Sparrow’s
Point on the Chesapeake Bay below Baltimore, for the manufacture of
steel rails from Cuban ores, which were found to be especially adapted
to the Bessemer process, and where the then new method of rolling was
to be employed, the method by which rails are rolled direct from the
ingot without reheating, which is now in universal use. This engine
was to be much larger than any previously made, and so requiring new
drawings. In making the cylinder drawings the draftsman omitted the
internal ribs, which are necessary to connect and stiffen the walls
of the square steam chest. The consequence of this almost incredible
oversight soon appeared. The engine had been running but a few days
when the steam chest blew up.
The Porter-Allen valve-gear required in its joints eleven hardened
steel bushings, which had to be finished inside and out. These we had
always made from cast steel bars. This process was extremely wasteful
of both material and time. Shortly before I left I had ascertained
experimentally that I could import from England solid drawn steel
tubing of any size and thickness, sufficiently high in carbon to
harden perfectly well. The new management undertook to carry out my
plans. For this purpose a list was prepared of all sizes that would be
required, with the finished dimensions external and internal. From this
another list was prepared, giving the additional material required for
finishing. A large lot of the tubing was ordered. When it arrived they
discovered they had sent the wrong list, the tubes were too thin to be
finished and were useless for any purpose.
They had an opportunity to estimate for a pair of very large blowing
engines. They got out their estimate for one engine, forgot to multiply
the amount by two, and were astonished the morning after they had sent
in their tender to receive the acceptance of it by telegraph.
[Illustration: JAMES C. BROOKS]
Performances of this kind were expensive. When their capital was all
gone, they borrowed five hundred thousand dollars on their bonds,
secured by a blanket mortgage. This did not last a great while. Only
five or six years after I left the affairs of the company reached a
crisis. They had no money to carry on the business, and no business
worth mentioning to carry on, and they owed a floating debt of one
hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars. In this emergency the
directors invited Mr. James C. Brooks to take the presidency of the
company. Mr. Brooks was then a member of the firm of William Sellers
and Company. He was already well acquainted with the high character
of the engine. He found the works well equipped with tools, nothing
wanting but brains. He felt encouraged to make this proposition to the
directors, that if they would raise two hundred and fifty thousand
dollars by an issue of preferred stock, to pay off the floating debt
and give him seventy-five thousand dollars to start with, he would take
hold and see what he could do. This proposition was accepted and Mr.
Brooks took hold; and by a rare combination of engineering skill and
business ability and force of character, having no one to interfere
with him, he soon set the business on its feet, and started it on a
career of magnificent development, which under his management, has
continued for nearly twenty years to the present time.
Of all this, however I was ignorant. I was so situated as not to have
any knowledge of the company. I only observed that their advertisements
had long ago disappeared from the engineering journals. In the fall
of 1905, being in Philadelphia on a social visit, in the course of
conversation I asked my host “Is the Southwark Foundry still running?”
With a look of amazement he exclaimed, “Running! I should say it was
running and is doing a tremendous business.” “Is Mr. Brooks still at
the head of it” I asked. “Yes,” he replied, “you will find him at his
old post, and no doubt he will be glad to see you.”
The next day I called, and was most cordially received by Mr. Brooks.
He said he discontinued advertising a number of years ago, “because
the business was not of a nature to be benefited by advertising, it
rested entirely upon its reputation.” “Our correspondence,” he added,
“is enormous, employing six typewriters.” He took me to the erecting
floor of the shop. I was filled with amazement and delight at the
sight which met my eyes. This floor, which had been greatly enlarged,
was crowded with large engines in process of completion, most of them
larger and some a great deal larger, than the largest I had built. I
confess to a feeling bordering on ecstasy, heightened of course by the
suddenness of the relevation, when I realized the commanding height
to which the Porter-Allen Engine had been raised by this remarkable
man. Mr. Brooks offered to take me through the shops; this however I
declined, not being willing to trespass further on his time. He showed
me the old shop engine which I had not seen for twenty-three years.
Everything looked familiar except its speed. He said to me, “we have
never done anything to this engine, except to increase its speed from
230 revolutions to 300 revolutions per minute, to supply the additional
power required by the growth of the business.” Respecting their system,
he mentioned only one feature, which he evidently regarded as of
special importance, and which he seemed to suppose would be new to me.
It was this: “We make a separate drawing of every piece.”
Under date of Oct. 31, 1907, Mr. Brooks writes me, “the business now
employs ten typewriters, and the engine which was started in 1881, and
which has run at 300 revolutions per minute for the last seven years,
has now been compelled by their increased requirements to give place to
a compound condensing engine of more than twice its power.”
* * * * *
Three or four years ago I was spending a few days at the Mohonk Lake
Mountain House, Mr. Albert K. Smiley’s famous summer resort, and one
day strolled into the power house, where were three dynamos, each
driven by a Ball & Wood engine, the latter making, I think, something
over 200 revolutions per minute.
I fell into conversation with the engineer, rather an old man and
quite communicative. He told me he had been in Mr. Smiley’s employ
for seventeen years, and was voluble in his praises; said he was a
wonderful man, repeating “wonderful” with emphasis, but he added “he
don’t know nothin about machinery, nothin, no more’n you do.” My
attention was attracted by the dynamos, which were new to me and the
framing of which I thought presented a remarkably well studied design.
I mentioned this to the old man, who replied impatiently: “O, that
aint nothin, the engine is the wonder, that’s the wonder; why, when
I was a young man we did not suppose an engine _could_ be run more’n
about fifty or sixty turns a minute, nobody never thought o’ such a
thing; now we can run ’em any speed we like, no poundin, no shakin, no
heatin, it’s just wonderful.” I did not respond or show any interest,
and the old man did not waste any more enthusiasm on me. Did not say a
word when I left directly after, but I fancied him saying to himself:
“Another o’ them stuck ups, that don’t know nothin’.”
Transcriber’s Notes
The text of this document follows that of the source; inconsistent
spelling and hyphenation have been retained, except as mentioned
below.
Depending on the hard- and software used to read this text, and on
their settings, not all elements may display as intended. The scales
as provided in the indicator diagrams are, of course, not necessarily
correct.
Page 93: ... H laid on its side, thus ⌶: the symbol is used to
represent the shape of the rotated letter H, not an I or an I-beam.
Page 137, bill for American belt: there are some errors in the
calculations, these have not been corrected.
Page 147, paragraph starting The day after the opening ...: the
single and double quote marks do not match.
Page 155, ... exposition of the action of the reciprocating parts was
given Mr. Edwin Reynolds ...: should possibly read ... exposition of
the action of the reciprocating parts was given by Mr. Edwin Reynolds
....
Page 202, ... half the distance to the mid-stroke or to _E_, Fig. 32,
...: presumably this refers to the figure on page 201; there is no
figure 32 in the book.
Page 217, If I went, that I would be the end of the business: the
second I should probably be deleted.
Page 293: Presumably the references in the text to Figure 1 and
Figure 2 are to the top and bottom illustration respectively; the
source document does not provide figure numbers.
Page 328-330: The use of quote marks in these letters differs from
that in other correspondence; this has not been standardised.
Changes made
Illustrations and tables were moved out of text paragraphs.
Some obvious minor typographical and punctuation errors have been
corrected silently.
Dimensions m×n and m × n have been standardised to m×n,
multiplications x×y and x × y to x × y; cross-head and crosshead were
standardised to cross-head.
Page xii: illustration numbers have been added; Diagrams from English
Locomotive ... has been changed to Diagrams from English Locomotives
... as in the illustration caption.
Page 40: a closing single quote mark was inserted after ... do not
require any governor,
Page 79: pièce de resistance changed to pièce de résistance.
Page 91, illustration caption: English Locomtlvoes changed to English
Locomotives.
Page 175: ... told me had had supplied all the money ... changed to
... told me he had supplied all the money ....
Page 287: ... this they had been keen kept in ignorance of ...
changed to ... this they had been kept in ignorance of ....
Page 294: b′ and c′ in the text changed to b¹ and c¹ as in the
illustration.
Page 303: ... to very the speed ... changed to ... to vary the speed
....
Page 331: ... before I left planning a smaller engine ... changed to
... before I left, planning a smaller engine ....
Page 333: closing quote mark inserted after ... employing six
typewriters.
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