A Catechism of the Steam Engine Part 17

319. _Q._--Will you explain by what process of computation these proportions are arrived at?

_A._--The size of the steam pipe is so regulated that there will be no material disparity of pressure between the cylinder and boiler; and in fixing the size of the eduction pa.s.sage the same object is kept in view.

When the diameter of the cylinder and the velocity with which the piston travels are known, it is easy to tell what the velocity of the steam in the steam pipe will be; for if the area of the cylinder be 25 times greater than that of the steam pipe, the steam in the steam pipe must travel 25 times faster than the piston, and the difference of pressure requisite to produce this velocity of the steam can easily be ascertained, by finding what height a column of steam must be to give that velocity, and what the weight or pressure is of such a column. In practice, however, this proportion is always exceeded from the condensation of steam in the pipe.

320. _Q._--If the relation you have mentioned subsist between the area of the steam pa.s.sages and the velocity of the piston, then the pa.s.sages must be larger when the piston travels very rapidly?

_A._--And they are so made. The area of the ports of locomotive engines is usually so proportioned as to be from 1/10th to 1/8th the area of the cylinder--in some cases even as much as 1/6th; and in all high speed engines the ports should be very large, and the valve should have a good deal of travel so as to open the port very quickly. The area of port which it appears advisable to give to modern engines of every description, is expressed by the following rule:--multiply the area of the cylinder in square inches by the speed of the piston in feet per minute, and divide the product by 4,000; the quotient is the area of each cylinder port in square inches. This rule gives rather more than a square inch of port per nominal horse power to condensing engines working at the ordinary speed; but the excess is but small, and is upon the right side. For engines travelling very fast it gives a good deal more area than the common proportion, which is too small in nearly every case. In locomotive engines the eduction pipe pa.s.ses into the chimney and the force of the issuing steam has the effect of maintaining a rapid draught through the furnace as before explained. The orifice of the waste steam pipe, or the blast pipe as it is termed, is much contracted in some engines with the view of producing a fiercer draught, and an area of 1/22d of the cylinder is a common proportion; but this is as much contraction as should be allowed, and is greater than is advisable.

321. _Q._--In engines moving at a high rate of speed, you have stated that it is important to give the valve lead, or in other words to allow the steam to escape before the end of the stroke?

_A._--Yes, this is very important, else the piston will have to force out the steam from the cylinder, and will be much resisted. Near the end of the stroke the piston begins to travel slowly, and if the steam be then permitted to escape, very little of the effective stroke is lost, and time is afforded to the steam, before the motion of the piston is again accelerated, to make its escape by the port. In some locomotives, from inattention to this adjustment, and from a contracted area of tube section, which involved a strong blast, about half the power of the engine has been lost; but in more recent engines, by using enlarged ports and by giving sufficient lead, this loss has been greatly diminished.

322. _Q._--What do you call sufficient lead?

_A._--In fast going engines I would call it sufficient lead, when the eduction port was nearly open at the end of the stroke.

323. _Q._--Can you give any example of the benefit of increasing the lead?

_A._--The early locomotives were made with very little lead, and the proportions were in fact very much the same as those previously existing in land engines. About 1832, the benefits of lap upon the valve, which had been employed by Boulton and Watt more than twenty years before, were beginning to be pretty generally apprehended; and, in the following year, this expedient of economy was applied to the steamer Manchester, in the Clyde, and to some other vessels, with very marked success. Shortly after this time, lap began to be applied to the valves of locomotives, and it was found that not only was there a benefit from the operation of expansion, but that there was a still greater benefit from the superior facility of escape given to the steam, inasmuch as the application of lap involved the necessity of turning the eccentric round upon the shaft, which caused the eduction to take place before the end of the stroke. In 1840, one of the engines of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway was altered so as to have 1 inch lap on the valve, and 1 inch opening on the eduction side at the end of the stroke, the valve having a total travel of 4-1/4 inches. The consumption of fuel per mile fell from 36.3 lbs. to 28.6 lbs, or about 25 per cent., and a softer blast sufficed. By using larger exhaust pa.s.sages, larger tubes, and closer fire bars, the consumption was subsequently brought down to 15 lbs. per mile.

AIR PUMP, CONDENSER, AND HOT AND COLD WATER PUMPS.

324. _Q._--Will you state the proper dimensions of the air pump and condenser in laud and marine engines?

_A_--Mr. Watt made the air pump of his engine half the diameter of the cylinder and half the stroke, or one eighth of the capacity, and the condenser was usually made about the same size as the air pump; but as the pressure of the steam has been increased in all modern engines, it is better to make the air pump a little larger than this proportion. 0.6 of the diameter of the cylinder and half the stroke answers very well, and the condenser may be made as large as it can be got with convenience, though the same size as the air pump will suffice.

325. _Q._--Are air pumps now sometimes made double acting?

_A._--Most of the recent direct acting marine engines for driving the screw are fitted with a double acting air pump, and when the air pump is double acting, it need only be about half the size that is necessary when it is single acting. It is single acting in nearly every case, except the case of direct acting screw engines of recent construction.

326. _Q._--What is the difference between a single and a double acting air pump?

_A._--The single acting air pump expels the air and water from the condenser only in the upward stroke of the pump, whereas a double acting air pump expels the air and water both in the upward and downward stroke.

It has, therefore, to be provided with inlet and outlet valves at both ends, whereas the single acting pump has only to be provided with an inlet or foot valve, as it is termed, at the bottom, and with an outlet or delivery valve, as it is termed, at the top. The single acting air pump requires to be provided with a valve or valves in the piston or bucket of the pump, to enable the air and water lying below the bucket when it begins to descend, and which have entered from the condenser during the upward stroke, to pa.s.s through the bucket into the s.p.a.ce above it during the downward stroke, from whence they are expelled into the atmosphere on the upward stroke succeeding. But in the double acting air pump no valve is required in the piston or bucket of the pump, and all that is necessary is an inlet and outlet valve at each end.

337. _Q_--What are the dimensions of the foot and discharge valves of the air pump?

_A._--The area through the foot and discharge valves is usually made equal to one fourth of the area of the air pump, and the diameter of the waste water pipe is made one fourth of the diameter of the cylinder, which gives an area somewhat less than that of the foot and discharge valve pa.s.sages.

But this proportion only applies in slow engines. In fast engines, with the air pump bucket moving as fast as the piston, the area through the foot and discharge valves should be equal to the area of the pump itself, and the waste water pipe should be of about the same dimensions.

328. _Q._--You have stated that double acting air pumps need only be of half the size of single acting ones. Does that relation hold at all speeds?

_A._--It holds at all speeds if the velocity of the pump buckets are in each case the same; but it does not hold if the engine with the single acting pump works slowly, and the engine with the double acting pump moves rapidly, as in the case of direct acting screw engines. All pumps moving at a high rate of speed lose part of their efficiency, and such pumps should therefore be of extra size.

329. _Q._--How do you estimate the quant.i.ty of water requisite for condensation?

_A._--Mr. Watt found that the most beneficial temperature of the hot well of his engines was 100 degrees. If, therefore, the temperature of the steam be 212, and the latent heat 1,000, then 1,212 may be taken to represent the heat contained in the steam, or 1,112 if we deduct the temperature of the hot well. If the temperature of the injection water be 50, then 50 degrees of cold are available for the abstraction of heat; and as the total quant.i.ty of heat to be abstracted is that requisite to raise the quant.i.ty of water in the steam 1,112 degrees, or 1,112 times that quant.i.ty one degree, it would raise one fiftieth of this, or 22.24 times the quant.i.ty of water in the steam, 50 degrees. A cubic inch of water therefore raised into steam will require 22.24 cubic inches of water at 50 degrees for its condensation, and will form therewith 23.24 cubic inches of hot water at 100 degrees. Mr. Watt's practice was to allow about a wine pint (28.9 cubic inches) of injection water, for every cubic inch of water evaporated from the boiler.

330. _Q._--Is not a good vacuum in an engine conducive to increased power?

_A._--It is.

331. _Q._--And is not the vacuum good in the proportion in which the temperature is low, supposing there to be no air leaks?

_A._--Yes.

332. _Q._--Then how could Mr. Watt find a temperature of 100 in the water drawn from the condenser, to be more beneficial than a temperature of 70 or 80, supposing there to be an abundant supply of cold water?

333. _A._--Because the superior vacuum due to a temperature of 70 or 80 involves the admission of so much cold water into the condenser, which has afterward to be pumped out in opposition to the pressure of the atmosphere, that the gain in the vacuum does not equal the loss of power occasioned by the additional load upon the pump, and there is therefore a clear loss by the reduction of the temperature below 100, if such reduction be caused by the admission of an additional quant.i.ty of water. If the reduction of temperature, however, be caused by the use of colder water, there is a gain produced by it, though the gain will within certain limits be greater if advantage be taken of the lowness of the temperature to diminish the quant.i.ty of injection.

334. _Q._--How do you determine the proper area of the injection orifice?

_A._--The area of the injection orifice proper for any engine can easily be told when the quant.i.ty of water requisite to condense the steam is known, and the pressure is specified under which the water enters the condenser.

The vacuum in the condenser may be taken at 26 inches of mercury, which is equivalent to a column of water 29.4 ft. high, and the square root of 29.4 multiplied by 8.021 is 43.15, which is the velocity in feet per second that a heavy body would acquire in falling 29.4 ft., or with which the water would enter the condenser. Now, if a cubic foot of water evaporated per hour be equivalent to an actual horse power, and 28.9 cubic inches of water be requisite for the condensation of a cubic inch of water in the form of steam, 28.9 cubic feet of condensing water per horse power per hour, or 13.905 cubic inches per second, will be necessary for the engine, and the size of the injection orifice must be such that this quant.i.ty of water flowing with the velocity of 43.15 ft. per second, or 517.8 inches per second, will gain admission to the condenser. Dividing, therefore, 13.905, the number of cubic inches to be injected, by 517.8, the velocity of influx in inches per second, we get 0.02685 for the area of the orifice in square inches; but inasmuch as it has been found by experiment that the actual discharge of water through a hole in a thin plate is only six tenths of the theoretical discharge on account of the contracted vein, the area of the orifice must be increased in the proportion of such diminution of effect, or be made 0.04475, or 1/22d of a square inch per horse power. This, it will be remarked, is the theoretical area required per actual horse power; but as the friction and contractions in the pipe further reduce the discharge, the area is made 1/15th of a square inch per actual horse power, or rather per cubic foot of water evaporated from the boiler.

335. _Q._--Cannot the condensation of the steam be accomplished by any other means than by the admission of cold water into the condenser?

_A._--It may be accomplished by the method of external cold, as it is called, which consists in the application of a large number of thin metallic surfaces to the condenser, on the one side of which the steam circulates, while on the other side there is a constant current of cold water, and the steam is condensed by coming into contact with the cold surfaces, without mingling with the water used for the purpose of refrigeration. The first kind of condenser employed by Mr. Watt was constructed after this fashion, but he found it in practice to be inconvenient from its size, and to become furred up or incrusted when the water was bad, whereby the conducting power of the metal was impaired. He therefore reverted to the use of the jet of cold water, as being upon the whole preferable. The jet entered the condenser instead of the cylinder as was the previous practice, and this method is now the one in common use.

Some few years ago, a good number of steam vessels were fitted with Hall's condensers, which operated on the principle of external cold, and which consisted of a f.a.ggot of small copper tubes surrounded by water; but the use of those condensers has not been persisted in, and most of the vessels fitted with them have returned to the ordinary plan.

336. _Q._--You stated that the capacity of the feed pump was 1/240th of the capacity of the cylinder in the case of condensing engines,--the engine being double acting and the pump single acting,--and that in high pressure engines the capacity of the pump should be greater in proportion to the pressure of the steam. Can you give any rule that will express the proper capacity for the feed pump at all pressures?

_A._--That will not be difficult. In low pressure engines the pressure in the boiler may be taken at 5 lbs. above the atmospheric pressure, or 20 lbs. altogether; and as high pressure steam is merely low pressure steam compressed into a smaller compa.s.s, the size of the feed pump in relation to the size of the cylinder must obviously vary in the direct proportion of the pressure; and if it be 1/240th of the capacity of the cylinder when the total pressure of the steam is 20 lbs., it must be 1/120th of the capacity of the cylinder when the pressure is 40 lbs. per square inch, or 25 lbs.

per square inch above the atmospheric pressure. This law of variation is expressed by the following rule:--multiply the capacity of the cylinder in cubic inches by the total pressure of the steam in lbs. per square inch, or the pressure per square inch on the safety valve plus 15, and divide the product by 4,800; the quotient is the capacity of the feed pump in cubic inches, when the feed pump is single acting and the engine double acting.

If the feed pump be double acting, or the engine single acting, the capacity of the pump must just be one half of what is given by this rule.

337. _Q._--But should not some addition be made to the size of pump thus obtained if the pump works at a high rate of speed?

_A._--No; this rule makes allowance for defective action. All pumps lift much less water than is due to the size of their barrels and the number of their strokes. Moderately good pumps lose 50 per cent. of their theoretical effect, and bad pumps 80 per cent.

338. _Q._--To what is this loss of effect to be chiefly ascribed?

_A._--Mainly to the inertia of the water, which, if the pump piston be drawn up very rapidly, cannot follow it with sufficient rapidity; so that there may be a vacant s.p.a.ce between the piston and the water; and at the return stroke the momentum of the water in the pipe expends itself in giving a reverse motion to the column of water approaching the pump.

Messrs. Kirchweger and Prusman, of Hanover, have investigated this subject by applying a revolving c.o.c.k at the end of a pipe leading from an elevated cistern containing water, and the water escaped at every revolution of the c.o.c.k in the same manner as if a pump were drawing it. With a column of water of 17 feet, they found that at 80 revolutions of the c.o.c.k per minute, the water delivered per minute by the c.o.c.k was 9.45 gallons; but with 140 revolutions of the c.o.c.k per minute, the water delivered per minute by the c.o.c.k was only 5.42 gallons. They subsequently applied an air vessel to the pipe beside the c.o.c.k, when the discharge rose to 12.9 gallons per minute with 80 revolutions, and 18.28 gallons with 140 revolutions. Air vessels should therefore be applied to the suction side of fast moving pumps, and this is now done with good results.

339. _Q._--What are the usual dimensions of the cold water pump of land engines?

_A._--If to condense a cubic inch of water raised into steam 28.9 cubic inches of condensing water are required, then the cold water pump ought to be 28.9 times larger than the feed pump, supposing that its losses were equally great. The feed pump, however, is made sufficiently large to compensate for leaks in the boiler and loss of steam through the safety valve, so that it will be sufficient if the cold water pump be 24 times larger than the feed pump. This ratio is preserved by the following rule:-- multiply the capacity of the cylinder in cubic inches by the total pressure of the steam per square inch, or the pressure on the safety valve plus 15, and divide the product by 200. The quotient is the proper capacity of the cold water pump in cubic inches when the engine is double acting, and the pump single acting.

FLY WHEEL.

340. _Q._--By what considerations do you determine the dimensions of the fly wheel of an engine?

_A._--By a reference to the power generated, each half stroke of the engine, and the number of half strokes that are necessary to give to the fly wheel its standard velocity, supposing the whole power devoted to that object. In practice the power resident in the fly varies from 2-1/2 to 6 times that generated each half stroke; and if the weight of the wheel be equal to the pressure on the piston, its velocity must be such as it would acquire by falling through a height equal to from 2-1/2 to 6 times the stroke, according to the purpose for which the engine is intended. If a very equable motion is required, a heavier or swifter fly wheel must be employed.