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Steam Engineering on Sugar Plantations, Steamships, and Locomotive Engines
Steam Engineering on Sugar Plantations Steamships and Locomotive Engines Author:James Stewart Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: PAKT III. LOCOMOTIVE ENGINES. The locomotive engine is a double cylinder high pressure engine, or rather two engines working together, on the same shaft, a... more »nd both receiving their steam from one boiler. The locomotive engine cannot be constructed on the condensing principle, as the condensing engine requires a great quantity of cold water to condense the steam, and it is not convenient to carry the water, nor even could it be discharged on the railroad if it were carried. Therefore, the locomotive engine is propelled by the force of the steam alone, as no arrangement can be made to have the vacuum also. The space allowed for the boiler and wheels of a locomotive engine is very limited—it being confined to the distance between the rails on the track. The body of the boiler is a cylinder with a square shaped fire box, with an arch top at one end, and a smoke box, with the chimney on top, at the other end. The body of the boiler contains a great number of tubes or flues; they are placed in rows, and as close together as convenient, and fastened at one end in the head plate of the fire box—at the other end, in the head plate of the smoke box. The smoke box, with the chimney on it, is the front or prow of the engine. The other end, where the firebox is situated, is the foot plate for the engineer to stand on. The fire box is a square or oblong box with grate bars in the bottom, and an arch top against which the fire strikes before it enters the tubes. There are spaces between the fire box and the outside of the boiler; these spaces are filled with water, and strongly braced with stays, riveted through both plates. The fire passes through the tubes into the smoke box and enters the chimney. The water fills the spaces around the fire box, and also all the spaces betwe...« less