A Good Piece of Engineering

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Those who wish can see a good job in steam engineering at No. 9 Baxter street, in this city. They can, moreover, get some good hints as to how a boiler should *oo set, and how mixed fuel composed of shavings, sawdust, pea, and dust from anthracite, can be thoroughly and economically consumed. The engine set up under the superintendence of F. W. Bacon, M.E., of this city, is from the manufactory of Woodruff & Beach, of Hartford, Conn. It is a horizontal non-condensing engine, with cylinder 34" by 48" making fifty revolutions per minute. The fly wheel is 16 feet in diameter, with rim 32 inches in width, turned smooth on the surface, and carries a 30-inch single belt running slack. The belt is 95 feet long and drives a pulley keyed into the main line of shafting, 5-J feet in diameter by 32 inches in width. There are two boilers, each five feet in diameter, with 44 4-inch tubes 15 feet long. The shells of the boilers are made of the best three eighths-inch charcoal iron. These boilers are set according to Mr. F. W. Bacon's plan, illustrated in No 9, Vol. XVII of the SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, and ordinarily carry from forty to fifty pounds of steam. The grate surface is 25 square feet for each boiler. The chimney is 110 feet high and 40 inches square on the inside. The smoke burning pipe is 8 inches in diameter, perforated with one fourth-inch holes' giving an aggregate area of 2 square inches to each foot of grate surface. Each furnace door has a 3'75-in. aperture which supplies air to a box the full size of the door, from which the air enters the furnace through one fourth-inch holes in the side next the fire, thus distributing the air over the top of the fuel. The latter is, as we have stated, as incongruous a mixture as one could well attempt to burn in such a furnace, the sawdust and shavings being swept down from the floors of the wood-working shops in the building ; but notwithstanding the smoke is with easy firing practically consumed, so little escaping that no annoyance is caused to those whose build-ings are in the immediate vicinity. One of the boilers has been found to give ample steam for 75 indicated horse-powers. The whole is a model of good work, and is well worth the inspection of those about to place new horizontal boilers. It demonstrates indisputably the utility of the method of getting boilers above referred to.

Scientific American Magazine Vol 21 Issue 9This article was published with the title “A Good Piece of Engineering” in Scientific American Magazine Vol. 21 No. 9 (), p. 137
doi:10.1038/scientificamerican08281869-137b

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