United States or Slovakia ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
A. The capacity of steam room allowed by Boulton and Watt in their land wagon boilers is 8-3/4 cubic feet per horse power in the two horse power boiler, and 5-3/4 cubic feet in the 20 horse power boiler; and in the larger class of boilers, such as those suitable for 30 and 45 horse power engines, the capacity of the steam room does not fall below this amount, and, indeed, is nearer 6 than 5-3/4 cubic feet per horse power.
But there is no loss of this sort in the engines modified by Watt. The atmospheric action is totally eliminated by the following means: The top of the cylinder is closed by a metal cover, only pierced in the centre by a hole furnished with greased tow stuffed in hard, but through which the rod of the piston has free motion, though without allowing free passage either to air or steam.
"Av coorse he was," observed Ned O'Connor, an Irishman, who was afflicted with the belief that he was rather a witty fellow, "av coorse he was, an' a merry-maid she must have bin to see a human spider like him kickin' up such a dust in the say." "He's like a drooned rotten," observed John Watt; "tak' aff yer claes, man, an' wring them dry."
At this period the artificers at the rock consisted of eighteen masons, two joiners, one millwright, one smith, and one mortar-maker, besides Messrs. Peter Logan and Francis Watt, foremen, counting in all twenty-five; and matters were arranged for proceeding to Arbroath this afternoon with all hands.
We have another story of Watt's childhood that proclaims the coming man. Precocious children are said rarely to develop far in later years, but Watt was pre-eminently a precocious child, and of this several proofs are related. A friend looking at the child of six said to his father, "You ought to send your boy to a public school, and not allow him to trifle away his time at home."
We note that the taking of infinite pains, this fore-arming of himself, this knowing of everything that was to be known, the note of thorough preparation in Watt's career, is ever conspicuous. The best proof that he was a man of true genius is that he first made himself master of all knowledge bearing upon his tasks. Watt could not have been more happily situated.
In tubular marine boilers the calorimeter is usually made only about half the amount allowed by Boulton and Watt for marine flue boilers, or, in other words, the collective sectional area of the tubes, for the transmission of the smoke, is from 8 to 9 square inches per nominal horse power.
This was a liberal offer, for, in addition to the mine-owners saving two-thirds of the former cost of fuel consumed by the previous engines, mines became workable, which without the Watt engine must have been abandoned. These terms however were not accepted, and a long series of disputes arose, ending in some cases only with the patent-right itself.
It was in the brain of Watt, and not in the lifting of the kettle lid, that the steam engine was born. There are no accidents in the progress of science. In the same way, we are asked to believe that Galileo discovered the telescope, Whitney the cotton gin, and Howe the sewing machine. But there have been some curious cases of chance fortune.
"So you think the things you do are as big as the things that Shakespeare, or Tennyson, or Titian, or Van Dyck, or Watt, or Rodin do or did?" "Bigger-much bigger," was the reply. The younger man smiled. "Well, that's the way to look at it, I suppose. Think the thing you do is better than what anybody else does, and you're well started." "Come and do it too.
Word Of The Day