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To answer such objections Mr. Aimé Witz has established a complete parallel between the two systems, in which he looks at the question from a theoretical and practical and scientific and financial point of view.
M. Witz, says the Gas World, has been conducting a series of experiments on the Delamare-Deboutteville and Malindin gas engine, driven by Dowson gas, and in which the gas generator takes the place of the ordinary steam boiler. The engine was a one-cylinder motor in the establishment of Messrs. Matter & Co., Rouen.
Is not steam, after all, more economical in the long run? Besides, producers are bulky and take up a great deal of space; the weight of fuel is only one element in a complicated problem. In order to study the grounds of this objection, M. Witz has instituted a comparison between the actual cost of large steam engines and that of gas motors of similar size.
The practical efficiencies are not nearly this, but they are in about the same ratio 27/13. If, then, we multiply the theoretical efficiencies by 0.37, we get the practical efficiencies, say 10 per cent. and 5 per cent.; and it is in the former sense that M. Witz calculated the efficiency of the steam-engine at 35 per cent. a statement which, I own, puzzled me a little when I first met it.
In order to be equivalent from the heat point of view, a steam engine ought to produce a horse power effective per 9.72 pounds of steam at 5 atmospheres; but no such steam engine exists. M. Witz goes on with comparative estimates.
For a Corliss engine and boiler, with chimney, etc., complete, and putting these up, he allows £1,280; for a Simplex gas motor and Dowson producer complete, including putting up, he allows £1,290, which he explains to be average actual prices; but these prices do not cover cost of transport, and M. Witz does not go into cost of masonry for buildings, apart from foundations, etc., for the apparatus and machinery.
The gas motor, therefore, effects a great saving, while at the same time occupying less space, consuming less water and operating just as well. With Mr. Witz we cheerfully admit all the advantages that he so clearly establishes with his perfect competency in such matters, but there still remain two points upon which we wish to be enlightened.
Witz set forth the expense relative to the capital engaged exactly at the same figure of 32,000 francs for a motive power of 75 effective horses. The expenses of keeping in repair, interest, etc., summed up, show that the cost per day of 10 hours is 47.9 francs for the steam engine and 39.6 for the gas motor, say a saving of 8.3 francs per day, or about 2,500 francs for a year of 300 days' work.
The strides made in this direction were finally crowned with success, and the results obtained in the recent experiments due to Mr. Aimé Witz, an undoubted authority in the matter, permit of affirming that now and hereafter, in many circumstances, a gas generator supplying a gas motor will be able to advantageously dethrone a steam boiler supplying a steam engine of the same power.
The following quotations will suffice to demonstrate the inadequacy of the revision: ORIGINAL I, p. 6: Well, you may take my word that nine parts in ten of a man’s sense or his nonsense, P. 5: Gut, ich gebe euch mein Wort, dass neun unter zehnmal eines jeden Witz oder Dummheit. P. 7: The minutest philosophers. “Die strengsten Philosophen” remains unchanged in second edition.
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