Scientific American Supplement, No. 799, April 25, 1891 by Various
page 15 of 124 (12%)
page 15 of 124 (12%)
|
gradually to 25, 50 and 100 horses with a motor having a single cylinder
of a diameter of 57 centimeters. [Illustration: FIG. 1.--CORLISS ENGINE AND BOILER OF 100 INDICATED H.P.--ELEVATION AND PLAN. A, cylinder; B, condenser; C, boiler; R, feed water heater; D, chimney.] But these results did not suffice, and it was desired to do better still by dispensing with the use of high priced illuminating gas. An endeavor was made to obviate the difficulty by manufacturing a special gas for the motive power, as steam is produced for the same object, by distilling coal, carbureting air, producing water gas by the Dowson process, and by other equivalent processes. 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. These conclusions, which tend to nothing less than to limit the reign of the steam engine, are confirmed on the one hand by an experiment carried on for the last two years in the Barataud flour mill of Marseilles, where a 50 h.p. "Simplex" motor has been running day and night for several months without stopping, and consuming but about 500 grammes of English anthracite per effective horse hour, and, on another hand, by some personal experiments of Mr. Witz's, to which we shall shortly advert, and whence there results a sensibly equivalent production for a |
|