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Scientific American Supplement, No. 799, April 25, 1891 by Various
page 70 of 124 (56%)
are built on. The anthracite employed was from Swansea, containing 5.4
per cent. of ash. The observations made with a string friction brake
were continued for 68 hours, everything used being carefully weighed and
measured. One day the machine was worked for 15¼ hours on end; the other
days it was worked with an interval of half an hour every 12 hours to
clear the hearth, poke the fire and lubricate the machine; and it was
clearly established that with a big enough generator it would be quite
possible to work continuously for several days.

The following were the data for a day of 24 hours, with an interval of
half an hour: 8:55 P.M. one day to 8:55 P.M. the next, interval 8:30 to
9 A.M. Anthracite used, 18.4 cwt.; coke used, 3.42 cwt.; water used for
steam injection, 217.3 gallons; water used in scrubber, 4,106 gallons;
water used in cooling the cylinder, 20,000 gallons; oil used in
cylinder, 14.84 pounds; grease, 1.8 pounds; revolutions of machine,
142,157, or 100.8 per minute; effective work, 75.86 French horse power,
or 77.4 British; gas used, 6,742 cubic feet per hour, at 772 mm.
pressure and 70.7° F., or 83.7 cubic feet per effective horse power;
efficiency, 69 per cent.

Now, with regard to the comparison between the large gas motors and
steam engines of the same size, M. Witz goes on to remark that the gas
engine is by no means, as was formerly thought on high authority,
necessarily restricted to the domain of smaller work and sizes. Even in
early times it was seen that the gas engine belonged to a type in which
there were possibilities of improvement greater than those available in
the steam engine, because the difference of temperature between the
working substance in its hotter and its cooler condition was greater
than in the steam engine; and consumptions of 5,250 cubic feet per horse
power per hour soon descended step by step as far as 2,060, while the
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