THE 



ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 



MECHANICAL STOKING. 



THE folio-wing interesting paper was read, at the meeting of 

 the British Association, in Section G (Mechanical Science), by 

 Mr. James Smith, of Messrs. T. & T. Vicars, engineers, Seel 

 Street, Liverpool : 



"Our reasons and apology for bringing under your notice the 

 subject of mechanical stoking are, first, the importance to the 

 mechanical engineer of everything that relates to furnace man- 

 agement, and especially the importance of any improvement that 

 will enable him to have the slavish labor of stoking performed by 

 a machine that will more efficiently discharge the required duty 

 than human labor can ; and this, I conceive, is always the case 

 when a machine is successfully applied to any purpose. Sec- 

 ondly, the visit of your society to our town enables us to submit 

 to the judgment of a competent tribunal the merits or defects of 

 a system of mechanical stoking that we have applied and are ap- 

 plying largely in different parts of the country. All who have 

 had any experience in furnace management are aware that the 

 duty obtained from a boiler or other furnace depends to a very 

 great extent on judicious stoking, and one of the troubles of the 

 practical engineer is to obtain the services of stokers upon whom 

 he can rely. Several writers on the subject have directed atten- 

 tion to the desirability of substituting mechanical for hand stoking 



> o 



as the only means of securing economy, efficiency, and smoke- 

 lessness. Bourne, in his work on recent improvements in the 

 steam engine, published last year, says : * In steam vessels it is 

 most desirable that some proper species of firing apparatus should 

 be employed, as the labor and difficulty of firing large furnaces 

 at sea, especially in hot climates, is very great. I believe that a 

 good smokeless furnace and a good self-feeding furnace will 

 come together,' Considering the acknowledged importance of 



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