46 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



ation of steam in the engine, coils of pipes are placed one upon the top of the 

 other, which contain the water, and upon which pipes the fire is directly 

 brought. It is intended to burn coal, and it is thought steam can be made in 

 ten or twelve minutes from the time of kindling the fire. Another novelty is 

 that the engineer is placed ahead of the smoke pipe. The fireman is to be 

 placed behind the boiler. 



IMPROVEMENTS IN BLAST PIPES. 



Mr. H. Booth, of the Liverpool and Manchester railway, was probably the 

 first who utilized the impetus of the steam escaping from the cylinders by al- 

 lowing it to increase the draft of the fire. A locomotive must have great 

 power with a moderate weight, and the boiler being small, the fire must burn 

 very fiercely or the engine will be short of steam. By turning the exhaust 

 steam into the chimney, and pointing it upward, every jet of vapor expelled 

 impels the sluggish smoke more rapidly upward, and draws a fresh supply of 

 air through the burning fuel to supply its place. 



The nozzle through which the steam escapes in this manner is termed a 

 blast-pipe, and in proportion as the orifice is contracted the steam escapes 

 with greater velocity, and produces a greater draft, but at the same time re- 

 tards the motion of the piston by creating a back pressure thereon. The pro- 

 pellers on the lakes have very large exhaust-pipes, contracted very slightly, 

 if at all, at their extremities in the chimneys, while the high-pressure steamers 

 on our western rivers ignore altogether the promoting of a draft by this meas- 

 ure, considering that the steam rusts and destroys the chimneys more than it 

 helps the fire. In locomotives, however, the blast nozzle is generally con- 

 tracted to an orifice of between two and three niches diameter, and the vig- 

 orous coughs of the smoking monsters in starting with a heavy train, when 

 the steam is allowed to follow at full pressure, attest the spunk with which 

 the imprisoned vapor escapes through its narrow gateway. A most complete 

 device for increasing the efficiency of the blast without materially contracting 

 the area of its escape has been invented by Mr. William E. Cooper at the 

 Dunkirk terminus of the Erie railroad. Mr. C. leads the exhaust-pipes from 

 both engines between two concentric rings of sheet metal placed in the smoke- 

 box, and by their aid spreads out the current of steam into a tube-like form, 

 which acts by the friction of both its internal and external surface. By this 

 means a sufficient draft may possibly be obtained without contracting the 

 area, or by contracting it to the usual amount a much increased draft may be 

 obtained. New York Tribune. 



STATISTICS AND MANAGEMENT OP THE NEW YORK AND EKIE 



RAILROAD. 



We copy from the New York Tribune the following detailed account of the 

 statistics and management of the New York and Erie Railroad, as showing not 

 only the extent of American railroad enterprise, but also the wonderfully 

 systematic operations of one of the longest single roads, and one of the largest 



