10 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



liar feature of this condenser is the placing of the condensing 'tubes 

 horizontally within the ordinary shower condenser, which is made 

 large for the purpose. By this arrangement the water required for 

 condensation is admitted through the ordinary injection-cock, and rises 

 to the top of the external condenser, where it is discharged on a scat- 

 tering-plate, whence it passes directly on to the tubes of the internal 

 condenser, which are arranged below it in three ranges or sets, one 

 above the other ; the steam from the cylinder is admitted into the up- 

 per range, and passes through the three before being discharged at 

 the bottom. The fresh water produced by the condensation of the 

 steam is pumped out by a small pump and immediately returned to 

 the boilers, while the water used to produce condensation is taken out 

 by the air-pump of the engine. The internal condenser is not attached 

 to the external one, but merely laid in it. The three ranges are sep- 

 arately made, and the outlet from the upper slips loosely into the one 

 below it. so that when the whole internal condenser is together, it 

 may be moved from an eighth to a quarter of an inch in any direction, 

 thus preventing any liability to fracture from unequal expansion, and 

 the tubes being in a vacuum relieves them from all pressure. As the 

 condensing water reaches the bottom of the tubes, it is pumped out, so 

 that there is not at any time any water around the tubes other than 

 the thin sheet passing over their surfaces. On the Osprey the vacu- 

 um within the tubes of the internal condenser is 26 inches, and the 

 same in the external one, the internal vacuum being the result of con- 

 densation, while the external one is produced by the air-pump. In 

 three voyages, of 2,750 miles in all, no trouble has been experienced 

 in keeping a full supply of fresh water in the boilers. Journal of 

 Franklin Institute, June. 



SPHEROIDAL STATE OF WATER APPLIED TO MACHINERY. 



A CORRESPONDENT of the New York Tribune states that M. de Beau- 

 regard has erected in Paris a steam-engine of 500 horse-power, in 

 which he takes advantage of the spheroidal state of water.* Instead 

 of the common boiler with its tubes, he uses a single vessel with a flat 

 bottom, about one fiftieth as large as an ordinary boiler of the same 

 power. It is inclosed in a brick furnace above a fire-grate of reduced 

 dimensions. This vessel is always without water ; and connected 

 with its bottom are two thermometers, and on the cover is a valve, 

 which, on being opened, instantly stops the engine. The bottom 

 of the vessel or boiler is kept at a temperature of 750 F., and the 

 principle of the machine is, that, when a small quantity of water is 

 cast upon a surface heated to 750 or more, it is reduced to steam, 

 which remains at the same temperature. To use the engine one or 

 two cubic inches of water are thrown into the hot vessel, and are, of 

 course, reduced to steam, which is so expanded as to occupy the en- 

 tire vessel, when it begins to set the piston in motion. After this the 

 engine itself supplies the boiler with water. The steam leaves the 



* See Annual of Scientific Discovery, 1350. p. 193. 



