COMPRESSED AIR 247 



pression, yet the tread of the movement was surely toward a 

 displacing of steam as a motive power and the installation of 

 a cheaper substitute. 



All sorts of chemical reagents have been pressed into serv- 

 ice to oust steam from its supremacy without avail, yet there 

 is no doubt, but, with a highly developed gas engine together 

 with the more modern application of the almost inexhaustible 

 water power running to waste throughout the world, for 

 the generation of electricity or the compression of air, steam 

 will have two opponents in the race which will make it a poor 

 third. Though, if expensive, steam has been and still is a 

 most useful servant. It runs our mills, draws our trains, 

 propels our ships, hoists our heavy weights, and, through 

 the medium of shafting, pulleys and belts or chains, drives 

 an endless variety of machines for drilling, boring, turning 

 and burnishing metals, operates pile drivers, punches for 

 perforating enormous steel plates, huge hammers, shears, 

 rollers and carriers in foundries, forges and steel rolling 

 plants. All this it does well and probably will continue 

 to for some time to come; but there is a lack of flexibility 

 about it all. Every operation is fixed, rooted to the spot, 

 and because of the ponderous tools in use and their manner 

 of obtaining their power everything must be brought to the 

 tool. With the exception of some undersized steam en- 

 gines and pumps, steam can scarcely be said to be applicable 

 to small tools. These, it is true, may be moved from place 

 to place, and b}^ the use of rubber steam hose the same 

 may be done with rock drills, well and prospecting boring 

 apparatus; but the intense heat which is the life of these 

 tools makes them disagreeable neighbors and very incon- 

 venient to handle. This seemingly greatest inconvenience 

 was thought to have been overcome when, with the develop- 

 ment of electrical devices conduction and power, small elec- 

 tric motors were placed about in the shops for intermittent 

 use, yet because of the initial weakness of this agent which 

 required high gearing to make it effective the motors became 

 very cumbersome as soon as much of an output was de- 

 manded. They, too, were fixed and the only flexibility 

 about the installation was the possibility of bringing the 



