772 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



graceful. The strongest beam we can cut from a tree, will show 

 a form most agreeable to the eye. A steam engine that works 

 silently, you may be sure works well. The same is true of gear- 

 ing railroad rolling stock, and all things that move. It is a fim- 

 damental law, that perfection and harmonious action go hand in 

 hand. Most mechanics and engineers hold that steam cannot be 

 raised until the water boils; yet steam is simply vapor, and it is 

 well known, that vaporization or evaporation takes place at all 

 temperatures above the freezing point. Boiling is simply a vio- 

 lent action produced by force, and the boiling point is just that 

 point where the fluid to be evaporated is completely charged with 

 as much heat as it can hold. When water is heated to 212° it 

 boils, that is, the additional heat imparted to it, not being able to 

 difluse itself through the whole mass, is forced out from the sur- 

 face by a rapid succession of violent explosions, sending out puflEs 

 of steam mixed with water. This is saturated steam, and will 

 scald the hand in contact with it. Dry steam will not do this, for 

 the moment it escapes it performs work of expansion. That per- 

 fectly dry steam can be made in contact with water I prove daily, 

 on a practical and large scale, also that a pressure of steam — I 

 mean a working pressure of from forty to sixty pounds can be 

 raised and maintained, with water in the main boiler not exceed- 

 ing 200° in temperature. This I am ready to prove at any time, 

 on a large and practical scale. And why should it not be so? 

 Are not ponds and lakes dried by evaporation? and is not this 

 whole globe one vast workshop run by steam? Yes, and low pres- 

 sure steam at that, with condensers, hot wells, and all. Sufficient 

 water is raised to run the mighty Mississippi and a thousand other 

 4 rivers, and yet all is done without boiling, without violence, with- 

 out danger, without explosion. Let us look further and how sim- 

 ple is this work performed. The heat is applied at the surface of 

 the water, and behold the vapor rises into a kindred element with- 

 out violence. Ocean currents spread their heated waters over 

 large surfaces and assist vaporization, while they produce perfect 

 circulation. But what is the action in the best of our boilers? 

 The fire being below the water, the vapor must force its way 

 through this dense medium, but not before the whole water is 

 charged Avith as much steam as it can hold, which, by the way, is 

 precisely as much as though the water was not there, and in its 

 place were a vacuum. Nor is this all. T© positively prevent the 

 steam from leaving the water, we fill up nearly the whole space 



