WILLIAM SIEMENS, F.R.S. 167 



lint care should be taken to condense the water out of it before the 

 gaseous fuel was used. He had employed peat so treated for forg- 

 ing i'liniact's and steel melting furnaces, and found it the best fuel 

 that could be used. He should prefer it even to the best coal for 

 litMting purposes, and he believed the time would come when the 

 stores of peat in Ireland, in Scotland, and in the north of England 

 would form a valuable addition to the stock of fuel for all opera- 

 tions for which coal was at present used. Such employment would 

 ('ml more than anything else to the development of iron industry 

 in Ireland. 



/// the discussion of the Paper 



"ON THE McCARTER CONDENSER WITHOUT AIR- 

 PUMP FOR STEAM-ENGINES," by Mr. F. PRESTON, 



MR. C. "VV. SIEMENS* enquired about the amount of steam in the 

 jet necessary to work the auxiliary condenser. A calculation had 

 been given of the quantity of water which this condenser required 

 as compared with the ordinary condenser, and he supposed there 

 would not be any material difference in the quantity, but he had 

 considerable doubt as to the economy of working this plan. This 

 condenser worked upon the Newcomen principle, boiler-steam 

 being admitted in the lower part of the condenser, which stood in 

 lieu of a cylinder in the Newcomen engine ; and the hot steam 

 was brought into contact with the cold surface, in order to expel 

 the water and air accumulated there. Now the quantity of steam 

 so accumulated must be considerably more than the steam that 

 would be necessary to work the air-pump, because the air-pump 

 was worked on as economical a principle as was involved in the 

 engine itself. Therefore the expulsion of a certain amount of 

 water and a certain amount of air from the upper part of the con- 

 denser was accomplished in this condenser not in an economical 

 manner. There was a compensating advantage in doing away 



* Excerpt Minutes of Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, 

 1876, pp. 311-12. 



