310 



EXPOSITION, PARIS. 



the inlet and outlet pipes are larger in diame- 

 ter than the piston, and allow a passage of 

 water which by its constant pressure makes 

 the action of the engine equable and without 

 shock; the distribution of the water before 

 and behind the piston is effected by means of 

 the oscillation of the cylinders. 



The French locomotive engines exhibited 

 were distinguished by their great powers of 

 traction. MM. Claperede, of Paris, showed 

 a freight engine, eight-coupled, with a wheel 

 base of 13 feet 3 inches, and total length of 

 boiler, smoke-box, and fire-box of 31 feet 3 

 inches, with a total weight of 48'8 tons, a total 

 heating surface of 2,212 square feet, and a grate- 

 surface of 18 square feet ; the cylinders were 

 20*47 inches in diameter, the length of stroke 

 25'6 inches, the wheels 4 feet 3 inches in di- 

 ameter; the action was the fixed box link mo- 

 tion worked by a screw and hand-wheel : two 

 Sumps were worked by eccentrics fixed on the 

 riving-axle ; the boiler is tubular ; the fire-box 

 is the Ten Brink model modified, having a wa- 

 ter-chamber in the place where the tire-brick 

 arch usually is. This engine is capable of haul- 

 ing 130 tons up an incline of 1 in 33 at a speed 

 of 19 miles per hour, or 755 tons up a gradient 

 of 1 in 500 at the same rate of speed. Its trac- 

 tive force is 200 Ibs. for each pound of average 

 cylinder pressure; or with an average boiler 

 pressure of 90 Ibs. throughout the stroke, equal 

 to 120 Ibs. of initial pressure, its tractive force 

 would be equal to one sixth of its own weight. 



F. Curtis, of Brattleboro, Vermont, exhib- 

 ited his ingenious and complicated, though com- 

 pact, apparatus for making small screws. The 

 machine makes the whole screw from the wire 

 automatically, cutting 150 to 180 per hour, with 

 the attendance of one man to feed the wire ; a 

 slight difference in the length and diameter of 

 the screws may be obtained by adjusting the 

 machine. The wire is fed in from the side. 

 The first operation is to turn it down to the 

 right thickness ; the next is the cutting of the 

 thread ; then the wire is cut and the head 

 formed ; it is then carried against a revolving 

 cutter, which shapes the head; then passes be- 

 fore a circular saw, which cuts the slot; final- 

 ly a screw-driver unscrews it from the stock, 

 which returns for a new screw, while the burr 

 is rubbed off from the completed screw, it is 

 polished, and falls of itself into a sorting-pan. 



Stow's flexible shaft was displayed, working 

 in many different positions ; the same contriv- 

 ance as used for dental purposes was shown in 

 both the American and Austrian exhibits. 



A portable riveting machine, worked by com- 

 pressed air with a tension of 1 to 1 atmos- 

 phere, and capable of giving 300 to 400 blows 

 per minute, was exhibited by John Allen, of 

 New York. It consists of two articulated levers 

 which are united at one end by a short cylin- 

 der ; when compressed air is introduced into 

 this cylinder, the riveting cylinder at the end 

 of one of the levers and a die at the end of 

 the other are clasped over the rivet like a vise 



then, by opening the communication between 

 the air - reservoir and the riveting cylinder, 

 the riveter hammers out the head of the rivet. 

 The machine is suspended from above and 

 easily moved about. In the English machin- 

 ery hall was an interesting exhibit of Twed- 

 dell's hydraulic riveters of different forms and 

 other hydraulic machinery, including punching 

 and shearing and bending machines, hydraulic 

 cranes, capstans, etc. The methods of suspend- 

 ing the portable hydraulic riveters were vari- 

 ous. The machines themselves consisted uni- 

 formly of two arms or levers having at their 

 ends two cupped dies, with which the heads of 

 the rivets are made. The smallest machine on 

 exhibition, weighing 400 Ibs., was capable of 

 closing rivets seven eighths of an inch in diam- 

 eter. Plans of riveters have lately been per- 

 fected, with which all the rivets in a locomo- 

 tive boiler can be put in. By the aid of com- 

 plicated suspension gearing the machines can 

 easily be moved about to any position or held 

 in any inclination. There are also girder-riv- 

 eters for bridge and other riveting ; one on 

 exhibition, weighing 17 cwt., was capable of 

 closing rivets f to f inch in diameter. The 

 riveters are able to do 2,000 to 4,000 rivets per 

 day of ten hours. 



C. B. Eogers & Co., of Norwich, were almost 

 the only American exhibitors of wood- work- 

 ing machinery. They displayed a band-saw 

 with rubber surfaces and splasher guard, a back 

 guide for the saw, and wheels of 36 inches di- 

 ameter ; the top wheel is adjustable, and the 

 table may be set for beveled work. They had 

 also a fret-saw with a novel arrangement of 

 springs; also a patent rod, pin, and dowel ma- 

 chine, in which the work is done by a hollow 

 arbor with head and cutter. In the Swedish 

 section a new large planing machine, which ac- 

 complished at the same time the operations of 

 grooving and tonguing, as well as planing, at 

 a rate of 40 to 100 feet per minute, was shown. 

 In one of these machines the timber used in 

 the structures of the section was all worked. 

 The arrangement of the cutters was very pecu- 

 liar ; the feed- rollers were adjusted to the size 

 of the planks by a screw ; the pressure-rollers 

 were placed on eight spiral springs, which dis- 

 tributed the pressure evenly over the boards 

 as they passed over the planing irons. Anoth- 

 er Swedish planing machine had a revolving 

 block with two irons running between bear- 

 ings, and a three-bladed stationary plane for 

 cutters, and brass side cutters which could be 

 changed to produce different moldings. There 

 were in the Swedish section many other admi- 

 rable machines for panel moldings, tenoning, 

 boring and mortising, and other operations. 

 From Hungary a 24-bladed vertical saw was ex- 

 hibited. In the Swiss section was a remarkable 

 implement, or combination of implements, for 

 general carpentry purposes, in which stuff 

 could be worked down, mortised, sawn, and 

 molded in different styles. There was in this 

 section also a novel tenoning machine, adapted 



