Sept. 6, 1888] 



NA TURE 



443 



gen. A few years later a writer in Nicholson s Journal, in an 

 article on "Flying Machines," having given the correct state- 

 ment that all that is needed to make a successful machine of this 

 description is to find a sufficiently light motor, suggests that the 

 direction in which this may be sought is the employment of 

 illuminating gas, to operate by its explosion on the piston of an 

 engine. The idea of the gas-engine was revived, and formed 

 the subject of a patent by Barnett in the year 1838. It is true 

 this gentleman did not know very much about the subject, and 

 that he suggested many things which, if carried out, would have 

 resulted in the production of an engine which could not have 

 worked ; but he had an alternative proposition which would 

 have worked. 



Again, in the year 1861, the matter was revived by Lenoir, 

 and in the year 1865 by Hugon, both French inventors. Their 

 engines obtained some considerable amount of success and 

 notoriety, and many of them were made and used ; but in the 

 majority of cases they were discarded as wasteful and uncertain. 

 The Institution of Civil Engineers, for example, erected a 

 Lenoir in the year 1S68, to work the ventilating fan, but after a 

 short time they were compelled to abandon it and to substitute 

 an hydraulic engine. 



At the present time, as I have said, gas-engines are a great 

 commercial success, and they have become so by the attention 

 given to small things, in popular estimation — to important 

 things, in fact, with which, however, I must not trouble you. 

 Messrs. Ctossley Brothers, who have done so much to make 

 the gas-engine the commercial success that it is, inform me that 

 they are prosecuting improvements in the direction of attention 

 to detail, from which they are obtaining greatly improved 

 results. 



But, looking at the wonderful petroleum industry, and at the 

 multifarious products which are obtained from the crude material, 

 is it too much to say that there is a future for motor engines, 

 worked by the vapour of some of the more highly volatile of 

 these products — true vapour — not a gas, but a condensable body, 

 capable of being worked over and over again? Numbers of 

 such engines, some of as much as 4 horse-power, made by Mr. 

 Yarrow, are now running, and are apparently giving good re- 

 sults ; certainly excellent results as regards the compactness and 

 lightness of the machinery. For boat purposes they possess the 

 great advantage of being rapidly under way. I have seen one 

 go to work within two minutes of the striking of the match to 

 light the burner. 



Again, as we know, the vapour of this material has been used 

 as a gas in gas-engines, the motive power having been obtained 

 by direct combustion. 



Having regard to these considerations, was I wrong in pre- 

 dicting that the heat engine of the future will probably be one 

 independent of the vapour of water? And, further, in these 

 clays of electrical advancement, is it too much to hope f r the 

 direct production of electricity from the combustion of fuel? 



As the world has become familiar with prime movers, the 

 de.-ire for their employment has increased. Many a householder 

 could find useful occupation for a prime mover of J or ^ horse- 

 power, working one or two hours a day ; but the economical 

 establishment of a steam-engine is not possible until houses of 

 very large dimensions are reached, where space exists for the 

 engine, and where, having regard to the amount of work to be 

 done, the incidental expenses can be borne. Where this cannct 

 be, either the prime mover, with the advantages of its use, must 

 be given up as a thing to be wi-hed for, but not to be procured, 

 or recourse must be had to some other contrivance — say to the 

 laying on of power, in some form or another, from a central 

 source. • ' 



I have already incidentally touched upon one mode of doing 

 this — namely, the employment of illuminating gas, as the work- 

 ing agent in the gas-engine ; but there are various other modes, 

 possessing their respective merits and demerits — all ingenious, 

 all involving science in their application, and all more or less in 

 practical use — such as the laying on of special high-pressure 

 water, as is now being extensively practised in London, in Hull, 

 and elsewhere. Water at 7C0 pounds pressure per inch is a 

 most convenient mode of laying on a large amount of power, 

 through comparatively small pipes. Like electricity, where, 

 when a high electromotive force is used, a large amount of 

 energy may be sent through a small conductor, so with water, 

 under high pressure, the mains may be kept of reasonable 

 diameters, without rendering them too small to transmit the 

 power required through them 



Power is also transmitted by means of compressed air, an 

 agent which, on the score of its ability to ventilate, and of its 

 cleanliness, has much to recommend it. On the other hand, it 

 is an agent which, having regard to the probability of the 

 deposition of moisture in the form of "snow," requires to be 

 worked with judgment. 



Again, there is an alternative mode for the conveyance of 

 power by the exhaustion of air — a mode which has been in 

 practical use for over sixty years. 



We have also the curious system pursued at Schaffhausen, 

 where quick-running ropes are driven by turbines, these being 

 worked by the current of the River Rhine ; and at New York, 

 and in other cities of the United States, steam is laid on under 

 the streets, so as to enable domestic steam-engines to be worked, 

 without the necessity of a boiler, a stoker, or a chimney, the 

 steam affording also means of heating the house when needed. 



Lastly, there is the system of transmitting power by electricity, 

 to which I have already adverted. I was glad to learn, only 

 the other day, that there was every hope of this power being 

 applied to the working of an important subterranean tramway. 



These distributions from central sources need, as a rule, 

 statutory powers to enable the pipes or wires to be placed under 

 the roads ; and, following the deplorable example of the Elec- 

 trical Facilities Act, it is now the habit of the enlightened Cor- 

 poration and the enterprising town clerk of most boroughs to say 

 to capitalists who are willing to embark their capital in the plant 

 for the distribution of power from a central source — for their 

 own profit no doubt, but also, no doubt, for the good of the 

 community — "We will oppose you in Parliament, unless you 

 will consent that, at the end of twenty-one years, we may acquire 

 compulsorily your property, and may do so, if it turns out to be 

 remunerative, without other payment than that for the mere 

 buildings and plant at that time existing." This is the way 

 English enterprise is met, and then English engineers are 

 taunted, by Englishmen — often by the very men who have had a 

 share in making this "boa-constrictor" of a " Facilities Act" — 

 that their energy is not to be compared with that which is to be 

 found in the United States and other countries. Again, how- 

 ever, I must remember that I am not addressing Section F. 



There is one application of science, by engineers, which is of 

 extreme beauty and interest, and that cannot be regarded with 

 indifference by the agriculturists of this country. I allude to the 

 heat-withdrawing engines (I should like to say, "cold- pro- 

 ducers," but I presume, if I did, I should be criticized), which 

 are now so very extensively used for the importation of fresh 

 meat, and for its storage when received here. It need hardly be 

 said, that that which will keep cool and sweet the carcasses of 

 sheep will equally well preserve milk, and many other perishable 

 articles of food. We have in these machines daily instances 

 that, if you wish to make a ship's hold cold, you can do it by 

 burning a certain quantity of coals — a paradox, if ever there 

 was one. 



In this climate of ours, where the summer has been said to 

 consist of "three hot days and a thunderstorm," there is hardly 

 need to make a provision for cooling our houses, although there 

 is an undoubted need for making a provision to heat them. 

 Nevertheless, those of us who have hot-water heating arrange- 

 ments for use in the winter would be very glad indeed if, without 

 much trouble or expense, they could turn these about, so as to 

 utilize them for cooling their houses in summer. Mr. Loftus 

 Perkins, so well known for his labours in the use of very high- 

 pressure steam (600 to ioco pounds on the inch), and also so well 

 known for those most useful high- pressure warming arrangements 

 which, without disfiguring our houses by the passage of large 

 pipes, keep them in a state of warmth and comfort throughout 

 the winter, has lately taken up the mode of, I will say it, pro- 

 ducing "cold" by the evaporation of ammonia, and, by improve- 

 ments in detail, has succeeded in making an apparatus which, 

 without engine or pumps, produces "cold" for some hours in 

 succession, and requires, to put it in action, the preliminary 

 combustion of only a few pounds of coke or a few feet of gas. 



As I have said, our climate gives us but little need to provide 

 or employ apparatus to cool our houses, but one can well imagine 

 that the Anglo- Indian will be glad to give up his punkah for 

 some more certain, and less draughty, mode of cooling. 



I now desire to point out how, as the work of the engineer 

 grows, his needs increase. New material, or better material of 

 the old kind, has to be found to enable him to carry out these 

 works of greater magnitude. At the beginning of this century, 

 stone, brick, and timber were practically the only materials 



