OF MR. PERKINS' STEAJM ENGINE, AND 

 From the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal. 



We have already communicated to our read- 

 ers in the two last numbers of this Journal, all 

 the authentic information which we could ob- 

 tain respecting Mt.Perkins'' new Steam Engine ; 

 and we have used the utmost diligence to obtain 

 such further ini'ormation as may, in some meas- 

 ure, gratify that curiosity which these imper- 

 fect notices have excited. There h:is never 

 been in our day an invention which has created 

 Such a sensation in the scientific and in tlie man- 

 ufacturing world. The steam engine of Mr. 

 Watt had been so long considered as ihe gre.it- 

 est triumph of art and science, that it was deem- 

 ed a sort of heresy to regard it as capable of 

 improvement ; and notwithstanding all that has 

 been done by Mr. Woolfe, and other eminent 

 engineers, the undoubted merit o.' their engines 

 has scarcely yet been admitted by the public. 

 Under such circumstances, Mr. Perkins' claims 

 %vere likely to meet with various kinds ofoppo- 

 .sition. In-tead of Laiiing it as an invention 

 which was to tie honor to the age in which ive 

 live, and to add a new and powerful arm to Bril- 

 ish industry, imjjerfect experiments and confined 

 views were urged against the principle of its 

 construction, the jealousies of rival traders were 

 arrayed against it, imaginary ap[irehensions ol' 

 danger were excited, and short-sighted politi- 

 cians sounded the alarm, that such an invention 

 would precipitate our country from its lofty pre- 

 eminence among the manufacturing nations of 

 (he world. 



Most of these grounds of opposition have 

 been now removed by direct experiment. Mr, 



DESCRIPTION 



OF THE APPLICATION OF HIS INVENTION TO 

 Perkins' engine is actually at work. Its opera- 

 tions have been witnessed, and minutely exam- 

 ined by engineers and philosophers of all kinds ; 

 and the most unreasonable sceptics have been 

 compelled to acknoivledge the justness of its 

 principles, as well as the energyof its operations. 

 The active and inventive mind of Mr. Perkins, 

 however, did not remain satisfied with this ex- 

 periment. He has discovered a method, which 

 we consider equal in value to his new engine, 

 by which he can convey the benefit of his orig- 

 inal principle to steam engines of the old con- 

 struction ; and this has been recently succeeded, 

 wc are told, by a most extraordinary discovery, 

 that the same heat may be made to perform its 

 part more than once, in the active operations of 

 the engine. 



In order to convey to our readers some idea 

 of these great inventions, we have obtained a 

 drawing, made by M. Montgolfier, Jr. which 

 though it does not represent the actual machine, 

 yet contains such a view of its parts as is neces- 

 sary fur understanding its prmciple. 



The generator, which supplies the place of 

 the boiler in ordinary steam engines, is a cylin- 

 der A B C D, made of gun metal, which is more 

 tenacious, and less liable to oxidation, than any 

 other. The metal is about three inches thick ; 

 and the vessel, containing eight gallons of water, 

 is closed at both ends, with the exception of (he 

 five openings for tubes, shown in the figure. 

 The generator is placed vertically in a cylin- 

 drical furnace E F, whose chimney is G, the 

 heat being sustained by a pair of bellows H, 

 wrought by the engine, and conveying its blast 



ENGINES OF THE OLD CONSTRUCTION, 

 in the direction 1 K to F. A heat from 10(1 t< j 

 450 degrees of Fahrenheit is thus applied t( 

 the generator which is entirely filled wilh \va 

 ter. The valves in the lubes m, n, which an 

 steel cylinders working in hojjow steel pipes 

 are loaded, the one with 37, and the other witfc 

 35 atmospheres : so that none of them can rise 

 till the heat creates a force greater than tbM 

 least of these weights. ) 



Let us now suppose, that, by means of th4^ 

 compressing pump L, whose handle M is wrought 

 by the engine, water is forced into the genera^ 

 tor ; this opens the valve above n, loaded witfc 

 35'atmospheres, and instantly a portion of the 

 heated and compressed water flashes out in th* 

 t'orin of steam of high elasticity, and of a tein* 

 per.iture of 420 deg. and communicating by tli« 

 steam pipe 2, 2, 2, with the valve box V, it en« 

 tcrs the cylinder P P, lying horizontally, aai 

 gives motion to its piston PQ which perfurml 

 200 strokes in a minute, and drives a crank R, 

 which gives a rolatory motion to a fly-wheel, sif 

 seen in the figure.* When the eduction valv^ 

 is opened, the steam, after having produced it^ 

 stroke, is carried by the eduction pipe 3, 3, 3f 

 into the condenser S T X U, where it is condettt 

 sed into water at a temperature of about 32(J 

 deg. and under a pressure of five atmosphere^ 

 from thence, by the jiipe 6, 6, 6, it is drawn in* 

 to the pump L, whence it is forced along thtt 



* The parallel motion represented at P Q, is not tli» 

 correct one used by Mr. Perkins. The piston-rod is ron> 

 nected by a flexible joint, with a sort of caiTiagf with 

 f.nir wheels at each end, and workinjr iu a strong hop 

 izoiilal box of steel. 





