41: 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



' 1) K C E M B E R , 



ON THE DRAINAGE OF LOW LANDS. 



Bv Mn. William Fairbairx. 



Tmdi'.k are few subjects of more importance or more deserving of 

 public attention than the drainage of lands. In cultivating land below 

 the level of the sea, drainage is one of the first steps, for unless the 

 superfluous waters of a low marshy district be freely removed and 

 discharged at a level above its surface, it is in vain "to look for pro- 

 ductive crops, however rich the soil or tlie alluvial deposit may be. 



Hydraulic machines of almost every description have been in re- 

 quisition for this object, and in countries, such as Holland and the Fen 

 districts of Lincolnshire, where tlw land is in many instances several 

 feet below the sea, those machines have been extensively used, and 

 many improvements have from time to time been introduced. Formerly 

 windmills and animal power applied to scoop-wheels seem the only 

 methods adopted, but since the introduction of the steam engine a ma- 

 terial change has been effected. Engines of great power may now be 

 seen giving motion to wheels of 25 to 30 fe'et diameter, discharging 

 large quantities of water from the lower to the higher levels. 



The scoop-wheel, although a simple and effective machine, is not 

 (according to Mr. Fairbairn's opinion), the most economical for the 

 drainage of low lands. In countries where fuel is expensive, it is an 

 object of great importance to obtain power at a cheap rate, and by tlie 

 application of the steam engine upon the Cornish principle, a saving 

 of three times the fuel now consumed may be effected. The consump- 

 tion of fuel by a well constructed condensing engine is from 10 to 12 

 lbs. of coal per horse power, per hour, or 10 lbs. of coal will raise 

 2,000,000 lbs. of water one foot high in a minute; whereas a single 

 acting Cornish engine, according to the returns, will raise with the 

 same quantity of fuel 8,000,000 lbs.— a duty four times greater than 

 has yet been attained by the common condensing engine. Taking it, 

 however, at only three times the duty, or 6,000,000 lbs. one foot high 

 in a minute, the saving is even then' so great, as to be entitled to the 

 attention of proprietors whose lands are situated at a level requiring 

 the aid of steam to clear them of water. 



From these considerations it appeared to Mr. Fairbairn desirable to 

 apply the Cornish engine, and having been requested by parties in- 

 terested in the drainage of the Lake of Haarlem, to consider the best 

 and cheapest means for the attainment of that object, he proposed a 

 machine, of which the following is a description. 



In raising water by the scoop-wheel, it is obvious that a uniform 

 force is necessary to overcome the resistance upon the floats, as they 

 successively discharge their contents from tiie lower to the higher 

 level. This resistance being constant, the force applied, and the quan- 

 tity of fuel consumed, will be equal to the load, or to that of a low 

 pressure condensing engine, similarly constructed to those on board of 

 steam boats. The effect produced on the bailing-scoop will be totally 

 different, and instead of a continuous action as exhibited in the com- 

 mon wheel, a reciprocating motion will be produced, and the same 

 economy insured as is now exemplified in the returns of the Cornish 

 engines. In applying this description of engine it becomes necessary 



to adopt the reciprocating principle, and by raising a weight suspended 

 at the opposite end of the engine beam B, the large bailing-scoop A, 

 revolving on a fulcrum at C, descends to the lower level, and is filled 

 with water through the opening valves D, D. The weight having 

 been elevated to the full height of the stroke, it descends by the force 

 of gravitation, and raises theTiailing-scoop to a horizontalposition as 

 at E, causing the water to flow over the pivot C, into the level above. 

 The same process is repeated, each stroke by the admission of steam 

 into the cylinders to raise the weight, and the bailing-scoop is again 

 elevated by its descent. 



The principal advantage peculiar to this machine, is its adaptation 

 to the single-acting Cornish engine ; first, by the introduction of a por- 

 tion of high pressure steam to overcome the inertia of the weight; 

 secondly, by its subsequent expansion to maintain the momentum; and 

 lastly, by the gravitation of the w eight to lift the load ; on the same 

 principle, in fact, as the engine at the East London Water Works, 

 under the direction of Mr. Wicksteed, and as those in Cornwall. 



The bailing-scoop is 2.5 feet long and 30 feet wide, composed of 

 boiler-plates, with two partitions to strengthen the bottom and support 

 the valves for the admission of water at D. The machine is calculated 

 to raise about 17 tons of water each stroke, and with an engine of UO 

 horse power will effect a duty equal to 2n or 3 lbs. of coal per horse 

 power, per hour. It will be observed that the length of the stroke 

 continues at all times the same in the cylinder, whilst at a a, b b, &c. 

 it is varied by a series of stops fixed horizontal to the sides of the 

 engine beams, and upon inclined planes on the bailing-scoop. This is 

 done in order to lessen or increase the dip, and to accommodate the 

 lift to a height commensurate with the difference of the levels which 

 may exist between the surface of the lake and the height to which tlie 

 water has to be raised. 



ON THE COMBUSTION OF COAL. 



Sir — Having lately submitted to the public an improved mode of 

 introducing air to the gaseous matter of coal in a furnace, by which its 

 complete combustion is effected, and the generation of smoke neces- 

 sarily prevented ; and finding that the principles on which this is pro- 

 duced have been misrepresented or misunderstood by the contributors 

 to some of the public journals, I am desirous, through the medium of 

 your columns, of being set right in the public view on this iuiportant 

 subject. In some instances, indeed, the effect produced by my mode 

 is attributed to causes which are the very reverse of the fact, and 

 though evidently by a friendly hand, yet the result is so opposed to 

 chemical truth, that I am unwilling to sanction such an explanation of 

 the principles on which I have effected perfect combustion on the 

 large scale of the furnace. 



In the treatise published by me on the " combustion of coal, chemi- 

 cally considered," I have explained the source of those errors into 

 which the patentees of "smoke burning" systems have fallen, by their 

 search after a high temperature, and looking to that temperature as 

 the means of consuming the gas or smoke, to the utter neglect of all 

 that regards the quantity of air admitted to the furnace, or the condi- 

 tions on which it combines with the combustible. In that treatise I 

 have mainly relied on the fact that the question of effective combus- 

 tion is a question as regards the air, and not the temperature. Modern 

 patents have run on the erroneous idea that the gas evolved from coal 

 in the furnace, and from which flame is exclusively derivable, is to be 

 consumed by bringing it into contact with a mass of highly ignited 

 carbonaceous, or coky matter. This I deny, and consider it to be not 

 only a chemical fallacy, but a great practical error. On this ground, 

 therefore, I am unwilling to be considered as regarding the question 

 of a high temperature as the essential to the ignition or combustion of 

 the gaseous matter of coal. My mode of effecting combustion, by in- 

 troducing air to the gas in the way of numerous jets, depends for suc- 

 cess on principles quite distinct from those which are attributed to the 

 action of heated air. By one writer, the effect of my system is stated 

 to be attributable to the circumstance of the air being heated in the 

 ))assage through the diffusion tubes ; now these tubes are used by me 

 for the sole purpose of throwing the air into small jets, corres|)onding, 

 in principle, to the jet from a blow pipe. This mode of explaining 

 my principle goes neither to the right cause or effect. 



So far from the tubes or pipes, which are made of fire clay or east 

 iron, heating the air in its passage through them, I have proved, prac- 

 tically, that the combustion goes on equall)' when the tubes are black 

 and cold, and the air passipg through them necessarily cold ; this cold 

 air, on issuing from the numerous small orifices, conveying the idea of 

 jets oijlavie rather than air. It is important to state that I place no 

 reliance on the question of the temperature of the admitted air. 



