1847.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



391 



cross-bar fixed across the flask, so as to receive the tail-end of the 

 core in such manner as to ensure its correct placing and holding when 

 in the sand-mould, which cross-bar will be found a<lvaiitageous (when 

 casting railway chairs) for holding the core used, whether employed 

 separately or in conjunction with the side-plates shown. 



The second part of the invention consists in so arranging apparatus 

 that a rammer, or rammers, worked by mechanical power, may be 

 employed in ramming the sand into a core-bos, so as to make suitable 

 cores for casting railway chairs. 



The third improvement relates to combining a process for pre- 

 serving the wood used for fastenings of railway chairs and trenails 

 with the process of compression, that for preserving the wood being 

 first performed, and then the compression: — Take the heavy oil 

 of coal-tar, called creosote, and pass through it, in a close vessel, a 

 stream of steam from a boiler capable of sustaining from 8U to lUO lb. 

 pressure ; the pieces of wood prepared for the trenails or wedges are 

 placed in a vessel also of great strength, and the combined va|)our of 

 water and creosote allowed to act upon tliem for some time (half an 

 hour to an hour) ; this combined vapour penetrates the wood elFectually, 

 and when it is desirable to combine more of the creosote with the 

 wood, it is subjected to the vapour of creosote only, without the va- 

 jKiur of water. The patentee states that such modes of impregnating 

 wood with preservative matter is not claimed by him, the same being 

 old and well known. The process of compression is to be performed 

 (when the wood is dry) as described in the said former specification. 



The fourth improvement relates to the manufacture of wood fasten- 

 ings used with railway chairs, and of wood trenails. In practice, such 

 fastenings as are described under the said former patent are liable to 

 exposure to moisture before inserting them, or applying tbem to the 

 purpose for whicb they are intended, and they thus frequently be- 

 come swelled. And it has been found desirable to retard this swell- 

 ing process, which the patentee accomplishes by covering with any 

 repellant of water, as varnish or grease; but it is not intended that 

 this shall permanently repel moisture, as they are required to swell 

 after driving. It has been found that a thin solution of common resin 

 in oil of turpentine answers very well, wbich is used as a coating to 

 sudi fastenings as soon as they are made. 



LUBRICATOR FOR MACHINERY. 



James Carter, of Oldham, Lancaster, painter, ior " an Improved 

 lubricator:'— Gnnie A Dec. 14, 1846; Enrolled June 14, 1847. [Re- 

 ported in i^enton's London Journal.'] 



This improved lubricator is for lubricating shafts, bearings, axles, 

 and working surfaces of machinery generally, and is intended to fur- 

 nish a certain quantity of oil or other lubricating matter to the sur- 

 faces at determinable intervals, which may be varied and regulated at 

 pleasure. 



The annexed engravings show a lubricator as applied to a bearing, 

 and are calculated to furnish the oil or lubricating matter once in everv 

 5,200 revolutions of the shaft. Fig. 1 is a side elevation of the ap'- 



Fig. 1. Fig. 2. 



paratns ; and fig. 2 a transverse section, a, is the shaft to be lubri- 

 cated ; b, the journal carrying the same ; and c, the cap or top-plate 

 of the bearing. To the top of the cap c, a box d, is attached ; to 

 which is fixed a bracket e, for carrying the shafts/, and g. Upon the 

 shaft a, is keyed a worm h, which is cast in two pieces (for the con- 

 venience of fixing on the shaft), and fastened together with small 

 screws. This worm actuates a worm-wheel », of twenty teeth, keyed 

 to one end of the shaft/, which, at its other end, carries a worm,;', in 

 gear with a worm-wheel k, also of twenty teeth, keyed to the shaft g-, 

 which also carries a worm /, for driving a worm-wheel m, having 

 twenty-seven teeth. This wheel m, is fixed at the upper end of a 

 hollow plug n, which is ground true, and revolves ia the box d. To 



the top of this hollow plug n, is fixed the cup or vessel o, which con- 

 tains the lubricating m itter. The plug n, is open at top and bottom, 

 and has two openings,;? and q, one at each side ; it is also provided 

 with a midfeather, extending above the opening/), and below the 

 opening J. As the plug ;;, revolves, the opening}, coming opposite 

 to the screw r, allows the oil to fill the space between the plug and 

 the end of the screw r. The revolution of the plug then brings the 

 opening/), opposite the screw r, and allows the oil left in the space 

 between the screw and plug to pass through the lower part of the 

 plug n, on to the shaft a ; at the same time the opening q, comes op- 

 posite to the screw s, and fills the space between the end of the same 

 and the plug n. Thus it will be seen, that the quantity of oil left in 

 the spaces at the ends of the screws r antl 8, is lurnished to the shaft 

 a, twice in each revolution of the plug «; and as the wheel™ has 

 twenty-seven teeth, and the wheels i and k have each twenty teeth, 

 then 20 X 20 X 27 = 1U4U0 ; therefore, the oil is furnished twice in 

 10,400 revolutions of the shaft a, or, as above stated, once in 5,200 

 revolutions. It will of course be evident that the quantity of oil may 

 be regulated by means of the screws r and s ; and the intervals be- 

 tween each supply may also be regulated by altering the relative 

 proportions of the gearing. It will also be evident, that the same 

 arrangements of mechanisin may be applied, with a slight variation, 

 to lubricating flat surfaces, such as substituting a ratchet-wheel and 

 click, or other suitable contrivance, for the worm h. 



The patentee claims the construction and arrangement of mechanism 

 consisting of the box d, and plug n, as shown in the drawing, and 

 above described, when applied to the purpose of lubricating; without 

 confining himself to the particular mode of actuating the same, or to 

 the exact proportions or dimensions of ditferent parts of the same. 



RBVIE'WS. 



A Catechism of the Steam-Engine, illuslralive of the scientific 

 principles upon which its operation depends, and the practical dttails of 

 its structure, in its applications to mines, mills, steam navigation, and 

 railways, with various suggestions of improvement. By John Bourne, 

 C.E. London: Williams, 1847. 12mo. pp. 276. 



Mr. Bourne is already known as the editor of a quarto treatise on 

 the steam-engine, published in parts, and bearing the name of the 

 " Artizan Club." The present work has much the same merits 

 and defects as its predecessor — it displays, on the one hand, the same 

 diligence and care in collecting important facts and original experi- 

 mental information; on the other, it displays the same want of care 

 and diligence in arranging these valuable materials. This " cate- 

 chism " is not, as far as we have been able to discern, arranged on 

 any definite plan, and the order of the various topics has apparently 

 been left to chance. This, however, is not a very great disadvantage 

 in a work dealing principally with facts, and not professing the cha- 

 racter of a systematic exposition of the general theory of the steam- 

 engine. The scientific principles are, for the most part, tolerably 

 accurate, but they are scattered up and down the book — not connected 

 by a logical chain of reasoning, of which every single link is necessary 

 for the continuity of the whole. It may even be doubted whether 

 the construction of such a chain be yet possible — whether we yet 

 possess body of facts respecting the operation of the steam-engine 

 sufficiently copious and precise to permit their reduction to one 

 general code of laws. Mr. Bourne has not attempted here this peril- 

 ous enterprise, but has accomplished a task less ambitious, but far 

 more useful — that of collecting in a compendious form a great number 

 of experimental observations, practical details, and dimensions and 

 minutiae of the construction and management of engines of various 

 kinds. This practical information will render his book one of real 

 and direct utility to a large class of our readers. 



Some, however, of the doctrines laid down by our author require 

 elucidation ; the foUowuig is one of them : — 



" Q. — By what coDsideratioas is tbe momeatum proper for the fly-wheel 

 of an engine delermmed .' 



".4. — By a reference to the power produced every half stroke of the 

 engine, jomed to the consideration of what relation the energy of the fly- 

 wheel nm must have thereto, to keep the irregularities of motion withm 

 the limits which are admissible. It is found in practice, that when the 

 power resident in the fly-wheel rim, when the engine moves at its average 

 speed, is from two-aud-ahalf to four times greater than the power generated 

 by the engine in one half-stroke — the variation depending on the momen- 

 tum inhereat in tbe machiuery tbe engine has to drive aud the equability 



