1843.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



17 



while the English engines are certainly at one extreme, we are probably at 

 the other. Again ; the Great Western, if you please, comes over here with 

 decks as "clean " as a " man of war," and returns with the singular notion, 

 that on her quarter deck, can be erected, at a trifling expense, a saloon equal 

 in every respect — and superior in many — to the one below, and making an 

 addition to her accommodations equal to one third of all her cabin room 

 below deck ! 



Notwithstanding the unequalled degree of perfection to which steam na- 

 vigation upon our rivers has attained — excepting, of course, the great river 

 of the west — the impression is very prevalent abroad, that in the attempt to 

 compete with the " Lion of the seas," we shall be found wanting — an im- 

 pression unfortunately, most consistent with a certain illegitimate specimen 

 of " Yankee enterprise," which has recently visited your shores. We think, 

 however, that the time is not far distant when, with a ship exceeding in 

 length the ordinary proportion, with engines having greater length of stroke 

 so as to admit of working steam at a greater pressure without adding weight 

 to the working parts, with paddle wheels large in diameter, very narrow, 

 and making revolutions not less than 20 per minute ; and with boilers 

 adapted to a pressure of 151b. to 201b., we shall be able somewhat to 

 " shorten the distance " which separates us from the " land of our fathers." 

 Certain it is, that our ship-builders and engineers will not be satisfied with a 

 steamer which will require, for a passage to Liverpool, more than ten days 

 of good weather. 



You were pleased to notice in a favourable manner the engines of the 

 Spanish steamers Regent and Congress, built by the late firm of Ward, 

 Stillman and Co., of the Novelty iron works, New York, and to intimate a 

 wish to have the details of their arrangement. In answer to which, I take 

 pleasure in sending to you a detailed account of those vessels, together with 

 so much of a drawing of their engines, as will answer the purpose of your 

 inquiry, and which I am authorized to do by Messrs. Stillman and Co. 



View of the Upper Valves. 



A, Throttle valve. B, Expansion valve. C, Steam valve. D, Exhaust 

 valve. E, Upper part of cylinder. F, Exhaust pipe. G, Steam pipe to 

 lower valve. 



Length on deck 

 Breadth . 

 Ditto at water line 

 Depth of hold 

 Draft of water 

 Burthen 



Feet. Inches. 

 154 

 30 8 

 2S 8 

 14 6 

 8 6 

 on tons. 



Frame of white oak, live oak, locust and cedar. The floor of white oak, 

 laid close and caulked inside and out. Planked with white oak ; fastened 

 throughout with copper thorough bolts, composition spikes and locust tree- 

 nails. 



Engines : — 



Diameter of cylinders 12 i indies. 



Length of stroke 4 feet 7 inches. 



Diameter of paddle wheels 18 feet. 



Length of board 7 feet 6 inches, and width 2 feet 6 inches. 



Pressure of steam 101b. 



Number of revolutions per minute 2G. 



Total weight of engines, wheels and boilers 100 tons. 



Two copper boilers 22 tons. 



Length of boilers 14 feet, height 9 feet, and breadth 8 feet. 



Total of fire surface 1400 feet. 



Speed of vessels 10 miles per hour. 



Cost of vessel, engines and boilers, about 150,000 dollars. 



It would be trifling, I fear, with the patience of your readers, to enter 

 into a detailed description of the drawings, representing, as they do — with 

 one or two exceptions — but an "old acquaintance," the " side lever engine;" 

 the principal deviation from which, is the steam valves, and perhaps the air- 

 pump bucket. The valves are shown in the section in the same position as 

 in the drawings you refer to as having received, and which has recently been 

 published in the London Mechanics' Magazine. As to the merit of this ar- 

 rangement of the valves, I will not now offer an opinion, except that they 

 are not generally used here for large engines. 



As English engineers — either from strict fidelity to the opinion) of Watt, 

 or from much actual experience — have held us guilty of divers " barbarisms," 

 in our substitutions for the use of the "slide valve," I shall make this 

 matter the subject of another communication, accompanied with a sketch of 

 the most approved form of the " double " or " balance valve." 



The bucket of the air-pump, as shown in the separate sketch, for aught I 

 know, may not be peculiar to this country, nor is it universally adopted 

 here ; it has been found, however — in situations where the condensing water 

 is free from sand — to be far more efficient and durable than any other in 

 use. 



The " bilge injection," shown near the bottom of the condenser, is here 

 thought to be an essential part of the engine of every steam vessel. And 

 instances have occurred in which the use of it has been attended with the 

 saving of much life and property. 



With your permission, I will from time to time furnish your readers with 

 notices — accompanied with drawings — of such improvements in American 

 engineering, as may be thought interesting, or of such of its features as are 

 not familiar to our transatlantic brethren generally. 

 I am, Sir, &c, 



A'eti; York, July 1842. F. W. S. 



In our Journal for June last, we noticed that the Spanish govern- 

 ment had ordered, and obtained from New York two war steamers, named 

 the " Regent " and " Congress," and in commenting thereon we observed, 

 we wished some further information before we gave any opinion on the sub- 

 ject; we were favoured with a lithographed external view of the engines, but 

 we desired to look below the surface. Our wish has now been complied with, 

 we are in possession of an apparently perfect section of the engines of the 

 Regent and Congress steam ships, together with F. W. S.'s remarks thereon, 

 and which we now publish. We thank him, and think, if his intentions are 

 supported by engineers of the Old and New World; it will do much towards 

 the explosion of prejudice, the extension of knowledge, and general good of 

 mankind; that we heartily co-operate in this view, we plainly avow, as in 

 fact our remarks in our last December number fully prove. We are, therefore, 

 surprised at the opening paragraph of our correspondent, and we are uncon- 

 scious of having admitted anv thing into our columns which could offend his 

 taste. If we have descanted upon " Brother Jonathan," it was more in play- 

 fulness than anger, not as an opposing race, but as descendants of one com- 

 mon stock, to which genius is common. We think, however, onr corres- 

 pondent's reprehensions are misapplied, as we do not recollect using the 

 phrase he complains of. With tins exordium wc at once proceed to an 

 analysis and consideration of the engines of the Regent and Congress. 



The engines are of the beam kind, and scarcely to be distinguished from 

 those of the Meg,era by Seaward, published by Weale in hisTredgold, pi. 49, 

 vol. 2. The architecture is vcrv similar to the engines of the Tiger, by 

 Edward Burv. (See Trcdgold, vol. 2, plates 110 and 1 10 a.) In one point 

 thev differ, in the use of circular valves instead of the D or Murdock slide, 

 and' in this it i-e,embies another emanation ofiAmerican intellect, called the 

 Ro,/al William (now Isabella II.) which; made the voyage to England in 

 1832, and subsequently figured in the Spanish war. 



3 



