850 Transactions of the American Institute. 



STEAM BOILER— ITS DEFECTS AND THE REMEDY. 



Mr. Chairman, and Gentlemen of the Club: In presenting to your 

 consideration, a subject, to which so many men have devoted their 

 lives, I will not dwell on its importance. 



During the last fifty years, there has been no other branch of 

 mechanics, to which so much time, money and engineering skill 

 has been directed, as to this one subject of evaporation, and yet, 

 how meager the results, especially in three of its most important 

 features, viz: economy in fuel, economy in weight, and economy 

 in the life and limbs of mankind. 



Vigorous and persistent efi'orts have also been made to accommo- 

 date steam power to agriculture, and yet, in this almost boundless 

 field of labor, we are still, like the ancient Egyptians, compelled 

 to use the ox, the ass and the horse, to scratch a few inches of the 

 top of the soil. 



Why is it, that in this boasted nineteenth century, we make no 

 progress, absolutely none, in a matter of such vital importance as 

 the application of steam to the cultivation of the soil? The horse 

 plow, turning a few inches of earth, cannot cheat nature into her 

 best endeavors, for the immutable law of quantity or time must 

 still control; scrimp her in material, and she will attenuate the 

 burden of one year over many years; give her generous means, and 

 you shall have quick and abundant returns. 



We all know that the immediate reason why the steam engine 

 ftannot be used to advantage on the soft soil of the farm, is owing 

 to its excessive weight. And yet, a fifty-horse engine consumes 

 only a half pint of water at each stroke; and this water is supplied 

 by the feed-pipe as fast as required, and at the full temperature 

 (or might be); and to evaporate this little quantity, requires tons 

 of water and iron, making a great volcano, laboring to bring it 

 forth. 



There must be a radical error at the very foundation of our system 

 of evaporation, or the ten thousand devices, making a great noise of 

 onward movement, would surely have been more successful. Let 

 us carefully examine and see if our efibrts are in the right direc- 

 tion; if they are founded on scientific data, otherwise we may spend 

 another fifty years as fruitlessly as the last. 



It is evident that in order to obtain maximum results, the heat 

 must not only be absorbed at the immediate point of combustion, 

 but every inch of the evaporating surface must be maintained at 

 the highest favorable temperature. And I can demonstrate, that 



