886 report — 1884. 



2. Steam-Engine practice in the United States in 1884 By J. C. Hoapley. 



The subject of this paper was not selected by the writer, who is well aware 

 that it is too vast for adequate treatment within admissible limits, but was assigned 

 him by an eminent professor, whose engagements forbade him complying with a 

 request which he had received to prepare a paper on this subject. 



It seemed to the writer that the most feasible mode of condensation would be 

 found in a succinct account of a few conspicuous examples of the leading types of 

 each class of steam-engines actually in use, both as to construction and perform- 

 ance. The pumping-engine of the Lowell water-works gave, in July 1873, a duty 

 of 93,002,272 foot-pounds per 100 pounds of coal burned, the contract duty, based 

 on previous experience, being 75,000,000. The mean duty in practice during ten 

 years has been more than 98,000,000. 



The Lvnn pumping-engine gave, in December 1873, a duty of 103,923,215 foot- 

 pounds per 100 pounds of coal, and for six years, 1877-82, has given, in actual use, 

 a duty of 115,888,996 foot-pounds per 100 pounds of coal burned while pumping. 

 The Lawrence pumping-engine gave, in May 1876. a duty of 98,261,700 foot- 

 pounds J in July 1879, 111,548,925 ; and during five years, 1879-1883, 102,120,127 

 foot-pounds, the latter being calculated on all the coal burned except for warming 

 the engine-house when the engine was not running. The pumping-engine at Paw- 

 tucket, R.I., gave in August 1878 a duty during the working days of two weeks, 

 based on all the coal burned, of 104,357,654 foot-pounds per 100 pounds of coal 

 and 133,522,060 foot-pounds during 24 hours' continuous run, based on all the coal 

 burned during the test. This is a compound receiver engine, cylinders 15 and 30 

 inches diameter and 30 inches stroke, 52 revolutions per minuute. 



The Pettaconset Station pumping-engine, Providence, gave in May 1882 a 

 duty of 113,271,000 foot-pounds, and during the year 1883, with inferior coal, 

 106,048,000. "With coal equal to that used at the test, the dutv during the year 

 would have exceeded 114,000,000. 



A Corliss engine at the Hourse Mill, Woonsocket, Pt.L, of 500 horse-power, 

 running at 400 i.h.p., is warranted to run through the year with not exceeding P75 

 pounds of coal per i.h.p. per hour, and is coming within the guaranty. It uses 

 only 11"5 pounds of visible steam per i.h.p. and per hour, and not more than 16 - 5 

 pounds in all, including that returned from the steam-jackets. 



Engines of the leading manufacturers are passed in rapid review : The Corliss 

 Steam Engine Company, the Putnam Machine Company, Charles II. Brown & Co., 

 Fitchbung Steam Engine Company, AVin. A. Harris, E. P. Allis & Co., Jerome 

 Wheelock, Buckey Steam Engine Company, and the Hartford Engineering Com- 

 pany, the Atlas Engine Company, the Southwark Foundry and Machine Com- 

 pany (makers of the Porter-Allen engine), Geo. T. McLauthlin & Co. (makers of 

 the Hoadlev engine), the Cummer Engine Company. A. L. Ide, B. F. Sturtevaut, 

 the Ball Engine Company, the Lambertville Engine Company, the Providence 

 Steam Engine Company (makers of Noble T. Green's engine). 



Steam pumps are only mentioned in passing, as are also steamboat engines on 

 western rivers, portable and semi-portable engines, threshing-engines, traction- 

 engines, and plough ing-engines, and marine engines. Ilerreshoff's launch and 

 torpedo-boat engine is brieflv noticed. Curious engines are merely alluded to. 



The American locomotive receives more full notice. Gradually developed 

 from the germ during fifty years, this grand machine had assumed a few distinct 

 tvpes which seemed well-nigh incapable of radical improvement, save in the area 

 of fire-grate, which, always too small, had become relatively more inadequate by 

 reason of the rapidly increasing size and weight of engines, while there seemed to 

 be no room for enlarging the iire-gTate. The Wootten engine, by placing the grate 

 above the drivers, has removed that difficulty, apparently with good results, so far 

 as the limited number of engines in use — only a few hundred — and the brief ex- 

 perience with the first of them, only seven or eight years, afford the means of 

 judging. This appears to be one of America's most important contributions to the. 

 locomotive of the future. 



An express passenger locomotive, No. 169. on the Central Railroad of New 



