806 EEPOET— 1888. 



ordinary fire in the kitclieu ; about three hundred quartern loaves are baked with 

 the gas every day at a cost of about one shilling only for fuel. The gas is also 

 used for two 12 horse-power (uom.) Otto engines, which pump water and drive 

 a dynamo for electric lighting. This gas is used on a large scale at the cocoa 

 works of Messrs. Van Houten & Son, Messrs. Cadbury, and Messrs. Russ-Suchard 

 & Co. Messrs. Onderwater & Co. of Dordrecht use it for heatmg the drying- 

 cliambers in their starch works. Messrs. Guittet of Herblay have for some years 

 used it for making varnish, and fchey not only effect a considerable economy, but 

 they avoid all risk of lire, which is a great consideration in varnish works. This 

 gas is also used by the Societe Nestle for soldering their condensed-milk tins, and 

 more recently it has been adopted by Messrs. Huntley, Bourne, & Stevens of 

 Reading not only for soldering but for heating a large number of ovens in which 

 japanned and varnished goods are stored. Messrs. Hillman, Herbert, & Cooper 

 use this gas at their Coventry works and in Germany for brazing with blow-pipes 

 the joints of bicycles and tricj'-cles, as well as for enamelling. On the Continent 

 several fii-ms use this gas for singeing silk yarns and textile fabrics. It is also 

 used by several linen manufacturers in the north of Ireland for stentering, which 

 they formerly did with hot air. The cost of the gas somewhat depends on that of 

 the fuel ; but, speaking generally, the equivalent of 1,000 cubic feet of ordinary 

 lighting-gas costs from sixpence to one shilling. 



3. The Shipman Engine. By W. R. Pidgeon, M.A. 



This motor is an automatic petroleum-burning steam engine, and has been 

 designed by Mr. Shipman, of America, for use, either on launches or in houses, 

 where a moderate amount of power is required. One of its essential points is that 

 it is automatic, so that, when once steam has been generated in the boiler, prac- 

 tically no further attention is required beyond that of opening and shutting the 

 steam valve whenever the engine is started or stopped, the lire, speed, and water- 

 feed being so arranged as to attend to themselves. 



The engine is simple or compound, as may be best suited to the work it has 

 to perform, and is built upon the same frame as the boiler. This latter is com- 

 posed of tubes about 18 inches long, which are screwed into a flat oblong chamber 

 at one end and closed at the other, and is lired externally. 



Two small aspirators or atomisers, taking steam from the boiler, suck up the 

 petroleum, which is used as fuel, from a chamber below, and drive it into the 

 furnaces in the form of a tine spray. A couple of torches ignite this spray as it 

 passes inwards, and the flames produced by its combustion rush round and among 

 the boiler tubes. The amount of steam and petroleum that is used by the atomisers 

 is regulated by a diaphragm connected to a valve in the steam pipe that supplies 

 them. 



This diaphragm is exposed to the steam pressure on the one side, and is held 

 down by a spring, loaded to a certain pressure, on the other, and moves upwards 

 or downwards as the steam exerts more pressure than the spring, or vice versa. Its 

 movement is conveyed to the valve by means of a rod, and it thus regulates the 

 amount of steam passing at any moment to the atomisers. In this way the Are is 

 made to vary inversely as the pressure in the boiler, and thus keeps the latter 

 constant. 



The petroleum is stored in a tank at any convenient distance from the motor,, 

 and is led to it through a pipe havmg a regulating valve in it. The water in the 

 boiler is kept at a constant level by means of a float, connected to a tap in the 

 suction pipe of the pump. This float is placed in a chamber, which is joined to 

 the top and bottom of the boiler, and rises or falls with the level of the water.. 

 The movement is conveyed, through a stufting-box and by means of levers, to the 

 tap in the suction pipe, which it opens or closes as the water level changes. 



The speed of the engine is kept regular by means of a governor, which works 

 directly on to the excentric, and the lubricating of all journals, cylinders, and 

 slides is performed by the ordinary sight-feed lubricators and cups, except that of 



