Pan 
STEAMING APPARATUS. 
cured ; and if a special water-cistern be not used, 
the boiler must be filled through a funnel and 
stop-cock at each operation. The furnace may 
be set either on the right or the left side of the 
steaming-house, or in the middle of it, according 
to the position of the chimney; and the steam- 
ing vessels may be distributed as the situation 
requires. A good variety of boiler to steam for 
from 10 to 16 horses is 3 feet 4 inches long, 18 
inches wide, and 21 inches high, and is set 
lengthwise in a brick furnace; the fire- grate 
being placed under the front end of the boiler, 
and a flue carried from that quite round, before 
entering the chimney. By this arrangement, 
the fire or heated air is held as long as possible 
in contact with the boiler, which takes up the 
greater part of the heat evolved from the burn- 
ing fuel; and it is worthy of remark, that the 
effect of the fuel depends much on the proper 
construction of the furnace and flues, to bring 
out the greatest effect from a given quantity of 
coal. The boiler is provided with a man hole, 
to the door of which the steam-pipe is attached ; 
and both can readily be removed at pleasure. 
It is also furnished with a safety-valve, which 
need not be loaded above 2 lbs. to the square 
inch. A feed-pipe is also attached by a coup- 
ling screw to the boiler, and its other extre- 
mity to the bottom of the water-cistern, placed 
at not less than 6 feet above the level of the 
boiler. One end of a rod is jointed to the pro- 
jecting end of a lever above the water-cistern ; 
and to the other end of this rod, after passing 
through a small stuffing-box in the top of the 
boiler, is attached a stone float, or a hollow cop- 
per ball, immersed in the water of the boiler. 
The opposite end of the lever is connected to the 
rod of a valve, placed at the bottom of the cis- 
tern, closing the entrance to the feed-pipe; and 
the rods at the two ends of the lever are duly 
balanced with the float on the one side, and the 
valve on the other. When the surface of the 
water in the boiler falls by evaporation, or any 
other cause, the float losing the support of the 
water, falls along with it, and opens the valve at 
the mouth of the feed-pipe, letting a quantity 
enter until the surface again rises, carrying up 
the float to its former position, which, through 
the medium of the lever, shuts the valve, and so 
cuts off further supply, until a repetition of the 
operation is required by further evaporation. As 
an additional security, two gauge-cocks are in- 
serted into the boiler; and these have their in- 
ward extremity prolonged downward to such 
length, that when the boiler is in a proper state, 
the one terminates in steam, the other in water, 
so that the one cock, when opened, emits steam, 
the other water. If too much water is intro- 
duced, the steam-cock will blow out water, a 
part of which may therefore be drawn off; and 
if the water-cock blow out steam, the water has 
fallen too low in the boiler, indicating some de- 
333 
supply should be introduced. For the con- 
veniency of drawing off water from the boiler 
for any purpose, a nozzle is attached to it, by 
which a supply can be got at any time when the 
boiler is in operation. The pipe which conveys 
the steam from the boiler to the steaming vessels 
may have a swan-neck curvature, and should 
not be less than 2 inches in the bore, and must 
send off a branch to each steaming-vessel or re- 
ceiver. The steaming vessels —if casks are 
used, which are the most convenient—are sus- 
pended by gudgeons between posts, poised in 
such a manner, as to make them easily over- 
turned, for the purpose of discharging the con- 
tents; and each is furnished with a false bottom 
perforated to admit the steam; while a short 
nozzle, of about 4 inches long, of 14 inch pipe, is 
fitted to the real bottom of the receiver, project- 
ing outwards; and the connection between this 
and the steam-pipe is formed by means of a piece 
of copper or tin-plate tube, 6 inches long, which 
slides externally upon the branch of the steam- 
pipe,—and when the end of the branch is brought 
to coincide with the nozzle, in the bottom of the 
receiver, the sliding piece is pushed forward till 
it embrace both parts. The size of the casks 
will be regulated by the quantity required to be 
done; but the boiler here described will supply 
steam for three casks of from 30 to 40 gallons 
each. The covering of the receiver is by no means 
of importance ; a wooden cover, with two or three 
folds of thick sacking, or an old sack, thrown 
over it, does quite as well as a steam-tight cover. 
The true bottom of the casks should be per- 
forated with a few holes, to allow the escape of 
condensed water, which also carries off the colour- 
ing matter of the potatoes. When the operation 
is concluded, the steam - pipes are disengaged ; 
the ends may be stopped with a wooden plug,— 
or by the stop-cocks, when such are used; but, 
at the same time, proper attention must be given | 
to the fire, that the production of steam may be 
checked. The casks are now overturned, and 
the contents discharged into a trough, or what 
is better, into a large close wheel - barrow.—In 
this kind of apparatus, it is evident that the 
boiling of any substance cannot be done in the 
boiler itself; but it is well known that any sub- 
stance can be boiled in a separate vessel, by in- 
troducing steam to it, either directly to the liquid 
that it contains, or by applying the steam through 
metallic pipes, or into a vessel surrounding the 
first. These, however, are attended with con- 
siderable expense; as distinct vessels from those 
for steaming roots, &c. must be employed. It 
has also been ascertained, though perhaps not 
generally known, that grain of any kind cannot 
be dressed or cooked by dry steam applied to 
the dry grain. If the steam is at a low pres- 
sure, or a little above that of atmospheric, a 
species of parching is produced on the grain so 
treated ; and if steam of very high pressure is 
fect in the action of the feed-pipe, and that a | applied, the grain may be entirely carbonized. 
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