Steam Turbines / A Book of Instruction for the Adjustment and Operation of the Principal Types of this Class of Prime Movers

McGRAW-HILL BOOK COMPANY, Inc. 239 WEST 39TH STREET, NEW YORK 6 BOUVERIE STREET, LONDON, E. C.
Copyright , 1909, by the Hill Publishing Company
All rights reserved
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This issue of the Power Handbook attempts to give a compact manual for the engineer who feels the need of acquainting himself with steam turbines. To accomplish this within the limits of space allowed, it has been necessary to confine the work to the description of a few standard types, prepared with the assistance of the builders. Following this the practical experience of successful engineers, gathered from the columns of Power , is given. It is hoped that the book will prove of value to all engineers handling turbines, whether of the described types or not.
Hubert E. Collins. New York, April , 1909.


Of the making of books there is no end. This seems especially true of steam-turbine books, but the book which really appeals to the operating engineer, the man who may have a turbine unloaded, set up, put in operation, and the builders' representative out of reach before the man who is to operate it fully realizes that he has a new type of prime mover on his hands, with which he has little or no acquaintance, has not been written. There has been much published, both descriptive and theoretical, about the turbine, but so far as the writer knows, there is nothing in print that tells the man on the job about the details of the turbine in plain language, and how to handle these details when they need handling. The operating engineer does not care why the moving buckets are made of a certain curvature, but he does care about the distance between the moving bucket and the stationary one, and he wants to know how to measure that distance, how to alter the clearance, if necessary, to prevent rubbing. He doesn't care anything about the area of the step-bearing, but he does want to know the way to get at the bearing to take it down and put it up again, etc.