The Steam Engine Explained and Illustrated (Seventh Edition) / With an Account of Its Invention and Progressive Improvement, and Its Application to Navigation and Railways; Including Also a Memoir of Watt

by Dionysius Lardner

(115.)

This change in the principle of the machine involved several other changes in the details of its mechanism.

Fig. 33.

(116.)

Fig. 34.

Supposing the piston P to be at the top of the cylinder, and the cylinder below the piston to be filled with pure steam, let the valves S and C′ be opened, the valves C and S′ being closed as represented in [fig. 34.] Steam from the boiler will, therefore, flow in through the open valve S, and will press the piston downwards, while the steam that has filled the cylinder below the piston will pass through the open valve C′ into the exhausting-pipe leading to the condenser, and being condensed will leave the cylinder below the piston a vacuum. The piston will, therefore, be pressed downwards by the action of the steam above it, as in the single-acting engine. Having arrived at the bottom of the cylinder, let the valves S and C′ be both closed, and the valves S′ and C be opened, as represented in [fig. 34.] Steam will now be admitted through the open valve S′ and through the passage D′ below the piston, while the steam which has just driven the piston downwards, filling the cylinder above the piston, will be drawn off through the open valve C, and the exhausting-pipe, into the condenser, leaving the cylinder above the piston a vacuum. The piston will, therefore, be pressed upwards by the action of the steam below it, against the vacuum above it, and will ascend with the same force as that with which it had descended.

This alternate action of the piston upwards and downwards may evidently be continued by opening and closing the valves alternately in pairs. Whenever the piston is at the top of the cylinder, as represented in [fig. 33.], the valves S and C′, that is, the upper steam-valve and the lower exhausting-valve, are opened, and the valves C and S′, that is, the upper exhausting-valve and the lower steam-valve, are closed; and [Pg191] when the piston has arrived at the bottom of the cylinder, as represented in [fig. 34.], the valves C and S′, that is, the upper exhausting-valve and the lower steam-valve, are opened, and the valves S and C′, that is, the upper steam-valve and the lower exhausting-valve, are closed.

If these valves, as has been here supposed, be opened and closed at the moments at which the piston reaches the top and bottom of the cylinder, it is evident that they may be all worked by a single lever connected with them by proper mechanism. When the piston arrives at the top of the cylinder, this lever would be made to open the valves S and C′, and at the same time to close the valves S′ and C; and when it arrives at the bottom of the cylinder, it would be made to close the valves S and C′, and to open the valves S′ and C.

If, however, it be desired to cut off the steam before the arrival of the piston at the termination of its stroke, whether upwards or downwards, then the steam-valves must be closed before the arrival of the piston at the end of its stroke; and as the exhausting-valve ought to be left open until the stroke is completed, these valves ought to be moved at different times. In that case separate levers should be provided for the different valves. We shall, however, return again to the subject of the valves which regulate the admission of steam to the cylinder and its escape to the condenser.