Engineering reminiscences contributed to "Power" and "American machinist"

by Charles T. Porter

We soon had our first engine running successfully, in spite of some annoyances. I insisted on having the joints on the steam-chest and cylinder heads made scraped joints, but the foreman put them together with the white and red lead putty just the same, so that work was thrown away, and when we wanted to open a joint we had to resort to the familiar wedges. The pipes were of cast iron, with square holes in the flanges. The ends were left rough. They were put together with the same putty. The joints were encircled by clips, which prevented the putty from being forced outward to any great extent in screwing the flanges together. What went inside had to work its way through as it was broken off by the rush of steam and hot water. When the engine was started we could not get much vacuum. On taking the pipes apart to find what the matter was, we discovered that the workmen had left a wooden plug in the condenser-nozzle, where it had been put to prevent anything from getting in during its transportation. The proper mode of protection would of course have been to bolt a board on the flange.

The worst trouble was from a blunder of my own. My exhibition engine had cast-iron valves running on cast-iron seats, and the friction between these surfaces under the steam pressure was so little that it did not injure the governor action appreciably. But I could not let well enough alone. Mr. Lee had told me that in the steam fire-engines they used gun-metal valves on steel seats, which I thought must have some wonderful advantages, so at considerable additional expense I fitted up my first engine in the same way. The governor worked very badly. I had the pleasure of demonstrating the fact that brass on steel is the very best combination possible for producing friction. I went back to cast-iron valves, when the trouble disappeared.

We had an order for an engine to drive the works of Evan Leigh, Son & Co. Mr. Leigh was quite a famous man, the inventor of Leigh’s top roller, used universally in drawing-machines. I was told he was the only man then living who had invented an essential feature in spinning machinery. I struck out a new design, which proved quite successful. They wished to give 100 revolutions per minute to their main line of shafting running overhead through the center of their shop. I planned a vertical engine, standing on a bed-plate, which carried also an A frame.

The engine-room was located at the end of the shop. The line of shaft passed through a wall-box and then 3 feet further to its main bearing at the top of this upright frame. The latter was stayed from the wall by two ample cast-iron stays. The fly-wheel was outside this frame and carried the crank-pin. The shaft was continued quite stiff through the wall-box, with long bearings. By this plan I got rid of gears. Belts for taking power from a prime mover were then unknown in England. The fly-wheel was only 10 feet in diameter, with rim 8×10 inches, and was of course cast in one piece. It proved to be ample. The engine was the largest I had yet made, 22 inches diameter of cylinder by 36 inches stroke, making 100 revolutions. I was still tied to 600 feet piston travel per minute. I did not venture to suggest any greater speed than that; could not have sold an engine in Lancashire if I had.

I introduced in this engine a feature which I afterwards sincerely wished I had not done, though not on my own account. This was a surface condenser. It worked well, always maintaining a good vacuum. I shall have more to say respecting this engine later, which will explain my regret about the condenser. I had about this time the pleasure of a visit from two American engineers, Robert Briggs and Henry R. Towne, who were traveling together in England, and were at the trouble to look me up. I took them to see this engine, and I am sorry to say they were not so much carried away with the novel design as I was. But if I had the same to do again I do not think I could do better.

The last time I saw that engine I found no one in the engine-room. I inquired of some one where the engineer was, and was told I would find him in the pipe-shop. I found him there at work. He told me he had not been staying in the engine-room for a long time, he had “nowt to do,” and so they gave him a job there.

When I went with Ormerod, Grierson & Co., they were deep in the execution of a large order known as the Oporto Crystal Palace. Portugal was behind every other country in Europe in its arts and manufactures. In fact, it had none at all. At Oporto there was a large colony of English merchants, by whom all the trade of the port was carried on. These had conceived the idea of holding at Oporto an international exposition, which idea was put into execution. Our firm had secured the contract for all the iron-work for a pretty large iron and glass building, and for the power and shafting for the Machinery Hall.

I was soon called on for the plans for an Allen engine to be shown there. This was to be a non-condensing engine, 14×24, to make 150 revolutions per minute, and which accordingly was made and sent, with two Lancashire boilers. I went on to attend the opening of the exposition on the first of May, 1865, and see that the engine was started in good shape.

I sailed from London on a trading-steamer for Oporto, and on the voyage learned various things that I did not know before. One of these was how to make port wine. I asked the captain what his cargo consisted of. He replied: “Nine hundred pipes of brandy.” “What are you taking brandy to Portugal for?” “To make wine.” “But what kind of brandy is it that you take from England?” “British brandy.” “What is it made from?” “Corn.” By this word he meant wheat. In England Indian corn is called maize. I do not know whether “corn” included barley and rye or not.

We had the pleasure in Oporto of meeting a Portuguese inventor. In England there then existed the rude method of announcing at each principal seaport the instant of noon by firing a cannon by an electric current from the Greenwich Observatory. The more accurate method now in use substitutes sight for sound. This inventor proposed planting a cannon for this purpose in an opening in a church tower, of which there were plenty. The hammer, by the fall of which a pill of fulminate was to be exploded and the cannon fired, was to be held up by a string. The rays of the sun were focused by a burning-glass on a point, which at the instant that the sun reached the meridian would reach this string. The string would be burned off, and the cannon would go off. In the rare case for Oporto of a cloudy day, or if for any reason the automatic action failed, it would be the duty of a priest, after waiting a few minutes to be sure of the failure, to go up and fire the gun. The enthusiastic inventor urged it on the English. It was thought, however, that the more feeble power of the sun’s rays in the higher latitude of England would not warrant the application of this ingenious invention there, and besides neither perforated church towers nor idle priests were available for the purpose.