STARTING VALVE
Sectional and Side Elevations of One of the Two Pairs of Porter-Allen Engines in the Colt Armory, Hartford, Conn.
In preparing for the engine manufacture one of my first aims was the production of true surface plates for finishing my guide-bars, cross-heads, valves, and seats, and cylinder and steam-chest joints, all of which I made steam-tight scraped joints requiring no packing. This was a new departure in steam-engine work in this country. I fancied myself an expert in the art, but found out that there was one degree at least that I had not taken. I designed several sizes of surface plates, intended primarily to fit the guide-bars of the engines, and also straight edges 6 feet in length by 2¹⁄₂ inches wide. These are represented in the accompanying [cuts].
| A | STRAIGHT EDGE | |||
| B | SECTION ON THE LINE A-B | |||
| RIGHT-ANGLE PLATE | ||||
| SURFACE PLATE | ||||
| SIDE VIEW | END VIEW | |||
Surface Plates Designed by Mr. Porter.
I found still working in my governor shop a man named Meyers. He was the best fitter I ever had; had fitted every governor made in my shop, the little engine or the parts of it that I took to England, and long before had fitted my stone-cutting machine in Mr. Banks’ shop. This man I taught all I knew about the art of producing true planes by the system of scraping, and he produced surface plates and straight edges that seemed to me quite perfect.
The following incident illustrates the general intelligence on this subject at that time among skilled workmen in this country. As I was inspecting Mr. Meyers’ first work in scraping, my foreman came along, and after observing it quite a while remarked, “It is my opinion you will never make a proper job of that, till you put it on the planer and take a light cut over it.”
One day, not long after we started, George Goodfellow walked into my shop. He had come from the Whitworth works, had been foreman there of the upstairs room in which most of the fine scraping on their tools was done. I had a slight acquaintance with him, but could not remember having been in his room but once, and then only for a minute or two. He had become disgusted with Mr. Widdowson and the way things were going on under his management, and had resigned his position and emigrated to the United States; found out where I was hiding, I never learned how, and applied to me for a job, which I was glad to give him. I cannot imagine any greater contrast than between Mr. Goodfellow and every other man I met in the Whitworth shops.