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

The valve G is called the upper steam valve, H the lower steam valve, I the exhausting valve, and E the condensing valve.

From the bottom of the condenser D proceeds a tube leading to the air-pump, which is also submerged in the cistern of cold water. In this tube is a valve M, which opens outwards from the condenser towards the air-pump. In the piston of the air-pump N is a valve which opens upwards. The piston-rod Q of the air-pump is attached to a beam of wood called a plug frame, which is connected with the working beam by a flexible chain playing on the small arch-head immediately over the air-pump. From the top of the air-pump barrel above the piston proceeds a pipe or passage leading to a small cistern, B, called the hot well. The pipe which leads to this well, is supplied with a valve, K, which opens outwards from the air pump barrel towards the well. From the nature of its construction, the valve M admits the flow of water from the condenser towards the air-pump, but prevents its return; and, in like manner, the valve K admits the flow of water from the upper part of the air-pump barrel into the hot well B, but obstructs its return.

Let us now consider how these valves should be worked in order to move the piston upwards and downwards with the necessary force. It is in the first place necessary that all the air which fills the cylinder, the tubes and the condenser shall be expelled. To accomplish this it is only necessary to open at once the three valves G, H, and I. The steam then rushing from the boiler through the steam-pipe S, and the open valve G will pass into the cylinder above the piston, will fill the tube T, pass through the lower steam valve H, will fill the cylinder C below the piston, and will pass through the open valve I into the condenser. If the valve E be closed so that no jet shall play in the condenser, the steam rushing into it will be partially condensed by the cold surfaces to which it will be exposed; but if the boiler supply it through the pipe S in sufficient abundance, it will rush with violence through the cylinder and all the passages, and its pressure in the [Pg137] condenser D, combined with that of the heated air with which it is mixed, will open the valve M, and it will rush through mixed with the air into the air-pump barrel N. It will press the valves in the air-pump piston upwards, and, opening them, will rush through, and will collect in the air-pump barrel above the piston. It will then, by its pressure, open the valve K, and will escape into the cistern B.

Throughout this process the steam, which mixed with the air fills the cylinder, condenser and air-pumps will be only partially condensed in the last two, and it will escape mixed with air through the valve K, and this process will continue until all the atmospheric air which at first filled the cylinder, tubes, condenser and air-pump barrel shall be expelled through the valve K, and these various spaces shall be filled with pure steam. When that has happened let us suppose all the valves closed. In closing the valve I the flow of steam to the condenser will be stopped, and the steam contained in it will speedily be condensed by the cold surface of the condenser, so that a vacuum will be produced in the condenser, the condensed steam falling in the form of water to the bottom. In like manner, and for like reasons, a vacuum will be produced in the air-pump. The valve M, and the valves in the air-pump piston will be closed by their own weight.

By this process, which is called blowing through, the atmospheric air, and other permanent gases, which filled the cylinder, tubes, condenser and air-pump are expelled, and these spaces will be a vacuum. The engine is then prepared to be started, which is effected in the following manner:—The upper steam valve G is opened, and steam allowed to flow from the boiler through the passage leading to the top of the cylinder. This steam cannot pass to the bottom of the cylinder, since the lower steam valve H is closed. The space in the cylinder below the piston being therefore a vacuum, and the steam pressing above it the piston will be pressed downwards with a corresponding force. When it has arrived at the bottom of the cylinder the steam valve G must be closed, and at the same time the valve H opened. The valve I leading to the condenser being also closed, the steam [Pg138] which fills the cylinder above the piston is now admitted to circulate through the open valve H below the piston, so that the piston is pressed equally upwards and downwards by steam, and there is no force to resist its movement save its friction with the cylinder. The weight of the pump rods on the opposite end of the beam being more than equivalent to overcome this the piston is drawn to the top of the cylinder, and pushes before it the steam which is drawn through the tube T, and the open valve H, and passes into the cylinder C below the piston.

When the piston has thus arrived once more at the top of the cylinder, let the valve H be closed, and at the same time the valves G and I opened, and the condensing cock E also opened, so as to admit the jet to play in the condenser. The steam which fills the cylinder C below the piston, will now rush through the open valve I into the condenser which has been hitherto a vacuum, and there encountering the jet, will be instantly converted into water, and a mixture of condensed steam and injected water will collect in the bottom of the condenser. At the same time, the steam proceeding from the boiler by the steam pipe S to the upper steam box A, will pass through the open steam valve G to the top of the piston, but cannot pass below it because of the lower steam valve H being closed. The piston, thus acted upon above by the pressure of the steam, and the space in the cylinder below it being a vacuum, its downward motion is resisted by no force but the friction, and it is therefore driven to the bottom of the cylinder. During its descent the valves G, I, and E remained open. At the moment it arrives at the bottom of the cylinder, all these three valves are closed, and the valve H opened. The steam which fills the cylinder above the piston is now permitted to circulate below it, by the open valve H, and the piston being consequently pressed equally upwards and downwards will be drawn upwards as before by the preponderance of the pump rods at the opposite end of the beam. The weight of these rods must also be sufficiently great to draw the air-pump piston N upwards. As this piston rises in the air-pump, it leaves a vacuum below it into which the water and air collected in the condenser will be drawn through the valve M, which opens outwards. When the [Pg139] air-pump piston has arrived at the top of the barrel, which it will do at the same time that the steam piston arrives at the top of the cylinder, the water and the chief part of the air or other fluids which may have been in the condenser will be drawn into the barrel of the air-pump, and the valve M being closed by its own weight, assisted by the pressure of these fluids they cannot return into the condenser. At the moment the steam piston arrives at the top of the cylinder, the valve H is closed, and the three valves G, I, and E are opened. The effect of this change is the same as was already described in the former case, and the piston will in the same manner and from the same causes be driven downwards. The air-pump piston will at the same time descend by the force of its own weight, aided by the weight of the plug-frame attached to its rod. As it descends, the air below it will be gradually compressed above the surface of the water in the bottom of the barrel, until its pressure becomes sufficiently great to open the valves in the air-pump piston. When this happens, the valves in the air-pump piston, as represented on a large scale in [fig. 22.], will be opened, and the air will pass through them above the piston. When the piston comes in contact with the water in the bottom of the barrel, this water will likewise pass through the open valves. When the piston has arrived at the bottom of the air-pump barrel, the valves in it will be closed by the pressure of the fluids above them. The next ascent of the steam piston will draw up the air-pump piston, and with it the fluids in the pump barrel above it. As the air-pump [Pg140] piston approaches the top of its barrel, the air and water above it will be drawn through the valve K into the hot cistern B. The air will escape in bubbles through the water in that cistern, and the warm water will be deposited in it.

Fig. 22.

The magnitude of the opening in the condensing valve E, must be regulated by the quantity of steam admitted to the cylinder. As much water ought to be supplied through the injection valve as will be sufficient to condense the steam contained in the cylinder, and also to reduce the temperature of the water itself, when mixed with the steam, to a sufficiently low degree to prevent it from producing vapour of a pressure which would injuriously affect the working of the piston. It has been shown, that five and a half cubic inches of ice-cold water mixed with one cubic inch of water in the state of steam would produce six and a half cubic inches of water at the boiling temperature. If then the cylinder contained one cubic inch of water in the state of steam, and only five and a half cubic inches of water were admitted through the condensing jet, supposing this water, when admitted, to be at the temperature of 32°, then the consequence would be that six and a half cubic inches of water at the boiling temperature would be produced in the condenser. Steam would immediately arise from this, and at the same time the temperature of the remaining water would be lowered by the amount of the latent heat taken up by the steam so produced. This vapour would rise through the open exhausting valve I, would fill the cylinder below the piston, and would impair the efficiency of the steam above pressing it down. The result of the inquiries of Watt respecting the pressure of steam at different temperatures, showed, that to give efficiency to the steam acting upon the piston it would always be necessary to reduce the temperature of the water in the condenser to 100°.