In handling the engines at the competitive trial, most experienced and skillful drivers are selected. The difference between the performances of the same engine in different hands has been found to amount to from 10 to 15 per cent., even where the competitors were both considered exceptionally skillful men. In manipulating the engine, the fires are attended to with the utmost care; coal is thrown upon them at regular and frequent intervals, and a uniform depth of fuel and a perfectly clean fire are secured. The sides and corners of the fire are looked after with especial care. The fire-doors are kept open the least possible time; not a square inch of grate-surface is left unutilized, and every pound of coal gives out its maximum of calorific power, and in precisely the place where it is needed. Feed-water is supplied as nearly as possible continuously, and with the utmost regularity. In some cases the engine-driver stands by his engine constantly, feeding the fire with coal in handfuls, and supplying the water to the heater by hand by means of a cup. Heaters are invariably used in such cases. The exhaust is contracted no more than is absolutely necessary for draught. The brake is watched carefully, lest irregularity of lubrication should cause oscillation of speed with the changing resistance. The load is made the maximum which the engine is designed to drive with economy. Thus all conditions are made as favorable as possible to economy, and they are preserved as invariable as the utmost care on the part of the attendant can make them.
These trials are usually of only three or five hours’ duration, and thus terminate before it becomes necessary to clean fires. The following are results obtained at the trial of engines which took place in July, 1870, at the Oxford Agricultural Fair:
| MAKER’S NAME AND RESIDENCE | Cylinders. | Stroke. | Horse-Power. | Point of cut off. | Revolutions per minute. | Pounds coal per horse-power per hour. | ||||
| Number. | Diameter. | Nominal. | Dynamo- metric. | |||||||
| Inches. | In. | |||||||||
| Clayton, Shuttleworth & Co., Lincoln | 1 | 7 | 12 | 4 | 4.42 | ..... | 121.6 | 5 | 3.73 | |
| Brown & May, Devizes | 1 | 7 | 3∕16 | 12 | 4 | 4.19 | 11.48 | 125.6 | 5 | 4.44 |
| Reading Iron-Works Company, Reading | 1 | 5 | 3∕4 | 14 | 4 | 4.16 | ..... | 145.7 | 4.65 | |
These were horizontal engines, attached to locomotive boilers.
At a similar exhibition held at Bury, in 1867, considerably better results even than these were reported, as below, from engines of similar size and styles:
| MAKER’S NAME AND RESIDENCE | Cylinders. | Stroke. | Horse-Power. | Point of cut off. | Revolutions per minute. | Pounds coal per horse-power per hour. | ||||
| Number. | Diameter. | Nominal. | Dynamo- metric. | |||||||
| Inches. | In. | |||||||||
| Clayton, Shuttleworth & Co., Lincoln. | 1 | 10 | 20 | 10 | 11.00 | 3.1 | 0 | 71.5 | 4.13 | |
| Reading Iron-Works Company, Reading. | 1 | 8 | 5∕8 | 20 | 10 | 10.43 | 1.4 | 109.4 | 4.22 | |
With all these engines steam-jackets were used; the feed-water was highly and uniformly heated by exhaust-steam; the coal was selected, finely broken, and thrown on the fire with the greatest care; the velocity of the engines, the steam-pressure, and the amount of feed-water, were very carefully regulated, and all bearings were run quite loose; the engine-drivers were usually expert “jockeys.”
The next [illustration] represents the portable steam-engine as built by one of the oldest and most experienced manufacturers of such engines in the United States.
