The first of these problems, that of procuring suitable engines, was at least temporarily solved by the construction of two engines with brass cylinders, which had a diameter of 2.4 cm. (0.95 in.), and a piston stroke of 5 cm. (1.97 in.). The valve was a simple slide-valve of the piston type, arranged to cut off steam at one-half stroke. No packing was used for the piston or the valve, which were turned to an accurate fit to the cylinder and the steam-chest respectively. In the engines built up to this time, the parts had frequently been soldered together, and a great deal of trouble and delay had arisen from this cause. In these new engines, however, as strong and careful a construction was made as was possible within the very narrow limits of weight, with the result that the engines, though by no means as efficient as those constructed later, were used in all the experiments of 1893 and also during the first part of 1894. [p055]
As soon as these engines were completed, in February, 1893, a test was made of one of the cylinders, steam being supplied from the boiler of the shop-engine. The experiments were made with the Prony brake, and showed that at a speed of 1000 revolutions per minute, the power developed from a single cylinder was 0.208 H. P., with a mean effective pressure in the cylinder of only about 21 pounds per square inch of piston area, allowing a loss of 25 per cent for the internal resistance of the engine. This pressure was so much less than should have been obtained with the steam pressure used, that it now seems evident that the steam passages and ports were too small to admit and exhaust the steam with sufficient rapidity to do the work with the same efficiency that is obtained in common practice. This, however, was not immediately recognized. The piston speed at 1000 R. P. M. was 328 feet per minute, at which speed the steam at a pressure of 80 pounds should have been able to follow up the piston and maintain almost, if not quite, full boiler pressure to the point of cut-off, but it did not do so.
The problem of generating steam was much more difficult and required a long and tedious series of experiments, which consumed the greater part of the year before any considerable degree of success had been attained. In the course of these experiments many unexpected difficulties were encountered, which necessitated the construction of special forms of apparatus, which will be described at the proper point. Numerous features of construction, which seemed to be of value when first conceived, but which proved useless when rigorously tested, will be noted here, whenever a knowledge of their valuelessness may seem to be of advantage to the reader.
The boiler was necessarily developed simultaneously with the development of the heating apparatus, and in the following pages, as far as possible, they will be treated together; but often for the sake of clearness and to avoid repetition, separate treatment will be necessary.
At the beginning of these experiments, there was much doubt as to whether alcohol or gasoline would be found most suitable for the immediate purpose. An alcohol burner had been used in connection with the earliest aerodrome, No. 0, but from the results obtained with it at that time, there seemed to be little reason to hope for success with it. It is to be premised that the problem, which at first seemed insoluble, was no less than to produce steam for something like 1 H. P. by a fire-grate, which should occupy only a few cubic inches (about the size of a clenched hand) and weigh but a few ounces. It had to be attacked, however, and as alcohol offered the great advantage of high calorific properties with freedom from all danger of explosion, it was at first used.
Early in 1893, it occurred to me to modify the burner so as to make it essentially an aeolipile, and in April of that year the first experimental aeolipile model shown at A (Plate [12]) was made. It was very small and intended for the [p056] demonstration of a principle rather than for actual service, but the construction of this small aeolipile was an epoch in the history of the aerodrome. It furnished immensely more heat than anything that had preceded it, and weighed so little and worked so well that in May the aeolipile marked B was made. In this design two pipes were led from the upper portion of the cylinder, one to a large Bunsen burner which heated the boiler, the other to a small burner placed under the tank to vaporize the alcohol. This was followed by the one shown at C, wherein the heating burner was smaller and the gas pipe, leading to the main burner, larger.
Figures D, E, F, and G (Plate [12]) were really continuations and improvements of the same idea. In C there was simply a tube or flue through the tank; in F, however, this tube discharged into a smoke-stack fastened to the end of the cylinder, while in G the flue turned upward within the tank itself and discharged into the short stack on top. The object of these changes was to increase the draft and heating power of the small flame, so that the gas would be more rapidly generated and a greater quantity be thus made available for use under the boiler in a unit of time. They were, however, though improvements in a construction which was itself a great advance, still inadequate to give out a sufficient amount of heat to meet the excessive demands of the required quantity of steam. The boilers in connection with which these aeolipiles were used must now be considered.
The first boiler E (Plate [13]) made during this year was a double-coil boiler of the Serpollet type, formed of 19 feet of copper tubing having an internal diameter of about 18 inch. Attached to the boiler was a small vertical drum, from the top of which steam was led to the engine, a pipe from the bottom leading to the pump. This boiler was tested in April with an alcohol heater, the pump in this trial being worked by hand. This apparatus developed a steam pressure varying from 25 to 75 pounds, which caused the engines to drive a 60 cm. propeller of 1.25 pitch-ratio 565 revolutions per minute. The greatest difficulty was experienced in securing a sufficient and uniform circulation in the boiler coils. The action in the present case was extremely irregular, as the pressure sometimes rose to 150 pounds, driving the engines at a dangerous speed and bending the eccentric rod, while at other times it would fall so low that the engines stopped completely.
As the pump used in this trial had proved so unsatisfactory and unreliable, it was replaced by a reservoir of water having an air-chamber charged to 10 atmospheres, the flow from which could apparently be regulated with the greatest nicety by a needle valve at the point of egress; but for some reason its performance was unsatisfactory and remained so after weeks of experiment.
