Page images
PDF
EPUB
[graphic][subsumed]

First American Engine THE accompanying photograph shows

a model of the first steam engine built in America. Capt. Samuel Morey of Fairlee, Vt., invented the model and a small engine built from this model was used in a boat in 1792, seven years before Fulton built his steam

boat. The model is less than a cubic foot in bulk. The engine is 61⁄2 inches long. The cylinder is made of brass and the piston of cast iron. The engine is mounted on disks and rotates over valves bringing steam from the boiler and carrying away the exhaust.

[blocks in formation]

Isaid to be considering the electrification of a portion of its system, investigations now be

N. Y., where large supplies of coal are readily available, and by distributing from this station electric current over the section including the steep grades.

Still another proposed instance of electrification is that of the West Jersey and Seashore Railroad, a part of the Pennsylvania System running between Cam

[graphic]

MODEL OF FIRST STEAM ENGINE BUILT IN AMERICA.

Boat propelled by engine built after this pattern was run on the Connecticut
River in 1792, seven years before Fulton navigated the Hudson
River with his steam boat.

ing under way by a committee on whose report final action will be taken. The portions of the system first to undergo the change in motive power-if a change shall be decided upon-will be those where a large suburban traffic is handled; and in this respect, the Erie will be but following the example of other lines now entering New York and other great centers. It is also believed that economy will be served, and greater facilities in the handling of trains will be secured, by the erection of a power station at the summit of the exceedingly steep grades between Susquehanna, Pa., and Deposit,

den and Atlantic City, N. J. The increase of passenger traffic in this portion of the system has been so great as to compel some move of this kind, and a committee has been appointed to canvass the whole question. It will consider the three possible alternatives-of building an independent electric railroad, or electrifying the principal line, or making other changes that may be deemed expedient. The electrification of the leased West Shore line of the New York Central & Hudson River Railroad west of Untica, N. Y., will be begun as soon as rights of way have been secured. The

contract for supplying the requisite power has been granted to the Niagara, Lockport & Ontario Company. There is also reason to believe that the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railroad, and in fact all the railways entering Buffalo, N. Y., will at an early date be largely operated by electrical power from Niagara Falls.

Heaviest Switching

Locomotives

FIVE new yard engines, delivered this

season to the Lake Shore railroad, are conceded to be the heaviest switching locomotives extant. With a tractive power of 55,300 pounds, each of these monster locomotives is enabled to do the work which formerly required two. The new motive power was especially built for the task of handling trains over the summits of what are known as the "hump" yards of the Lake Shore road. These yards, which also represent notable economies in that gravity to no small degree takes the place of motive power in switching, are to be found at Elkhart, Indiana, and at Collinwood near Cleveland, Ohio. Two of the five locomotives are accordingly in service at each of these points and a fifth is at Ashtabula where there exists a very heavy grade

from the harbor to a point five miles South on the ore-carrying branch.

The total weight of each of the new locomotives including the tender is 419,600 pounds. The tank capacity is 8,000 gallons.

The entire weight of each of the new locomotives rests upon five pairs of drive wheels. The cylinders of the new engines are twenty-four by twenty-eight inches in diameter thus necessitating a very large boiler. The heating surface is 4.625 square feet. The coal capacity of the tender is twelve tons. Bituminous coal is used. The wheel base of the engine with the tender is a little more than 54 feet. The Walschaert valve gear being in use, the parts of the locomotive beneath the boiler are easily accessible.-W. Frank McClure.

Corn Stalks as Armor BEHIND the armor plate of the mod

ern men of war lies a packing of celiulose six feet thick. If the outer armor plate is pierced by a shell, the water reaches the cellulose, which immediately swells up and fills the hole. So certain is the action of this material, that all modern warships are being equipped with the queer jacket. The cellulose is made from corn-stalks. These stalks are dried

[graphic][merged small]

for six or eight months and then cut into short pieces and the pith extracted. The pith is treated with chemicals, to make it fire-proof, and compressed to one-sixteenth its original bulk. After being cut into blocks six inches square, it is shipped to the navy yards.

Rotary Snow-Plow DURING winter, the lines of the Canadian Pacific Railway, traversing regions where the snowfall is frequently of great depth, are kept open with remarkable regularity with the help of

New Excavation System

THE accompanying illustration shows a new method for bracing the walls of a caisson excavation, to prevent settlement in the surrounding territory. It is the invention of Mr. George W. Jackson, Chief Engineer of the Illinois Tunnel Company. The essential portion of the device consists of a system of adjustable jacks and ribs. These ribs consist of wooden lagging, which may, if desired, be left in when the concrete is set. means of the jacks, the earth surrounding the shaft can be kept constantly compressed and held back firmly in place, thus doing away with the sinking or tipping of surrounding buildings on "floating" foundations-so frequent a source of trouble.

By

[graphic]
[graphic]

ROTARY SNOW PLOW, HEAD ON.

rotary snow-plows of the type shown in the accompanying illustration. The plow is built on a steel frame carried on two trucks, the front of one of which is equipped with ice cutters operated by compressed air. The main snow-cutting wheel consists of a large wrought-iron ring carried on a main shaft, on which two sets of radial knives are fixed, the outer knives being the larger. Behind the knives, on the same shaft, a large fan is placed, which, as it revolves, throws out by centrifugal action, through an opening in the top casing, the snow which has been cut or shaved off by the revolving knives.

The rotary does not butt into snowdrifts like an ordinary snow-plow, but is pushed forward by a locomotive at a speed sufficient to let it do its work properly.

JACKSON EXTENSION RIBS AND JACKS.

To prevent cave-ins in excavation work.

With the new system, it is claimed, a larger number of caissons can be started at one time than under the old method, without increasing the danger of a cavein.

Lifts 180 Tons

FOR 'OR a pair of shear legs to haul from the deck of a vessel a dead weight of 100 tons was, until a few months ago, thought to be a feat worthy of note. Now these figures have been outnumbered by eighty tons and the 100 tons lift made to appear a pigmy task by comparison with this latest feat of lifting and swinging 180 tons.

These largest and most powerful shear legs on record were constructed and erected, not by Uncle Sam but in John Bull's domain, at the Chatham Dockyard in Southhampton, England. At the recent test they lifted with ease from a vessel's deck, cleared the deck

[blocks in formation]
[graphic]

LARGEST SHEAR LEGS EVER BUILT.

They can lift 180 tons with ease.

and swung in shore, 180 tons of iron pip- this powerful lifting machine there is ing.

On the second test which followed immediately after the first, no repairs or restrengthening of the shears being necessary, the 180 tons load was lifted and run out to the maximum overhang of 64 feet from the perpendicular and then brought inboard again with the greatest ease. These shears are believed to be the largest in the World and the following particulars will give some idea of their size.

The three legs are constructed on the hollow spindle principle, which has been in use since the introduction of the system of steam traversing shear legs. The

front legs are 160 feet high and five feet

in diameter at the center, tapering away

also an inhaul winch worked by a separate engine, and there are two boilers to supply steam to the various engines.

It takes three stokers to keep the power up for anything over a 100 ton lift, but, aside from this, the 180 ton lift is made as easily as though the weight were 180 pounds.

The entire lumber or iron cargo of a small vessel can be lifted into these yards by one swing of the powerful shears and if it were necessary to do so the vessel without its cargo could be swung ashore.

[blocks in formation]
[merged small][graphic][merged small][merged small]

railroad locomotives in collision at Brighton Beach Race Track on July 4th. This novel spectacle was arranged with great care for the safety of on-lookers and proved a great attraction. The engines were built especially for the occasion and the entire cost of placing the production before the public was about $50,000. After firing up the engines and starting them simultaneously the engineers and firemen jumped for their lives and the engines met with a great crash and explosion.

Making Chains by
Machinery

CHAINS of most kinds, large and

small, are still made by hand, so far as the welding together of the separate links is concerned. A good workman, working at both ends of a chain, cannot

MAKING CHAINS BY MACHINERY.

weld, on an average, more than two links every minute. If each link adds three inches to the chain it will take one man six minutes to make three feet of chain. Mr. R. J. Jacker of Chicago patented nearly twenty years ago a machine which will make three feet of chain in one second. As shown in the illustration, a small bar of lead is fed into one side of the machine. It passes through a single set of rolls, and leaves the machine in the form of a completed chain.

As the result of a chain of catastro

phes, no practical commercial use has

ever been made of the machine. Its present owner, son of the inventor, is petitioning Congress for an extension of the patent.

[graphic]

PHOTOGRAPH OF STEAM LOCOMOTIVE COLLISION AT BRIGHTON BEACH RACE TRACK ON

JULY 4TH.

This photograph was taken two seconds after the impact.

« PreviousContinue »