Charles T. Porter

“ The fact is, high speed is the great searcher and revealer of everything that is bad in design and construction. The injurious effect of all unbalanced action, of all overhanging strains, of all weakness of parts, of all [158] untruth in form or construction, of all insufficiency of surface, increases as the square of the speed. Put an engine to speed and its faults bristle all over. ”

“ My visitors always wound up with the same question, “How do you drive your air-pump?” And in my innocence I uniformly replied, “The engine is a non-condensing engine; it has no air-pump”; all unconscious that every time I said that I was consigning the engine to the rubbish heap. This reply was taken necessarily as a frank admission that the high-speed engine was not adapted for condensing. ”

“ Then comes the task of getting up the speed, with the ponderous gearing and the enormous strains. Slow motion also prevents the use of the belt, immeasurably the preferable means of communicating power from a prime mover.
“But how about the wear and tear? The question comes from friends and foes alike. The only difference is in the expression of countenance, sympathetic or triumphant. The thought of high speed brings before every eye visions of hot and torn bearings, cylinders and pistons cut up, thumps and breakdowns, and engines shaking themselves to pieces. ”

“ One day I said to Professor Sweet: “Do you know, Professor, that an engine with a single cylinder of the same bore as these and 5 feet stroke directly connected with a line shaft and making 150 revolutions per minute, with a fly-wheel 10 or 12 feet in diameter, would exert more power than is afforded by this monster and would run with far greater economy, because the internal surfaces to be heated by the condensation of the entering steam would be one piston instead of two, two heads instead of four, and 5 feet length of exposed cylinder instead of 20 feet?” ”

“ Just in the degree that the standard of mechanical excellence is raised must the demand become more general for greater strength in machine tools, as indispensable to its attainment.
“But what is the standard of strength? The anvil affords perhaps its best illustration. It is a strength enormously beyond that which prevents a tendency to chatter, a strength that under even the heaviest labor prevents the least vibration of any part of the tool, or any indication of effort more than if the object being cut were a mass of butter. ”

“ Whitworth was the most dangerous man possible to be entrusted with such a power. He could not work with anybody else. His disposition was despotic. He looked only for servile obedience to his orders. Besides this, he had no conception of the law of growth. In his own mind he had anchored both tool construction and gunnery where they were to remain forever, and he purposed to do the same thing with the steam-engine, as soon as he should have time to attend to it. ”

“ I wished to get the manufacture of the engine revived, but to retain the business in my own hands, to carry it on myself in my own name, with the view of gaining for the engine a reputation that would enable me to command the capital necessary to establish its manufacture in works that I had long before planned for that purpose, and in which I could devote myself to the development and building up of the business ”

“ I was fully alive to the arbitrary nature of this usurpation, but was entirely helpless, knowing perfectly well that the directors would sustain the president in whatever he did.
With the coming of the new superintendent, the fatal change took place. He came, first of all, full of the superiority of Philadelphia mechanics, and, second, feeling that in the nature of things I must be entirely ignorant of anything mechanical. I was nothing [310] but a New York lawyer; never did a day’s work in a shop in my life; had gone into a business I was not educated to and knew nothing about. ”

“ One day, about a year after the engine was put in, there was a great wind blowing. A gust of unusual force blew the engine-room door open at the instant when a barrowful of coal was being dumped, and carried a cloud of its dust over the guide-bars. The engine was soon brought to a standstill. All the faces of cross-head and guide-bars were deeply scored. It was found, however, that when these were cleaned up and scraped over to remove all projections that they ran as well as ever, the grooves proving good oil distributors, but they were not so pretty to look at. ”

“ Holley might be the very man I wanted. If he could be got to recommend the engine to the steel-makers, they might take it up for their own use. I had not applied the engine in rolling-mill work, but felt sure that it would prove especially adapted to that service. So I called on Mr. Holley at his home in Brooklyn. I had never before met him, but I found that he knew something about the engine from its exhibition in Paris, and from his brother-in-law, Frederick J. Slade, then an officer of the New Jersey Steel Company, and who was one of the engine’s warm admirers. ”

“ We should have had a man there who would have told the truth about the engines, and would have impressed every visitor with the enormous advantage of the high-speed engine, not only for that service, but also for every use to which steam power can be applied. ”

“ In the most cool manner, entirely free from any excitement, he said: “My only wonder is that everybody does not use this engine and that all builders don’t make it. I got the same report everywhere. Would not have anything else. Costs less money, occupies less space, burns less coal, needs less attention, never cost a cent for repairs, never anything the matter, never varies its speed.”
And so I began business in Mr. Phillips’ shop, where I continued for four years, the most delightful period in my active life. ”

“ The fly-wheel and pulley and cylinder lagging I had left to be made in England. I was at the works of Easton, Amos & Sons every morning at 6 o’clock, and laid out the work for the day. I made the gauges for boring the fly-wheel and pulley, which I had now learned how to do, and adjusted everything about the engine myself, and knew it was right.
I had a talk with the foreman of the pattern-shop about the best thickness of felt on the cylinder to be covered by the mahogany lagging, in the course of which I remarked, “It is the air that is the real non-conductor.” ”

“ There was great excitement when it was started; the furnace men worked like beavers and succeeded in feeding billets to the train twice as rapidly as ever before, but they could not bring down its speed in the least. Finally they lowered the steam pressure, but the engine did not stop until they had brought this down to 40 pounds. Then a great shout went up, not for themselves but for the engine, which had shown itself capable of doubling the output of that train, and telegrams were hurried off to the stockholders of the concern in New York and Philadelphia to relieve their anxiety. ”

“ It is necessary to throw all conceit about our own work to the dogs, to lay down the axiom that whatever goes wrong, it is not high speed, but ourselves who are to blame, and to go to high speed as to our schoolmaster.
“Among the many objections to high speed, we are often told that the beam-engine will not bear it, and the beam-engine, sir, was designed by Watt. In reverence for that great name, we yield to no one. ”

“ Merrick, I applied to William Sellers for an engineer. He sent me a young man from his drawing-office, and I soon found out he was not the man I wanted; he knew nothing about a steam-engine—was merely a machine-tool draftsman—so I found I must rely upon myself. The only man I could think of was this man I have. ”

“ What little book-knowledge I had respecting mechanics I had learned from Haswell. I turned to Haswell and read what he had to say about governors. I learned that they were conical pendulums and made half as many revolutions in a minute as the vibrations of a pendulum whose length was equal to the height of the cone, the base of which was the plane in which the center of oscillation of the balls and arms revolved, and its apex the point of intersection of the axes of the arms, if produced upward, and that their revolutions varied inversely as the square root of the height of this cone. ”

“ Returning to the office, we found Mr. Lee, who said, “Now, Mr. Porter, I think Mr. Holmes would like to see you.” Getting the necessary directions, in due time I found myself in the Exhibition building on Cromwell Road and in the presence of Mr. Holmes, who received me joyfully and led me at once to Mr. Clark’s office. As he opened the door, Mr. Clark looked up from his desk and exclaimed, “Good morning, Mr. Holmes; where is that engine?” “Well,” replied Mr. Holmes, “here is Mr. Porter, and the engine is here or on the way.” ”

“ My regret was deepened when, in the course of the following winter, I received in Manchester copies of drawings according to which Ducommen et Cie. proposed to construct the engines. The changes they had made, all in the direction of complication, amazed me. It seemed to have rained bolts and nuts. Every constructive requirement of a successful high-speed engine was ignorantly sacrificed. After full consultation Mr. Hoyle and I agreed that the case was hopeless, that they would never do anything; and they never did. I have no photographs of the Paris Exposition. ”

“ I was among a people whose fundamental ideas respecting steam-engines were entirely different from those to which I had been accustomed, and I knew nothing about them, and so could not address myself to them. In the view of every Englishman a non-condensing engine was rubbish. Those which were made were small, cheap affairs, mostly for export. Neither a builder nor a user could regard a non-condensing engine with the slightest interest. ”

“ Whitworth. He was in all respects a phenomenal man. As an engineer, or rather a toolmaker, he addressed himself to all fundamental constructive requirements and problems, and comprehended everything in his range and grasp of thought, continually seeking new fields to conquer. Long after the period here referred to he closed his long and wonderful career by giving to the world the hollow engine shaft and the system of hydraulic forging. ”

“ From this point my path sloped steeply downward to the grave of all my hopes; in about two years and eight months the business had dwindled to practically nothing, and I, as the party held responsible for this result, was turned out of the Southwark Foundry into the street. At the bottom this was entirely my own fault. No one could ask to be associated with a better body of men than were those who united to sink their money in the manufacture of the Porter-Allen engines. ”

“ The other friend, as I am proud to call him, I have always considered mechanically the most interesting man I ever met. It was Mr. Smith, of Smith & Coventry, the machine-tool builders of Salford. Mr. Smith was the brains of the concern. He had come over to learn what America could teach him, and the only thing he took back, so far as I know, was the twist-drill, the manufacture of which was begun by that firm after his return. I shall have something to add later to what I have already said respecting his wonderful improvements in machine tools. ”

“ The next summer we had a call from the agent of that mill, who had come North during their idle interval, while they were waiting for their next crop, to make his report at Cincinnati, and had come out of his way to tell us of the wonderful manner in which that engine had carried them through their first season, which he concluded by saying: “That is the engine for the cottonseed-oil business.” After he had gone I said to Mr. Merrick: “That is an old story to me; everybody says that is the engine for their business, whatever their business may happen to be.” ”

“ The law that the driving force required increases as the square of the speed imparted applies only to the original source of power, as, to the force of the steam exerted in the cylinder of an engine, the motion of the piston remaining the same, and to the transmitting belts or gears whose speed also remains the same. At all these points the force exerted must increase as the square of the speed imparted; but this does not apply to the pressure exerted in the governor joint. Its speed does not remain the same, but increases with that of the balls. ”

“ Engineers understand very well that, theoretically, the prime mover should overrun the resistance. Motion should be not multiplied but reduced in transmission. This can seldom be attained in practice, but high speed gives the great advantage of an approximation to this theoretical excellence. On the other hand, slow-speed engines work against every disadvantage. Coupled engines and enormous fly-wheels have to be employed to give a tolerably uniform motion; often great irregularities are endured, or the abominable expedient is resorted to of placing the fly-wheel on the second-motion shaft. ”

“ The lesson is a most important one for the future of steam engineering. It is this. Two flat cast-iron surfaces, perfectly true and incapable of deflection, with the pressure equally distributed over a sufficient area, protected from dirt and properly lubricated, will never have the clean film of oil between them broken or even varied in thickness, and will run together without wear perpetually and at any speed whatever. The conclusion is also abundantly warranted that a tendency to heat need not exist anywhere in even the least degree, in engines running at the greatest speeds. ”

“ I don’t think it is just to charge our customers for our own blunders.” He smiled at my innocence, saying: “If a machine-shop does not make its customers pay for its blunders, it will soon find itself in the poorhouse.” “Well,” said I, “I protest against this bill being sent.” However, it was sent, and in the course of a few days a check came for the full amount, and Mr. Merrick laughed at me. Weeks and months passed away and we had heard no more from Mr. Leavitt, when I met him in New York at a meeting of the council of the Society of Mechanical Engineers. ”

“ I replied, “cannot be worse than when the governor flies in pieces.” After wasting considerable time in talk, he said, “Well, leave it till my father comes home; he is absent for a few days.” “No,” said I, “if I can’t convince a young man, I shall not try to convince an old man.” Finally, with every possible stipulation to make it impossible for the belt to come off, he yielded his assent, and I had the governor on in short order, lacing the belt myself, to make sure that it was butt-jointed and laced in the American fashion. ”