Engine house

“ Between the engine-house and the street is a commodious house for the assistant-superintendent, with a very pleasant yard on the roof of the engine-house. Adjoining the engine-house on the other side, is the stable, where five splendid horses are kept. In the yard stand three fire-escapes, each fitted with a box containing hose, stand-pipes and branches, so that it may be utilised for extinguishing fires independent of the engines. ”

“ By altering the old engine-house, where the 41-inch engine had originally stood, and strengthening the ‘bob-wall,’ which carried the beam, a house was provided for one of the 70-inch engines. A house for one 60-inch engine at 5 miles 4 chains was built of brickwork, and for the other 60-inch and 70-inch engines two new houses were built of stone and brick. ”

“ In the city of Manchester, N.H., a steam fire engine company is composed of fourteen men, all told, one of whom, acting as driver and steward, is constantly employed, remaining at the engine house with a pair of horses always ready to run out with the engine in case of an alarm of fire. ”

“ By the side of the engine is a large gong, on which the alarm is sounded by the same current that causes the strokes on the bells outside. Under this is a lever holding back a powerful spring, which, when released, opens the stable-doors without any attention from the firemen!
There are three horses—two for the engine, and one for the hose-carriage. They are kept in small stalls, and face the door of the house, with the door of the stall just in front of them, so that when the door is opened, the horses, on stepping out, stand by the side of the engine in readiness to be harnessed. ”

“ All the work not painted is highly polished.
The whole is surrounded by a bronzed rail, and a cast-iron flooring, ornamented with stars in relief, covers the floor.
The engine house is about 60 feet square, and 60 feet high. The boilers are placed in a fire-proof room adjoining; they are three in number, 26 feet long, 7 feet in diameter, and are ordinarily used at a pressure of 50 lbs.
The engine works two draining pumps, each 63 inches in diameter, having 8 feet stroke, one being connected to each arm of the beam. ”

“ Around large steam-pipes [Pg 88] are laid on either side of the shop to add to the comfort and convenience of the men. The shaft which gives motion to the machinery passes through the centre of the shop and the machinery on each side. Towards one extremity of this range of building is the engine house, in which are two beautifully-finished high and low pressure horizontal engines of one hundred horse power, which drive all the machinery and fan-blasts for smiths. There are three boilers, each thirty feet long, and six feet in diameter, having pressure of forty pounds upon every square inch. ”

“ The whole of the machinery in this department is in excellent order and will bear the minutest inspection. Over the engine house, which is reached outside by a corkscrew or spiral iron staircase, is a workshop fitted up with machinery; it contains a horizontal engine of eight horse power, which drives two lathes, one bolt screwing machine, two drilling machines, and a saw bench. ”

“ They should also put power into the house. This may be accomplished by means of a small movable engine that can be used either in the house or barn, or else by installing an engine in a small building betwixt the house and the barn, so that it can be connected either way. This can be used to lighten much household labor, as pumping of water, meat-chopping, laundering, dish-washing, vacuum-cleaning, and the like. ”

“ The pressure on the key at headquarters releases the horses in the stalls of the various engine-houses. Instantly these clever beasts dash out of their boxes and place themselves at the shafts, the collar clasps around their necks and harnesses them to the engine; the men slide down the poles to their places, the gates swing open, and the engine is out and dashing along the road in less time than it takes to tell about it. ”

“ The small hand-worked engine, or the hydrant of moderate pressure, is not considered a sufficient guard for the house and its contents. In many establishments the electric lighting engines are designed to work either the dynamo or a set of pumps as occasion may demand; or the motor is mounted on wheels so that it may be easily dragged by hand to any desired spot. ”

“ Engine Houses.—In early days, before the establishment of homes, the pioneer firemen seemed to love their machine very much as the sailor loves his ship. They built elegant and costly engine houses, which became to many of them the only homes they ever knew. Since the introduction of the improved steam fire engines, and the organization of the paid fire department, the glory of the old volunteer organizations has well nigh departed. ”

“ Have you ever stood on the front car platform of a train nearest to the engine and watched the jiggling draw-bar? It is apparently loose; its hold on the engine seems to be no more than that of the touch of clasped hands in a gipsy dance. Yet it never lets go, and the drag of it is always there. By and by, when the coal is all burned, and the fire is out, and the water is drained from the tank, those gentle little multiplied jerks will pull the big engine down—kill it—make it a mere mass of inert metal blocking the way of progress. ”

“ The steam-engines in motor-cars are not very different from the engines used to run locomotives, factory machinery, or street-rollers, but they are much lighter and, of course, smaller—very much smaller in proportion to the power they produce. It will be seen how compact and efficient these little steam plants are when a ten-horse-power engine, boiler, water-tank, and gasoline reservoir holding enough to drive the machine one hundred miles, are stored in a carriage with a wheel-base of less than seven feet and a width of five feet, and still leave ample room for four passengers. ”

“ In fact, by high-pressure engines is meant engines in which no vacuum is produced, and, therefore, in which the piston works against a pressure equal to that of the atmosphere.
In these engines, the whole of the condensing apparatus, viz. the cold-water cistern, condenser, air-pump, cold-water pump, &c. are dispensed with, and nothing is retained except the boiler, cylinder, piston, and valves. Consequently, such an engine is small, light, and cheap. It is portable also, and may be moved, if necessary, along with its load, and is therefore well adapted to locomotive purposes. ”

“ Can any solid reason be given why we should not have those engine sheds or cars in England? They consist of a light frame placed on the connection of the engine with the tender, and projecting so as to include the end of the boiler and the stoke-hole. They protect the engineer from rain, storm, sun, or dust. Windows at each side afford a clear view in all directions, and the engineer can step out on the engine itself by the doors on the front part of the shed. ”

“ The steam, passing through the cylinder, went into an air condenser. The power of the engines was communicated from the piston rods to the driving wheels of the carriage by sweep rods, the lower ends of which were provided with driving pinions and detents, which operated upon toothed gear fixed to the hind carriage axle. The object of this mechanism was to keep the driving pinions always in gear with the toothed wheels, however the engine and other machinery might vibrate or the wheels be jolted upon uneven ground. ”

“ The engine makes thirty-six revolutions per minute, and for driving them there are twenty Corliss boilers capable of developing fourteen hundred horse-power, and of standing a pressure of one hundred pounds to the square inch. The platform on which the engine stands is breast high. From this, on either side, a long iron staircase mounts to the top of the A frames, where narrow walks with brass railings lead about among the moving masses aloft in the air. It is five times a man’s height from the platform to the top of the walking-beam. ”

“ Makers are turning their attention to petrol shunting engines, useful in goods yards, mines, sewerage works. Firms such as Messrs. Maudslay and Company, of Coventry; the Wolseley Tool and Motor Car Company; Messrs. Panhard and Levassor; Messrs. Kerr, Stuart, and Company have brought out locomotives of this kind which will draw loads up to sixty tons. The fact that a petrol engine is ready for work at a moment's notice, and when idle is not "eating its head off," and has no furnace or boiler to require attention, is very much in its favour where comparatively light loads have to be hauled. ”

“ The automobile is designed to carry; the tractor is designed to pull—to climb. And that difference in function made all the difference in the world in construction. The hard problem was to get bearings that would stand up against the heavy pull. We finally got them and a construction which seems to give the best average performance under all conditions. We fixed upon a four-cylinder engine that is started by gasoline but runs thereafter on kerosene. The lightest weight that we could attain with strength was 2,425 pounds. The grip is in the lugs on the driving wheels—as in the claws of the cat. ”

“ R. R., tank Engines of 35 tons, all on 8 drivers, draw 40 empty coal cars weighing 100 tons, up a continuous grade of 175 ft. per mile for 3-1/2 miles; & around curves of 450, 500, 600 ft. &c. rad., at 8 miles an hour. (1864) This is equal to 77-14/100 tons for a 27-ton engine." (Vol. III, p. 176.)
"On the Penn Central 95 ft. grades for 9-3/4 miles, a 29-ton engine all on 8 drivers takes 125 tons of freight and 112 tons of engine, tender, & cars, in all 237 tons, [C] and a passenger engine takes up 3 cars at 24 miles an hour (large 8 wheels) . When more than 3, an auxiliary engine." ”

“ Thence he takes us through an engine room—where three bright pistons are for ever plunging down to get strength, and leaping up to expend it on a labyrinth of leathern bands that turn thousands of wheels all over the manufactory, up-stairs and down—to an apartment where a score or two of queer-looking iron machines seem to be quietly chewing up, in a score or two pairs of gigantic jaws, the metal we have seen below. ”

“ For the next two hours they worked with scarcely the exchange of a word, overhauling every part of the engine quickly, but with methodical care, cleaning, oiling, testing the exhaust and the carburettor, filling the petrol tank and the reservoir of lubricating oil, examining the turbines and the propeller—not a square inch of the machinery escaped their attention. When their task was finished they were as hot and dirty as engine-drivers. ”

“ Section II.—Portable and Locomotive Engines.
Engines and boilers, when of small size, are now often combined in one structure which may be readily transported. Where they have a common base-plate simply, as in Fig. 114, they are called, usually, “semi-portable engines.” These little engines have some decided advantages. Being attached to one base, the combined engine and boiler is [348] easily transported, occupies little space, and may very readily be mounted upon wheels, rendering it peculiarly well adapted for agricultural purposes. ”

“ You may, perhaps, have noticed the round houses near the railway—say at York Road, Battersea—those are the engine-"stables." Every engine is placed in its "stall," so that its chimney is just under an opening, or flue. It is also over a "pit," so that the fire can be raked out, or the working examined from underneath before the engine goes into the station next day to take the train away to the seaside, or to carry you to school, or home for the holidays. The engine-driver or the fireman examines the rods, cranks, and all the different joints, nuts, and screws ”

“ Effects are now witnessed, which, had they been narrated a few years since, could only have been admitted into the pages of fiction or volumes of romance. Who could have credited the possibility of a ponderous engine of iron, loaded with several hundred passengers, in a train of carriages of corresponding magnitude, and a large quantity of water (p. 153) and coal, taking flight from Manchester and arriving at Liverpool, a distance of about thirty miles, in little more than an hour? ”

“ Their cost, weight, and the space they require have been reduced and their power increased, and in addition we have made it possible to run them not only by means of coal or wood but by gasoline, oil, or electricity. We have small, light-weight engines for navigation use; mighty engines to propel our great warships and ocean liners; stationary engines for mills and power plants; to say nothing of the wonderful locomotive engines that can draw the heaviest trains over the highest of mountains. ”

“ I should recommend for estate work a good rough wagonette which can take materials as well as persons, with plenty of engine power, say, not less than twelve-horse, and a low gear which will make a load of bricks or half a dozen bags of cement a possible freight. And, above all, have electric ignition, and only use tube ignition, if you have it, in cases of emergency or breakdown in your electrical arrangements. Otherwise a flare-up and a charred car is a daily possibility. ”

“ Aside from this, in some states, notably Ohio, the law compels any person operating an engine above ten horsepower to carry a steam engineer’s license. This does not apply to a gasoline engine.
Again, the gasoline engine is as portable as a traction engine, and can be applied to all the uses of a traction engine and to general farm use all the rest of the year. At little expense it can be fitted up to hoist hay, to pump water, to husk and shell corn, to saw wood, and even by recent inventions to plowing. It is as good about a farm as an extra man and a team of horses. ”