Steam plough

“ She continued heeling over, and it was simply agonising to watch the wretched men struggling out of the ports over the ship’s bottom in masses. All this, of course, happened in less time than it takes to write. You could see the poor men who, in their hurry to jump over, jumped on to the screw being cut to pieces as it revolved. She heeled right over, the water rushing in through her funnels. A great explosion of steam rose; she turned right over, and you could see all the men eagerly endeavouring to crawl over her bottom, when, with a plunge, she went down bows first. ”

“ The contrivance is then towed astern of the ship from the quarters, sufficient scope being given to allow the spar to clear the counter as the vessel pitches or scends, the controlling being effected by means of steel hawsers attached to the other end of the spar, and led through outriggers to a steam winch.
Another kind of disaster which may overcome the steamship is that of fire. ”

“ So also in a calm, a small steam vessel with heavy guns would rake and destroy almost unresistingly the heaviest wood-built craft afloat, depending wholly on the wind, though with a very small auxiliary steam power the heavy craft could contrive to turn on her heel, and, like a Spanish bull, keep her front to the enemy, even though reduced to the extremity of feeding her boiler with her own sails, rigging, and bulkheads, in default of coal ”

“ But there does not seem any reason why steam-power should be less economically convertible to the purpose of propulsion by an internal screw-pump out of the way of risk, than by an external screw-pump, exposed to risk, not only from the enemy’s shot, but from its weak attachment to the vessel and its exposure to fouling any floating substance. ”

“ Even in our own days the use of steam at such pressures as have enabled the present wonderful monuments of mechanical skill to be commercial successes has been animadverted upon, and prophesied about, and openly denounced, and it is only those who are engaged in this pioneer warfare who know how depressing and discouraging such language is, or who appreciate the great responsibility taken in advancing into the unknown—that is, unknown to the world at large. ”

“ She must have steamed full front on to a submerged reef and destruction. It was palpably no matter of an opening seam. She had been torn and ripped in her vitals. She was dying fast and in inanimate agony. In the rickety engine-room something had burst loose under the strain. Now as she sank and reeled there came a hissing of steam; a gasping, coughing, hammering convulsion of pistons, rods and driving shafts, suddenly turned into a junk heap running amuck. ”

“ Old ladies, not accustomed to the river, are always intensely nervous of steam launches. I remember going up once from Staines to Windsor—a stretch of water peculiarly rich in these mechanical monstrosities—with a party containing three ladies of this description. It was very exciting. At the first glimpse of every steam launch that came in view, they insisted on landing and sitting down on the bank until it was out of sight again. They said they were very sorry, but that they owed it to their families not to be fool-hardy.
We found ourselves short of water at Hambledon Lock ”

“ It is like looking down into a miner's shaft. And what makes it the more fearful, is that the bottom of the ship is a mass of fire. Thirty-six furnaces are in full blast to heat the steam, and at night, as the red-hot coals that are raked out of the furnaces like melted lava, flash in the faces of the brawny and sweltering men, one might fancy himself looking into some Vulcan's cave, or subterranean region, glowing with an infernal heat. Thus one of these great ocean steamships 10 is literally a sea monster, that feeds on fire ”

“ The chief attention of the royal dockyards, within these few years, has been turned to the building of large steam-ships, armed with guns of the heaviest calibre. But the attempt is evidently in a wrong direction. The effort to make fighting ships of steamers, ruins them in both capacities. It destroys their great quality, speed; and it exposes them with an inadequate power to the line-of-battle ship. They are incomparable as tugs to a fleet, as conveying troops, as outlying vessels, as every thing but men-of-war. ”

“ In 1629, Giovanni Branca of Loretto in Italy, an engineer and architect, proposed to work mills and other machinery by steam blowing against vanes, much in the same way as water does in turning a wheel. The waste of steam in such a plan is so obvious, that it is not to be wondered at that it did not produce any great results, as we all know that the moment we let steam out of his case, the case is all up with him, and he dies a natural death. ”

“ They do come together, however, at last, and then follows the excitement of the trial. There is nothing more striking in the history of the construction of a steam engine than this, that there can be no partial or private tests of the work by the workmen in the course of its progress—but every thing remains in suspense until all is complete, and the ship and the machinery are actually ready for sea. The immense and ponderous masses which constitute the elements of the mighty structure are hoisted slowly on board and let down into their places. ”

“ The Patriot now stopped to take in passengers, but still no steam was permitted to escape. On the starting of the boat again, cold water was forced into the boilers by the feed-pumps, and, as might have been expected, one of the boilers exploded with terrific force, carrying away the boiler-deck and tearing to pieces much of the machinery. One dense fog of steam filled every part of the vessel, while shrieks, groans, and cries were heard on every side. Men were running hither and thither looking for their wives, and women wore flying about in the wildest confusion seeking for their husbands. ”

“ If we wish to examine the mode of working of a complicated steam-engine, it will be of little avail for us to watch the machinery when the full blast of steam is turned on, and the rapid movements of levers, pinions, and slides baffle all attempts to follow them, and render hopeless every effort to trace their connection with one another. ”

“ In a letter to Lord Auckland about this time he states: 'I consider steamers of every description in the greatest peril when it is necessary to use broadside guns in close action; not alone from their liability to be disabled from shot striking their steam chest, steam pipe, machinery, etc., but great probability of explosion owing to sparks from funnel.' These views were shared by others; but circumstances were too strong, and slowly we began to convert our sailing navy into a steam fleet. ”

“ A.--In steam vessels Boulton and Watt have heretofore been in the habit of allowing 8-1/2 square inches of area of chimney per horse power, but they now allow 6 square inches to 7 square inches. In some steam vessels a steam blast like that of a locomotive, but of a smaller volume, is used in the chimney, and many of the evils of a boiler deficient in draught may be remedied by this expedient, but a steam blast in a low pressure engine occasions an obvious waste of steam ”

“ The lessons of the early era are worthless for repetition. There is no better screw-propelling machinery known than was then tried and abandoned; but the lessons are of value to discover the difficulties which must be remedied; to teach that the success of steam lies beyond the reach of publicly known mechanical resources.
The trials establish plainly and incontrovertibly that the failures were owing to the want of mechanical adaptation to required duty; to a mechanical inability to utilize the power of the steam; to a mechanical waste of power beyond their ability to control or remedy ”

“ The bossing out of the stern, as in the Teutonic and Majestic, permits the screws to work without any exterior overhanging bracket, as in other screw steamers. The central boss of the propeller is made of steel; the three blades, weighing eight tons each, are of manganese bronze. A new feature in the machinery is what is called an “emergency governor,” which, in case of the shaft breaking, or the screw racing from any other cause beyond a certain speed, is designed to act automatically on the reversing gear and stop the engines. These gigantic engines are started and reversed by steam. ”

“ What of the time when our main steam pipe burst in the Irish Sea in a fog? Read in the Chief Mate’s log an entry, “Delayed 2 hrs. 40 min., break-down in engine-room.” Simple, isn’t it? But behind those brief words lies a small hell for the Chief Engineer. Behind them lies two hours and forty minutes’ frenzied toil in the heat of the boiler-tops, where the arched bunkers keep the air stifling; two hours and forty minutes’ work with tools that race and slither to the rolling of the ship, with bolts that burn and blister, with steam that knows no master when she’s loose. Literature? Art? ”

“ Once the steam man came to a dead standstill in the open prairie, and narrowly escaped blowing up. A hasty examination upon the part of the inventor, revealed the fact that a leak had occurred in the tank, and every drop had run out..
This necessitated the greatest work of all, as water was carried the better part of a mile, and nearly an entire day consumed before enough steam could be raised to induce him to travel to the river, to procure it himself, while the miners acted as convoys. ”

“ Such boats have strong, carefully-modeled hulls, light and strong boilers, capable of making a large amount of dry steam with little fuel, and a light, quick-running engine, working without shake or jar, and using steam economically. ”

“ When we got down to the landing-stage, the boatman said:
“Let me see, sir; was yours a steam-launch or a house-boat?”
On our informing him it was a double-sculling skiff, he seemed surprised.
We had a good deal of trouble with steam launches that morning. It was just before the Henley week, and they were going up in large numbers; some by themselves, some towing houseboats. I do hate steam launches: I suppose every rowing man does. I never see a steam launch but I feel I should like to lure it to a lonely part of the river, and there, in the silence and the solitude, strangle it. ”

“ Nasmyth interviewed the directors of the Great Western Steamship Company with regard to the manufacture of some unusually powerful tools which they needed for forging the paddle-shaft of the Great Britain. As the invention of the steam-engine had demanded the improvement of turning methods, so now the increase in the size of steamboats showed the insufficiency of forging machinery. ”

“ Or should the water in the boiler become too low, parts of the boiler may become so heated that on the admission of fresh water it would be suddenly converted into steam. When an explosion does take place, the enormous force of the agent we are dealing with when we bottle up steam in an iron vessel, is shown by the effects produced. Fig. 11 is from a photograph taken from an exploded locomotive, where we may see how the thick plates of iron have been torn like paper, and the tubes, rods, and levers of the engine twisted in inextricable confusion. ”

“ There are one hundred of these steam-shovels on the Isthmus, and more than fifty of them in the Gaillard Cut, and to see them all purring and rooting together, more like a herd of living monsters than a collection of machinery, is one of the most wonderful spectacles in the world.
Sometimes steam-shovels will be caught and buried by a "slide," an avalanche of rock or a river of mud brought down by some weakness in the banks. Wrecking trains and powerful railroad-cranes are always kept ready to go to their rescue. ”

“ Among the various ways in which the steam engine has ministered to the social progress of our race, none is more important and interesting than the aid it has afforded to navigation. Before it lent its giant powers to that art, locomotion over the waters of the deep was attended with a degree of danger and uncertainty, which seemed so necessary and so inevitable, that, as a common proverb, it became the type and representative of everything else which was precarious and perilous. ”

“ In no circumstances in which the Engine may be at work, have you to let off steam in a way to create a noise?—No; the boiler will not hold any quantity of steam; we let off steam from the safety-valve as fast as we make it; there is no capacity for accumulation; the fault of many of the boilers is, that if any accident happens there is a complete explosion. ”

“ There was no steam to run our donkey boilers and steam-power pumps. Lashed to one another, in the blackness of darkness, relieved only by the intermittent flashes of lightning which illuminated the giant waves towering around us and threatening to overwhelm and sink the laboring, quivering fabric, we held on in despair until morning, when we began to gain on the leaks until our steam pumps could be used in relieving the boiler room, and our brave [Pg 114] captain got the ship under control. Then we succeeded in putting her about and headed back to Bermuda. ”

“ The attainment of an object so advantageous as to extend (p. 253) the powers of steam navigation, and to render the performance of voyages of any length practicable, so far as the efficiency of the machinery is concerned, has naturally stimulated the inventive genius of the country. The preservation of the boiler by the prevention of deposite and incrustation is an object of paramount importance; and its attainment necessarily involves, to a certain degree, another condition on which the extension of steam voyages must depend, viz. the economy of fuel. ”

“ In this connection he gave a very pretty illustration of how one's energies are used in either the right way or wrong way; that if you build a fire under a steam boiler, place the proper quantity of water in it, and then open the throttle and allow the steam to get into the engine, the entire machinery will perform a good work, but if you shut off the steam and tie down the safety valve, the steam is going to exert itself in a disastrous manner by an explosion, and the killing of several men. ”