Steam whistle

“ But the most remarkable of all was an electric button whistle. A pressure on this blew the steam whistle. A long pressure blew a long blast and a quick pressure a short blast.
"Electricity plays an important part in the [155] world's affairs to-day," said Captain Simms, noting their keen interest. "You see we have wireless equipment, too."
"Why isn't it working?"
"It will be when we get some one to operate it. I understand that the line is going to ship an operator at the Soo. ”

“ A small hole is drilled almost, but not quite, through the nozzle. While the nozzle retains its initial shape and size the apparatus acts normally, but as soon as the small amount of metal covering the end of the hole has worn away, the hole is exposed, and a certain amount of steam passes through it to a steam whistle which blows continuously until a new nozzle has been inserted in place of the one which is now worn so much as to make it uneconomical in steam consumption. ”

“ Two more horses are brought out, put in double harness in the light waggon, and driven round the Arena by the Professor. A steam whistle is let off over their heads, whereupon they rear and plunge, and back frantically, the Professor discoursing unperturbed from the waggon. After a few repetitions of this, the horses find the steam-whistle out as a brazen impostor, and become hardened sceptics from that moment. ”

“ Now, Doppler suggested in 1841 that the colors of the stars would assist us in this respect, because they would be affected by their motion to and from the earth, just as a steam-whistle is raised or lowered as it approaches or recedes from us. Every one has observed that if a train whistles as it passes us, the sound appears to alter at the moment the engine goes by. ”

“ Except in very rough weather the steam whistle can be heard a long distance, but it is liable to be a treacherous guide. It is not always possible to determine by the ear alone the direction from which a sound comes; and it would seem that a mistake of this nature was made on the Stonington, since the order intended to change her course away from that of the Narragansett only served to precipitate the collision. ”

“ The whistle M will require a hole drilled for it to be screwed into, and that, as also the steam-tap N and water-tap O, can be bought cheap ready to put on, and is more satisfactory than making them yourself. ”

“ It is noted that the energy so excited expends its chief force in the immediate vicinity of its source, and may be regarded, therefore, as to some extent wasted. The sound of the whistle, moreover, is diffused equally on all sides. These characteristics to some extent explain the impotency of the sound to penetrate to great distances. Difference in pitch is obtained by altering the distance between the steam orifice and the rim of the drum. ”

“ When an engineer finds the steam rising beyond a safe pressure, he should reduce it by opening the heaters, starting the injector, dampening the fire, or even by blowing the whistle. The whistle offers a convenient means of getting rid of superfluous steam, and its noise can be stopped by tying a rag between the bell and the valve opening. ”

“ A steam vessel shall be provided with an efficient whistle or siren, sounded by steam or by some substitute for steam, so placed that the sound may not be intercepted by any obstruction, and with an efficient fog horn, to be sounded by mechanical means, and also with an efficient bell. ”

“ The steam fog-whistle is the same instrument ordinarily used on steamboats and locomotives. It is from 6 to 18 inches in diameter, and is operated by steam under a pressure of from 50 to 100 pounds. An engine takes its steam from the same boiler, and by an automatic arrangement shuts off and turns on the steam by opening and closing its valves at determined times. The machinery is simple, the piston-pressure is light, and the engine requires no more skilled attention than does an ordinary station-engine. ”

“ After the Daboll trumpet, whistle and siren had been tried finer horns operated by steam or power engines supplanted them until now all along our coasts and inland streams signals of specified strength have been installed, a commission deciding just what size signals shall be used and where they shall be placed. There are lighthouses of prescribed candle power; automatic flashlights and whistling buoys; coastguard stations with carefully drilled crews; all regulated by law and matters of compulsion. If men and ships are lost now it is because it is beyond human power to help it. ”

“ The construction and arrangement of whistle with gage valve whereby to indicate the sound produced by steam or steam and water commingled or water unmingled with steam, substantially as set foath.
49,847.--STEAM GENERATOR.--John R. Eckman, Green Post office Pa., assignee of John D. Beers, Philadelphia, Pa. Dated Sept. 12, 1865. Application for reissue received and filed Sept. 30, 1867.
1st. Broadly the circular plate or ring, b, as shown and described. ”

“ A distant humming sound increases quickly to a loud hissing and roaring—a noise which may be compared to that of a monster engine letting off steam—and an enormous projectile, passing well over our heads, plunges into the sea on the starboard beam of our following ship, the splash rising as high as the mastheads. ”

“ Hearing a roaring sound on my left, I turned aside to learn the cause; and there was a steam spring, or rather a jet of steam, that rushed out of the mountain with a loud and constant roaring. The noise and escape of steam were incessant, the steam coming out in a slanting direction, at least twenty feet in a direct line. The noise it made was greater than that of one of our largest steamship engines “blowing off.” ”

“ A sail or oar-propelled craft may be entirely free from vibration, whatever its speed, as the motions arising from water [Pg 277] are usually slow and deliberate. In fact, water in its calmer moods is an ideal medium to travel on, and the trouble begins only with the introduction of steam as motive force.
But even steam may be robbed of its power to annoy us. The steam-turbine has arrived. It works a screw propeller as smoothly as a dynamo, and at a speed that no cylinder engine could maintain for a minute without shaking itself to pieces. ”

“ The mouth-piece of a trumpet has been fixed against the aperture of the rock, and the waves dashing against it with force enough to crush a ship to pieces, blows the whistle. This fog whistle ceases entirely at low water, and its loudness at all times depends upon the force of the waves. ”

“ The shortness of the air-wave due to exploding dynamite sufficiently accounts for the sharpness of the shadow.
But there is now no longer any necessity to resort to such dangerous sources of sound as dynamite. Whistles may be made which yield tones exceeding twenty thousand vibrations per second. The wave-length corresponding to such a pitch is less than an inch. The advantage presented is that the sound is continuous, and it may be made as constant as we please by supplying the whistle from a cylinder full of compressed air, regulating the pressure by means of an appropriate gauge. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Of antique whistles there are many types, those shown in Fig. 90 being the most frequently met with. The one marked "D" is said to be an attempt to increase the volume of sound by the extension of a cutting edge. A double sound is produced by that marked "F," whereas "A" is of the more familiar type, the example illustrated being an ivory whistle used upwards of a hundred years ago.
From the whistle came the tin pipe capable of producing tunes in the hands of a skilful player. The whistle and pipe were in olden times associated with coaching days and inns. ”

“ Even now the whistle, husky, loud, widely blaring, filled the air, signaling the approaching landing, the Captain having received information when passing the Cherokee Rose of the plight of the refugees. The next moment they were sheepishly laughing, for the steamer, the Nixie, was sending forth a second blast, a prolonged whining shriek, the signal known on the river as a “begging whistle” by which boats solicit patronage in passengers or freight, and which is usually sounded only when there is a doubt whether a stoppage is desired. ”

“ From the Exhibit in the Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington.
Now that we have traced in outline the vain attempts at physical propulsion, let us turn to take a view of the evolution of that other invention whose advent alone delayed the practical utility of the paddle-wheel to boats. Who shall say how it was that steam came first to be regarded as a means of giving power? In certain parts of the world, where geysers and boiling springs existed, man must naturally have been struck by the elastic force which steam possessed. ”

“ The Whistle is to be sounded on approaching each Station and level crossing, and on entering the Tunnels. Three short sharp whistles, rapidly repeated, must be given when danger is apprehended, and when it is necessary to call the attention of the Guards to put on the Breaks. When more than one Engine is attached to the Train, the Signal is to be given by the Leading Engineman; and in case of danger is to be repeated by the following Enginemen, who will forthwith reverse their Engines and attach their Tender Breaks. Frequent use must be made of the Whistle in foggy weather. ”

“ It was like the noise of machinery, and yet was unlike. At any rate, it was an irregular, creaky, jumpy kind of machinery. It continued monotonously on and on; it was, he reflected, a pretty soothing kind of noise to sleep to. And then a new sound came to his ears: a cheerful and yet a thoughtful whistle. A man's whistle—a boy would not whistle so thoughtfully. ”

“ If sound is to be trusted rather than light, recourse is had to a bell-buoy which tolls mournfully as the waves toss it about above the danger spot, or to a whistling buoy which toots unceasingly a locomotive whistle, with air compressed by the Page 355action of the waves. The whistling buoy is the giant of his family, for the necessity for providing a heavy charge of compressed air compels the attachment to the buoy of a tube thirty-two feet or more deep, which reaches straight down into the water. ”

“ To the landsman, the steamship seems to have a regular gigantic see-saw motion, very much like that of the toy ships that used to rise and fall on mimic waves, moved by clock-work, on clocks that used to be displayed in the store windows of jewellers and fancy dealers. Now the bows rise with a grand sweep,—now they sink again as the vessel plunges into an advancing wave,—up and down, up and down, and forging ahead to the never-ceasing, tremulous jar of the machinery. In the calmest weather there is always one vast swell, and when wind or storm prevails, it is both grand and terrible. ”

“ Not the least wonder of our day is the improvement in the machinery of steam-vessels of all kinds.
The engineer’s department of a first-class cruiser or battle-ship is a bewildering and wonderful sight to one not accustomed to it. The complicated engines, with their numerous cylinders, which use the steam over and over, seem almost too delicate, and too like a fancy creation, to be capable of driving the propellers at such a rate as they do. ”

“ Vessels approaching each other from opposite directions are forbidden to use what has become technically known among pilots as 'cross-signals,'-that is, answering one whistle with two, and two whistles with one. ”

“ Indeed, all my men are good. Scarcely ever do we have less than full steam at the end of the watch.
And now, my engines! To the uninitiated it is, I suppose, a tiresome, bewildering uproar. And yet every component, every note of this great harmony, has a special meaning for the engineer; moreover, the smallest dissonance is detected at once, even though he be almost ready to doze. So finely attuned to the music does the ear become that the dropping of a hammer in the stokehold, the rattling of a chain on deck, the rocking of a barrel in the stores, makes one jump. It is the same with the eye. ”

“ We must proceed a little farther on our backward course from the point where the power is applied, and in our analysis consider the steam as only the vehicle or carrier of the power; and examining the conditions, we find that water acted on by fire, while contained in a suitable vessel, after some time takes up certain properties which enable it to go forward and move the ponderous machinery of the boat. The water evidently here derives its new character of steam from the fire, and we have now reached the source of the movement of steam, and traced it to the fire. ”

“ Div. 71, it was said to be the first duty of those who have charge of a steamship in motion during a dense fog, on first hearing the whistle of a steamship in such close proximity to them that a risk of collision is involved, to bring their vessel immediately to a standstill, and not to execute any maneuver with her helm until they have definitely ascertained the position and course of the other ship. ”