Browse Topic: Steam engines
The paper deals with reciprocating and rotary Rankine cycle engines using steam and organic fluids. It compares these theoretical engines to the present existing Otto cycle. The comparison considers size, torque, economy, emissions, response, maintenance, and reliability. Advantages and disadvantages of the various power systems are discussed and problem areas are identified
The story of Power Farming is the great saga of our times. It is a story of free enterprise, perseverance and endurance of the individual, of vision, idealism and cooperation among men, of the lightening of human toil and the release of millions of workers from farms to feed the ever hungry industrial revolution. By no means least, it is the story of producing food necessary to win two global wars, keep our allies alive and millions of the defeated enemy from starvation. FOREWARD By 1915, the Steam Traction Engine had attained its highest development. It was the forerunner, rather than the predecessor, of the farm tractor. The former was the instrument of expansion; the latter, the instrument of progress. The invention of the tractor, following by only sixteen years Otto's practical embodiment application of the Beau de Rochas power cycle to a heat engine, marked the advent of a new order - - the age of Power Farming. The pattern of progress follows that of the geometric progression
COMPARISON of work capacity per unit mass and volume of different energy carriers shows that liquid hydrocarbons are superior to other energy sources. Solar and nuclear powerplants as well as their use in conjunction with a steam engine are examined in this paper. Suitability of an electric drive is discussed. Using a production 2-stroke diesel engine and its development forecast, a comparison is made of spark ignition, diesel, and gas turbine engines. The status of the free-piston engine turbine combination is reviewed
GROWTH of mechanical transport since nineteenth-century days, when the steam engine was attached to ships and vehicles, is traced in this historical review. It was appropriately presented in observance of engineering achievements which have taken place during the past hundred years. The author records that development of the internal-combustion engine, replacing steam, led to the appearance of the automobile at the turn of the century. The horseless carriage increased travel speed, setting up immediate demands for more comfortable travel. Good roads, improved tires, new engine and body designs have followed without interruption for more than 50 years, ,with the supply of applied ideas never approaching public demands for still greater improvements. The author summarizes the situation as it exists today, giving many pertinent facts regarding the growth of the trucking industry, its relation to highway facilities and passenger-car travel, together with possibilities for future
Data regarding the condensation of water on engine-cylinder walls when running the engine at comparatively low temperatures were presented by the author in a previous paper to which he refers. These experiments showed that no water would be deposited when the cylinder-wall temperature exceeded 110 deg. fahr. but that the rate of deposition increased in direct proportion to the drop of temperature below 110 deg. fahr. His present paper describes laboratory tests of an engine equipped with a steam cooling-system, the object being to study the effect upon dilution of high cylinder-wall temperatures. The results show that a sharp reduction in dilution occurs as the boiling temperature is reached, and that the amount of dilution at temperatures of 212 deg. fahr., or more, is much less than would have been anticipated from the results obtained at temperatures below 212 deg. fahr. The author then points out that high cylinder-temperatures reduce dilution to a negligible quantity without
The free, resilient, self-expanding, one-piece piston-ring is a product of strictly modern times. It belongs to the internal-combustion engine principally, although it is applicable to steam engines, air-compressors and pumps. Its present high state of perfection has been made possible only by the first-class material now available and the use of machine tools of precision. The author outlines the history of the gradual evolution of the modern piston-ring from the former piston-packing, giving illustrations, shows and comments upon the early types of steam pistons and then discusses piston-ring design. Piston-ring friction, the difficulties of producing rings that fit the cylinder perfectly and the shape of rings necessary to obtain approximately uniform radial pressure against the cylinder wall are considered at some length and illustrated by diagrams. The best material for piston-rings is stated to be cast iron; the average of 10 different analyses of satisfactory cast iron used for
A new type of automotive engine should be the quest of all designing engineers. Investigation has revealed the fact that 68 per cent of all tractor engine troubles occur in magnetos, spark-plugs and carbureters, the accessories of the present-day automotive engine. Four-fifths of the fuel energy supplied is regularly wasted, yet the fuel is a liquid meeting severe requirements of volatility, etc., and is already becoming scarce and costly. In an airplane, fuel is carried by engine power. In ocean-going cargo vessels it increases available revenue space. It is at once clear that for purely practical reasons the question of fuel economy, no less than the question of the nature of the fuel, becomes momentous. What fuel will do is entirely a question of what process it is put through in the engine; in what way combustion is turned into power. In the paper the physical processes underlying the conversion of combustion energy into power are discussed, together with the various methods for
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