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ITis only within recent years that the locomotive ^ has been studied by scientific men on systematic principles, with the aid of elaborate testing plants and other special apparatus. The early designers of locomotives were not scientific men in the strict sense of the term. They were mechanics who studied science in their leisure moments, and were not always well grounded in principles. They were, moreover, hampered with ideas of stationary engine practice, for the earliest locomotives were but little more than stationary engines', on wheels. Even the rails were laid on stone blocks after the manner of stationary engine foundations. Thus, the attempt to adapt a low speed station. ary engine to a fast locomotive produced many curious and interesting examples. Drawings of many of these are in the writer's possession, and engravings of ten of them are here presented with a brief description. A fruitful source of trouble to the old locomotive designers was a tendency to follow the teachings of James Watt, who had laid down a fixed rule that the piston speed of a steam engine should not exceed 220 feet per minute. The only way, then, to build a high-speed locomotive was to employ large driving wheels. The culmination of this theory is found in engines built for the Great Western Railway (England) which originally had a track gage of 7 feet. The engineer -of this railroad was I. K. Brunei, who, although he was the greatest civil engineer who ever lived, fell into the same error as his contemporaries. He wanted the fastest locomotives in the world, and when ordering them of various builders he limited the piston velocity, with the result that when the railroad was opened for traffic (June 4th, 1838) the motive power superintendent, Daniel Gooch, was confronted by a collection of engines which made the roundhouse look more like a museum of curiosities than anything else. Two of the engines are illustrated herewith. Fig. 9 shows the “Ajax,” the driving wheels of which were 10 feet in diameter. Cylinders 14 inches diameter by 20 inches stroke. Total heating surface, 474 square feet. The wheels were built up of boiler plates. A drawing of this engine was first published in the Locomotive Magazine (London) of 1901 by Mr. G. F. Bird in his “History of the Great Western Railway Locomotives,” and by the courtesy of the editors of that journal a reproduction is here given. The other 10-foot driver engine was a fearful and wonderful machine, for the engine and boiler were on separate frames, as shown in Fig. 2. The object of this arrangement was to distribute the weight, as the rails of that period were very light. The engine had a tender (not shown) behind the boiler where the fireman attended to his duties, but the engine driver was stationed on a platform forward of the driving axle, without any shelter from the weather. The cylinders of this monstrosity were 16 inches diameter by 20 inches stroke. Total heating surface, 623.42 square feet. The weight of the engine carriage was 13 tons, of which only about 6 'tons were available for Fig. 1. — “L'Aigle.” Western Railway of r'rance, 1855. 9 feet 4 inches coupled wheels. Boiler below the driving axles. adhesion, so that with the absurdly small cylinders the engine was almost useless for practical work, although it would go fast enough with a light train. In fact it was reported that both this engine and the “Ajax” attained a speed of 100 miles an hour when running without a train, but this is very doubtful. Other and more practical engines were built with large wheels, as for example the “Cornwall,” designed by Francis Trevithick in 1847. This engine is illustrated in Fig. 4. It did good service on the London and North-Western Railway. The boiler was slung below the driving axle, as a high boiler was considered unsafe for fast running. The “Cornwall” was like a rare animal and attracted much attention, as it was considerably lower than the cars of its train. The driving wheels were 8 feet 6 inches in diameter. Cylinders 171f2 inches diameter by 24 inches stroke. Total heating surface, 1,046 square feet. Weight, 30 tons. A speed of 117 miles an hour was claimed for this engine, but this is not credited by engineers. Under official tests it attained a speed of 79 miles an hour with a light train. Full particulars of this engine were published in the Scientific American of June 10th, 1905. The “Lightning,” an American engine with large drivers, is shown in Fig. 3. This engine was of the “Crampton” type, the driving wheels being placed behind the fire-box. It was built at the Norris locomotive works in 1849 for the Utica and Schenectady Railroad. The cylinders were 16 inches in diameter by 22 inches stroke. Driving wheel 7 feet in diameter. As the heating surface of the boiler amounted to only 678 square feet, it was a poor steamer. Nevertheless it attained a speed of 72 miles an hour for a short distance with a light train. This engine weighed about 20 tons and was in service a little over one year. The last example of a large wheel engine- is shown in Fig. 1. It had the largest coupled wheels ever used, namely, 9 feet 4 inches. It was designed by Blavier and Larpent for the Western Railway of France in 1855, and was exhibited at the Paris Exhibition of that year. The name of this engine was “l'Aigle.” The cylinders were 16112 inches in diameter by 311f2 inches stroke. The boiler was below the driving axles as in the “Cornwall,” but was so short of heating surface that the engine never did any useful work. To show that nothing is gained by excessively large wheels, we may point out that an engine with cylinders of the same diameter as that of “I' Aigle” and a stroke of 22 inches, with 61f2 feet driving wheels would have given the same tractive effort with the same mean pressure of steam ; and with this observation we may dismiss the subject of large driving wheels. There was a still more interesting class of early engines which were called “compensated locomotives.” They were the earliest balanced engines, and show some original attempts to overcome the erratic movements of a locomotive when traveling at speed without driving wheel counterweights. The oldest of these engines is shown in Fig. 10. It was built in 1833, and worked on a short road running between Bolton and Kenyon Junction, now forming part of the London and North-Western Railway. No dimensions of the engine are available, but the driving wheels scale a diameter of 5 feet. The equilibration of the reciprocating masses can be easily understood, for the oppositely moving parts connected to the vibrating arm or “side lever” partially balanced each other, although with the vertical boiler and high pitched cylinders the engine was probably an unsteady rider, if it ever went fast—which is doubtful. The most important side lever locomotive, ever built is illustrated in Fig. 7. It was designed by the celebrated Crampton in 1847 and patented by him. The driving wheels were 6 feet in diameter. Cylinders 16 inches in diameter by 20 inches stroke. Weight SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN 559 3;; tons. Total heating surface 1,271 square feet. This engine was named “Lablache,” after a noted operatic singer of the day. Details of its performance cannot be given here, but we may note that the engine was officially timed at 79 miles an hour with a light train. On one occasion the “Lablache” hauled a freight train of 430 long tons at an average speed of 30 miles an hour, which was no mean performance at that period. The peculiarity of this engine was that the cylinders inside the frames actuated vibrating arms connected to the outside levers called the “side levers.” These side levers were coupled to the cranks in such a way that when the front driving wheel crank was, for example, on the back center the rear crank was on the front center, and thus the stresses of these oppositely moving parts were balanced. Moreover, the cylinders, guides and vibrating beam fulcrums were all bolted rigidly to the frame and therefore not subject to the effects of cross-head vertical thrust, as in the ordinary locomotive. The “Lablache” was tried on the Midland and other railways in England, but no company would purchase it on account of its great weight, and it was in use only a short time. Another curious locomotive was built in 1856 in which the “Lablache” arrangement of cranks was re, peated, but 'the cylinders had double pic tons and a' separate rod for each crank. This design was patented in England by Charles Ritchie in 1848, but he did not build an engine until eight years later. This engine is shown in Fig. 5. As the two pistons in each cylinder always moved in opposite directions the fore and aft stresses set up by the reciprocating parts were neutralized, for the momentum of one piston and its connections was balanced by that of the other. This engine weighed about 25 tons. The wheels were 6 feet in diameter. Cylinders 12 inches diameter by 36 inches stroke, each piston having a stroke of 18 inches. Supposing the engine to be in the position shown in the drawing and steam admitted to the center of the cylinder, the pistons would be driven apart and the engine would travel forward. As coupling rods could not be used Ritchie designed a parallel motion, the two sets of which (Continued un page 566.) Some Locomotive Curiosities (Concluded from page 569.) were connected by crossed rods as will be understood by examining the illustration. This engine never did practical work. It was jacked up clear of the ground and tried under steam in January, 1856, at Kew, near London, where it was sharply criticized by' some engineers. The writer saw it in the early sixties when it was fast rusting away in the stable yard of an inu near Kew Bridge. Double piston balanced locomotives were patented by Bodmer in 1834, and some engines were built for English railways in 1842. The rod of one piston worked within the hollow rod of the other and they were connected- to oppositely disposed cranks, which were four in number. As the mechanism was internal and the appearance of the engines differed in no wise from the ordinary locomotives of the day, they are not illustrated here. The next remarkable locomotive selected is illustrated in Fig. 6. This engine was a partial repetition of the “Hurricane” (Fig. 2) for the boiler and running gear were on separate frames. It was designed for the Philadelphia and Reading railroad by G. W. Nicholls and was put to work in 1847. This engine was appropriately named “Novelty.” The cylinders were 18 inches in diameter by' 20 inches stroke. Driving wheels 3 feet 10 inches in diameter. The weight of the engine proper was 21 tons, and the frame carried a cylindrical iron water tank which had the appearance of a boiler.' This was used as a condenser and' feed water heater, while ' the boiler was carried on a separate frame behind the engine. This, in turn was coupled to a tender which does not appear in the illustration. The boiler had return flues and burned anthracite coal; it had a total heating surface of 1,085 square feet. The fire was urged by a fan placed in the cab. The condenser tank was surmounted by a large smoke stack, but as nothing passed through the latter save the surplus exhaust steam from the condenser it was apparently placed there merely for appearance. Steam was carried from the boiler to the engine by a jointed pipe. This engine hauled coal trains of 750 tons at 10 miles an hour. This complicated piece of machinery only worked for a short time. Complicated machinery is not, in itself, objectionable, and when complication enables a necessary function to be better performed it is allowable; but one can scarcely see how such a machine as is illustrated in Fig. 8 could have been seriously considered in the light of modern practice. Nevertheless, this engine was built in 1881, and ran on the Canada Southern Railway. It was designed- by Eugene Fontaine. The cylinders were 16 inches diameter by 24 inches stroke. The engine weighed about 40 tons. The driving wheels were 6 feet in diameter, having frictional contact with wheels 4 feet 8 inches in diameter, which were. integral with wheels 5 feet 10 inches in diameter running on the rails. In other words, instead of pro-pulson by power applied directly to the rails as in the common locomotive, two extra wheels were interposed to effect the same result. The “Fontaine” was a fast engine, for it drew two coaches 111 miles in 98 minutes, but many ordinary locomotives traveled faster with heavier loads. Geared engines were tried as far back as 1838, but it was then found that a gain in speed meant a loss of power, and as locomotives are required to haul loads, these engines were short lived. The “Fontaine” engine was not original, as the same arrangement was patented in England by Johnson in 1848. The foregoing notes will, perhaps, give a good illustration of the adage that “History shows us what to avoid." Caryl Davis Haskins CARYL DAVIS HASKINS, one of the best known electrical men of this country, died Saturday morning, November 18th, in Salt Lake City. Mr. Haskins The Technique of Clam Digging It has a technique and it is not easily learned. There is a certain way of handling the boat, of pushing the rake with its absurdly long handle into the water, of scraping the clams into it, of raising the rake—why there is as much technique about it as there is in playing a piano. You may debate with a disputatious person if it is more useful. Probably there isn't any book on the technique of clam digging and there isn't a periodical devoted to it exclusively. If there was a new development in the technique of clam digging, the Scientific American would record it, as it did the development of the steam oyster dredge and ever so many other things, including those departments of science which have their own technical publications for specialists in them. The' Scientific American covers the whole field, but it confines itself to the important things, those which affect the life of a who'.e people, rather than those which affect only a few individuals. What it really does is to give the news of civilization. It has been doing that for sixty-seven years. It is doing it now better than ever it did, on a bigger, broader scale. It is growing and widening as science is developing, and always it maintains its authority. See Correspondence Column, Page 564. The test of a magazine's merit is that its readers tell their friends about it. We recently asked our subscribers to send us the names of those whom they believed the Scientific American would interest, and we are gratified to find that so many of our subscribers believe that its merits will appeal to such a large number of their friends. Have you sent a list? If not, Here is the way: Simply send us the names and addresses of the people whom you think will be interested and we will do the rest. An accurate record of all names received in this manner will be kept, and for each new subscription we get from any list we will extend the subscription of the person who sent us the list for four months. Thus if we receive three new subscriptions from any one list the subscription of the person who sent us the list will be extended for a full year. Of course you may send as many names as you wish, the greater the number of names you send the larger the number of subscriptions we will probably receive and the longer the period for which your own subscription will be renewed.' Be careful to write the names and addresses plainly and don't fail to put your own name and the address at which you are receiving the Scientific American on each list you send. Address all lists to Circulation Department, Scientific American, 361 Broadway, New York. By A. RUSSELL BOND, 12 mo., 317 pages, 340 illustrations. Price, $2.00, ^ This is a fascinating story of outdoor boy life, and contains a large number of practical suggestions which, in addition to affording amusement, will stimulate in boys the creative spirit. In each instance complete practical instructions are given for building the various articles. The boy camper is supplied with directions for making tramping outfits, sleeping bags, tents, tree houses, straw huts, log cabins and caves. Winter diversions include instructions for making skate sails, snow shoes, ice boats, scooters, sledges, toboggans, etc. The more instructive subjects covered are surveying, wigwagging, heliographing and bridge building. Miscellaneous devices. such as scows, canoes, land yachts, windmills, water wheels and the like are also described. It is attractively illustrated :with half tones from life and numerous diagrams and engravings drawn to scale. The Scientific American Boy at School By A. RUSSELL BOND, 12 mo., 338 pages, 314 illustrations. Price. $2.00. : ^ tjJ This is a sequel to “ The Scientific American Boy” and like its predecessor is brim full of practical suggestions, all of which are entirely new. The construction of the apparatus , which is within the scope of the average boy, is fully described and the instructions are interwoven in a fascinating story. which makes the book interesting as well as instructive to the boy. This volume contains instructions on surveying, sounding and signalling, the building of dams, canals and canal locks , truss bridges and several different types of boats. Sun dials, clepsydras seismographs, gliding machines, kite photography and camera hunting are a few of the other interesting subjects taken up. Other unique ideas are water kites, fish-tail boat-propellers, bicycle sleds, geyser fountains, etc. _ No bol:' of a mechanical turn of mind can read the story without being inspired to try his hand at making the devices. Experimental Science ELEMENTARY PRACTICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL PHTS/CS By GEORGE M. HOPKINS. 2 volumes, octavo, 1100 pages, 900 illustrations. Price in clo th, $5.00; half morocco, $7.00. t] This work treats on the various topics of physics in a popular and practical way. Its object is to afford to the student, the artisan, the mechanic and in fact all who are interested in science, whether young or advanced in years, a ready means of acquiring a general knowledge of physics by the experimental method. The leading principles of physics are illustrated by simple and inexpensive experiments and the endeavor has been made to make the explanations of both apparatus and experiment plain and easily understood. In the new edition, the scope of the work has been broadened and presents the more recent developments in modern science. It presents the more recent developments in modern science and gives much information which will assist the reader in comprehending the great scientific questions of the day. Magic, Stage Illusions and Scientific Diversions Compiled and Edited by ALBERT A. HOPKINS. Large octavo, 556 pages, 400 illustrations. Price, $2.50. tjJ This ' work appeals to old and young alike, and is acknowledged by the profession to be the standard works on magic. The illusions are all explained in detail, which show exactly how the tricks are performed., Great attention is paid to the exposes of large and important illusions, which m many' cases have been furnished by the prestidigitateurs themselves. Some of the most important tricks of Robert Houden,, Bautier de Kolta, Heller and Hermann are explained. Conjuring tricks have not been neglected. a selection of some of the best,of them having been made—fire-eaters. sword-swallowers, ventriloquists, shadowgraphists—all come in for _ a share of attention, while mental magic, ancient magic, trick automata, curious toys and stage effects are well described and illustrated. was stricken with pneumonia while on a business trip in the West and the end. came very unexpected. Mr. Haskins was born in Waltham, Mass., May 22nd, 1867, and was educated in England where he specialized in mathematics and physics and took a special course in surveying and fortification work. In 1888 he entered the employ of the S. Z. de Ferranti&Company as one of its junior assistant engineers, where he had charge of the manufacture of electrical meters and assisted Mr. de Ferranti on the drawings for the original Deptford electric light station. In the autumn of 1889 he was a designing draftsman in the Thomson Elec-trict Welding Company, Lynn, Mass. Two or three months later he was employed by the Thomson-Houston Electric Company, Lynn, Mass., as an electrical engineer. In 1S91 he was appointed manager of the Meter Department of this company and after its consolidation with the General El ectric Company, Mr. Haskins retained this position, including general supervision of the engineering and the manufacture of instruments. At the beginning of the Spanish-American War Mr. Haskins proffered his services to the government and organized a corps of electrical engineers and men trained in electrical work, of which he was made commander. In the laying of the submarine mine defenses of Boston Harbof, the erecting of search light and range finding stations and other similar work during the war, Mr. Haskins and his command gave valuable service. He also gave invaluable aid in an advisory capacity in connection with other defense work on the north Atlantic coast. Under his supervision the temporary generating stations at Fort Warren and Fort Nahant were erected as well as all the range finding and ' communicating stations on the New England coast. The work in Boston Harbor involved the charging and laying of some 200 mines. At the conclusion of the war, Mr. Haskins resumed his position with the General Electric Company. He had made a special study of electricity as applied to offense and particularly defense in time of war and was considered an authority on this subject. After the close of the war he frequently acted in an advisory capacity to the government in matters of this nature. Mr. Haskins was a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, of the National Electric Light Association, and associate member of the Military Service Institute and the U. S. Naval Academy. Handy Man's Workshop and Laboratory Compiled and edited by A. RUSSELL BOND. l2mo., 467 pages, 370 illustrations. Price, $2.00. tjJ This is a compilation of hundreds of valuable suggestions and ingenious ideas for the mechanic and those mechanically inclined, and tells how all kinds of jobs can be done with home-made tools and appliances. The suggestions are practical, and the solutions to which they refer are of frequent occurrence. It may be regarded as the best collection of ideas of resourceful .men published, and appeals to all those who find use for tools “either in the home or workshop. The book is fully illustrated, in many cases with working drawings, which show clearly how the work is done. Home Mechanics for Amateurs By GEORGE M. HOPKINS. 12mo., 370 paget, 320 illustrations. Price, $ 1.50. tjJ This is a thoroughly practical book by the most noted amateur experimenter in America. It deals with wood working. household ornaments. metal working. lathe work, metal spinning silver working, making model engines, boilers and water motors; making telescopes. microscopes and meteorological instruments, electrical chimes, cabinets, bells, night lights, dynamos and motors, electric light and an electric furnace, and many other useful articles for the home and workshop. It appeals to the boy as well as the more mature amateur and tells how to make things, the right way, at small Any of ihese books will be sent posl-paid on receipt of advertised price M U N N&C O., Inc., 361 Broadway 'Pu b /is hers New York City