Note XI, p. 119.—On Steam Navigation, etc

The application of steam, as a mechanical power, for impelling vessels and carriages, is one of the most brilliant and useful achievements of art which distinguish the present age, and is rapidly producing an important and interesting change both on inland and foreign intercourse. The fact that a vessel can be impelled by steam, against wind and tide, at the rate of twelve miles an hour, and a carriage on a railway with a velocity of thirty and upward, is sufficient to account for such a change. From the “Report of a Committee of Parliament,” published in 1822, it appears, that the first application of steam to the impelling of vessels was made by an Englishman of the name of Hull, who, in 1736, obtained a patent for the invention of a steamboat, to be moved with a crank and paddles. But it was only in 1807 that the invention was fairly brought into practical use by Mr. Fulton, who had the advice and assistance of Mr. Bell, a Scottish engineer. In Britain, the first successful application of steam to vessels was made by Mr. Bell,^† who built the Comet, of 25 tons and 4 horse power, to ply on the Clyde. Glasgow, which had the honor of introducing steam navigation on this side of the Atlantic, is still the seat of its greatest activity. In 1840, there were no less than 76 steamers of page 155 various sizes, comprising nearly 8000 tons, plying on the Clyde. Some of these, beside performing regular voyages to Inverary, Cambelton, Belfast, Dublin, Londonderry, Cork, Bristol, Liverpool, and other places, are also performing tours, during the summer months, to the Giant's Causeway, Staffa, Skye, and other parts of the western Isles, and to Inverness by the Caledonian canal. Steam-vessels, are also plying between Inverness and London, Perth and Dundee, Dumfries and Liverpool, Aberdeen and Leith, Dundee and London, Aberdeen and London, Leith and Dundee, Leith and London, Dover and Calais—from Liverpool to Lisbon, Cadiz, Gibraltar. Malaga, etc. In 1840, there were, throughout Great Britain and its colonies, no less than 630 steam-vessels, possessing an aggregate burden of 71,000 tons. The rivers on which these vessels chiefly ply are the Thames, the Severn, the Mersey, the Tyne, the Tay, the Forth, and the Clyde. From the Thames steamers proceed to Rotterdam, Boulogne, Havre, and many other ports on the continent. From Liverpool steam-vessels now regularly sail to the west Indies and America. These vessels are of an enormous size. The Great Western, the first steamer that sailed to America, is 1340 tons burden. The Victoria is a vessel of 500 horse power, and 27 feet longer than our largest man-of-war. The British Queen measures in entire length 275 feet. Her two engines are of 250 horse power each, and she is calculated to carry 1862 tons. Her outward voyage of 18 days requires a consumption of 540 tons of coal, and her homeward voyage of 12 days 360 tons. But larger vessels than even these are now in preparation. A regular communication is also now established by steam between Britain and India, by the Mediterranean, Egypt, and the Red sea.

Steam navigation on the continent is likewise making rapid progress. Steam-vessels are now to be found on the Garonne, Seine, Danube, Rhine, Rhone, lakes of Geneva and Constance, etc. It is likely that, in the course of a few years, such conveyances will be established on most of the friths and rivers both in Europe and America; and the period is no doubt hastening on when voyages will be made in such vehicles to the most distant regions of the world. A steam-vessel has for many years been sailing regularly, summer and winter, between New York and New Orleans, a distance of 2000 miles, in an open sea, exposed to great storms. On the coasts and rivers of North America, steam navigation is carried on to a much greater extent than in Great Britain or any other country. There are about 500 steam-vessels, most of them of very large size, plying on the Ohio, Mississippi, and other western waters. In this country, steam-vessels are fitted up with every accommodation and elegance which art can devise; so as to produce, if possible, as great a variety of enjoyment to passengers, on sea as on land. Mr. Church, the American consul in France, in 1822, invented a paddle that revolves on the paddle-wheel by a very simple mechanism, which is found to save power. In the United States, a new mode of constructing cabins has been introduced, so as to place them beyond the reach of injury from explosions of the boiler. “The American steam-vessels are larger than ours, and are much more used for the conveyance of merchandise. The average proportion is about 1 horse power for every 4 tons of burden, computed in the usual way. The velocity is found to be nearly as the square of the power, so that an 80 horse power engine will produce only twice the velocity of one of 20 horse power. Something depends also on the make and size of the vessel. Several years ago, the Sovereign, of 210 tons and 80 horse power, went 9 3/4 miles an hour in still water; and the James Watt, of 448 tons, and 100 horse power, 10 miles. For the paddle-boards, the rule is, that 3–10ths of a square foot of surface be immersed in the water for each horse power. Mr. Gladstone affirms, that so much power is wasted in displacing the water by the stroke of the board, that the velocity of the ship is only about one-half of that of the outer surface of the paddle-wheel. There are two sources of apprehension in steam-vessels—fire and the bursting of the boiler. With regard to the latter, when the boiler is of low pressure, it is satisfactorily established that not the smallest danger exists. And in the best constructed vessels, the danger from fire is completely obviated, by separating the furnace from the sides of the vessel by five inches of water.”

An interesting Report was published some years ago of a series of experiments, made with a new steam engine, invented by an American machinist, called the capillary steam engine. Three great objects are said to be accomplished by this invention—lightness, safety and economy of fuel. In an engine calculated for a 4 horse power, the generator is formed of a copper tube, 1/4 of an inch in diameter, and 100 feet long, which weighs about 16lbs. It is arranged in coils, one above another, in the form of a sugar loaf, 30 inches high; the bottom coil being 18 inches in diameter, and the top one considerably less. The wood is prepared as is usual for a stove, and put within the coils.—The steam cylinder is formed of sheet copper, 3 inches in diameter, 27 inches in stroke, and, with all its appendages, weighs about 25 lbs. It has been ascertained that the generator and main cylinder, with their contents and appendages, exclusive of fuel, need not weigh more than 20 lbs. to the horse power. No harm can be done by the bursting of boilers—even a safety-valve is considered as useless. In the course of the experiments, the experimenters several times burst the tube; but so far from doing any injury, it could not always be perceived by the spectators.

To ascertain what may be done toward aerial navigation by steam, experiments were made on the power of wings in the air, and on the power necessary to work them. The result is, that it requires a horse power to every 30 lbs. in the air; so that a flying engine, to be worked by charcoal, would weigh about 30 lbs. to the horse power, wings, condenser, and fuel included. It was also ascertained by experiments and calculations, that a balloon could be made to carry a man with an engine, which would push it at the rate of 15 miles an hour in the air. A more particular detail of these experiments may be seen in the London Mech. Mag., No. 60, for 16th Oct. 1824.

“What steam is doing to facilitate intercourse by water, it is also doing on land. By means of the iron-railway, the speed of traveling in steam carriages is treble that which is attainable by horses. The railway course is level; to accomplish which the same obstacles have to be overcome in its construction that are met with in making a canal—the high ground to be cut through and bridges to be thrown over the low. Since the railway for steam-carriages between Liverpool and Manchester was opened, a few years ago, the country has been getting intersected by others in every direction. Between these two towns, the number of passengers by this mode of conveyance averaged in 1831 about 1300 daily.—To transport all these by four-horse coaches, each allowed to carry 20 individuals, and to travel page 156 60 miles per day, and each horse to run 20 miles, would require upward of 32 of such coaches and 390 horses. Traveling by steam is also making rapid progress on the continent and in America. Between Paris and St. Germain a substantial railway has been lately opened, with 105 vehicles, for passengers only, capable of containing 4070 persons, and of transporting the whole population of Paris to St. Germain in one day. This railway traverses no fewer than eighteen bridges, three of which are across the Seine. The rails are fifteen times heavier than those between Liverpool and Manchester. Steam-carriages have repeatedly been constructed to run on common roads; but the friction there is so great, except where the ground is very smooth, hard, and level, that, with other impediments, they have not been found to run to advantage.”

Among the numerous purposes to which steam is now applied is that of breaking stones for the construction of roads. The stones are put into a kind of hopper above, and pushed down with a rake, and the machine is worked by a rotatory motion of one horse power; and will break a ton of hard pebbles, completely, in from six to eight minutes. A steam machine has also been invented for the dressing of woolen cloth, which does as much work in 50 minutes as two men could do in two days.—Mon. Mag. Aug. 1823, p. 71.