How it Works Part 25

The labour of feeding the retorts with coal and removing the c.o.ke is exceedingly severe. In the ill.u.s.tration on p. 400 (made from a very fine photograph taken by Mr. F. Marsh of Clifton) we see a man engaged in "drawing" the retorts through the iron doors at their outer ends.

Automatic machinery is now used in large gasworks for both operations.

One of the most ingenious stokers is the De Brouwer, shown at work in Fig. 198. The machine is suspended from an overhead trolley running on rails along the face of the retorts. Coal falls into a funnel at the top of the telescopic pipe P from hoppers in the story above, which have openings, H H, controlled by shutters. The coal as it falls is caught by a rubber belt working round part of the circ.u.mference of the large wheel W and a number of pulleys, and is shot into the mouth of the retort. The operator is seen pulling the handle which opens the shutter of the hopper above the feed-tube, and switching on the 4 h.p. electric motor which drives the belt and moves the machine about. One of these feeders will charge a retort 20 feet long in twenty-two seconds.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 198.--De Brouwer automatic retort charger.]

A GAS GOVERNOR.

Some readers may have noticed that late at night a gas-jet, which a few hours before burned with a somewhat feeble flame when the tap was turned fully on, now becomes more and more vigorous, and finally may flare up with a hissing sound. This is because many of the burners fed by the main supplying the house have been turned off, and consequently there is a greater amount of gas available for the jets still burning, which therefore feel an increased pressure. As a matter of fact, the pressure of gas in the main is constantly varying, owing partly to the irregularity of the delivery from the gasometer, and partly to the fact that the number of burners in action is not the same for many minutes together. It must also be remembered that houses near the gasometer end of the main will receive their gas at a higher pressure than those at the other end. The gas stored in the holders may be wanted for use in the street lamps a few yards away, or for other lamps several miles distant. It is therefore evident that if there be just enough pressure to give a good supply to the nearest lamp, there will be too little a short distance beyond it, and none at all at the extreme point; so that it is necessary to put on enough pressure to overcome the friction on all these miles of pipe, and give just enough gas at the extreme end. It follows that at all intermediate points the pressure is excessive. Gas of the average quality is burned to the greatest advantage, as regards its light-giving properties, when its pressure is equal to that of a column of water half an inch high, or about 1/50 lb. to the square inch.

With less it gives a smoky, flickering light, and with more the combustion is also imperfect.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 199.]

Every house supply should therefore be fitted with a gas governor, to keep the pressure constant. A governor frequently used, the Stott, is shown in section in Fig. 199. Gas enters from the main on the right, and pa.s.ses into a circular elbow, D, which has top and bottom apertures closed by the valves V V. Attached to the valve shaft is a large inverted cup of metal, the tip of which is immersed in mercury. The pressure at which the governor is to act is determined by the weights W, with which the valve spindle is loaded at the top. As soon as this pressure is exceeded, the gas in C C lifts the metal cup, and V V are pressed against their seats, so cutting off the supply. Gas cannot escape from C C, as it has not sufficient pressure to force its way through the mercury under the lip of the cup. Immediately the pressure in C C falls, owing to some of the gas being used up, the valves open and admit more gas. When the fluctuations of pressure are slight, the valves never close completely, but merely throttle the supply until the pressure beyond them falls to its proper level--that is, they pa.s.s just as much gas as the burners in use can consume at the pressure arranged for.

Governors of much larger size, but working on much the same principle, are fitted to the mains at the point where they leave the gasometers.

They are not, however, sensitive to local fluctuations in the pipes, hence the necessity for separate governors in the house between the meter and the burners.

THE GAS-METER

commonly used in houses acts on the principle shown in Fig. 200. The air-tight casing is divided by horizontal and vertical divisions into three gas-chambers, B, C, and D. Gas enters at A, and pa.s.ses to the valve chamber B. The slide-valves of this allow it to pa.s.s into C and D, and also into the two circular leather bellows E, F, which are attached to the central division G, but are quite independent of one another.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 200.--Sketch of the bellows and chambers of a "dry"

gas meter.]

We will suppose that in the ill.u.s.tration the valves are admitting gas to chamber C and bellows F. The pressure in C presses the circular head of E towards the division G, expelling the contents of the bellows through an outlet pipe (not shown) to the burners in operation within the house.

Simultaneously the inflation of F forces the gas in chamber D also through the outlet. The head-plates of the bellows are attached to rods and levers (not shown) working the slide-valves in B. As soon as E is fully in, and F fully expanded, the valves begin to open and put the inlet pipe in communication with D and E, and allow the contents of F and C to escape to the outlet. The movements of the valve mechanism operate a train of counting wheels, visible through a gla.s.s window in the side of the case. As the bellows have a definite capacity, every stroke that they give means that a certain volume of gas has been ejected either from them or from the chambers in which they move: this is registered by the counter. The apparatus practically has two double-action cylinders (of which the bellows ends are the pistons) working on the same principle as the steam-cylinder (Fig. 21). The valves have three ports--the central, or exhaust, leading to the outlet, the outer ones from the inlet. The bellows are fed through channels in the division G.

INCANDESCENT GAS LIGHTING.

The introduction of the electric arc lamp and the incandescent glow-lamp seemed at one time to spell the doom of gas as an illuminating agent.

But the appearance in 1886 of the Welsbach _incandescent mantle_ for gas-burners opened a prosperous era in the history of gas lighting.

The luminosity of a gas flame depends on the number of carbon particles liberated within it, and the temperature to which these particles can be heated as they pa.s.s through the intensely hot outside zone of the flame.

By enriching the gas in carbon more light is yielded, up to a certain point, with a flame of a given temperature. To increase the heat of the flame various devices were tried before the introduction of the incandescent mantle, but they were found to be too short-lived to have any commercial value. Inventors therefore sought for methods by which the emission of light could be obtained from coal gas independently of the incandescence of the carbon particles in the flame itself; and step by step it was discovered that gas could be better employed merely as a heating agent, to raise to incandescence substances having a higher emissivity of light than carbon.

Dr. Auer von Welsbach found that the substances most suitable for incandescent mantles were the oxides of certain rare metals, _thorium_, and _cerium_. The mantle is made by dipping a cylinder of cotton net into a solution of nitrate of thorium and cerium, containing 99 per cent. of the former and 1 per cent. of the latter metal. When the fibres are sufficiently soaked, the mantle is withdrawn, squeezed, and placed on a mould to dry. It is next held over a Bunsen gas flame and the cotton is burned away, while the nitrates are converted into oxides. The mantle is now ready for use, but very brittle. So it has to undergo a further dipping, in a solution of gun-cotton and alcohol, to render it tough enough for packing. When it is required for use, it is suspended over the burner by an asbestos thread woven across the top, a light is applied to the bottom, and the collodion burned off, leaving nothing but the heat-resisting oxides.

The burner used with a mantle is constructed on the Bunsen principle.

The gas is mixed, as it emerges from the jet, with sufficient air to render its combustion perfect. All the carbon is burned, and the flame, though almost invisible, is intensely hot. The mantle oxides convert the heat energy of the flame into light energy. This is proved not only by the intense whiteness of the mantle, but by the fact that the heat issuing from the chimney of the burner is not nearly so great when the mantle is in position as when it is absent.

The incandescent mantle is more extensively used every year. In Germany 90 per cent. of gas lighting is on the incandescent system, and in England about 40 per cent. We may notice, as an interesting example of the fluctuating fortunes of invention, that the once doomed gas-burner has, thanks to Welsbach's mantle, in many instances replaced the incandescent electric lamps that were to doom it.

[38] If, of course, there is no safety-valve in proper working order included in the installation.

Chapter XX.

VARIOUS MECHANISMS.

CLOCKS AND WATCHES:--A short history of timepieces--The construction of timepieces--The driving power--The escapement--Compensating pendulums--The spring balance--The cylinder escapement--The lever escapement--Compensated balance-wheels--Keyless winding mechanism for watches--The hour hand train. LOCKS:--The Chubb lock--The Yale lock. THE CYCLE:--The gearing of a cycle--The free wheel--The change-speed gear.

AGRICULTURAL MACHINES:--The thres.h.i.+ng-machine--Mowing-machines.

SOME NATURAL PHENOMENA:--Why sun-heat varies in intensity--The tides--Why high tide varies daily.

CLOCKS AND WATCHES.

A SHORT HISTORY OF TIMEPIECES.

The oldest device for measuring time is the sun-dial. That of Ahaz mentioned in the Second Book of Kings is the earliest dial of which we have record. The obelisks of the Egyptians and the curious stone pillars of the Druidic age also probably served as shadow-casters.

The clepsydra, or water-clock, also of great antiquity, was the first contrivance for gauging the pa.s.sage of the hours independently of the motion of the earth. In its simplest form it was a measure into which water fell drop by drop, hour levels being marked on the inside.

Subsequently a very simple mechanism was added to drive a pointer--a float carrying a vertical rack, engaging with a cog on the pointer spindle; or a string from the float pa.s.sed over a pulley attached to the pointer and rotated it as the float rose, after the manner of the wheel barometer (Fig. 153). In 807 A.D. Charlemagne received from the King of Persia a water-clock which struck the hours. It is thus described in Gifford's "History of France":--"The dial was composed of twelve small doors, which represented the division of the hours. Each door opened at the hour it was intended to represent, and out of it came a small number of little b.a.l.l.s, which fell one by one, at equal distances of time, on a bra.s.s drum. It might be told by the eye what hour it was by the number of doors that were open, and by the ear by the number of b.a.l.l.s that fell. When it was twelve o'clock twelve hors.e.m.e.n in miniature issued forth at the same time and shut all the doors."

Sand-gla.s.ses were introduced about 330 A.D. Except for special purposes, such as timing sermons and boiling eggs, they have not been of any practical value.

The clepsydra naturally suggested to the mechanical mind the idea of driving a mechanism for registering time by the force of gravity acting on some body other than water. The invention of the _weight-driven clock_ is attributed, like a good many other things, to Archimedes, the famous Sicilian mathematician of the third century B.C.; but no record exists of any actual clock composed of wheels operated by a weight prior to 1120 A.D. So we may take that year as opening the era of the clock as we know it.

About 1500 Peter Hele of Nuremberg invented the _mainspring_ as a subst.i.tute for the weight, and the _watch_ appeared soon afterwards (1525 A.D.). The pendulum was first adopted for controlling the motion of the wheels by Christian Huygens, a distinguished Dutch mechanician, in 1659.

To Thomas Tompion, "the father of English watchmaking," is ascribed the honour of first fitting a _hairspring_ to the escapement of a watch, in or about the year 1660. He also introduced the _cylinder escapement_ now so commonly used in cheap watches. Though many improvements have been made since his time, Tompion manufactured clocks and watches which were excellent timekeepers, and as a reward for the benefits conferred on his fellows during his lifetime, he was, after death, granted the exceptional honour of a resting-place in Westminster Abbey.

THE CONSTRUCTION OF TIMEPIECES.

A clock or watch contains three main elements:--(1) The source of power, which may be a weight or a spring; (2) the train of wheels operated by the driving force; (3) the agent for controlling the movements of the train--this in large clocks is usually a pendulum, in small clocks and watches a hairspring balance. To these may be added, in the case of clocks, the apparatus for striking the hour.

THE DRIVING POWER.

_Weights_ are used only in large clocks, such as one finds in halls, towers, and observatories. The great advantage of employing weights is that a constant driving power is exerted. _Springs_ occupy much less room than weights, and are indispensable for portable timepieces. The employment of them caused trouble to early experimenters on account of the decrease in power which necessarily accompanies the uncoiling of a wound-up spring. Jacob Zech of Prague overcame the difficulty in 1525 by the invention of the _fusee_, a kind of conical pulley interposed between the barrel, or circular drum containing the mainspring, and the train of wheels which the spring has to drive. The principle of the "drum and fusee" action will be understood from Fig. 201. The mainspring is a long steel ribbon fixed at one end to an arbor (the watchmaker's name for a spindle or axle), round which it is tightly wound. The arbor and spring are inserted in the barrel. The arbor is prevented from turning by a ratchet, B, and click, and therefore the spring in its effort to uncoil causes the barrel to rotate.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 201.]

A string of catgut (or a very fine chain) is connected at one end to the circ.u.mference of the drum, and wound round it, the other end being fixed to the larger end of the fusee, which is attached to the driving-wheel of the watch or clock by the intervention of a ratchet and click (not shown). To wind the spring the fusee is turned backward by means of a key applied to the square end A of the fusee arbor, and this draws the string from off the drum on to the fusee. The force of the spring causes the fusee to rotate by pulling the string off it, coil by coil, and so drives the train of wheels. But while the mainspring, when fully wound, turns the fusee by uncoiling the string from the smallest part of the fusee, it gets the advantage of the larger radius as its energy becomes lessened.

The fusee is still used for marine chronometers, for some clocks that have a mainspring and pendulum, and occasionally for watches. In the latter it has been rendered unnecessary by the introduction of the _going-barrel_ by Swiss watchmakers, who formed teeth on the edge of the mainspring barrel to drive the train of wheels. This kind of drum is called "going" because it drives the watch during the operation of winding, which is performed by rotating the drum arbor to which the inner end of the spring is attached. A ratchet prevents the arbor from being turned backwards by the spring. The adoption of the going-barrel has been made satisfactory by the improvements in the various escapement actions.

THE ESCAPEMENT.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 202.]

The spring or weight transmits its power through a train of cogs to the _escapement_, or device for regulating the rate at which the wheels are to revolve. In clocks a _pendulum_ is generally used as the controlling agent. Galileo, when a student at Pisa, noticed that certain hanging lamps in the cathedral there swung on their cords at an equal rate; and on investigation he discovered the principle that the shorter a pendulum is the more quickly will it swing to and fro. As has already been observed, Huygens first applied the principle to the governing of clocks. In Fig. 202 we have a simple representation of the "dead-beat"