Fuel Consumption of Experiments by M. Georges Marie. of the Paris and Lyons Railway (see Proc. Inst. ailed?. Engrs., May, 1884), give the following results: Consumption of fuel per effective horse-power per hour. 3.27 lbs. ; consumption of fuel per indicated horse-power per hour, 2.88 lbs.: ratio of consumption of water to consumption of fuel. 8.88 to 1: ratio of dry steam pro duced to fuel consumed, 8.08 to 1. M. Regray, of the Eastern Railway of France, has obtained an average result of 3.01 lbs. of coal per indicated horse-power per hour. Prof. Bausehinger's experiments on the Bavarian state railways showed an average water consumption of 27 lbs. per horse-power per hour.
Effect of on Steam Consumption in paper by Alexander Borodin, Engineer-in-Chief of the Russian Southwestern Railway (Proc. Inst. Mech. Engrs., August, a series of tests on an ordinary locomotive, with eylinder16.54 in. diameter, 23.412-in. stroke, from which he concludes that-1. When the jackets are not in use, the compound engine gives, in comparison with the ordinary engine, an economy of 13 per cent in consump tion of steam, and of 24 per cent in consumption of wood. 2. Admission of steam into the jackets does not sensibly affect the consumption of steam in the ordinary engine ; while in the compound engine it produces an injurious effect, increasing the consumption of water and wood per indicated horse-power.
Fuel in by Thomas Urquhart, of Russia (Proc. Inst. Mee». Engrs., August, 1884), show that an evaporation of 1g•`25 lbs. of water, at a pressure of 120 lbs. per sq. in., is obtained in practice from 1 lb. of petroleum refuse, while anthracite gives an evaporation of only 7 to Ihs..showing that the practical evaporative lower of petroleum is from 63 to 75 per cent higher than that of anthracite. Theoretically the petroleum refuse has only 33 per cent greater value t tan anthracite, Ina in burning the latter 40 per cent of its heating power is unavoidably lost, giving only 60 per cent ellicie»ey, while in burning petro 1011111 only 25 per cent is lost. giving 7.5 per cent efficiency. The I,etrolenut refuse is the residue known as naphtha refuse. left after distilling from crude petroleum the kerosene. benzine, and other light products. and in Russia it amounts to from 70 to 75 per cent of the original weight of crude oil used. in Pennsylvania. the amount of illuminating oil obtained is from 70 to 75 per cent of the crude oil used. The composition of the Russian and the Pennsylvania oils is. however, nearly the same.
Mr. Urquhart used a steam spray-injector for forcing the liquid fuel into the furnace. 11 is combustion-chainber was constructed with brick-wo•k inside it, which when heated. acted as a regenerator. Through the brick-work were made numerous channels or gas-passages. The brick-work thus offered a slight resistance to the free exit of the ignited gases, and so retained them longer in the combustion-chamber and fire-box, thus securing better admixture with the air, as well as a long circuit before they entered the tubes. The air carried in with the injector was pre-healed as hot as possible by being introduced through the forward ash pan damper. and passing upward through a channel in the heated brick-work. Considerable advantage was thus obtained• and also by pre-heating the petrolenm. A comparison of the consumption and cost of coal and of petroleum refuse per engine-mile in 8-wheel coupled 48 ton locomotives on the Grazi and 'i'sa•itsin Railway gives the following average results: Coal. 71t•08 lbs. per engine-mile; cost. 11.02 pence per engine-mile.
Petroleum refuse, 40.47 lbs. per engine-utile; cost. 584 pence per engine-mile.
Numerous experiments with petroleum-fuel for locomotives have been made in the United States, with successful results, as far as the evaporative power of the fuel is concerned ; but on account of the greater relative cheapness of coal as compared with petroleum in most locations in the United States. no commercial advantage has yet been found with oil fuel suf ficient to justify its introduction in practice.
Laconuclir•e Speed.—Mr. N. N. Forney, in iipaper on this subject in Scribner's Magazine, March, 1892. discussing the prospect of a speed of 100 miles per hour being reached. concludes that there " is not much probability of attaining regular and continuous speeds of 100 miles per hour with our present locomotives. Their fire-boxes—which perfo•m the sante functions for the machines that their stomachs do for animals—are, with the present system of con struction. necessarily contracted in size. The weight of the whole locomotive being fixed, the dimensions of the different parts are also limited. Fast running," in Mr. Forney's opinion, " is largely a question of steam production. Given a boiler which will generate enough steam. and the other problems are of comparatively easy solution. The difficulty is to get the boiler sufficiently large within the limits of size and weight to which it must be confined. It will be safe to say that to be able to travel continuously at 100 miles per hour we must have either boilers o• fuel which will generate more steam in it given time than those we are using now do, o• our engines 11111A use less steam to do I he same work: or, what is more probable still, we must have all three of these features combined. In the locomotive of the future. the action
of the reciprocating parts will probably be more perfectly halaneed than it is now; coupling rods will either be dispensed with altogether, or their risk of breakage will be lessened by placing the driving-wheels near together; and both this danger and the disturbing effect of the reciprocating parts will be lessened by increasing the size of the wheels. To enable the engine—or, rather, its journals—to run cool.' the journals and their bearings will lie increased in size so as to have ample surface to resist In Mr. Webb's new engine, Greater Britain, recently built for the London and Northwestern Railway, the boiler has been materially increased in size. and he reports the remarkable per formance of evaporating nearly 11 lbs. of water per lb. of coal while pulling a heavy train at the rate of over 44i miles per hour. This engine is compounded so as to use steam with the greatest economy, and is without coupling-rods. These are dispensed with by using three cylinders—two high-pressure and one low-pressure. The two former are connected to the back pair of driving-wheels. and the latter to the front pair. By this means both pairs of• Wheels are driven by separate cylinders. A new express locomotive is now in process of con struction in this country with a fire-lwa about twice as wide as those ordinarily used. The problem of improving the balancing of engines is at tract hug much attention. and the bearing surfaces of many reeent locomotives have materially increased. Driving-wheels have also been enlarged in size with the increase in speed." Mr. Theodore N. Ely, in the same magazine. gives the following instances of notable 1rain The Pennsylvania locomotive which drew the special train of the delegates to the International American Conference on their tour to the principal cities east of the Rneky Mountains, traversed the rails of 20 distinct lines of railroad, and covered 10.000 miles in its coarse, without accident of any kind or unreasonnble Amalie!r example of endurance 11111V be 126,000 miles made by one locomotive between Phil adelphia toad Washington in the year 1891—equal to live complete journeys around the world. t'oar•erniug the fat•1or whit:it will control the limit of speed in the of the future, Mr. Ely its follows: la the Mad-hell We shall III1Ve in demand I hat the alignment be almost free from eurva titre. and the width between the trac•Ice be increased; that the foundittio» shall he stable, and well protected from rain and frost ; that land-slides and other accidental obstructions shall he provided for ; that the ties shall be firmly imbedded : that the rails shall be heavy-100 lbs., or more, if necessary—and securely fastened ; that all frogs and switches shall be proof against accidental misplacement or rupture ; that all draw-bridges shall be made secure beyond question ; and, finally, that all crossings at grade be abolished. We must further insist that a thorough system of supervision and inspection shall be carried out. With a fulfillment of these conditions, which, professionally speaking, are perfectly practicable, trains, so far as the road-bed is concerned, may be run in safety as fast as any locomotive can be made to haul them. Of the locomotive it may be said, that only with the improvements in road-bed re ferred to can its highest attainable speed be utilized." Mr. Il. Walter Webb, of the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad, also in Scribner's Magazine, above noted, gives the following remarkable account of a fast ran made by a locomotive and three large parlor-cars over the above-named railroad in September, 1891. The engine, hereafter described, weighed 100 tons. The aggregate weight of the cars, empty, over 130 tons. The journey from New York to East Buffalo, a distance of 43632 miles, was made in 43,9.45 min. Allowing for time lost in changing engines at Albany and Syracuse, and for cooling a hot journal, the run of 436•32 miles was made in 420 min., or at the rate of 61.44 miles per hour. The most remarkable runs made before this were accom plished on the London and Northwestern and the Great Northern Railways of England. The distance over the former is 400 miles, and the run was made daily on a schedule calling for a speed of 58i miles per hour. On the Great Northern the distance is 393 miles, and the sched ule in this case called for a speed of 54 miles per hour. These trains were run daily for many weeks, and were generally punctual and within their sohedule time. On several occasions, how ever, they exceeded the schedule, and made what at that time were regarded as phenomenal runs.