The tools used for cleaning the fire are the slice bar, Fig. 3288, which is pushed along the top of the fire bars to loosen up the fire, and let the ashes fall through the bars.

The hoe, Fig. 3289, which is used to push the fire to the back of the furnace and to pull it forward. The poker, Fig. 3290, which dislodges any clinker that may be between the bars, and lets the ashes fall through.

The clinker hook or devil’s claw, Fig. 3291, which is used to haul clinker out of the fire, and the rake, Fig. 3292, which is used to spread the fire evenly over the bars after it is cleaned.

In cleaning a fire, first use the slice bar to loosen up the fire and let the ashes fall through, and also dislodge clinkers from the surface of the bars. Then push the fire to the back of the furnace. Next use the poker to clean out clinker from between the exposed part of the bars. Then with the hoe pull a part of the fire forward and pull out the clinker that may be in this part, doing so with the hoe as far as possible, as that will save time, but if it should be necessary, use the clinker hook.

Then pull forward a second portion of the fire, and spread it on the bars, removing the clinker as before. When all the fire has thus been cleaned, use the rake to spread it evenly over the bars, and put on a light charge of coal, covering the brightest parts of the fire first, and taking care that no part of the fire bars is left uncovered.

The cleaning should be done quickly.

Draught.—The draught should be decreased while the fire is being cleaned, but the damper should never be entirely closed, as this might cause an explosion in the fire box and tubes.

During a temporary interruption, as in the case of the engine stopping, partly close all the dampers, as it is wasteful to make steam and blow it off through the safety valve.

Combustion.—A blue flame is evidence of incomplete combustion, but there may be a blue flame and imperfect combustion at the back end of the furnace, and a white flame and perfect combustion at the other end.

This is likely to occur with heavy firing near the fire door, and a thin fire at the tube sheet end of the fire box. In this case the unconsumed gases produced near the fire door (as evidenced by the blue flame) are consumed in passing over the bright fire at the tube plate end of the furnace.

At Night.—Always leave plenty of water in the boiler when leaving it for the night, not only to allow for any leak, but also because it gives a fair start in the morning and more time to remedy any defect in the feed pump if it arise.

By plenty of water, very nearly a full gauge is meant, or if there is no gauge glass to the boiler, let the water stand above the second or middle cock.

The usual method of leaving the fire for the night is to bank it. There is an element of danger, however, in banking a fire, unless it is done to suit the circumstances, because steam may generate very rapidly, and perhaps more rapidly than the safety valve can carry it off.

A safe method is to clean the fire, leaving the clinker and ashes covering the front half of the grate and the fire piled up on the back half.

The damper and ash pit door should be closed tight, the fire door open, and the fire well covered with fresh coal, choosing small rather than large coal.

If this method is found not to keep up the fire sufficiently, the same plan may be employed, except that the ashes and clinker may be removed, and if this still leaves too cold a boiler, and too poor a fire in the morning, the fire may be left spread over the grate, but heavily covered with fresh coal, the draught being stopped as much as possible by closing the dampers and opening the furnace door.

To further insure safety, the weight on the safety valve lever should be pushed towards the valve, so as to cause the safety valve to blow off at a less pressure than during the day.

In the Morning.—In starting up a banked fire in the morning, first close the fire door and open the damper, so as to give the fire all the draught possible, and let it burn up a little; then, if it has been piled up at the back of the furnace, clean out the ashes by passing the T bar beneath the fire, and spread it over the grate, letting it burn up a little before making up a fire.

Boiler-Feed.—The fireman should endeavor, if possible, to so regulate the boiler feed that it is kept going as nearly continuously as possible while maintaining a uniform quantity of water in the boiler, and this, with uniform firing, will give the greatest economy.

When pumps are used to feed with, the amount of the lift of the valves can be regulated by a screw, so as to vary the amount of water the pump will deliver, and in this case it is comparatively easy to set them so that the pump may be kept going without putting too much water in the boiler.

When injectors are used, however, the feed will be intermittent, and a uniform quantity of water in the boiler is best obtained by feeding at short intervals, stopping the feed when the fire door is opened much, as when cleaning the fire.

If the feed water is dirty, the gauge glass should be kept clean by first shutting off the upper cock and opening the lower one, so as to let the water blow through the lower cock, and then shutting off the lower cock from the boiler, and opening the upper one, which will let the steam blow all the water out of the glass. This should be done two or three times a day, so as to keep the holes in the boiler and those in the cocks from closing up with fur or scale.

If the water falls in the glass, or if the gauge cocks show the water to be falling, notwithstanding that the feed pump has been started, it is evident that the pump is not working.

This may occur from a stuck valve, a leak in the suction pipe, from the feed water being too hot, or from the pump failing to start in action from leaky or choked valves.

A stuck valve may generally be relieved by striking a few blows on the outside of the pump with a hammer and a block of wood, or if this does not answer, with the hammer only. Check valves are the ones most likely to stick.

If a pump fails to work by reason of the feed water being too hot, the remedy is to open the pet cock to let the steam out of the pump, but if this does not succeed, cold water may be poured on the outside of the pump, which will start it, after which, in most cases, the pump will keep going and the pet cock may be closed.

If the suction pipe has a joint, a leak there will impair the action of the pump, and, if the leak is great enough, will stop it; the remedy is to make the joint tight.

Plunger pumps sometimes fail to act because the plunger has worn so small in diameter that there is sufficient air between the plunger and the pump barrel to expand and compress without lifting the valve; the remedy is obviously a new plunger of as large diameter as the pump gland will admit of, boring the gland out to admit the new plunger.

All the impurities in the water are left in the boiler when the water has evaporated, and it is obvious these impurities must be blown off or they will form scale on the internal surface of the boiler and the external surface of the tubes or flues.

This scale obstructs the passage of the heat from the iron to the water, and if let get thick enough will cause the iron to rapidly burn out.

To prevent the formation of scale, two principal methods are employed, one being to purify the feed water, and the other to occasionally blow the impurities out of the boiler.

Feed-water heaters generally serve also as purifiers, and their effectiveness is increased in proportion as the water can pass quietly through them, and has a large area on which the impurities can settle. Horizontal heaters have the advantage that they have a large settling area, and a less distance for the impurities to fall through. The water-gauge glass and the lower gauge cock are usually set so as to have a margin of about three inches of water above the tubes or crown sheet of the fire box, hence if it is known that the water is but just below the bottom of the gauge glass or gauge cock, there is no positive danger, although it is improper to let it get so low.

If the water is out of sight, and it is not known exactly how low it is, then it is dangerously low, and every minute is of vital importance.

Should the water get dangerously low in the boiler, the most dangerous thing to do is to lift the safety valve or pump in cold water, especially if it is not known how much water there is in the boiler.

As quickly as possible cover the fire with ashes, coal, earth, sand, or anything that is at hand that will smother the fire, then close the draught to the fire, leaving the fire door and the chimney damper open.

Leave all the steam outlets just as they are, and also the feed.

Priming.—Priming, which is also called “foaming,” is that the steam carries up water into the steam space. This may arise from several causes, but it is well known that what will stop priming in some cases will cause it in others.

The known causes of priming are—first, too little room for the steam in the boiler, and it follows that a high water level may cause priming; second, it may be caused by a difference of temperature between the water and the steam in the boiler. Suppose, for example, that the pressure of the steam and water in the boiler is 160 lbs. by gauge, and its sensible temperature will be 370 degrees. Suppose then that enough steam is permitted to escape from the boiler to reduce the steam pressure to 140 lbs., and its temperature will be reduced to 361 degrees. But the water will remain at 270 degrees, and the result will be that it will pass into steam so rapidly that it will carry up the water and hold it in suspension among the steam. The water will pass with the steam into the engine cylinder, and the boiler will be said to “prime,” “foam,” or “work water.” The same thing may happen if the water is heated very rapidly.

Priming is wasteful because it rapidly empties the boiler of its water, and dangerous because it may cause the piston to knock out the cylinder head or cover.

When the safety valve blows off, priming may be induced, especially if the engine is at work, because in this case the boiler is being forced, or, in other words, is making steam more rapidly than it is designed to do, and the passage of so large a body of steam through the water is apt to lift it.

Muddy water will sometimes cause foaming or priming, as will also insufficient circulation of the water in the boiler or sometimes the presence of grease or oil.

Priming may be detected from the discharge of water with the steam when the gauge cock is opened, the steam looking white and fluttering as it escapes, and also by violent motion of the water in the gauge glass, or by a thump or pound at the ends of the piston stroke.

To stop priming, the steam from the boiler should be decreased by slackening the speed of the engine, or if necessary, by stopping it. The true water level can then be seen, and if there is too much water in the boiler some of it may be blown off, while if the quantity of water in the boiler will permit it, the feed may be put on.

If the boiler has a surface blow-off cock, or a mechanical boiler cleaner, it is best to blow off from that, as it carries off the scum at the same time as relieving the boiler.

To prevent priming, a steady and uniform rate of boiler feed, the use of pure water, a clean boiler, and steady firing are the best means, turning on the steam slowly so as not to violently disturb the water in the boiler.

The engine as well as the boiler requires attention when the boiler primes. Thus the cylinder cocks should be opened to let out the water from the cylinder and prevent breakage of the cylinder cover.

Scale in Boilers.—The steam leaves behind it all the impurities that the water contained, and these impurities deposit in form of mud and scale, which must be got rid of because it causes a loss of fuel, and if allowed to get thick enough will cause the boiler to burn.

The use of boiler compounds or scale preventatives may be resorted to with advantage, providing they are of a nature to suit the water, but mechanical cleaning must also be resorted to at periods determined by the nature of water.

Boilers are cleaned in two ways—first, by blowing off the impurities before they have formed into scale; and second, by removing at certain intervals whatever scale has formed.

Blowing down may be done in two ways—first, from the surface of the water by means of mechanical cleaners; and second, by blowing out from the bottom of the boiler.

The first draws off the impurities as they are thrown to the surface, the second draws them off after they have become more condensed and sink to the bottom.

How often a boiler should be blown down depends upon the kind of water fed to the boiler; where purifiers are used, less blowing down is obviously needed.

It is best to blow off from the bottom of the boiler when no steam is being used, as during dinner time, letting the water blow down about a quarter of the glass, or from the upper to the middle gauge cock.

As no steam is being used, the feed can then be put on to restore the quantity of water without reducing the temperature of the boiler so much. The feed should be gradual and the fire regulated to keep the steam pressure even.

How often a boiler should be washed out and cleaned depends upon the quality of the water it uses, and varies from about once a week to once a month, according to whether bad and unpurified water or purified water is used.

The first thing to do is to draw the fire, leaving the chimney damper open and closing all the other dampers so that as little cold air as possible can get into the boiler, while the heat can pass away up the chimney.

Let the steam and water all remain in the boiler until there is a gauge pressure of about 5 lbs. in the boiler.

Then open the blow-off cock and let out the water. If the water is blown off under a high pressure, then after the waste is all out the iron is hot enough to dry up the scale, making it hard and very difficult to remove.

After all the water is blown off, take out all the mud plugs and the man-hole and hand-hole covers, and wash out the boiler under as much water pressure as can be had, directing the hose so to reach all parts of the boiler and tubes, and continuing the washing until the water leaves the boiler clean.

Then with a wooden hoe on a piece of gas-pipe of small diameter for a handle, and small enough to pass through the hand-hole, draw all the loose scale to the hand-hole and remove it, letting the water run slowly, so as to carry the small pieces of scale towards the hand-hole as fast as the hoe disturbs it.

Then get inside the boiler, and a few blows with a light ball-pened hammer will loosen the scale, and a steel scraper will remove more, which must be washed down and drawn out with a hoe.

After the cleaning and scaling are complete, the engineer, with lamp in hand, should carefully examine the interior of the boiler and of the fire box, paying especial attention to the stays to see that they are not broken.

The hammer test should also be applied. It consists of sounding the boiler by light blows given by a light ball-pened hand hammer, the sound indicating defective places.

Chapter XXXVII.—THE STEAM ENGINE.

The high pressure steam engine, in whatever form it exists, consists of a frame or bed plate carrying two distinct mechanisms, first, the driving or power-transmitting mechanism, and second, the valve gear or valve motion, and to these are added such other mechanisms as the nature of the duty the engine is to perform may require.

The most prominent of these additional mechanisms is a governor for regulating the speed at which the engine is to run; nearly all steam engines require a governor in some form or other, while for electric lighting and some other purposes it constitutes the main feature in the design of the engine.

In a locomotive the air brake and the sand box are elements not found in other engines.

In a jet condensing engine, the condenser and injection water, or condensing water mechanism, is a part of the engine.

In a surface condensing engine, the air pumps and circulating pumps are a part of the engine.

In marine engines there are mechanisms for turning the engine around when no steam is up; for moving the reversing gear quickly, and for varying the point of cut off, and therefore the amount of expansion, and various other and minor mechanisms.

Referring now to the simplest form of high pressure stationary steam engine, such as represented in Figs. 3293, 3294, and 3295, its valve gear or valve motion consists of the eccentric and its strap, the eccentric rod, the valve rod guide a, the valve rod or valve spindle, and the valve v, these parts controlling the admission of steam to one side of the piston, and the exhaust from the other.

The piston, piston rod, cross head, connecting rod, crank, crank shaft, main shaft or driving shaft, and the fly wheel constitute the driving or power-transmitting mechanism.

The steam side of the piston is that against which the steam is pressing, as side s in Fig. 3295. The exhaust side, e, of the piston is that on which the steam is passing out or exhausting.

The governor for a common D valve engine regulates the engine speed by varying the opening in the bore of the pipe through which the steam passes from the boiler to the steam chest, leaving a wider opening in proportion as the engine runs slower, and reducing the opening when the engine runs faster. Assuming the engine to be running at its slowest, or its load to be so great that a full supply of steam is required in order to keep the engine up to its proper speed, and the governor will be open at its widest, so that all the further action the governor can have is to reduce the steam pipe opening, and thus cause the pressure in the steam chest to be less than that in the steam pipe.

This action is called wire-drawing the steam, and the governor is called a throttling governor.

An engine bed or bed plate is a frame that is seated or bedded to its foundation along its whole length.

An engine frame is seated to its foundations at two or more places, but not continuously throughout its length.

THE CYLINDER.

Cylinders are secured to the engine frames in three principal ways, as follows: by bolting them down to the bed plate; by bolting them to one end of the bed plate, so that they may expand and contract without springing the bed plate; and in vertical engines, by bolting them to the top of the frames.

The bores of cylinders require to be parallel, so that the piston rings may fit to the bore without requiring to expand and contract in diameter at different parts of the stroke.

Cylinders are designated for size by the diameter of the cylinder bore and the length of the stroke; thus, a 10 × 12 cylinder has a piston of ten inches diameter and 12 inches stroke.

The wear of a cylinder bore is (if the engine is kept in proper line and the piston rings, or packing rings as they are sometimes termed, fit to the bore with an equal pressure throughout the stroke) greatest near the middle of the length and least at the ends of the stroke. But when the piston rings are set out by the steam pressure, and the point of cut off occurs early in the stroke, the wear may be greatest at the ends of the cylinder bore, because of the pressure of the steam diminishing during the expansion.

The counterbore of a cylinder is a short length at each end of the cylinder, that is made of larger diameter than the rest of the bore, so that the piston head may travel completely over the working bore, and thus prevent the formation of a shoulder at each end of the cylinder. Such a shoulder forms when there is a part of the bore over which the piston does not pass. The length of the counterbore should exceed the amount of the taper on the connecting rod key, so that as the connecting rod length alters from the wear, the piston shall not strike the cylinder head.

The clearance of a cylinder is the amount of space that exists between the face of the piston when it is at the end of its stroke and that of the valve when it covers the port, the piston being at the end of the stroke, and as this space exists at each end of the cylinder, the total clearance for a revolution is twice the above amount.

The clearance at the crank end of the cylinder is reduced by the piston rod passing through it.

The amount of clearance may be measured by the following method, which has been given by Professor John E. Sweet:

See that the piston and valves are made tight, and the valves disconnected; arrange to fill the clearance spaces with water through the indicator holes, or holes drilled for the purpose. Turn the engine on the dead centre; make marks on the cross-head and guide that correspond; weigh a pail of water, and from it fill all the clearance space. Weigh the remaining water, so as to determine how much is used. Then weigh out exactly the same amount of water, turn the engine off the centre, pour in the second charge of water, and turn back until the water comes to the same point that it did in the first case. Make another mark on the cross-head, and the distance between these marks is exactly what you really wish to know; that is, it is just what piston travel equals the clearance. This gives the proportion that the clearance space bears to the space in the cylinder occupied by the steam at the end of the piston stroke. Thus, if it takes one pound of water to fill this space, and to admit the one pound of water the piston must be moved one inch, then the clearance bears the same relation to the capacity of the engine as one inch bears to the stroke of the piston. Thus, under these circumstances, in an engine of ten-inch stroke, it would be said the engine had ten per cent. clearance.

When a cylinder is to be rebored, the boring bar should be set true or central to the circumference of the counterbore, so that the bore of the cylinder may be brought to its original position with reference to the bore of the stuffing box.

Cylinders require lubricating, both to avoid friction and wear of the cylinder bore, as well as of the valve and valve seat. The amount of lubrication required depends upon the degree of tightness of the piston rings, upon the speed of the piston, upon the amount of pressure of the valve to its seat, and upon the method of operating the side valve.

Cylinders with releasing valve gears require freely lubricating, because the closure of the valve depends upon the dash pot, and undue friction retards the closing motion.

The less the movement of the valve at the moment of its release, the easier it is to move it, because the friction is less, and less lubrication is required.

Cylinders are lubricated by automatic oilers placed on the steam pipe of the engine, the oil being distributed over the surfaces by the steam.

Cylinder oilers sometimes have a pump to force the oil in, and in others the steam in the oiler condenses, and the water thus formed floats the oil over the top of a tube, or up to an orifice through which the oil gradually feeds as the condensation proceeds.

In other oil feeders, the feed is regulated by increasing or diminishing the opening through which the steam passes from the cup to the steam pipe.

Sight oil feeders are those in which there is a glass tube or body, in which the passage of the oil can be seen as it drops.

Cylinder cocks are employed at each end of the cylinder to let out the water that condenses from the steam when admitted to a cold or partly cooled cylinder. The two cocks are usually connected together by a rod, so that both may operate together.

Cylinder relief valves are valves at each end of the cylinder to relieve the cylinder from the charges of water that sometimes enter from the boiler with the live steam.

Steam ports give a quicker admission in proportion as their length is increased, and this reduces the amount of valve travel, and are sometimes given a length equal to the diameter of the cylinder bore.

The bottoms of the steam ports are sometimes so placed as to be below the level of the cylinder bore, so as to drain off the water of condensation of the steam.

Rule to find the required area of steam port.

Multiply the area in square inches of the piston, by the number opposite to the given piston speed in the following table:

The cylinder exhaust port must be open when the valve is at the end of its travel, to an amount equal to the width of the steam port, but what this width will be in any given case depends upon the width of the bridges, the amount of the steam lap and the travel of the valve, as will be explained with reference to the slide valve.

Jacketed cylinders are those in which there is a space around the cylinder that is filled with live steam.

The object of jacketing is to prevent the loss of heat from the steam within the cylinder by radiation. The steam in the jacket should be received direct from the boiler, and should not be drawn from the jacket into the steam chest because the jacket reduces its temperature and condenses it.

The water of condensation of a steam jacket should not be allowed to accumulate in any part of the jacket, but should drain off and pass back to the boiler. To render the jacket as effective as possible, it should extend from end to end of the cylinder, the exhaust steam pipe leading directly away, so as to have as little communication with both the cylinder and the jacket as possible.

The jacket should have open communication with the boiler at all times, so as to have the pressure in the jacket at the same pressure as that in the steam chest, while the cylinder being kept hot, it will be unnecessary to blow steam through in order to warm the cylinder when starting the engine. The steam should enter the jacket at the highest point, so as to prevent the accumulation of air in the jacket. Or, if the steam is admitted at some other point, it should be so arranged as to permit its thorough circulation in the jacket. When a jacket is used, the metal of the cylinder body should be as thin as possible, because the transmission of heat through the metal is, both in time and quantity, inversely as the distance or thickness passed through.

The steam in the jacket should be as dry as possible, so that all wet steam admitted during the live steam period may be evaporated by the heat received from the steam in the jacket. The outside of the jacket should be thoroughly protected from cooling by being lagged or clothed with felt or some other material that is a non-conductor of heat.

From experiments made by Mr. Charles A. Smith, of St. Louis, it was found that the amount of variation of temperature that occurred during the stroke in a locomotive cylinder was inversely proportional to the speed of engine revolution, which shows the advantages of jacketing cylinders and of lagging them, as well as the advantage of a high rotative speed.

A lagged cylinder is one clothed, which is sometimes done with wood or metal strips, leaving an air space around the cylinder, while in others this space is filled with felt or some non-conducting material.

Experiments made by Charles E. Emery gave the following general results: The thickness of the pipes and of the non-conducting materials was kept constant.

Hair felt was the best non-conducting material of all those tested, and the value of a thickness of two inches of hair felt was taken as unity and the maximum.

The value of two inches of mineral wool as a non-conductor was 0.832 of hair felt; two inches of mineral wool and tar was 0.715. Two inches of sawdust, 0.68; two inches of a cheaper grade of mineral wool, 0.676; charcoal, 0.632; two inches of pine wood, across the grain, 0.553; two inches of loam, 0.55. This was from the Jersey flats, and almost all vegetable fibre not yet become compact. Slaked lime from the gas works, expressed decimally, with hair felt as unity, 0.48; coal ashes, 0.345; coke, only 0.277, the same as used for fuel; two inches of air space, only 0.136, which dashes a great many people’s hopes, and is as interesting as any part of the data; two inches of asbestos, 0.363; two inches of Western coke, about the same as the other coke; two inches of gas house charcoal, 0.47.

These are very interesting, particularly so this matter of an air space. It has been supposed that an air space around a pipe is as good as anything we can have. The fact is, convection or circulation takes place; the air is cooled on one side of the space, descends, and rises on the other, and it is necessary to break up the air space, and that undoubtedly accounts for the efficiency of these different materials. It is the air probably that is the non-conductor; but it should be kept quiescent instead of being allowed to circulate. The air space itself is of very little value until the circulation is prevented.

THE PISTON.

In calculating the power of an engine it is the piston speed that is taken into account, and not the length of the stroke, the latter being used merely in order to obtain the piston speed.

Long strokes are usually employed upon engines running at moderate piston speeds, as from 300 to 500 feet per minute, and short strokes for piston speeds from 400 to 800 feet per minute.

The Porter Allen engine has been run noiselessly at 1,100 feet per minute.

In determining the stroke of an engine the nature of the valve-operating mechanism is taken into account.

In releasing mechanisms, or those in which connection between the eccentric rod and valve spindle is broken in order to permit the valve to close quickly, too high a speed of revolution may cause the tripping mechanism to fail to act, hence a high piston speed is obtained by means of employing a comparatively long stroke.

In positive valve gears, or those in which the valve is controlled throughout the whole of its movement by the eccentric, the valve mechanism may operate quicker without danger of missing, hence the piston speed may be greater.

When the stroke equals the diameter of the cylinder bore, the cylinder presents the least amount of exposed surface in proportion to its cubical contents.

To obtain the same amount of expansion in a short as in a long stroke engine, the steam must be expanded through an equal proportion of the stroke; thus, if the steam is cut off at half stroke in both cases, the amount of this expansion will be equal.

Pistons are made an easy fit to the cylinder bore, a steam-tight fit between the two being obtained by means of the piston rings.

Solid pistons are provided with snap piston rings.

A snap piston ring is one that is larger in diameter than the cylinder bore, and is closed in to get it into the cylinder, while it depends on its own spring outwards for its fit to the cylinder bore, having no supplementary rings or springs to force it out.

Piston rings that are expanded by supplementary springs should be tapering in thickness, the thickest part being opposite to the split, and the thinnest at the split. This causes the ring to conform itself to the cylinder bore, and makes it sit more evenly around its whole circumference. These rings are made larger in diameter than the cylinder bore, in proportion of about ¹⁄₈ inch per foot of diameter, the split being closed when the ring is sprung into place in the cylinder. But if made of brass, the split must be left open enough to allow for the expansion, or otherwise the ring expanding more than the cylinder will seize and cut single.

The split of a piston ring should be placed on the bottom of the piston (in a horizontal engine), so that the piston head, in resting on the cylinder bore, will cover up the opening of the ring.

When two or more rings are employed, the splits may be placed on the lower half of the cylinder, so as to cover up their splits as much as possible.

The follower of a piston is a plate or cover that is employed to hold the piston rings in place, and the piston rings should be so fitted that the follower should be bolted firmly up, or otherwise the bolts may come loose and work out, and getting between the piston and the cylinder cover, may cause the piston to knock the cylinder cover out.

Piston followers are necessary when the rings are set out by springs or other parts adjustable within the piston head. Snap piston rings, however, permit the use of a solid piston, dispensing with the need for a follower.

The effectiveness of a piston ring may be tested, when the construction of the engine will permit it, by disconnecting the valve for the head end, setting it so that it covers the port, and then taking off the cylinder cover at the head end and admitting steam through the crank end steam port, when any leak in the piston rings will be seen by the escape of the steam.

THE PISTON ROD.

Piston rods should be of slightly diminishing diameter at the ends, so that the wear shall not leave a shoulder at each end of the rod.

In determining the diameter of the piston rod, allowance is made for turning it occasionally in the lathe to restore its parallelism, the wear reducing its diameter more in the middle than at the ends. The diameter of a piston rod is found in practice to range between one-sixth and one-tenth the diameter of the cylinder bore.

Steel piston rods wear better than those of wrought iron, being free from scaly seams which are apt to cut the packing and cause the rod to wear in grooves.

The best method of securing a piston rod to a piston head and to the cross head is by a taper seat and a key, so that no nut is needed, and the cylinder cover need not have a recess to receive the nut when the piston is at the end of the stroke, and the amount of clearance is correspondingly reduced.

Piston head key ways are sometimes given so little clearance that the key completely fills the keyway when driven fully home. This prevents the edges of the keys from bulging into the clearance space in the keyway, which action is apt to cause the key to loosen in time. The key should have a safety pin at its small end.

When piston rods are threaded into the cross head, or into the piston, the threads are made an easy fit, and taper seats or split hubs secured by clamping screws are relied upon to keep the rod true to the cross head or piston, it being found that the screw alone cannot be relied upon for this purpose.

PISTON ROD PACKING.

Piston rod packing, of fibrous or similar material, should be cut in rings that will not quite fully envelop the piston rod, and the first ring should be placed with its split upwards. After two or three rings have been inserted, each having its split at a different part of the bore, so as to “break joints,” the gland should be screwed up enough so as to carry the packing home to the back of the stuffing box. This process should be continued until the stuffing box is filled for about two-thirds of its depth, when the gland may be screwed home.

The gland should be screwed up quite evenly, so that the packing in the stuffing box shall be compressed equally all around the rod, and will not cause the gland to bind on the rod or in the stuffing box bore.

The wrench should be applied first to one nut, giving it a turn or two, and then to the other, and after the gland is firmly home the nuts should be eased back about two turns.

When a gland requires packing, it is proper to take out all the old packing that has become hard and set.

A leak in piston rod packing may sometimes be remedied by taking out three or four rings of the packing and reversing it.

If the packing is tightened up while the engine is running, it should be done very gently and evenly, as a very little screwing up may stop the leak, while excessive screwing produces undue friction.

Piston rods are in some of the most advanced practice packed with metallic packing, or packing composed of soft metal. In some forms of metallic packing the construction is such that the gland and packing do not attempt to restrain the line of motion of the piston rod, this duty being left to the guide blocks and guide bars, where it properly belongs.

THE CROSS HEAD.

In engines having Corliss frames, the cross head is provided with shoes and adjusting screws, to take up the wear.

When guide bars are shaped thus stretched rectangular S shape the cross head is provided with gibs (usually of brass composition) to take up the wear.

In either case care must be taken to make the adjustment correct, and thus keep the piston rod in line. The shoes or gibs should not bear hard upon the guides, but be an easy sliding fit without lost motion.

Cross head pins should be kept eased away on the two parts of their circumference which are within the connecting rod brasses or boxes and near the joint faces of the same. This is necessary because the wear is greatest on the crowns of the boxes, and the pins are apt to wear oval. In some engines, the surface of the pin is cut away, but if it is not, and the pin can be revolved in the cross head, it is a good plan to give it half a turn occasionally, which will keep it round.

THE GUIDE BARS.

The guide bars of an engine require to be set exactly in line with the axis of the cylinder bore, so that they may guide the piston to travel in a straight line. They should be an easy sliding fit to the cross-head guide.

The top bar is more difficult to lubricate than the bottom one, especially when it receives the most pressure, as is the case when the top of the fly-wheel runs towards the cylinder.

Cast iron guide bars wear better than either brass, iron, or steel ones, so long as they are properly lubricated. The face of each guide bar should be cut away, so that the ends of the cross head guides will travel past it. This will prevent a shoulder forming at the ends of the bar as the face wears away. Such shoulders are apt to cause a knock as the connecting rods are lined up, because in the lining the connecting rod is restored to its original length, and the path of the cross-head guides along the bars may be altered.

THE CONNECTING ROD.

There are two principal kinds of connecting rods, the “strap ended” and the “solid ended.” The solid ended wear the best, but are more difficult to get on and off the engine.

Connecting rod straps are secured to the stub ends (as the ends of the rod are called), either by bolts or by one or two gibs, and the brasses are set up by a taper key or wedge.

The taper for connecting rod keys is about an inch per foot.

The angularity of a connecting rod is a term that applies to its path of motion, which is (during all parts of the stroke except on the dead centre) at an angle to the line of engine centres. The effect of this angularity is to cause the piston motion to be accelerated at one part of the stroke and retarded at another, thus causing the point of cut-off to occur at different points of the two strokes.

The direction of the variation is to cause the point of cut-off to occur later on the stroke when the piston is moving from the head end of the cylinder towards the crank.

The amount of variation caused in the two points of cut off by the connecting rod depends upon the proportion that exists between the length of the crank and that of the connecting rod, and is less in proportion as the length of the connecting rod is greater than that of the crank.

An ordinary length of connecting rod is six times the length of the crank, or six cranks, as it is commonly termed.