Gilbert D. Emerson 209 North Eleventh St. PHILADELPHIA, PA. LIBRARY BOOK BINDER DIRT AND FINGER-MARKS SUCCESSFULLY 88 The McDaniel Improved Steam Trap DISCHARGES CONTINUOUSLY AND NEVER BLOWS STEAM WATER GAUGES ARE USED TO SHOW THE WORKING OF THE TRAP Made Extra Heavy for High Pressure We also manufacture Reducing Valves, Exhaust Pipe Heads, Separators for Live and Exhaust Steam, Blow Off Valves, Relief Valves, Ejectors, Pump Governors, SEND FOR CATALOGUE. etc. 146 N. 7th Street, WATSON & MCDANIEL CO., Philadelphia, Pa. Your courtesy in mentioning the Journal will be appreciated No. 911 Arch St., Philadelphia, Pa., U. S. A. TESTING MACHINES and HYDRAULIC PRESSES We are always prepared to make tests of all kinds 500 North Twelfth Street, Philadelphia, Pa. The Highest Grade Weston Model I VOLTMETERS They are guaranteed to an accuracy of % of one per cent (in terms of full scale length). They are deadbeat. Each scale is handcalibrated and has a mirror over which the knife-edge pointer travels. By bringing the pointer tip into line with its image, readings may be made within o of a division at any part of the scale. In mechanical and electrical workmanship, these Voltmeters practically attain perfection. In external appearance, they are very handsome. The metal case has an exceedingly durable royal copper finish. The base is of selected mahogany, highly polished. A full description of Model I Voltmeters will be found in Bulletin No. 501, which will be mailed on request. Weston Electrical Instrument Co. 33 Weston Avenue, Newark, N. J. JOURNAL OF THE FRANKLIN INSTITUTE DEVOTED TO SCIENCE AND THE MECHANIC ARTS President, Locomotive Stoker Company, Schenectady, N. Y. Ir gives me more than ordinary pleasure to have this opportunity to speak upon the subject of "Mechanical Stoking of Locomotives" before this audience and under the auspices of The Franklin Institute of the State of Pennsylvania, because those of us in commercial and industrial activities are usually accused of having an ulterior motive when we speak upon the subjects in which we are personally interested, and the privilege of having an audience disinterested from the purely utilitarian standpoint is much appreciated, and I hope to make the subject of interest of itself. I am therefore more than happy to be permitted to speak plainly upon phases of the Locomotive Mechanical Stoker problems, which are ordinarily held in the background, especially so because The Franklin Institute stands committed to encourage the application of mechanical and scientific principles which, by their use in industrial pursuits, may in some measure relieve the stress of physical labor when arduous, conserve energy, or add to the wealth of the individual, community, or nation, by effecting economies in any direction. I shall therefore try to approach the subject of the evening * Presented at the stated meeting of the Institute held Wednesday, April 21, 1915. [NOTE.-The Franklin Institute is not responsible for the statements and opinions advanced by contributors to the JOURNAL.] Copyright, 1915, by THE FRANKLIN INSTITUTE. VOL. CLXXX, No. 1077-19 from the point of view of your honored institution, free even from what our legal friends would term " implied bias." The firing of a steam locomotive with what in common railroad parlance is known as a "scoop" is about as crude a process as can be imagined; and has not changed very much in arrangement or method since locomotives were first used, and I shall take the liberty of assuming your entire familiarity with this handfiring practice and also the continual increase in the size of locomotives during the past twenty or more years, and will refer mainly to locomotives in general service to-day, rather than to those in use when experiments with mechanical stokers first began. There are something over three thousand patents on record covering mechanical stokers for locomotives, some of which were intended by the inventors to be suitable for use on stationary boilers as well. This does not include a still greater number of patents taken out on devices in connection with the firing of locomotives and stationary boilers with finely ground or pulverized fuel. This large number of patents will illustrate the difficulty of attempting to give any complete history of the development of the mechanical stoker for locomotives within the limits of this paper, and I shall therefore mention only some of the different angles from which inventors have approached the proposition. Nearly all of the earlier inventors apparently had one object clearly in mind, and that was to fire a locomotive by machinery, not particularly for the purpose of reducing the fireman's labor, but to make it possible to use a helper, or common laborer, on the fireman's side of the locomotive in lieu of the regular fireman. This is well illustrated by the fact that with nearly all of the early stokers the operator was still required to actually shovel all of the coal into the stoking machine. The stoker was to do the work of putting the coal into the firebox and distributing it, the man was to be protected somewhat from the heat of the firebox, but the labor of shovelling the coal still remained. It will readily be seen that such inventors were building their structure upon a false basis in assuming that stokers would be applied to any large number of locomotives for the simple purpose of reducing the grade or the class of labor and entirely overlooking the long-established practice of recruiting the engineers needed for the right-hand side of the locomotive from the firemen |
