IMPORTANT ENGINEERING DISCOVERY.

Evening Star, Issue 4282, 16 November 1876, Page 1

IMPORTANT ENGINEERING DISCOVERY.

A discovery which, according to a Ballarat contemporary, has recently been made W a hlr Jackson bids fair to effect an immense • improvement in connection wita steam maolunery. It claims to. be no less than tho solution of a problem sought for by Watt and other engineers, but which has. up to the present the scientific rmkd The discovery is neither more: hot less than a new plan for connecting the piston with the common crank, by which!' the flywheel is dispensed with, while an increase of power equal to one* third is gamed without increasing the lencth. of stroke. For example, if by ,:: txon m common ase a 2ft. stroke gives Sin. ofcontmuous leverage, the saque stroke by-the new method gives a leverage of lllin. In tu hing a cranu. there are two points which are known to engineers as dead points one .is when the piston is , within the cylinder, and the. other when sit is at its utmost extension. At hth points the - arm and the piston ■ are "s-ipiig t with the push and the pull oi tie piston, and the fly-wheel is necessary to carry the crank past this line, so as to effect a complete revolution. Mr Jackson’s new discovery makes the crank go round without the aid of the fly-wheel, and he states that his plan is remarkably simple; in fact, it is strange that it has not hie a thought of before. Only one cylinder is necessary, and its benefit will be most felt in com nectiou with marine engines. Existing engines, it is stated, can bo altered to suit the new plan at a moderate expense, not more than LI for eveiy horse-power; and if a 20 horse power enghe can by this simple arrangement be made equal to one of 30horse power, the boon to the mining com* munity will be a great one, wbue Mr Jackson will Be entitled to tbeir -wannest gratitude. . t .l .. " ' .