IMPROVEMENT IN THE STEAM ENGINE.

Southland Times, Issue 887, 24 January 1868, Page 3

IMPROVEMENT IN THE STEAM ENGINE.

An invention of great importance tc the employers of steam power was tested recently in the presence ofji company of engineers, scientific men, arid others concerned in the advance - of— mechanical knowledge, at the engine factory of Mr Smith, 204, Hoiborn. The object of this improvement is a Raving in the expenditure of steam, and consequently 7n the proportionate consumption of fuel; and the result of the trial was eminently satisfactory. « The most remnrkable circumstance in connection with the scheme is that the inventor of this new engine (Mr Alexander Caesar P. Franklin, juri.) is a young gentleman of the tender age of thirteen. His extreme juvenility is not contradicted by anything in his appearance or manner, ■which are those of a quick, well-educated youth, whose natural intelligence, raised as it has been by general studies above the ordinary level, has nothing of obstrusive self-consciousness about it ; and it is only whence grows warm in conversation on his favorite theme (engineering), that his extraordinary precocity of mind shows itself in the confident language and tone •of manhood. As no hint had been given 4o strangers that Mr Franklin was young, •even for "a schoolboy, the surprise of each in turn, on being formally introduced to '" the v inventor;" was cnrious lo note. His explanation was concise and clear, practical without excess of technicality, and modestly patient of questioning ; for "which ordeal indeed he seemed to have thoroughly prepared himself. The engine «xhibited^ was a small horizontal ..two cylinder one, with a 9-inch stroke, "of four-horse power only ; and this, being fed by a two-horse boiler, aetually ; worked to its full capacity on eight horse-power centrifugal pump discharging 800 gallons of water a minute. By applying the steam to one side only of the .piston a lEacuum is caused without condensation, .-as in the old low pressure engines ; and cushions of ordinary high pressure are done away with. The oppo.•site end of the cylinder is left open, and -■ the pressure of the atmosphere^— l slbs on the square inch— forces the piston back -again.- Irrespective of this pressure the saving 'of motive power, is exactly one"Jhalf; and in order to demonstrate at the -same time the perfect existence of the vacuum and the eompletness of its effect, the epgine was tried with one piston only. to work the right horse pump. * A small pair of marine engines made on the principle of this invention were exhibited, but riot worked, A mere sight of them, however, suggested the immense value of. Mr Franklin's ; discovery to navigation ; for if' it be ; successfully brought into v practice its effect will be to dispense, in uost instances,' with any need of stations on long voyages. • # "We understand it is in contemplation to grant licenses for the patent free of charge, and on the agreement that 10 per c^t-TTJf +he saving effected on each engine shall aceureto the inventoE__andJ patentee.— English Baper.