COMPRESSED AIR AS A MOTIVE POWER.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 205, 4 January 1872, Page 7

COMPRESSED AIR AS A MOTIVE POWER.

A Portland, Maine, correspondent of the Boston " Advertiser " says : — " The experiments which Mr. Robert Spear has recently made in this city upon compressed air, as a motive power, huve made a very considerable sensation among men of all classes, mechanics, manufacturers, capitalists, and inventors. It is evident that in certain branches of manufacture a cqmplete revolution must follow upon the general introduction of tl-is-simple and economical substitute for steam or water power. Whether engines" of very high pressure can be successfully worked by this new agency is still a debateable question among our intelable mechanicians. Mr. Spear has a governor which as easily controls the pressure as the governor of a steam engine. He claims that air can be compressed in the reservoir to an extent doublj the power of the engine fiat compresses, thereby saving a large per cent in fuel ; that the pipes can be extended to an almost indefinite extent, and the obstacle of friction, which previous experimenters have found almost impossible to deal with, is, by a simple invention of Mr. Spear.", entirely overcome. The necessity of long lines of shafting-in'large shops is thereby obviatfed, and each' workman becoming, as it were, his own engineer, the work of keeping a large engine constantly running, when perhaps only a small part of the factory's machinery is in motion, is done away with. Mr. Spear affirms that the tidal - force at Tukey's brides alune is sufficient to fn"««an coinpressed^ftfr lor all f.ho. machinery in~~fHe neighborhood, and the water power at the. lower falls of the Presumpscot, if applied to f^ same purpose, would give a suf^ 16 * 1 * power, for a manufacturing , city . of hundreds of thousands of inhabitants...