squadron of great turret ships, of which the Formidable is the largest. The group consists of six types, as follows:

The Colbert was launched at Brest in 1875, and her sister ship, the Trident, in 1876. Both are of iron and wood, and the following are the principal dimensions of the Colbert, which apply very closely to the Trident: She is 321 ft. 6 in. long, 59 ft. 6 in. beam, and 29 ft. 6 in. draught aft. Her displacement is 8,457 tons, her indicated horse power is 4,652, and her speed 14.4 knots. She has coal carrying capacity for 700 tons, and her crew numbers 706. The thickness of her armor belt is 8.66 in., that protecting the central battery is 6.29 in. thick, which is also the thickness of the transverse armored bulkheads, while the deck is 0.43 in. in thickness. The armament of the Colbert consists of eight 10.63 in. guns, two 9.45 in., six 5.51 in., two quick firing guns, and fourteen revolving and machine guns.—Engineering.

A compound locomotive, built by the Rhode Island Locomotive Works, has been tried on the Union Elevated Railroad, Brooklyn, N.Y. The engine can be run either single or compound. The economy in fuel was 37.7 per cent, and in water 23.8 per cent, over a simple engine which was tested at the same time. The smoothness of running and the stillness and comparative absence of cinders was fully demonstrated.

STEAM ENGINE VALVES.¹

By THOMAS HAWLEY.

RIDING CUT-OFF VALVES—PECULIARITIES AND MERITS OF THE DIFFERENT STYLES.

In considering the slide valve in its simple form with or without lap, we find there are certain limitations to its use as a valve that would give the best results. The limitation of most importance is that its construction will not allow of the proper cut off to obtain all the benefits of expansion without hindering the perfect action of the valve in other particulars. At this economical cut off the opening of the steam port is very little and very narrow, and although this is attempted to be overcome by exceedingly wide ports, sixteen inches in width in many cases in locomotive work, this great width adds largely to the unbalanced area of the valve. The exhausting functions of the valve are materially changed at the short cut off, and when much lap is added to overcome this defect, there usually takes place a choking of the exhaust port. You might inquire, why not make the port wider, but this would increase the minimum amount of load on the valve, and this must not be overlooked. Then the cut off is a fixed one, and we can govern only by throttling the pressure we have raised in the boiler or by using a cut off governor and the consequent wastes of an enormous clearance space. You will observe, therefore, that the plain slide valve engine gives the most general satisfaction at about two-thirds cut off and a very low economic result. The best of such engines will require forty-five to fifty pounds of steam per horse power per hour, and to generate this, assuming an evaporation of nine pounds of water to a pound of coal, would require between five and six pounds of coal per horse power per hour. And the only feature that the valve has specially to commend it is its extreme simplicity and the very little mechanism required to operate it.

Yet this is of considerable importance, and in consideration of some special features at its latest cut off, the attempt has been many times made to take advantage of these features. For instance, at 90° advance, the valve opens very rapidly indeed and fully satisfies our requirements of a perfect valve. This is one good point, and in this position also the exhaust and compression can be regulated very closely and as desired without much lap, and as the opening of the exhaust port comes with the eccentric at its most rapid movement the release is very quick and as we would have it. This is only possible at the most uneconomic position of the valve as regards cut off.

The aim of many engineers has been to take advantage of these matters by using the valve with 90° angular advance of eccentric ahead of crank, for the admission, release, and compression of the steam, and provide another means of cutting off, besides the one already referred to, viz., cutting off the supply of steam to the chest, and overcome the objection in this one of large clearance spaces. This is done by means of riding cut off valves, often called expansion valves, of which, perhaps, the most widely known types in this vicinity are the Kendall & Roberts engine and the Buckeye. The former is used in the simplest form of riding cut off, while the Buckeye has many peculiar features that engineers, I find, are too prone to overlook in a casual examination of the engine. In these uses of the slide valve, too, means are suggested and carried out of practically balancing the valve.

The origin of the riding cut off is most generally attributed to Gonzenbach. His arrangement had two steam chests, the lower one provided with the ordinary slide valve of late cut off, and steam was cut off from this steam chest by the expansion valve covering the ports connecting with the upper steam chest. This had the old disadvantage that all the steam in the lower chest expanded with that in the cylinder, at a consequent considerable loss. This was further improved by causing the riding cut off to be upon the top of the main valve, instead of its chest, and resulted in a considerable reduction of the clearance space.

This is the simplest form, and is shown in Fig. 1. The steam is supplied by a passage through the main valve which operates exactly as an ordinary slide valve would. That is, the inside edges of the steam passage are the same as the ordinary valve, the additional piece on each end, if I may so term it, being merely to provide a passage for the steam which can be closed, instead of allowing the steam to pass the edge. The eccentric of the main valve is fastened to the shaft to give the proper amount of lead, and the desired release and compression, and the expansion valve is operated by a separate eccentric fastened in line with or 180° ahead of the crank. When the piston, therefore, commences to move from the crank end to open the port, D, the expansion valve is forced by its eccentric in the opposite direction, and is closing the steam port and would have closed it before the piston reached quarter stroke, thus allowing the steam then in the cylinder to do work by expansion. The eccentric operating this expansion valve may be set to close this steam port at any point in the stroke that is desired, the closing occurring when the expansion valve has covered the steam port. Continuing the movements of the valves, the two would move together until one or the other reached its dead center, when the movements would be in opposite directions.

FIG. 1

There are three ways of effecting the cut off in such engines, the main valve meanwhile being undisturbed, its eccentric fastened securely so as not to disturb the points of lead, release, and compression. All that is required is to cause the edge of the expansion valve to cover the steam port earlier in the stroke, and this can be done, first, by increasing the angular advance of the cut off eccentric; second, by adding lap to the cut