قراءة كتاب How it Works Dealing in simple language with steam, electricity, light, heat, sound, hydraulics, optics, etc., and with their applications to apparatus in common use

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How it Works
Dealing in simple language with steam, electricity, light, heat, sound, hydraulics, optics, etc., and with their applications to apparatus in common use

How it Works Dealing in simple language with steam, electricity, light, heat, sound, hydraulics, optics, etc., and with their applications to apparatus in common use

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same, but its rate is increased.

Fig. 3.Fig. 3.

A further improvement results from increasing the number of tubes (Fig. 5), keeping them all on the slant, so that the heated water and steam may rise freely.

THE ENCLOSED FURNACE.

Fig. 4.Fig. 4.
Fig. 5.Fig. 5.

Still, a lot of the heat gets away. In a steam-boiler the burning fuel is enclosed either by fire-brick or a "water-jacket," forming part of the boiler. A water-jacket signifies a double coating of metal plates with a space between, which is filled with water (see Fig. 6). The fire is now enclosed much as it is in a kitchen range. But our boiler must not be so wasteful of the heat as is that useful household fixture. On their way to the funnel the flames and hot gases should act on a very large metal or other surface in contact with the water of the boiler, in order to give up a due proportion of their heat.

Fig. 6.Fig. 6.—Diagrammatic sketch of a locomotive type of boiler. Water indicated by dotted lines. The arrows show the direction taken by the air and hot gases from the air-door to the funnel.

THE MULTITUBULAR BOILER.

Fig. 7.Fig. 7.—The Babcock and Wilcox water-tube boiler. One side of the brick seating has been removed to show the arrangement of the water-tubes and furnace.

To save room, boilers which have to make steam very quickly and at high pressures are largely composed of pipes. Such boilers we call multitubular. They are of two kinds—(1) Water-tube boilers; in which the water circulates through tubes exposed to the furnace heat. The Babcock and Wilcox boiler (Fig. 7) is typical of this variety. (2) Fire-tube boilers; in which the hot gases pass through tubes surrounded by water. The ordinary locomotive boiler (Fig. 6) illustrates this form.

The Babcock and Wilcox boiler is widely used in mines, power stations, and, in a modified form, on shipboard. It consists of two main parts—(1) A drum, H, in the upper part of which the steam collects; (2) a group of pipes arranged on the principle illustrated by Fig. 5. The boiler is seated on a rectangular frame of fire-bricks. At one end is the furnace door; at the other the exit to the chimney. From the furnace F the flames and hot gases rise round the upper end of the sloping tubes TT into the space A, where they play upon the under surface of H before plunging downward again among the tubes into the space B. Here the temperature is lower. The arrows indicate further journeys upwards into the space C on the right of a fire-brick division, and past the down tubes SS into D, whence the hot gases find an escape into the chimney through the opening E. It will be noticed that the greatest heat is brought to bear on TT near their junction with UU, the "uptake" tubes; and that every succeeding passage of the pipes brings the gradually cooling gases nearer to the "downtake" tubes SS.

The pipes TT are easily brushed and scraped after the removal of plugs from the "headers" into which the tube ends are expanded.

Other well-known water-tube boilers are the Yarrow, Belleville, Stirling, and Thorneycroft, all used for driving marine engines.

FIRE-TUBE BOILERS.

Fig. 6 shows a locomotive boiler in section. To the right is the fire-box, surrounded on all sides by a water-jacket in direct communication with the barrel of the boiler. The inner shell of the fire-box is often made of copper, which withstands the fierce heat better than steel; the outer, like the rest of the boiler, is of steel plates from ½ to ¾ inch thick. The shells of the jacket are braced together by a large number of rivets, RR; and the top, or crown, is strengthened by heavy longitudinal girders riveted to it, or is braced to the top of the boiler by long bolts. A large number of fire-tubes (only three are shown in the diagram for the sake of simplicity) extend from the fire-box to the smoke-box. The most powerful "mammoth" American locomotives have 350 or more tubes, which, with the fire-box, give 4,000 square feet of surface for the furnace heat to act upon. These tubes are expanded at their ends by a special tool into the tube-plates of the fire-box and boiler front. George Stephenson and his predecessors experienced great difficulty in rendering the tube-end joints quite water-tight, but the invention of the "expander" has removed this trouble.

The fire-brick arch shown (Fig. 6) in the fire-box is used to deflect the flames towards the back of the fire-box, so that the hot gases may be retarded somewhat, and their combustion rendered more perfect. It also helps to distribute the heat more evenly over the whole of the inside of the box, and prevents cold air from flying directly from the firing door to the tubes. In some American and Continental locomotives the fire-brick arch is replaced by a "water bridge," which serves the same purpose, while giving additional heating surface.

The water circulation in a locomotive boiler is—upwards at the fire-box end, where the heat is most intense; forward along the surface; downwards at the smoke-box end; backwards along the bottom of the barrel.

OTHER TYPES OF BOILERS.

For small stationary land engines the vertical boiler is much used. In Fig. 8 we have three forms of this type—A and B with cross water-tubes; C with vertical fire-tubes. The furnace in every case is surrounded by water, and fed through a door at one side.

Fig. 8.Fig.

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