Catalogue of the Mechanical Engineering Collection in the Science Division of the Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington, Volume 1

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H.M. Stationery Office, 1907 - Machinery - 419 pages

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Page 13 - An admirable and most forcible way to drive up water by fire, not by drawing or sucking it upwards, for that must be as the philosopher calleth it, infra spheeram activitatis, which is but at such a distance. But this way hath no bounder, if the vessels be strong enough ; for I have taken a piece of a whole cannon, whereof the end was burst, and filled it three...
Page 367 - The manner of the carriage is by laying rails of timber, from the colliery, down to the river, exactly straight and parallel ; and bulky carts are made with four rowlets fitting these rails ; whereby the carriage is so easy that one horse will draw down four or five chaldron of coals, and is an immense benefit to the coal merchants.
Page 23 - ... economy of fuel) of stopping the admission of steam when the piston had made only a part of its stroke, and allowing the rest of the stroke to be performed by the expansion of the steam already in the cylinder. To let the piston push as well as pull the end of the beam Watt devised his so-called parallel motion, an arrangement of links connecting the piston-rod head with the beam in such a way as to guide the rod to move in a very nearly straight line. He further added the throttle-valve...
Page 14 - In 1698 Thomas Savery patented an apparatus " for raising of water and occasioning motion to all sort of mill works, by the impellent force of fire.
Page 270 - Thomson the energy passed is recorded by an electromotor, the speed of which varies with the watts transmitted. To render the meter suitable for alternating as well as continuous currents no iron is employed in either the fields or armature of the motor. The fields consist of two coils of coarse wire, one on each side of the armature. The armature is a hollow frame wound with a set of coils of fine wire on the Siemens drum principle, the commutator and brushes being of silver. The spindle is vertical...
Page 58 - Print of Hancock's steam omnibus. Presented by George Ellis, Esq., 1858. Between 1827-38 Mr. "Walter Hancock, of Stratford, built nine steam carriages of various types, all of which were mechanically successful, although ultimately abandoned. In 1832 he started a regular service of steam omnibuses between Paddington and the City, and the vehicle represented was built for this work in 1833. •One of the best of these steam carriages weighed about 3-5 tons and carried sixteen passengers ; it accomplished...
Page 183 - ... external light to a small port ; the exhaust valve is of the drop type, and is placed at the side of the cylinder. Both valves are actuated by a shaft driven by gearing at one-half the speed of the crankshaft.
Page 196 - Hydraulic engine. Lent by the Glenfield Co., 1896. This is a small example of a three-cylinder water-pressure engine, suitable for pressures up to 1,000 Ib. per sq. in. The three cylinders are cast together, their axes radiating at 120 deg. to one another, and they are always open at their inner ends to the crank chamber. The pistons are packed with cupped leathers • and are hollowed out to receive the spherical ends of the thrust bars by which motion is given to the crank. The pressure is always...
Page 185 - The speed of the engine is regulated by a centrifugal governor, which, when the normal speed is exceeded, prevents the admission of gas, so that no explosions take place till the speed has fallen to the prescribed limit.
Page 121 - The valve rod is connected to the short end of a long lever, the other end of which is indirectly coupled to the engine connecting-rod. The fulcrum of this lever is fitted with a block sliding in a curved guide, and the engine is reversed or "linked up" by altering the angle that this guide makes with the valve rod. The guide is shaped to a circular arc of a radius equal to the length of the valve rod, and the block, when the engine is running, works equally on both sides of the centre of this guide.

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