Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume I

{Fig. 1.) THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE GAS ENGINE. BY WILLIAM H. BOOTH, M.Am.Soc.C.E. This Article describes how the once wasted Gases issuing from Blast Furnaces have been turned to very useful account as Fuel for Engines of Enormous Power. IN the ordinary cylinder steam engine the energy of steam is made to do work by means of a piston which is driven back- wards and forwards in the cylinder. The rectilinear motion of the piston is converted into rotary motion by a connecting rod and a crank. In the few cases where a steam engine is single-acting —that is, has steam admitted to one side only of the piston— the momentum of a fly-wheel mounted on the crank shaft serves to return the piston to the The Steam Engine. position occupied at the beginning of the power stroke. The work done by the steam engine is ulti- mately due to the heat produced in the boiler furnace by the chemical union of carbon fuel with oxygen of the atmosphere. The heat communicates itself The through the walls of the fur- Energy of nace to the water, which is vaporized in the form of highly elastic steam. We should note that very little of the furnace heat is finally converted into work—only Note.—The headpiece shows a 600 h.p. Korting gas engine, with two double-acting two-stroke cylinders, driving the machinery of a Lancashire cotton mill.