The steam-valve of the Greene engine, as designed by the author, is seen in Fig. 100, where the valve, G H, covering the port, D, in the steam-cylinder, A B, is moved by the rod, JJ, connected to the rock-shaft, M, by the arm, LK. The line, KI, should, when carried out, intersect the valve-face at its middle point, under G.

The characteristics of the American stationary engine, therefore, are high steam-pressure without condensation, an expansion valve-gear with drop cut-off adjustable by the governor, high piston-speed, and lightness combined with strength of construction. The pressure most commonly adopted in the boilers which furnish steam to this type of engine is from 75 to 80 pounds per square inch; but a pressure of 100 pounds is not infrequently carried, and the latter pressure may be regarded as a mean maximum," corresponding to a pressure of 60 pounds at about the commencement of the period here considered-1850.

Very much greater pressures have, however, been adopted by some makers, and immensely "higher steam has been experimented with by several engineers. As early as 1823, Jacob Perkins' commenced experimenting with steam of very great tension. As has already been stated, the usual pressure at the time of Watt was but a few pounds-5 or 7-in excess of that of the atmosphere. Evans, Trevithick, and Stevens, had previously worked steam at pressures of from 50 to 75 pounds per square inch, and pressures on the Western rivers and elsewhere in the United States had already been raised to 100 or 150 pounds, and explosions were becoming alarmingly frequent.

Perkins's experimental apparatus consisted of a copper boiler, of a capacity of about one cubic foot, having sides 3 inches in thickness. It was closed at the bottom and top, and had five small pipes leading from the upper head.

1 Perkins was a native of Newburyport, Mass. He was born July 9, 1766, and died in London, July 30, 1849. He went to England when fiftytwo years of age, to introduce his inventions.

This was placed in a furnace kept at a high temperature by a forced combustion. Safety-valves loaded respectively to 425 and 550 pounds per square inch were placed on each of two of the steam-pipes.

Perkins used the steam generated under these great pressures in a little engine having a piston 2 inches in diameter and a stroke of 1 foot. It was rated at 10 horse-power.'

In the year 1827, Perkins had attained working pressures, in a single-acting, single-cylinder engine, of upward of 800 pounds per square inch. At pressures exceeding 200 pounds, he had much trouble in securing effective lubrication, as all oils charred and decomposed at the high temperatures then unavoidably encountered, and he finally succeeded in evading this seemingly insurmountable obstacle by using for rubbing parts a peculiar alloy which required no lubrication, and which became so beautifully polished, after some wear, that the friction was less than where lubricants were used. At these high pressures Perkins seems to have met with no other serious difficulty. He condensed the exhaust-steam and returned it to the boiler, but did not attempt to create a vacuum in his condenser, and therefore needed no air-pump. Steam was cut off at one-eighth

stroke.

In the same year, Perkins made a compound engine on the Woolf plan, and adopted a pressure of 1,400 pounds, ex

It was when writing of this engine that Stuart wrote, in 1824: "Judging from the rapid strides the steam-engine has made during the last forty years to become a universal first-mover, and from the experience that has arisen from that extension, we feel convinced that every invention which diminishes its size without impairing its power brings it a step nearer to the assistance of the 'world's great laborers,' the husbandman and the peasant, for whom, as yet, it performs but little. At present, it is made occa sionally to tread out the corn. What honors await not that man who may yet direct its mighty power to plough, to sow, to harrow, and to reap!" The progress of the steam-engine during those forty years does not to-day appear so astounding. The sentiment here expressed has lost none of its truth, nevertheless.

panding eight times. In still another engine, intended for a steam-vessel, Perkins adopted, or proposed to adopt, 2,000 pounds pressure, cutting off the admission at one-sixteenth, in single-acting engines of 6 inches diameter of cylinder and 20 inches stroke of piston. The steam did not retain boiler-pressure at the cylinder, and this engine was only rated at 30 horse-power.'

Stuart follows a description of Perkins's work in the improvement of the steam-engine and the introduction of steam-artillery by the remark :

". . . . No other mechanic of the day has done more to illustrate an obscure branch of philosophy by a series of difficult, dangerous, and expensive experiments; no one's labors have been more deserving of cheering encouragement, and no one has received less. Even in their present state, his experiments are opening new fields for philosophical research, and his mechanism bids fair to introduce a new style into the proportions, construction, and form, of steam-machinery."

Perkins's experience was no exception to the general rule, which denies to nearly all inventors a fair return for the benefits which they confer upon mankind.

Another engineer, a few years later, was also successful in controlling and working steam under much higher pressures than are even now in use. This was Dr. Ernst Alban, a distinguished German engine-builder, of Plau, Mecklenburg, and an admirer of Oliver Evans, in whose path he, a generation later, advanced far beyond that great pioneer. Writing in 1843, he describes a system of engine and boiler construction, with which he used steam under pressures about equal to those experimentally worked by Jacob Perkins, Evans's American successor. Alban's treatise was translated and printed in Great Britain,' four years later.

1 Galloway and IIcbert, on the Steam-Engine. London, 1836. "The High-Pressure Steam-Engine," etc. By Dr. Ernst Alban. Translated by William Pole, F. R. A. S. London, 1847.

Alban, on one occasion, used steam of 1,000 pounds pressure. His boilers were similar in general form to the boiler patented by Stevens in 1805, but the tubes were hor izontal instead of vertical. He evaporated from 8 to 10 pounds of water into steam of 600 to 800 pounds pressure with each pound of coal. He states that the difficulty met by Perkins-the decomposition of lubricants in the steamcylinder-did not present itself in his experiments, even when working steam at a pressure of 600 pounds on the square inch, and he found that less lubrication was needed at such high pressures than in ordinary practice. Alban expanded his steam about as much as Evans, in his usual practice, carrying a pressure of 150 pounds, and cutting off at one-third; he adopted greatly increased piston-speed, attaining 300 feet per minute, at a time when common practice had only reached 200 feet. He usually built an oscillating engine, and rarely attached a condenser. The valve was the locomotive-slide.' The stroke was made short to secure strength, compactness, cheapness, and high speed of rotation; but Alban does not seem to have understood the principles controlling the form and proportions of the expansive engine, or the necessity of adopting considerable expansion in order to secure economy in working steam of great tension, and therefore was, apparently, not aware of the advantages of a long stroke in reducing losses by "deadspace," in reducing risk of annoyance by hot journals, or in enabling high piston-speeds to be adopted. He seems never to have attained a sufficiently high speed of piston to become aware that the oscillating cylinder cannot be used at speeds perfectly practicable with the fixed cylinder.

Alban states that one of his smallest engines, having a cylinder 44 inches in diameter and 1 foot stroke of piston, with a piston-speed of but 140 to 160 feet per minute, developed 4 horse-power, with a consumption of 5.3 pounds

1 Invented by Joseph Maudsley, of London, 1827.

of coal per hour. This is a good result for so small an amount of work, and for an engine working at so low a speed of piston. An engine of 30 horse-power, also working very slowly, required but 4.1 pounds of coal per hour per horse-power.

The work of Perkins and of Alban, like that of their predecessors, Evans, Stevens, and Trevithick, was, however, the work of engineers who were far ahead of their time. The general practice, up to the time which marked the beginning of the modern "period of refinement," had been but gradually approximating that just described. Higher pressures were slowly approached; higher piston-speeds came slowly into use; greater expansion was gradually adopted; the causes of losses of heat were finally discovered, and steam-jacketing and external non-conducting coverings were more and more generally applied as builders became more familiar with their work. The "compound engine" was now and then adopted; and each experiment, made with higher steam and greater expansion, was more nearly successful than the last.

Finally, all these methods of securing economy became recognized, and the reasons for their adoption became known. It then remained, as the final step in this progression, to combine all these requisites of economical working in a double-cylinder engine, steam-jacketed, well protected by non-conducting coverings, working steam of high pressure, and with considerable expansion at high piston-speed. This is now done by the best builders.

One of the best examples of this type of engine is that constructed by the sons of Jacob Perkins, who continued the work of their father after his death. Their engines are single-acting, and the small or high-pressure cylinder is placed on the top of the larger or low-pressure cylinder. The valves are worked by rotating stems, and the loss of heat and burning of packing incident to the use of the common method are thus avoided. The stuffing-boxes are