A history of the growth of the steam-engine . wing one-third net profits. As soon as Watt was relieved of the uncertainties re-garding his business connections, he married a second wife,who, as Arago says, by her various talent, soundness ofjudgment, and strength of character, made a worthy com-panion to the large-hearted and large-brained his cares were only such as every business-man expects to be compelled to sustain, and the next tenyears were the most prolific in inventions of any period inWatts life. From 1775 to 1785 the partners acquired five patents,covering a l
A history of the growth of the steam-engine . wing one-third net profits. As soon as Watt was relieved of the uncertainties re-garding his business connections, he married a second wife,who, as Arago says, by her various talent, soundness ofjudgment, and strength of character, made a worthy com-panion to the large-hearted and large-brained his cares were only such as every business-man expects to be compelled to sustain, and the next tenyears were the most prolific in inventions of any period inWatts life. From 1775 to 1785 the partners acquired five patents,covering a large number of valuable improvements uponthe steam-engine, several independent inventions. Thefirst of these patents covered the now familiar and luaiver- 104 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE MODERN STEAM-ENGINE. sally-used copying-press for letters, and a machine for dry- ?ing cloth, by passing it between copper rollers filled withsteam of sufficiently high temperature to rapidly evaporatethe moisture. This patent was issued February 14, Tig. ?27.—Watts Engine, 1781. In the following year, October 25, 1781, Watt patentedfive devices by which he obtained the rotary motion of theengine-shaft without the use of a crank. One of these wasthe arrangement shown in Fig. 27, and known as the sun- JAMES WATT AND HIS INVENTIONS. 105 and-planet wheels. The crank-shaft carries a gear-wheel,which is engaged by another securely fixed upon the end ofthe connecting-rod. As the latter is compelled to revolyeabout the axis of the shaft by a tie which confines the con-necting-rod end at a fixed distance from the shaft, theshaft-gear is compelled to revolve, and the shaft with desired velocity-ratio was secured by giving the twogears the necessary relative diameters. A fly-wheel wasused to regulate the motion of the shaft. Boulton & Wattused the sun-and-planet device on many engines, but finallyadopted the crank, when the expiration of the patent heldby Matthew Wasborough, and which had
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, bookidc, booksubjectsteamengines
