Stationary steam engines, simple and compound; especially as adapted to light and power plants . may be relied upon to do good work if well builtand put in operation under the conditions that it is designedto meet. They embody ideas and inventions which havegrown into form during years of experiment and faithfultrial and the variety of makes to be found in the marketbelonging to each class, and differing only in the design andconstruction of details, proves that the main principlesupon which each class is based are well established andsound. The engines now to be examined are distinguished byc
Stationary steam engines, simple and compound; especially as adapted to light and power plants . may be relied upon to do good work if well builtand put in operation under the conditions that it is designedto meet. They embody ideas and inventions which havegrown into form during years of experiment and faithfultrial and the variety of makes to be found in the marketbelonging to each class, and differing only in the design andconstruction of details, proves that the main principlesupon which each class is based are well established andsound. The engines now to be examined are distinguished bycertain peculiarities of design and construction which mark, ELECTRIC LIGHTING PLANTS. ^37 in some cases, new departures, in other cases, peculiar ways ofreaching the end at which more familiar devices were has been seen that the regulation of the steam enginehas been found to be one of the most important matters towhich the attention of the engineer has been called. Formany purposes, the uniformity of motion of the engine isan even more important quality than its economy in the use. The Ball Engine. of fuel, or in all running expenses. A slight change ofspeed in an engine driving dynamo-electric machine willseriously injure the value of the light, in nearly every loca-tion, and may sometimes entirely destroy it ; a moderatevariation of speed in the motor of a cotton mill making finegoods may break more threads in the spinning department ^38 STEAM ENGINES FOR or do more injury in the weaving room, than would becompensated by the difference in economy between themost efficient automatic engine ever made and the mostwasteful engine in the market. The principle of regulationof the steam engine has been, from the time of the applica-tion of the old fly-ball governor to the Watt engines ofa century ago to the present day, that of making the speedof the engine determine the amount of steam that shall besupplied to it. In the first engines used in the driving ofmachinery, in t
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectsteamen, bookyear1902
