VAN NOSTRAND'S SCIENOE SERIES. 
 
 No. 1. 
 
 50 eta. 
 
 CHIMNEYS 
 
 FURNACES, FIRE-PLACES, 
 STEAM BOILERS. 
 
 BY 
 
 R. ARMSTRONG, C. E. 
 
 NEW<YOEK: 
 D. VAN NOSTRAND, PUBLISHER, 
 
 T.^ Murray and 27 Warren Street. 
 
 1873: 
 
 693 
 
VAN NOSTRAND'S SCIENCE SERIES. 
 
 No. 1.— CHIMNEYS FOR FURNACES, FIRE- 
 PLACES, AND STEAM BOILERS. By 
 R. Armstrong, C. E. 
 
 No. 2.— STEAM BOILER EXPLOSIONS. By Ze- 
 
 RAH COLBURN. 
 
 No. 3.— PRACTICAL DESIGNING OF RETAIN- 
 ING WALLS. By Arthur Jacob, A. B, 
 No. 4.— PROPORTIONS OF PINS USED IN 
 
 FRANKLIN INSTITUTE LIBRARY 
 
 PHILADELPHIA, PA. 
 
 Class- Book- Accession 
 
 Given by 
 
 _ . _ - , J USSOIR ARCHES. 
 
 By Prof. W. E. Cain. 
 No. 13.--GASES MET WITH IN COAL MINES. 
 
 By J. J. Atkinson. 
 No. 14.— FRICTION OF AIR IN MINES. By J. J. 
 
 Atkinson. 
 
 No. 15. -SKEW ARCHES. By Prop. E. W. Hyde, 
 C. E. Illustrated. 
 
 No. 16.— a GRAPHIC METHOD FOR SOLVING 
 CERTAIN ALGEBRAICAL EQUA- 
 TIONS. By Prof. George L. Vose. 
 With Illustrations. 
 
VAN NOSTRAND'S SCIENCE SERIES,, 
 
 V — — — 
 
 No. 17.— WATER AND WATER SUPPLY. By 
 Prof. W. IT. Corfield, M. A., of the 
 University College, London. 
 
 No. 18.— SEWERAGE AND SEWAGE UTILI- 
 ZATION. By Prof. W. H. Corfield, 
 M. A., of the University College, Lon- 
 don. 
 
 No. 19. -STRENGTH OF BEAMS UNDER 
 TRANSVERSE LOADS. By Prof. 
 W. Allen, Author of " Theory of 
 Arches." With Illustrations. 
 
 No. 20. —BRIDGE AND TUNNEL CENTRES. 
 
 By John B. McMasters, C. E. With 
 Illustrations. 
 
 No. ^ I. —SAFETY VALVES. By Richard H. 
 BuEL, C. E. With Illustrations. 
 
 No. 23 — HIGH MASONRY DAMS. By John B. 
 
 McMasters, C. E. With Illustrations. 
 No. 23,— THE FATIGUE OF METALS UNDER 
 REPEATED STRAINS, with vai 'ious 
 Tables of Results of Experiments. From . 
 the German of Prof. Ludwig Spangen- * 
 ^ BERG. With-a Preface by S. H. Shreve, 
 A. M. With Illustrations. 
 No. 24.— A PRACTICAL TREATISE ON THE 
 TEETH OF WHEELS, with the Theo- 
 ry of the Use of Robinson's Odonto- 
 ffraph. By S. W. Robinson, Prof, of 
 Mechanical Engineering. Illinois In- 
 dustrial University. 
 No. 25.— THEORY AND CALCULATIONS OF 
 CONTINUOUS BRIDGES. By Mans- 
 field Merriman, C. E. With Illustra- 
 tions. 
 
 PRACTICAL TREATISE ON THE 
 PROPERTIES OF CONTINUOUS 
 BRIDGES. By Charles Bender, C. E . 
 ON BOILER INCRUSTATION AND 
 CORROSION. By F. J. Rowan. 
 
 No. 26.— 
 No. 27.— 
 
CHIMNEYS 
 
 FOR 
 
 FURNACES, FIRE-PLACES, 
 STEAM BOILERS. 
 
 BY 
 
 R. ARMSTRONG, C. E. 
 
 NEW YOEK: 
 D. VAN NOSTRAND, PUBLISHER, 
 23 Murray and 27 Warren Stseet. 
 
 1873. 
 
714, 
 1873 
 
 I 
 
CfflMiNEYS FOR FURNACES, 
 FIRE-PLACES, 
 
 AND 
 
 STEAM BOILERS. 
 
 PRACTICAL THERMODYNAMICS. 
 
 Furnaces, or closed fire-places, wliicli it 
 is the main design of this essay to treat 
 upon, are essentially different in principle 
 and construction to the ordinary open fire- 
 places of dwelling-houses, as they are ex- 
 ceedingly different in their general scope 
 and object, and in the vast variety of their 
 applications ; yet there is one thing com- 
 mon and important to both, and that is the 
 chimney, or vertical flue, for the purpose of 
 creating a proper draught of air through 
 the fire, as well as to carry off the smoke, 
 or other products of combustion ; and it is 
 in the generally increased proportions of 
 
 SS633 
 
4 
 
 this almost indispensable adjunct to all 
 furnaces which principally distinguishes the 
 modern from the ancient practice of steam 
 engineering. 
 
 The great developement of the manufac- 
 turing system of this country during the 
 last twenty or thirty years, and the erection 
 of a larger description of factories being re- 
 quired, has caused more attention to be 
 devoted to the stability and general econo- 
 my of such structures, in which the erection 
 of larger chimneys than formerly have in 
 some degree participated, but only to a 
 trifling extent from professional architects, 
 properly so called. The external portions 
 of the chimneys of dwelling-houses have, 
 no doubt, had some share of attention from 
 architects, but it may be doubted whether 
 the most important function of even a house 
 chimney — the creation of draught — has 
 been adequately considered, if even only to 
 prevent that greatest of all nuisances, a 
 smoky house. In proof of which, many 
 cases might be cited among the mansions 
 of the nobility and gentry all over the 
 country, as well as in town, where it is the 
 
5 
 
 less excusable. Indeed, the cliimnej flues 
 of dwelling-houses are too commonly treated 
 as mere conduits for smoke, as, in fact, 
 they are frequently termed, and as such 
 they are considered equally subordinate 
 with drains and other conduits, which may 
 or may not be attended to after the plan of 
 the house is determined upon, and, in some 
 cases, even after the house is partly erected, 
 instead of being — as I humbly think they 
 ought to be — considered, in an architectural 
 sense at least, of the highest importance, as 
 they are, in fact, the highest external 
 features that can in this climate properly 
 characterize the well- ventilated, well- warm- 
 ed, healthy, and comfortable dwellings of a 
 rational and civilized community. 
 
 It is far from my intention to write a 
 homily on any branch of architecture as an 
 art, but it must be admitted that there are 
 few, if any, subjects of such useful impor- 
 tance connected with architecture that have 
 been so much neglected, misdirected, and 
 misunderstood, as the proper construction 
 of chimneys generally, or their proportions 
 most suitable to the various purposes for 
 
6 
 
 which they are designed. Such attention 
 as house chimneys have hitherto received, 
 has been too commonly in respect of their 
 ornamental and decorative character only, 
 even to the extent of erecting fictitious 
 chimneys where there are no flues and none 
 wanted. For all purposes of real utility 
 the house-building architect too often, ap- 
 parently, contents himself with a single 
 step, and in some respects scarcely so much, 
 in advance of the hole in the wall " of the 
 ancient Romans, who, however, with all 
 their barbarous simplicity, were, at any 
 rate, never troubled with down draughts — 
 the universal malady of all English smoky 
 dwelling-houses. 
 
 The labored ornamentation of housetops, 
 with their numerous little crooked outlets 
 for smoke, though frequently only inlets 
 for wind and rain, mis-termed chimneys, 
 have been the chief degradation of 
 modern architectural science. The art of 
 erecting chimneys for steam-engines, and 
 for similar purposes, has, however, fared 
 somewhat better, since all the more sub- 
 stantially useful part of architecture, com- 
 
7 
 
 prising nearly the whole of that appertain- 
 ing to manufacturing industry, has for 
 some time past, in our northern counties at 
 least, merged into the province of the civil 
 and mechanical engineer, technically known 
 in Lancashire as the factory engineer. 
 
 Factory engineers, however, though dif- 
 fering widely from architects generally on 
 many points, are not at all agreed among 
 themselves as to the best form and con- 
 struction of a chimney for attaining the 
 principal end in view ; namely, the best 
 draught at the least expense. In short, 
 the problem of how to give a sufficient 
 velocity to the air passing through the fire- 
 grate, with a given temperature in the fur- 
 nace or in the escaping products, and at a 
 minimum rate of consumption of the fuel 
 to be used, has scarcely yet received an ade- 
 quate solution, even theoretically. Practi- 
 cally, the question has received many solu- 
 tions—too many, one may say, for the 
 convenience of ordinary business men — 
 which circumstance is one of the main 
 causes that has rendered the present work 
 necessary, as well as contributing to some 
 
8 
 
 of its chief difliculties. The multitude and 
 diversity of opinions on this subject may, 
 in a great measure, be ascribed to the 
 generally prevailing reliance on the dicta 
 of some few popular professors, or rather 
 amateurs, of chemistry ; in which category 
 we might also, perhaps without nauch in- 
 justice, include a few so-called scientific 
 guide-books. I am not for decrying the 
 present inundation of cheap scientific trea- 
 tises, which is so marked a feature of the 
 times ; but, on the contrary, think such 
 books cannot be too many nor too cheap, 
 when original or genuine. Such of them, 
 however, as are merely reproductions of 
 the last century, or even the early part of 
 the present, are generally to be deprecated. 
 
 To make a chemical laboratory, for in- 
 stance, as has sometimes been done, an 
 object of study to the engineer or builder, 
 however scientifically constructed and ar- 
 ranged, unless, indeed, the object be to 
 erect another laboratory for a similar pur- 
 pose, is, to say the least, very injudicious, 
 and the fruitful source of much error and 
 prejudice in the minds of young men of 
 
9 
 
 scientific aspirations. More particularly is 
 this the case when the object in view is the 
 arrangement of factories or works for other 
 special purposes ; those purposes being 
 mainly for commercial profit, and not for the 
 mere amusement of amateurs, nor even for 
 the professed advancement of science, which 
 is often little better. 
 
 Holding the above views in common 
 with the factory engineers before adverted 
 to, I have always preferred taking for pre- 
 cedents the blacksmith's forge, the potter's 
 kiln, or the glasshouse chimney, rather 
 than seek mechanical prescriptions, so to 
 speak, among the crucibles and alembics of 
 our "modern alchemists." 
 
 With respect to ihe fire-place itself — the 
 Furnace — to which a chimney of some kind 
 is but a necessary though highly important 
 accessory, it is altogether in a different pre- 
 dicament. The chief peculiarity relating 
 to Furnaces, is that . they have always 
 been, and are necessarily, in the hands, or 
 constantly under the immediate control, of 
 the workman himself. To him they are, 
 in a certain sense, his tools — the tools of his 
 
10 
 
 trade — and for each, special trade compara- 
 tively perfect, at least he thinks so. 
 Operative workmen, at any rate, though 
 reformers" they maybe themselves, sel- 
 dom willingly admit of any reform in their 
 work tools. On this point they are essen- 
 tially conservative in all trades, even to the 
 cobler, as he sings, To lose my awl 
 'twould break my heart," etc. The conse- 
 quence of this general feeling is that we 
 have an abundance of experiments confir- 
 matory, or otherwise, of any particular 
 innovations or alterations in a chimney or 
 furnace that affect the draught, which is 
 the only result a workman cares about. 
 If the alteration turns out an improvement, 
 it is quickly, and alm^t instinctively, as it 
 were, appreciated ; if the reverse, or doubt- 
 ful, or if even only undecided, it is as 
 quickly rejected and condemned. Generally 
 rather too quickly, in fact, for the interest 
 of such inventors and improvers as cannot 
 afford to wait for matured results. Hence 
 has arisen a good deal of that great diversity 
 of opinion, not to say theory, even among 
 the most observant of mechanical engineers 
 themselves. 
 
11 
 
 The Chimney and Furnace have not been 
 sufficiently considered together, or as one 
 apparatus. The Forge furnace, the Steam 
 Boiler furnace, the Baker's Oven furnace, 
 and the Brick-kiln furnace, may be in- 
 stanced as four examples of great dissimi- 
 larity of purpose ; but from the first to the 
 fourth consecutively, requiring a gradually 
 decreasing velocity of draught. The first 
 and the last of the series, being instances of 
 the two opposite extremes, requiring the 
 quickest and the slowest draughts, and 
 having in consequence the highest and the 
 lowest temperatures. These two extreme 
 cases, moreover, have one peculiarity in 
 common, which is, that it is by many con- 
 sidered a difficult matter to decide in either 
 case where tlie furnace proper ends, and 
 where the chimney flue begins. Although 
 I shall have to revert to this point more 
 fully in the sequel, it may here be ob- 
 served that the difficulty alluded to may 
 be greatly lessened by considering that the 
 termination or * vent of the Forge or Air 
 furnace for working iron ought to be at no 
 great distance beyond the point of greatest 
 
12 
 
 temperature of the flame, because, in the 
 Forge, or Iron furnace especially, it is the 
 flame that "does the work.' ^ Whereas in 
 the other extreme case mentioned — the 
 Brick-kiln — which requires little or no 
 flame, the furnace may be considered to 
 terminate at the lowest possible temperature 
 of the issuing hot air, and might in fact do 
 very well with hardly any chimney at all. 
 The other two kinds of furnaces referred 
 to — the Steam-engine furnace and the 
 Baker's Oven furnace^ — may be considered 
 generally in an intermediate condition to 
 the above, or in the order in which they 
 are stated, more particularly as respects 
 strength of draught. These two furnaces 
 have also one trait in common, in so far as 
 they both require regulating while at work, 
 and are capable of permitting of variations 
 of temperature through a very considerable 
 range. The steam boiler furnace admits 
 of great delicacy as well — so much so, as 
 to make it, when supplied with proper self- 
 acting dampers, a very efiicient regulator 
 or governor to the steam-engine itself. In 
 the Oven furnace, the draught requires to 
 
13 
 
 be sharpened " or slackened, from time 
 to time, by hand, to suit the kind of goods 
 undergoing the operation of baking. 
 The steam-engine furnace is like the forge 
 furnace, so far as it requires occasionally a 
 very quick action for raising the pressure 
 of steam in a short time, or otherwise, to 
 prevent the steam from going down by 
 some sudden increase of the load on the 
 engine. The Oven furnace is not subject 
 to such sudden changes, but rather re- 
 quires a long continued, persistent, steady 
 heat. This property of the Oven furnace is 
 mainly caused by the large mass of brick- 
 work with which it is commonly constructed, 
 absorbing and retaining a great deal of 
 heat to begin with. 
 
 The accumulation and retention of heat, 
 or of the power of heating other bodies, by 
 non-conducting or slow-conducting sub- 
 stances used in the construction of some 
 furnaces, and the rapid dissipation and 
 apparent extinction of the same, by metallic, 
 or good conducting substances, in connec- 
 tion with other furnaces so provided, is per- 
 haps the most interesting branch of this sub- 
 
ject. And as anything bearing on this 
 that may serve to elucidate the principles 
 on which sound practice, to say nothing of 
 theory, must be sooner or later established, 
 this introductory Essay appears to be the 
 proper place in which to introduce what is 
 either new, or differently treated and 
 usual. 
 
 In following the course here indicated, I 
 am quite aware of the unmethodical ap- 
 pearance it must have ; but I have always 
 preferred the rough and useful, though 
 only prospectively recompensed labors of 
 the pioneer's track, to the smooth greens- 
 ward and well-worn walks of science that 
 often lead "'^ to nowhere." Satisfied if, in 
 going through the still unexplored fields of 
 discovery, I can bring home but a few 
 rough logs towards the building up of the 
 edifice so recently founded for sheltering the 
 yet young though promising science of 
 Heat and its relations, now termed Thermo- 
 dynamics. 
 
 For the actual state and condition af 
 much of existing knowledge on the subject 
 of heat, there is now no longer occasion to 
 
15 
 
 go for comparisons back to the times of 
 Bacon, Niewton, and Hooke, much as is due 
 to those illustrious philosophers. Nor is 
 there any occasion to consult the works of 
 Franklin, Black, Eumford, and others of 
 their times, nor adopt any of the theories 
 and doctrines they promulgated. The opin- 
 ions of those much more reliable authori- 
 ties — even Young, Dalton, and Davy — can- 
 not now be taken without some little re- 
 serve ; but the experiments of their distin- 
 guished successors Faraday and Joule, with 
 the praisworthy labors of Rankine, Tindal, 
 and a few others in the same direction, have 
 more recently furnished results on the sub- 
 ject of the present inquiry which cannot be 
 too highly esteemed, and which, with this 
 general acknowledgment, I intend to make 
 a free use of in the course of this work. 
 
 There is no need to extend the present 
 Essay by any long dissertation on the 
 theory of Chimney draught, neither shall I 
 introduce much of what has been advanced 
 by others on that subject, but rather confine 
 these remarks to such elementary facts, 
 principles, and rules, as are likely to be 
 
16 
 
 useful to those practical engineers, builders, 
 and others, Avhose commercial undertakings 
 — contracts and other exigencies — do not 
 generally admit of long delay, much study, 
 or scientific research, but who, nevertheless, 
 may wish to readily avail themselves of a 
 few leading principles and practical direc- 
 tions, such as may at least prevent them 
 from getting very far wrong. By pro- 
 pounding and exemplifying a series of 
 practical examples of cases that can be now 
 referred to in actual use, it is hoped that 
 the most casual reader will be able to ac- 
 company me with confidence and satisfac- 
 tion through the rest of these Essays. 
 
 THE STEAM-ENGINE CHIMNEY. 
 
 The questions of most interest in connec- 
 tion with large chimneys, and those usually 
 the first asked, after the important one of 
 cost, by the capitalist who has determined 
 on some considerable outlay, either in 
 erecting a new shaft or rebuilding an old 
 one, may be classed under two principal 
 heads — namely, the external and the inter- 
 nal proportions. 
 
17 
 
 Whether the external form of a hollow 
 .shaft of brickwork or masonry of consider- 
 able elevation, in this climate and country, 
 should be a plain obelisk, or a finely pro- 
 portioned architectural column, is a ques- 
 tion that does not admit of much difficulty 
 in deciding. Most engineers are no doubt 
 properly inclined to the opinion that for so 
 entirely utiUtarian a purpose as a chimney, 
 the former is the most preferable. It is, 
 however, quite a matter of architectural 
 taste as to how it may harmonize with 
 surrounding objects, and the last thing in 
 the world, perhaps, that engineers ought to 
 dogmatize upon. Whether the form of 
 such a column should affect great sim- 
 plicity — a simple truncated cone or pyra- 
 mid, for instance, decreasing uniformly in 
 diameter upwards; or whether it should 
 affect great stabiHty, like the trunk of the 
 oak, proverbially the shape for withstand- 
 ing a severe gale of wind ; or, ought a 
 chimney shaft to be erected with a variable 
 batter, like a lighthouse or a monument on 
 the sea-coast — these are all questions re- 
 quiring some consideration in designing a 
 
18 
 
 chimney for general purposes ; but for the 
 chimney of a steam-engine other especial 
 requirements of far greater importance are 
 to be considered. 
 
 It is the internal proportions of a chim- 
 ney shaft only — its height and sectional 
 area — that principally concern the steam 
 engineer. Until these essential internal 
 proportions are first agreed upon, we are 
 not in a position to discuss the external 
 proportions with advantage. 
 
 In fixing on the proper dimensions of 
 the vertical smoke flue, or inside of a 
 steam-engine chimney, it is a question 
 with many, whether it should, as is most 
 commonly done, be tapered internally or 
 diminished in area towards the top ; or 
 whether it ought to be parallel — as wide at 
 top as at bottom — in order to have the 
 greatest velocity of draught. Or, again 
 ought a chimney to be, as some few eccentric 
 engineers contend, and occasionally carry 
 into execution, even wider at the top than 
 the bottom? 
 
 These questions are all deserving of atten- 
 tive consideration, and will receive ample 
 
19 
 
 illustration in the sequel. But there is an- 
 other question quite as important as any of 
 the above, and requiring a prior considera- 
 tion. It is thus enunciated : What are the 
 proper dimensions — height and area — ^of a 
 chimney shaft most suitable for a steam- 
 engine of any given number of horse-power, 
 or, which is nearly the same thing, for burn- 
 ing away a given quantity of coals per 
 hour ? The proper answer to this question 
 depends a good deal on the quality of the 
 coals used, and the quantity of waste 
 gaseous products arising from their gener- 
 ally imperfect combustion in the furnace. 
 The best Newcastle or Hartley coals, and 
 the best Welsh steam coal, though re- 
 quiring very different treatment in the fur- 
 nace, are found equally in practice not to 
 require such large chimneys as the inferior 
 coals of the midland and manufacturing dis- 
 tricts of England. Under these circum- 
 stances, it will perhaps be most advisable, 
 in the first instance, to base our observa- 
 tions and calculations on such practical data 
 as those districts so readily afford, more 
 particularly those of Lancashire, South 
 
20 
 
 Yorkshire, Derbyshire, and Staffordshire. 
 Another reason for adopting those data is, 
 that the usual stoking and management of 
 the fires in those districts may be described 
 as a fair medium between the north and 
 the south, between the Newcastle and the 
 Cornish practice. There is one feature in 
 common between the northern and southern 
 practice that may be mentioned, which 
 is, that the engines in both districts are 
 generally very lightly loaded, compared 
 with those in the manufacturing districts ; 
 the latter being very seldom indeed work- 
 ing at less than 50 per cent, above their 
 nominal horse-power, and commonly more 
 than double their real or indicated horse- 
 power. 
 
 The last-mentioned circumstance furnishes 
 us with the reason for the maxim so long 
 prevalent in Lancashire, that a steam- 
 engine chimney, leaving all considerations 
 of cost out of the question, can never be too 
 large nor too powerful, provided it is sup- 
 plied with efficient means for checking the 
 draught, by properly fitted dampers or 
 otherwise, whereby the supply of steam 
 
21 
 
 can be readily controlled at any moment, so 
 as to work the engine at one-half its full 
 power, and using considerably less than 
 one-half the power of draught of the chim- 
 ney ; for which purpose, the ordinary 
 damper (say 3 ft. long) of a thirty-horse 
 engine ought to be open only to the extent 
 of 3 to 6 in., thus having a surplus draught 
 always at command for emergencies. 
 
 Another feature of this question, arising 
 from the practice of working steam-engines 
 with inferior fuel, is the large proportion of 
 dirt and small ashes derived from the burn- 
 ing of the bad coal — the ^' flue dust " — 
 which accumulates to an enormous extent 
 within the flues and on the bottom of the 
 chimney. Much of this flue dust — all the 
 finer particles especially, and to a much 
 greater extent than has hitherto been sus- 
 pected, or at least recognized — passes up 
 and out of the chimney top under the ap- 
 pearance of smoke, but which even veteran 
 
 smoke burners " generally are surprised 
 to find is neither carbonaceous soot nor 
 combustible gas, but principally incombus- 
 tible earthy and silicious dust. 
 
22 
 
 In appealing to the practice of our best 
 ^engineers respecting the proper area of the 
 vertical chimney flue of a steam-engine, 
 there is no occasion to go back to the times 
 of Brindley and Smeaton — when steam- 
 engines were called fire-engines, and the 
 firemen first called stokers — excepting for 
 the purpose of making a single reference to 
 the early practice of the celebrated James 
 Watt, which strikingly illustrates, not only 
 the difficulty of determining a priori the 
 right proportions of a chimney, but also 
 the admirable caution and prudence observ- 
 ed by him in this as in other matters, so 
 remarkably conspicuous in the eminently 
 practical mind of that great man. 
 
 After Mr. Watt had once ascertained 
 the best size and proportions of a chimney 
 most suitable for a given size of boiler and 
 engine, he did not, a]; first, as almost any 
 tyro of the present day would not hesitate 
 to do — venture to throw the draught of two 
 such or similar boilers into one chimney of a 
 larger area, so that the same outlet might 
 serve for the smoke from both furnaces, but 
 he actually erected two such chimneys 
 
23 
 
 alongside each other ! Or, occasionally, he 
 did what was equivalent thereto : in erect- 
 ing a chimney for two boilers, he would 
 build up a midfeather, or division wall, from 
 bottom to top, in order to separate the- two 
 draught currents from each other, in the 
 same manner as in house chimneys. Had 
 we not the evidence of yet existing erections 
 to the fact, such a statement at this distance 
 of time might be considered scarcely^ 
 credible.* 
 
 From all accounts of Mr. Watt's early 
 practice, it may be fairly inferred that he 
 did not theorize much respecting the height 
 of engine chimneys ; for having succeeded 
 in doubling the effect of the steam-engine 
 itself, for the same amount of fuel pre- 
 viously used, he found no difficulty in 
 
 * Two united chimneys of this kind were, not many yearg 
 ago, in use, with two of Boulton and Watt's original 20 horse 
 boilers, in the cotton-spinning works of Messrs. John Pooley 
 & Sons, in Manchester. The case was remarkable, from the 
 fact that the engineer of the firm once attempted to improve 
 (as he thought) the draught of the chimney by breaking an 
 opening through the midfeather, in order that the smoke 
 might fill both the flues. The result was, the draught was en- 
 tirely lost, and the communication had to be closed up again, 
 before the engine could be got to work. 
 
24 
 
 making a low chimiiey suffice, such in fact, 
 as were then in use for the old atmos- 
 pheric engines, and occasionally to be seen 
 in the mining districts at the present time. 
 Those primitive erections, however — mere 
 outlets for smoke — can now hardly be con- 
 sidered as chimneys at all, seldom exceed- 
 ing an elevation of two or three yards 
 higher than the top of the boiler. So soon, 
 however, as the double powered steam- 
 engine came into use, which quadrupled in 
 effect the " old atmospheric,'^ and often ex- 
 ceeded that, when applied to turning machin- 
 ery in towns, it was found that the speed of the 
 engine was often reduced for want of steam, 
 and that again for want of sufficient draught. 
 This last was occasioned, not unfrequently, 
 strange as the words may now sound in the 
 ears of modern engine drivers, by an " un- 
 favorable wind I " 
 
 Prior to the times we are speaking of, 
 the height of an engine chimney shaft, or 
 stack of chimneys, as on Mr. Watt's system 
 the chimney was, in fact, did not then ap- 
 pear to be of much consequence, provided 
 it exceeded that of the neighboring build- 
 
25 
 
 ings, and any precedents tliat then existed 
 for the area of the aperture or exit passage 
 of the smoke were Uke those for the height 
 — of a very antiquated and empirical 
 character. The size and shape of the 
 superior orifice of a chimney was, in fact, 
 even within the present century, regulated 
 by no fixed rule, but was variously modi- 
 fied, as well also in diameter and area, 
 from accidental circumstances — often by 
 considerations as to what could be made 
 safely to stand, should the chimney require 
 raising a little higher than usual, or than 
 first intended. The numerous envious 
 rivals of Boulton and Watt in the early 
 part of the present century, the Sherratts, 
 Murrays, and others of that time, whose 
 almost universal rule was to give " one 
 inch more in diameter of cylinder than 
 Watt " for the same nominal horse-power, 
 and for a great deal less money,'' had no 
 little share in helping to mend this state of 
 things. They all knew pretty well how im- 
 portant it was to have a little extra steam, 
 to meet the possible imperfect performances 
 of their engines, and this a very few inches 
 
26 
 
 or feet of extra brickwork in the width and 
 height of the chimney always gave them 
 the command of, though this was often 
 done at the casual suggestion of the brick- 
 layer. In this matter, as with a cor- 
 responding suggestion of raising the height 
 of the feed-pipes, which was often com- 
 plied with professedly to suit the con- 
 venience of the stoker in preventing boiling 
 over, it generally resulted in raising the 
 pressure of the steam — an infallible remedy 
 for almost all other deficiencies. Thus it 
 occasionally happened that the trifling or 
 crude suggestion of the bricklayer or 
 stoker, in some instances, turned favorably 
 the tide of success, which first founded tho 
 establishment of some of the largest engi- 
 neering firms. 
 
 It is owing to similar circumstances to 
 those just referred to that we have so 
 many examples of engine and other chim- 
 neys in most of our old provincial towns, 
 which, on being raised higher than at first 
 intended, have been stayed from time to 
 time by means of iron tie-rods, and hoop- 
 ed with iron bands. These iron rods, props^. 
 
27 
 
 and crutches to chimneys are much re- 
 sorted to in bi^eweries, distilleries, malt 
 kilns, and other large works, as well 
 in London as in different parts of the 
 south of England, and are very far from 
 being any indication of want of great pros- 
 perity in the commercial and manufac- 
 turing concerns to which they are at- 
 tached. In their apparent condition they 
 are the very opposite to the establish- 
 ments of even second-rate manufacturers 
 in Lancashire. 
 
 So far as economy of fuel is concerned, 
 the great prosperity and wealth of the for- 
 mer seems to be in defiance of extravagant 
 waste and temporary expedients ; while in 
 the latter it arises in a great measure from 
 well-considered permanent arrangements in 
 all that concerns their engines, boilers, and 
 furnaces. The necessity of artificial helps 
 to the stability of a chimney is a sure mani- 
 festation of great waste of fuel, by unneces- 
 sary stoking and forcing the fires, and 
 thereby overheating the chimneys, through 
 inadequate area of flue. On the other hand, 
 we may instance the air furnaces and kilns 
 
28 
 
 of the iron works and potteries of Stafford- 
 shire, where there is some degree of neces- 
 sity for resorting to the expedients referred 
 to, on account of the much higher tempera- 
 ture required by the process going on with- 
 in the furnace. 
 
 The chimney, or cone, of an iron furnace, 
 an earthenware kiln, or a glasshouse, is, in 
 fact, a part of the furnace itself, or at least 
 ought to be so considered, and necessarily 
 becomes heated by the flame passing into, 
 through, or among the materials and arti- 
 cles of manufacture it contains. This pecu- 
 liarity, which is also common to many vari- 
 eties of chemical furnaces as well as to pot- 
 tery kilns, is the main cause of the very 
 strong draught therein obtained. 
 
 ' In the case of a steam engine boiler fur- 
 nace, however, it is well known that no 
 such thing as the flame passing off into the 
 chimney, nor even into a flue leading 
 thereto, after leaving the bottom or internal 
 tube of the boiler, is admissible with the 
 slightest attention to economy of fuel. It 
 requires but little consideration to convince 
 us that the flame of a steam-engine furnace 
 
29 
 
 ought to be wbolly expended against the 
 boiler bottom, or, where internal furnaces 
 or flues are used, entirely witliin the boiler 
 itself, in Avhich case the draught is created 
 solely by the ascensional force of the column 
 of waste air or smoke within the chimney, 
 heated to the comparatively moderate 
 temperature of 500 or 600 deg. 
 
 Thus it will be observed, there is a wide 
 distinction to be made between these two 
 species of furnaces ; the steam-engine fur- 
 nace approaching more nearly, in its 
 moderate temperature, economy, and other 
 circumstances, to the enclosed house stove, 
 or at least to the kitchen fire-place, or cook- 
 ing range. In these, the grate-room or 
 furnace proper, and the chimney or smoke 
 flue, are essentially separate and distinct 
 parts, though in the best construction of 
 engine furnaces they are rendered more 
 perfectly so by interposing what has been 
 always considered and properly termed the 
 flame chamber, or flame bed,* by practical 
 engineers. 
 
 * Several other more or less affectp.d terms are applied to 
 this part of a furnace by the ultra-chemical school of smoke- 
 
30 
 
 On the other hand, in the action of the 
 air furnaces of a potter's kiln, in which the 
 vertical flame chamber and chimney are 
 both in one, or in the small furnaces of a 
 chemist's laboratory, arranged for produc- 
 ing very perfect combustion and the most 
 intense heats only, of two or three thousand 
 degrees and upwards, we find a very differ- 
 ent state of things to that of a steam boiler, 
 requiring a heat only a little beyond that 
 of boiling water. 
 
 The importance of the distinctions we 
 have thus endeavored — though perhaps 
 imperfectly — to point out, though well un- 
 derstood by practical firemen, has been 
 much underrated, and the cause of some 
 dogmatism and misapprehension, especially 
 on the smoke question. From this mixing- 
 up of different species of furnaces, intended 
 for totally different objects and processes of 
 art, though each may be practically perfect 
 for the purpose it is intended for, very in- 
 
 prevention patentees; such as mixing chamber and diffusing 
 chamber, of which the term combustion chamber is perhaps 
 the least inappropriate, although, in reality, combustion goes 
 on "more vigorously in the grate-room than anywhere else. 
 
3i 
 
 correct conclusions only have been deduced 
 by some scientific writers. Waiving, there- 
 fore, for the present any further considera- 
 tion in this place of the variable opinions 
 of those chemists who have not yet been 
 tible to define satisfactorily where the 
 steam-engine or other furnace (proper) ends, 
 or where the chimney flue begins, — and 
 dismissing also the calculations of those 
 really able mathematicians on the subject 
 of the velocity of draught, whose con- 
 clusions on the question have, unfor- 
 tunately, differed from each other by nearly 
 500 per cent., we shall next proceed to de- 
 scribe the design for a steam-engine chim- 
 ney, hastily iuprovised for a particular occa- 
 sion, and which, on being properly ex- 
 ecuted, happened to be right. We use 
 this expression purposely, not wishing to 
 claim any particular merit for the design 
 itself, and do not say how many others we 
 may have taken more pains with, that, 
 from various causes, have turned out less 
 successful, although as instructive lessons, 
 some such may be referred to in the 
 sequel. 
 
82 
 
 In order to elucidate tlie object of this 
 chapter still further, and to show what 
 confused and erroneous notions on the sub- 
 ject of draught in chimneys have been, 
 from time to time, prevalent, even in so 
 generally intelligent and eminently manu- * 
 facturing a town as Manchester, the fol- 
 lowing extract from a letter addressed to 
 one of the newspapers in that city is in- 
 serted, together with my reply thereto. 
 The article was entitled Smoke and Long 
 Chimneys," and commenced as follows : — 
 
 The writer proposes that, instead of 
 erecting a long chimney for a steam-engine 
 furnace, a very long and wide flue or 
 ■chamber should be built, contiguous to the 
 furnace. Take an area of ten yards by 
 twenty, more or less, according to the size 
 of the furnace, wall it round 10 ft. high, 
 ;and build three or four crosswalls, 3 ft. 
 short of the length of the chamber, each 
 alternately, the alternate end of each wall 
 being tied into the outer walls, arching the 
 whole over from wall to wall, or covering it 
 with flags (any more convenient form might 
 he adopted, provided the length and height 
 
33 
 
 of the fliie was obtained) — the smoke and 
 rarefied air from the furnace to be conveyed 
 by an ordinary-sized flue into it at one cor- 
 ner, passing through it zigzag to the end^ 
 and then up the chimney, which need not 
 be higher than the buildings around. There 
 should be a door into it, at some convenient 
 place, to take out the soot ; and at the first 
 time it was started it would be necessary to 
 put in a quantity of shavings and light 
 them, in order to start the draught ; this 
 would only be required when it was first 
 commenced with, or after it had been a long 
 time out of use. 
 
 The writer conceives that, when the flue 
 is filled with the smoke and rarefied air 
 from the furnace, there would be a partial 
 — and but a partial — vacuum in the flue, or 
 that the volume of air in it would not be of 
 equal density with the surrounding atmos- 
 phere, and that the difference in the specific 
 gravity of the smoke and hot air in the 
 whole flue, and the like quantity of atmos- 
 phere, would be so great that the air would 
 rush through the furnace with great force 
 to efi'ect an equilibrium, thereby creating an 
 
34 
 
 intense dranglit — the great desideratum in 
 building long chimneys, which is prevented 
 taking place (the equilibrium) by its being 
 rarefied by combustion in passing through 
 the furnace. 
 
 Suppose, after the flue was filled with 
 smoke and rarefied air, the communication 
 from the furnace was cut off by a damper, 
 and another one opened for the atmosphere 
 to pass into the flue, would there not be a 
 very strong draught into it, intense at first, 
 and progressively diminishing till an equi- 
 librium was effected ? The malt kiln has 
 large flues or chambers under the perforat- 
 ed tiles, into which the hot air generated in 
 the fire passes, and, without the aid of any 
 chimney, has a strong draught. 
 
 " The baker's oven, when heated by a 
 fire in what they designate a wagon, has a 
 very strong draught, entirely owing to the 
 space the smoke and hot air has to spread 
 in, before passing to the chimney. The 
 same oven, when heated by a fire spread on 
 the bottom in the common way, has a very 
 poor draught, the oven being converted into 
 a fire-place without any hot-air chambers 
 
35 
 
 or large horizontal flue. The reason why 
 the wagon plan is not in more general use, 
 is owing to the wagon being so soon burnt 
 out, arising from the strong draught. It is 
 an almost universally received opinion that 
 horizontal flues check a draught ; but this, 
 I conceive, arises from their being generally 
 made of the same size as the flue of the 
 chimney. 
 
 Have not some of the recent builders of 
 long chimneys, to supersede several smaller 
 ones, planted them at some distance from 
 their furnaces, and made a horizontal flue 
 to carry all their draughts to the chimney ? 
 and when they have turned the first draught 
 into it they have had a very strong one ; 
 but as they have added the others, the 
 draught has progressively diminished. The 
 width of the large chimney is made too large 
 for one draught, consequently the atmos- 
 phere would descend the chimney and create 
 a down-draught, diminishing the advantage 
 of its height for one draught ; but, as the 
 rest of the draughts were put in, the down- 
 draught would be less and less,'and]when all 
 were put in, the smoke and hot air would 
 
36 
 
 fill the chimney to the top, having the 
 whole benefit which its elevation is supposed 
 to give, — demonstrating, as I conceive, that 
 the horizontal flue, which was constructed 
 wide for several flues to run into, is the 
 occasion of the superior draught, when only 
 one was put in, and not the long chimney. 
 
 ^*As respects the smoke when it is pass- 
 ing through the proposed flue, from the 
 great space it has to pass in, it 
 moves slowly along, though the draught is 
 quick. From this circumstance, and the 
 rarefaction of the air in it, he conceives it 
 will have time to condense and fall to the 
 bottom of the flue before it arrives at the 
 chimney. But to render this desirable ob-^ 
 ject more complete, he thinks that if the 
 condensing water from the engine was in- 
 troduced by a siphon pipe into the flue 
 next to the furnace, and passed along its 
 whole length in a gutter, and taken out 
 near the chimney by another siphon pipe, 
 the steam that would arise from tne 
 water would partly be absorbed by the 
 floating particles of soot, and sooner fall to 
 the bottom. 
 
^' The writer, some time ago, erected a 
 flue, or chambers, similar to what he has 
 described, to destroy coal tar. He set fire 
 to a quantity of shavings in the flue, and 
 then lighted the coal tar in the fire-place, 
 calculating that it would burn slowly, and 
 that the soot would all be deposited at the 
 bottom of the flue. When ignited, it 
 blazed most furiously, and passed through 
 the small into the large flue with such 
 rapidity, owing to the intense draught, and 
 the flame was carried such a distance in, 
 that the chamber would soon have been 
 destroyed, being covered with flags, that he 
 had it put out as expeditiously as possible. 
 He then had small low arches built over 
 the fire-place, leaving out a brick here and 
 there, by which means he checked the 
 draught, which was still sufficiently strong 
 for the purpose, and not a particle of soot 
 issued from the chimney, all being de- 
 posited at the bottom of the flue. The 
 chimney, if it could be so called, was not 
 more than eighteen inches high, and not 
 more than three feet above the level of the 
 flue from the fire-place. 
 
 (Signed) "A Co^'3TANT Eeader.'^ 
 
38 
 
 The writer of the foregoing letter was a 
 well-known engineer in Manchester, and at 
 the time of its publication, his opinions on 
 the subject treated on, were highly valued 
 by several of the manufacturers, who 
 placed the matter in my hands for the pur- 
 pose of investigation, and the result was 
 the following letter addressed to the editor 
 of the same paper : — 
 
 " The proposal of your correspondent for 
 attaching long horizontal flues or chambers 
 to steam-engine furnaces, if carried into 
 effect, so far from serving as a substitute 
 for long chimneys, would render them 
 more than ever necessary. Nothing can 
 be better established among practical men 
 conversant with the subject than the fact, 
 that every interruption or bend in the flue 
 of a furnace, acts as a check to the draught, 
 and where such checks or interruptions 
 occur, there is generally found a deposit of 
 Boot or dust, which otherwise would have 
 found its way through the flue and out at 
 the chimney top. 
 
 *^With respect to the strong draughts 
 generally obtained at a malt-kiln or a ba- 
 
39 
 
 ker's oven, very little consideration is re- 
 quired to see that the draught in such cases 
 depends upon quite a different principle to 
 that of a steam-engine furnace. In those, 
 the draught is, in great part, owing to the 
 great mass of brickwork and other materi- 
 als (generally substances that retain heat a 
 long time) used in their construction, be- 
 coming heated to a considerable degree at 
 the commencement, and from which, by the 
 nature of the operations carried on, the heat 
 is but slowly abstracted. Hence the veloc- 
 ity of the current of air passing through the 
 furnace is accelerated in proportion to the 
 length of the flues, or area of heated sur- 
 face, and a very small chimney is therefore 
 sufficient. Whereas, in the case of a steam 
 engine boiler, things are very different, for 
 here we have the fire generally surrounded 
 by an extensive surface of iron plate, kept 
 comparatively cool by the contained water 
 rapidly abstracting the heat in the genera- 
 tion of steam. And, in order that this ab- 
 straction of the heat by the water should be 
 as complete as possible, before the smoke is 
 allowed to pass off into the chimney, num- 
 
40 
 
 berless contrivances have been resorted to; 
 as is exemplified in the multiflue boiler of 
 Messrs. Booth and Stephenson, to the appli- 
 cation of which to locomotive purposes, we 
 are undoubtedly indebted for the only effi- 
 cient system of economical travelling by 
 railway. 
 
 You must easily perceive, that with any 
 regard to economy especially, how impor- 
 tant it is in the generation of steam, that 
 the smoke should leave the boiler at a com- 
 paratively low temperature ; and if so, its 
 tendency to ascend must be very small; 
 particularly when you recollect that carbon- 
 ic acid, which is one of the principal prod- 
 ucts of the combustion of coal, is considera- 
 bly heavier than atmospheric air of the 
 same temperature. Hence exists the abso- 
 lute necessity of assisting the draught by 
 the superior levity of a column of heated 
 air, as compared to that of a similar column 
 of the external atmosphere, the pressure of 
 which, by a well-known hydrostatical law, 
 is in a certain direct ratio to its perpendicu- 
 lar height, and is quite independent of its 
 other dimensions. 
 
41 
 
 " It requires no theoretical elucidation, 
 and very little scientific knowledge, to un- 
 derstand the great diifference there is in 
 principle between the firing of a steam-en- 
 gine boiler and the heating of a baker's 
 oven. Ahnost any one, I should think, 
 who pays common attention to such sub- 
 jects must be aware of it ; and the same 
 may be said of a gas retort furnace, or of a 
 brick-kiln. In these it is the mass of non- 
 conducting matter heated, and the slow ab- 
 straction of this heat, leaving a large sur- 
 plus to pass up the chimney, which is the 
 principal cause of draught. On the con- 
 trary, in the furnace of a steam-engine 
 boiler, the largest possible quantity of heat- 
 ing surface (but as regards its effects on 
 the draught it may more properly be called 
 cooling surface), composed of the best con- 
 ducting substance, is, or ought to be, ex- 
 posed to the current of hot air ; consequent- 
 ly the main flues and chimneys of such fur- 
 naces are nearly as cool as the external at- 
 mosphere. Therefore, unless an artificial 
 blast is used, as in the locomotives and 
 some other high-pressure engines, the 
 
42 
 
 adoption of long chimneys is altogether un- 
 avoidable. 
 
 "If manufacturers who employ steam- 
 engines were at all likely to be induced to 
 increase so important an item of their ex- 
 penditure as that of fuel, for the mere pur- 
 pose of heating their chimneys — which is 
 evidently the principle of your correspond- 
 ent's scheme — it might be worth while 
 showing him that the great desideratum of 
 smoke burning would thereby be rendered 
 more difficult of attainment than ever. Of 
 this, indeed any one who admits the facts, 
 which all must do — that for burning or pre- 
 venting smoke we require an increased heat 
 of the fire, and for increasing the heat of 
 the fire we require an increased draught 
 through the fire, rather than through the 
 flue — it is only necessary to observe what 
 takes place when a chimney is on fire, to be 
 convinced of what I now state. In such 
 case the draught is all in the flue instead of 
 the fire-place, where it ought to be ; and, 
 of course, the heat is then all at the wrong 
 end of the chimney. 
 
 " That checkiug'the draught of a furnace 
 
43 
 
 by brickwork or other obstructions in the 
 flues, may be termed a preventive of 
 smoke, is admitted — partly by causing a 
 deposit of Buot in the flues, but principally 
 from the smoke not being so rapidly gene- 
 rated. In the latter particular it bears 
 some resemblance to many other plans 
 strongly recommended in your and other 
 papers for years past, as I have no doubt 
 many other similar plans will, for good and 
 substantial reasons, independent of their 
 merits or demerits, continue to be recom- 
 mended for years to come. The principle 
 of all the plans we are alluding to is the 
 same, and equivalent to the notable expe- 
 dient of keeping the furnace-door open 
 until the fire ceases to smoke. In other 
 words, they amount, in the generality of 
 cases, to a complete conversion of the fur- 
 nace, for a time, to the condition of a com- 
 mon open house-fire. Of course, under such 
 circumstances, the prevention of much smoke 
 becomes a very easy matter, for very little is 
 generated ; and owing to the same circum- 
 stances, I must also add, very little steam ! 
 (Signed) 
 
 "An Advocate roR Long Chimneys.'^ 
 
44 
 
 EXAMPLES OF ENGINE CHIMNEYS. 
 
 The 3Iay field Experimental Chimneys, 
 — The original design for the proportions 
 and dimensions of this chimney were made 
 by the author for the well-known firm of 
 Thomas Hoyle & Sons, the eminent calico 
 printers of Manchester, and the chimney 
 wa« erected for them by the equally well- 
 known builders, Messrs. David Bellhouse 
 & Sons, of that city, several years ago. 
 Its total cost, including the foundation, 
 which was 10 ft. deep, by 15 ft. square 
 at the bottom, very little exceeded £100. 
 
 The shaft of this chimney is octagonal in 
 plan, about 2 ft. 10 1 in. wide externally at 
 the top, and 5 ft. at bottom. It stands on 
 a pedestal of 8 ft. square, which together 
 with the shaft make up a total height of 90 
 ft. from the ground — that being the lowest 
 elevation allowed by the police regulations 
 of the then borough of Manchester. The 
 whole height from the base of the founda- 
 tion being 100 ft., and about 88 ft. from 
 the level of the fire-grate, which is the 
 proper datum line from which all calcula- 
 tion respecting the draught is to be taken. 
 
45 
 
 The whole, excepting the stone cap and 
 cornice, being of brickwork. 
 
 The shaft has a batter, externally of one 
 inch to the yard, which is the usual rate, 
 in this part of Lancashire. In the northern 
 and hilly parts of the county — say about 
 Preston and Oldham — a batter of one and 
 a quarter inch to the yard is more gene- 
 rally used. 
 
 The work at the bottom of the shaft is 
 19 in. thick, and that of the topis 9 in. The 
 shaft is entirely octagonal inside throughout 
 down to the bottom, and externally to the 
 top of the pedestal. 
 
 The internal capacity of the chimney, 
 together with the short flue connecting it 
 with the boiler, to which it is attached, is 
 about 50 cubic yards. 
 
 The internal horizontal area of the nar- 
 rowest part of the aperture at the top of 
 the chimney is about 1,000 sq. in., which, 
 as it was intended to make the chimney 
 large enough for about 50 horse power, 
 gives about 20 sq. in. area for each horse 
 power; while, as above stated, there was 
 about one cubic yard capacity in the chim- 
 ney for the same. 
 
46 
 
 Although, the proportion of 20 sq. in. 
 area of chimney aperture, for each horse 
 power of a steam-engine, had been generally 
 accounted in Lancashire to be according 
 to Boulton and Watt," neither that nor the 
 proportion of a cubic yard of capacity per 
 horse power was adopted from any 
 theoretical rule or previously determined 
 opinion, excepting that they were nearly 
 the average of some of the best chimneys 
 we were then well acquainted with. For, 
 although Tredgold's rule had been pub- 
 lished a few years previously, and was 
 generally considered to be founded on 
 principles pretty nearly correct, it was very 
 evident that author had not himself suffi- 
 cient knowledge of the working of steam- 
 engines to enable him to obtain proper 
 constants for the practical application of 
 his own calculations, simple and admirable 
 as the latter generally were. There only, 
 in fact, wanted a more careful selection of 
 data to render his formulae highly valuable 
 to the practical engine-maker. 
 
 The proprietors of the Mayfield Print- 
 works — the intimate friends, disciples and 
 
47 
 
 patrons of the celebrated John Dalton, the 
 groat reformer of chemistry, who was at 
 the time of these experiments, as he had 
 been for some years previously, our con- 
 stant Visitor and adviser in scientific matters 
 — were not the kind of men to be easily led 
 astray by Tredgold's, or any other mere 
 theoretical rules about steam-engines, how- 
 ever flourishing the algebra by which they 
 might be surrounded. They had in fact 
 wisely resolved to erect this experimental 
 chimney for the very purpose of acquiring 
 for themselves accurate experimental knowl- 
 edge and correct practical data in all that 
 relates to chimneys and boilers ; including 
 also, though not at the time an essential 
 object, a little smoke burning by the way ; 
 in all of which, not only Tredgold, but most 
 other theoretical writers on the steam-engine, 
 appeared to them clearjy deficient. 
 
 On referring to Tredgold's rule, in his 
 well-known work " The Steam Engine," 
 we found him recommending what rendered 
 his authority entirely nugatory in the mat- 
 ter of chimneys — namely, that ^' a chimney 
 of double the size given by the rule should 
 
48 
 
 be built ; " and, as if conscious of the great 
 inconsistency — to say the least — of giving 
 us this kind of instruction, he adds the fol- 
 lowing very lame reason : because the 
 expense,'' he states, bears a small ratio 
 to the increase of size, and it may after- 
 wards be convenient if considerably larger 
 than is necessary for the engine it is erected 
 for ! " Now, although Tredgold, justly or 
 unjustly, up to that time had stood foremost 
 in the application of high mathematical 
 acquirements to the improvement of the 
 steam-engine, advice of this kind necessarily 
 demolished all confidence in his book as a 
 scientific guide on the subject of chimneys. 
 
 The extract above quoted from Tredgold 
 is followed up by an example in which the 
 side of a square chimney for a 40-horse 
 engine is calculated to be equal to 23 in. 
 
 But " he adds, " I would advise to build 
 a chimney 33 in. square ! " 
 
 The rule and the example, as given in 
 Woolhouse's edition of Tredgold' s work 
 (Art. 275), pubUshed in 1833, after the 
 author's death, are as follows : — 
 
 " EuLE. — The area of a chimney in inches, 
 
49 
 
 for a low-pressure steam engine, when 
 above 10 horse power, should be 112 times 
 the horse power of the engine, divided by 
 the square root of the height of the chim- 
 ney in feet. 
 
 Example. — Required the area of a chim- 
 ney for an engine of 40 -horse power, the 
 height of it being 70 ft. 
 
 In this case 
 
 40 X 112 4480 _ 
 
 ^TT— — 7— T = t>33.2 sq. in. 
 
 The square root of this is 23 in., which 
 will be the side of a square chimney. Or, 
 multiply 533 by 1.27, and extract the square 
 root for the diameter of a circular one.'' 
 
 Now, as my present purpose is the prac- 
 tical one of showing how a chimney for the 
 furnace of a steam-engine boiler ought to 
 be built, and what are its proportions, in 
 order best to answer the object in view, 
 namely, the obtainment of a good draught 
 with stability and economy — I shall, at least 
 in the first instance, purposely waive all 
 theoretical refinements of calculation until a 
 rough outline of the method of proceeding 
 be fairly estabhshed. To efi"ect this in the 
 
50 
 
 most simple and direct manner, I depend far 
 more on practice than theory, on example 
 rather than precept— a mode of procedure 
 analagous to that of teaching any common 
 mechanical trade, -which I have occasionally 
 resorted to on other subjects, with a certain 
 measure of success. 
 
 In Weale's large edition of Tredgold on 
 the Steam Engine,'' in 4 quarto volumes, 
 1852, edited up to page 116, by the late 
 Professor James Hann, of King's College, 
 and thence up to page 308 by the present 
 writer, I gave, in the notes, some examples 
 of these calculations for chimneys adapted 
 to practical data first discovered — at least, 
 collected and arranged — by the late Joshua 
 Milne, Esq., of Shaw, near Oldham, some 
 years prior to the first publication of Tred- 
 gold' s work, in which the area of the chim- 
 ney is expressed in square feet instead of 
 inches Adapting Tredgold's rule to Mr. 
 Milne's data, it only requires the constant 
 multiplier 112 to be substituted by 280, and 
 the calculation in the above case will then 
 stand as follows : 
 
 40 y 280 11.200 
 
51 
 
 instead of .533 ; a result nearly three times 
 as much as that obtained by Tredgold, and 
 the square root of which is 36^ in. for the 
 side of the square chimney, instead of 23 in., 
 as before. That is to say, about 3 ft. and 2 
 ft. square, respectively. 
 
 It is obviously much better to simplify 
 such practical rules as these, by using the 
 same denomination for both dimensions, the 
 height and the area, or the diameter of the 
 chimney. And since the large expensive 
 edition of Tredgold as above referred to, as 
 published by Weale, which has been until 
 recently in a great measure a sealed book 
 to many practical men, is now in the hands 
 of a more liberal and enterprising publisher, 
 who has made it more accessible by reduc- 
 ing it to less than one-half its former price, 
 we have some pleasure in promoting its 
 utility in the same direction, by adding here, 
 as was partially attempted in that work, a 
 formula which includes Milne's constant, 
 for ready computation by instrumental in- 
 spection, as well as by common arithmetic, 
 so that every intelligent operative who 
 honors these pages by his perusal and 
 
52 
 
 carries a slide-rule, has always at hand a 
 ready mode of verifying the truth of our 
 statements, and comparing them with those 
 of Tredgold, or any other authority. 
 
 SLIDE-ETJLE POEMULA FOR HOESE POWEE OF 
 CHIMNEYS. 
 
 Con- ( Tredgold 112 
 stants ( Milne . . 280 
 Nom H. Power. 
 
 Area in inches 
 
 Bq. root of height in ft. 
 
 Tredgold' s example for a 40 -horse engine 
 before referred to — 
 
 A I Area=533 in. |Tredgold\s ConR.=1l2| 
 
 Milne's Const. == 280 
 ' NomTHrP. = 16 
 
 In his arithmetical rule, instead of a 
 multiplier, Milne used a divisor for a con- 
 stant number, and was in words as fol- 
 lows : — 
 
 EuLE. — Multiply the square root of the 
 height of the chimney in feet, by the square 
 of its internal diameter at its top or 
 narrowest part also in feet, and half the 
 product will be the nominal horse -power 
 that the chimney is equal to. 
 
53 
 
 Taking the- samo exaaiple as before, it i.3 
 by arithmetic — 
 
 v/70 X (1ft. 11 in., or) 1 9'2-^ 8.4 X 3.68_^. 
 divided by 2 2 
 
 horse power ; and by the slide rule it is ap- 
 prox h) I ately — 
 
 A Diam 3.68l Potis. r^ivisor 2 
 ;j height =^8 4i Horse power = 15.4 
 
 After we first published these chimney 
 rules, at the desire of Mr. Milne, several 
 years ago, apprising him at the time of the 
 wide difference between his and Tredgold's 
 results, we soon found, and he admitted, that 
 a somewhat smaller proportion of chimney 
 area would be more nearly in accordance 
 with the general practice throughout the 
 country, more especially where a better 
 quality of coal was burned than that ordi- 
 narily used at the factories in Oldham, 
 where, from the peculiar quality of the 
 cotton manufacture carried on there — 
 spinning coarse cotton, waste, and shoddy 
 — a larger measure of w^ork was usually 
 allowed for a nominal horse power than 
 elsewhere. In fact, two indicated horse- 
 
54 
 
 jDOwer for one nominal, was then the regular 
 Oldham measure for steam-engines. 
 
 If we take Tredgold's advice, and give 
 double the area of chimney- top obtained by 
 his rule, then the adoption of 1| instead of 
 2 for a constant divisor will give that result 
 which we may conveniently call the actual 
 instead of the nominal, or Oldham horse 
 power, which will still, as it ought, be con- 
 siderably in excess of the indicated power 
 of steam-engines in general. 
 
 In illustration of this, take— 
 
 Example 2. — Required the number of 
 horse power most suitable in connection 
 with the experimental chimney at Mayfield 
 already described; the height above the 
 level of the fire-bars being 88 ft., and the 
 inside diameter at the top 2 ft 10^ in. 
 
 SOLUTION BY SLIDE-ETJLE. 
 
 {Slide mvertedas before,) 
 A I JUuim. -lii. lU^ m. 1^=2.872=3.2-1 
 0 j Vlit. Kp^) =9.38 I 
 
 New CoDst. =115 
 AiiBwer 5i H. 
 
 l^xample 3. — Another new chimney 
 
 i 
 
55 
 
 erected tlie same year, in the same works 
 (Thomas Iloyle & Sons), was 3^ ft. diame- 
 ter by 40 yards high. E-equired the horse 
 power it is equal to. 
 
 S0LUTI017. 
 
 A 
 
 Diam. U ft 1^ =12i 
 
 CoiiRt. rnimber 1 i 
 
 0 
 
 
 Horse power yO 
 
 The chimney in this example (3) was 
 erected in November of the same year, and 
 by the same builder as that in Example 2. 
 It was built with similar materials in the 
 same manner like the preceding chimney. 
 The shaft was octagonal, but higher in 
 proportion to its area than the former, for 
 the purpose of carrying away the smoke 
 from contact with some adjacent buildings, 
 and the cost was about double that of the 
 experimental chimney. By which it will 
 be seen that we had arrived at a fair 
 average cost of chimney-building in pro- 
 portion to the power capable of being pro- 
 duced in that way, so far as chimneys of 
 this character, and from 30 to 40 yards 
 high, are concerned — namely, about £2 per 
 horse power. 
 
56 
 
 The very many practical tests of various 
 kinds that were applied to these two chim- 
 neys, during several successsive years, such 
 as finding that the second chimney was 
 equally applicable to two as the first or 
 experimental chimney was to one boiler of 
 similar size, not much over or under 45 or 
 50 horse each, convinced us that we had 
 approximated near to the data we were in 
 quest of. 
 
 The Dxichwfield Bleach 'Works ^ Chim- 
 ney and Furnaces. — The subject of our 
 next example in chimney building served 
 still further to corroborate our Mayfield ex- 
 periments in all respects except as to cost, 
 which of course greatly diminished as the 
 scale of our operations became larger. 
 
 This chimney was erected early in the 
 spring of the year following the completion 
 of those last named, at Messrs. Hoyle & 
 Sons' New Bleach Works, then erecting at 
 Sandy Lane, between Duckinfield and Sta- 
 leybridge. 
 
 In the planning of the chimney and flues, 
 and furnishing the designs, with all their 
 details, and four large boilers, for which the 
 
57 
 
 writer was more especially engaged, and 
 which were expected to furnish from 200 to 
 300 horse power of steam, we had the valu- 
 able assistance of Mr. John Graham,* after- 
 wards a member of the firm, and whose 
 eminent talents as a scientific and practical 
 chemist are generally known — as we also 
 previously had the cordial assistance, gen- 
 eral concurrence and approval of the late 
 Mr. Alfred Binyon, the then managing 
 partner. 
 
 Example 4. — The Duckinfield Bleach 
 Works chimney was made 45 yards high 
 by 6 ft. inside diameter at the top. Ke- 
 quired the horse power it is equal to. 
 
 SOLUTION. 
 
 A j Diam. fi ft. |« = 36 |New oonstftnt = \ \ 
 Q jVlit. ( 1 c{5 ft. ) = 1 1 . bjHurse power = 27b 
 Milne's Const. 2 
 
 The above slide-rule solution for the 
 power of this chimney gives two answers to 
 
 * See a valuable paper by this gentleman in vol. xv. of the 
 "Transactions of the Literary and Philosophical Society of 
 Manchester," for the years 1857-8. A portion of it was also 
 
58 
 
 the question — namely, 278 and 208 horse 
 power, respectively, according as the new 
 constant IJ, or Milne's old constant 2, are 
 used as gauge points. In this case the lat- 
 ter was preferred, as giving the most cor- 
 rect result, by reason of the kind of fuel in- 
 tended to be consumed being of the same or 
 similar inferior quality to that already re- 
 ferred to as being in general use within the 
 parish of Oldham, to which these works 
 were nearly adjoining. Facility in obtain- 
 ing this cheap fuel — known as ^^burgey'^ 
 and slack " — being one of the chief rea- 
 sons for erecting the works in this particu- 
 lar locality. 
 
 THE EXPEKIMENTAL BOILERS. 
 
 In the collection of data for steam-engine 
 chimneys, it would be a great omission to 
 leave out the particular dimensions of the 
 
 republished in the "Engineer " newspaper for March 12, 1858, 
 "which gave an account of a series of evaporating experiments, 
 " made for the purpose of testing the economy of fuel and man- 
 agement effected at these boilers and furnaces through a series 
 of iuccessive years, which will w«ll repay perusal, and will be 
 further adverted to in a subsequent pai-t or appendix to this 
 work. 
 
59 
 
 boiler, to cause the efficient working of 
 which is, in fact, the only profitable work 
 the chimney has to do. 
 
 The boiler, for which the Mayfield ex- 
 perimental chimney was erected, was de- 
 signed by the writer, as was also the chim- 
 ney, as already stated, specially for experi- 
 mental purposes, in acqu xing all practical 
 information on the subject previous to 
 commencing the construction of Messrs. 
 Hoyle & Sons' new Bleaching and Calico- 
 printing Works at Duckinfield, near Staley- 
 bridge. For this purpose I did not hesitate 
 to recommend the plainest and simplest 
 form of boiler that can be conceived — 
 namely, a plain cylinder, laid horizontally, 
 or nearly so, with the fire to go underneath 
 it at one end, and out to the chimney at the 
 other, which may now be described. 
 
 This experimental boiler was of the 
 "direct draught kind, that is, without re- 
 turn flues, and this one had no flues of any 
 kind, either inside or out. The boiler 
 and chimney were, therefore both of the 
 simplest possible kind, and for that reason, 
 made mutual tests of their respective capa- 
 
60 
 
 bilities through a long series of very accu- 
 rate experiments relative to economy of fuel, 
 as well as to the efficiency of various 
 methods of smoke prevention, or smoke 
 burning, as it was then popularly termed, 
 and other matters of interest to the pro- 
 prietors. Improvments in smoke preven- 
 tion especially were freely invited from all 
 quarters, and this was the boiler at which 
 very many different plans for the purpose 
 were tried. 
 
 This kind of boiler was fnlly described in 
 the author^s " Essay on the Boilers of Steam 
 Engines " (1839), and the principal dimen- 
 sions of this one, as there given, need only 
 be shortly referred to here. It was in 
 shape cylindrical, and fully equal to 30 
 horse -power, being 33^ ft. long by 5^ di- 
 ameter, and " set up," or rather hung, by 
 means of cast-iron brackets riveted to the 
 sides, and resting on the side walls of the 
 furnace, so that the whole of the lower half 
 of its convex surface, about 32 square 
 yards, was exposed to the direct action of 
 the fire and flame. 
 
 The fire-grate, placed about 22 in. below 
 
61 
 
 the bottom of the boiler, was 5i- ft. square, 
 or equal to about 30 sq. ft. in area, and 
 was composed of one length of fire-bars, 
 each 1| in. thick on the face, with air- 
 spaces of to I of an inch wide between 
 them. 
 
 This boiler supplied steam to an old 
 Boulton and Watt condensing engine of 16- 
 horse power, by Messrs. Sherratt, of Sal- 
 ford, loaded so as to require seldom less 
 than 24 cubic feet of water to be eyaporated 
 per hour at a pressure of exactly 4 lbs. per 
 sq. in. It also supplied steam for heating 
 drying cylinders, for boiling water, and for 
 a great variety of other purposes, amount- 
 ing at times to nearly as much as the engine 
 required itself. The least ayerage evapora- 
 tion for a whole day together was 33, and 
 the greatest 45 cubic feet per hour. The 
 lower amount was, of course, obtained at 
 the most economical rate, namely, at about 
 6 lbs. of water evaporated for each pound of 
 common coal burned. It was, therefore, 
 considered to be full 30-horse power. A 
 cubic foot of water evaporated per hour 
 being generally considered amply sufficient 
 
62 
 
 to supply steam for each horse power (nom- 
 inal) of a Boulton and Watt or low-pressure 
 engine in good order, however it might be 
 at times overloaded. 
 
 Although this evaporation of a cubic foot;, 
 or a little over six imperial gallons of water^ 
 of 10 lbs. each, is what boilermakers have 
 universally, and practical engineers com- 
 monly, agreed to consider nominally a boiler 
 horse power, there is no doubt, however, 
 that the same weight of water, as steam, at 
 a higher pressure can easily be, and is fre- 
 quently, made to work two or three indi- 
 cated horse power in a modern steam- 
 engine, accordingly as the latter is arranged 
 to work to a greater or less extent expan- 
 sively. 
 
 This boiler was made of Low Moor iron 
 t\ in. thick, except the bottom row of 
 plates, which were f in. and the flat ends 
 by Mr. Fairbairn, of Manchester, who 
 had just previously commenced the boiler- 
 making business, and was then a staunjh. 
 advocate for introducing the long Cornish 
 high-pressure boiler, with its one large in- 
 ternal furnace-fiue, and single furnace- 
 
63 
 
 grate. Instead of that kind of boiler, now 
 much less used, except in Wales and Corn- 
 wall, I persisted in advising the simple and 
 elementary form of boiler now described. 
 It was also suspended by bracket flanges in 
 the cheap and simple manner above men- 
 tioned, in accordance with the universal 
 dogma of its strictly utilitarian owners, 
 which in this, as in all other business mat- 
 ters connected with the works, was never 
 lost sight of for a moment, — in order that 
 any alterations or improvements that might 
 be found expedient, either in the construc- 
 tion of the boiler, or erection of the brick- 
 work, might be in the shape of additions 
 merely, and therefor capable of being sep- 
 arately proved, both as to first cost and 
 utility, afid also that our experiments might 
 be carried on for a sufficient length of time, 
 without the usual liability to interruption 
 from the necessity of cleaning out of flues 
 or otherwise. 
 
 The last-mentioned particular in the erec- 
 tion of this boiler was of considerable im- 
 portance in thus attaining the main object 
 we had in view, as well as in accomplishing 
 
64 
 
 another object greatly desired by the ben- 
 evolent proprietors of the works, that of 
 doing away with the degrading practice of 
 sweeping out the flues by means of men, or 
 rather boys, crawling through them. 
 
 Trifling as a small matter of this kind 
 may appear to some, it is important to show 
 that, in this instance at least, it was attend- 
 ed by considerable economy. Cast-iron 
 lugs or brackets, with broad flanges, were 
 riveted along each side of the boiler, a little 
 above the intended surface level of the 
 water, and these brackets rested on the tops 
 of the two vertical side walls of the furnace 
 and flame-bed. The boiler thus suspended 
 between the two side walls was then ad- 
 justed, not quite horizontally, but slightly 
 inclined, with a fall of about 8 in. towards 
 the front end, so that a greater proportion 
 of the water was brought immediately over 
 the fire-grate. 
 
 This arrangement of the flame-bed and 
 seating, or side walls, of the boiler, formed 
 a chamber or receptacle, large enough to 
 hold all the flue -dust and dirt that could be 
 found from the use of any kind of coal 
 
65 
 
 whatever, for a considerable time. In fact, 
 although the boiler was every day at work, 
 the flame-bed did not require any cleaning 
 out, even at the end of nearly two years, — 
 when, as an opportunity occurred, several 
 cart-loads of flue-dust were removed from 
 under the boiler at one time. The occasion 
 of having this operation performed, dis- 
 covered to us a circumstance, which is some- 
 times the cause of great disappointment to 
 the expectations of parties who, for the first 
 time, have boilers erected on this direct 
 draught plan, which requires an explana- 
 in this place. 
 
 At all direct draught boilers, it is usual 
 to have, and highly necessary that there 
 should be, two or more transverse check 
 or flame-bridges, in addition to the ordinary 
 fire-bridge, carried up to within 6 or 7 in. 
 of the boiler bottom ; but in this case, there 
 was, in the first instance, only one of these 
 additional bridges, and the man employed 
 to get out the flue-dust had, in order to 
 make an easier passage for himself, removed 
 two or three courses of brick-work from the 
 top of the flame-bridge, and neglected to 
 
66 
 
 replace them again. The consequence was, 
 that on the boiler commencing work again, 
 a clear loss of 15 per cent, in fuel was de- 
 tected immediately, besides the overheating 
 of the damper-plate and brickwork of the 
 chimney entrance, which evils were, of 
 course, quickly rectified by replacing the 
 brickwork. Although no very great nicety 
 is required in adjusting the height of these 
 flame-bridges, and an inch or two higher or 
 lower may not make much difference in the 
 economy of fuel ; but the extent of 8 or 9 
 in. in depth of the air passage over them, 
 when there is already a depth of the same 
 extent in the throat area over the furnace- 
 bridge, will at any time cause an exorbitant 
 waste of fuel. 
 
 The fact of an error of this kind, which 
 is very liable to be passed over unnoticed 
 by ordinary bricklayers and boiler-setters, 
 unless very carefully supervised, has been ' 
 frequently the occasion of much error in 
 experiments on the economy of fuel. It is 
 all the more necessary to mention the 
 above circumstances here, because, since 
 my description of the direct draught method 
 
67 
 
 of setting boilers was first published in 
 1837-8, I have occasionally had complaints 
 from parties who had been induced to 
 adopt the direct plan, but had not suc- 
 ceeded in realizing any moderate measure 
 of economy therefrom, and had, in conse- 
 quence, too readily, or without sufficient ex- 
 amination, given it up, and returned again 
 to the wheel-draught, narrow flue system, 
 with its little army of chimney-sweeps, 
 boiler-menders, and laborers, and all its 
 other disagreeable and expensive accom- 
 paniments of Sunday work, over- work, and 
 night-work. It is, however, but fair to 
 state that extreme cases of this kind have 
 been mostly confined to the South of Eng- 
 land and the metropolis, where the ex- 
 travagant use of flaming Newcastle or 
 Hartley coal, with very much unnecessary 
 stoking of the fires, is still continued. 
 These results have been helped not a little, 
 perhaps, by the prognostications of many 
 of the old school of bricklayers, that the 
 direct draught plan would *^send all the 
 heat up the chimney," and who too often 
 testify their sincerity in such a belief by 
 
68 
 
 taking especial care to build tlieir chimneys 
 and flues very narrow and very crooked. 
 
 The prejudices of some of the attendants 
 of engines in London in favor of much 
 stoking and hard firing, which is literally 
 working hard at wasting coal, are difficult 
 to account for, especially when found 
 among persons not notorious for working 
 hard at anything else ; but a residence 
 among them of any one whose business is 
 to save fuel, will very soon convince him of 
 the fact. Hence a more careful attention 
 to the condition of all the bridges under a 
 boiler is a necessity which ought never to 
 be neglected. 
 
 INSTRTJCTlOlfS TO STOKEES. 
 
 1. Engineers and firemen who would keep 
 steam with economy, should do with as lit- 
 tle stoking or stirring of the fire as possible, 
 if any. In order to do so, they should see 
 before starting that the furnace is properly 
 constructed for the purpose, and large 
 enough for the quantity of steam required. 
 The fire-grate should have about 1 sq. ft. of 
 effective fire-bar surface for each nominal 
 
69 
 
 horse-power of tlie engine, or for each cubic 
 foot of water required to be boiled away per 
 hour. The fire-bars may be from | to f in. 
 thick on the face with J to f-in. draught 
 spaces between them, and with joggles to 
 keep them asunder nearly the whole depth 
 of the bar. The boiler should have, at 
 least, 8 or 10 sq. ft of heating surface per 
 horse, and the chimney should be of suffi- 
 cient capacity to create a draught into the 
 furnace equal to the pressure of a column 
 of water f to | in. deep, when the damper 
 is set wide open. 
 
 2. In firing, spread the large and small 
 coals (equally mixed) on all parts of the 
 grate, thicker at the back of the grate near 
 the bridge than at the front, because the 
 draught is there the strongest, and the coals 
 burn away the quickest. 
 
 3. The fire should never be less than 
 about 3 or 4 inches thick in the middle of 
 its length, 2 or 3 in.- ia fronut- "and 6 or 8*ii'. 
 at the back of ihe '^i sif^'. In no ease s^hould 
 the fire exceed double the depth here stated ; 
 and never more (ban two- thirds 6f the firo'- 
 
70 
 
 •grate should be entirely covered with fresh 
 coals at one time. 
 
 4. If a regularly uniform supply of steam 
 is required and the damper quite up, the 
 quantity of fuel on the grate may be grad- 
 ually increased; but when an increasing 
 quantity of steam is wanted, the average 
 thickness or quantity of fuel on the grate 
 must not then be increased, but ought rath- 
 er to be diminished, and supplied by small- 
 er quantities at a time, and more frequently. 
 So soon, however, as the supply of steam 
 exceeds the demand, the coal must again be 
 supplied by larger quantities at a time, reg- 
 ularly increasing the quantity of fuel in the 
 grate as before. On the other hand, when 
 a diminished supply of steam is required, 
 close the damper a little, and take the 
 opportunity of levelling the fire or cleaning 
 the fire-bars, doing one-half of the grate at 
 a time. 
 
 • ' 5i A - s^6am-en gine furnace worked in 
 rh?s v^a? will liake very^ Httla'snxsko'; or, if 
 any, it may be prevented when desirable 
 ©pehto^ tjia^re-dpor 2 6r 3 in. for 1 or 
 
71 
 
 2 min.. after each firing. Bearing in mind 
 that the production of steam is commonly 
 lessened by doing so, but so is the consump- 
 tion of the fuel. 
 
 6. Stokers should understand that they 
 are not to make a business of stoking," 
 but to leave it off entirely, excepting only 
 when preparing to clear out the grate from 
 clinkers and rubbish, which requires to be 
 done generally three or four times a day 
 with average qualities of coal ; convenient 
 times being chosen for the purpose when 
 there is the least demand for steam. 
 
 7. A fireman's business is, first, to see, 
 before the fire-door is opened, that no coal 
 is left in the heap ready for going on big- 
 ger than a man's fist ; and that very small 
 coal or slack is wetted, or at least damp, as. 
 well as a little water always in the ash-pit* 
 Then begin by charging into the farther 
 end of the furnace, reaching to about one- 
 third the length of the grate from the 
 bridge, as rapidly as possible, from a dozen 
 to twenty or thirty spadefuls of coals, until 
 they form a bank reaching nearly ox quitQ 
 
up to the top of tlie bridge, and then shut 
 the fire-door, until the other fires, if there 
 are any, are served in the same way. 
 
 8. In firing up, throw the coals over the 
 rest of the grate by scattering them evenly 
 from side to side, but thinner at the front, 
 near the dead plate, than at the middle or 
 back. In this manner keep the fuel mode- 
 rately thick and level across the bars, but 
 always thicker at the back than the front, 
 not by pushing the fire in, but by throwing 
 the coals on exactly where they are 
 wanted. 
 
 9. Never for a moment leave any por- 
 tion of the bars uncovered, which must be 
 prevented by throwing or pitching a spade- 
 ful of coals right into any hollow or thin 
 place that appears ; and always remember 
 that three or four spadefuls thrown quickly 
 one on the top of the other, will make no 
 more smoke than one, and generally less. 
 But all depends on doing it quickly ; that 
 being the main, if not the only point in 
 which freedom from smoke and economy of 
 fuel agree. Some firemen only put on three 
 
78 
 
 spadefuls, while another can put on four, 
 and make 20 per cent, more steam in the 
 same time by doing it. 
 
 10. In replenishing the fire, take every 
 opportunity of keeping up the bank of fuel 
 at the bridge, by re-charging it, one side at 
 a time. Whenever this bank is burnt en- 
 tirely tlirough, or low, and also when the 
 fire is in a low state generally, take the 
 rake and draw back the half-burnt fuel, 12 
 or 18 in. from the bridge, and re-charge 
 fresh coal into its place, upon the bare fire- 
 bars as at first. 
 
 11. An engine fire tended in this way 
 will consume its own smoke without diffi- 
 culty, simply by admitting a very moderate 
 supply of air (which for safety to the boiler 
 should be heated) at the bridge, this being 
 a more certain and economical mode of 
 prevention than that of diluting the smoke 
 by the admission of much cold air at the 
 fire-doors. 
 
 12. It may be set down as an axiom that 
 a steam-engine chimney cannot be too 
 large, if only provided with a damper, al- 
 
74 
 
 though ninety-nine in one hundred, at the 
 present time, are decidedly too small. 
 They are unable to create a sufficient 
 draught of air through the furnace, conse- 
 quently a smoky flame is produced, instead 
 of a flame with little or no smoke. 
 
 13. Want of chimney draught is a defect 
 which no smoke-consuming furnace in the 
 world can remedy, whether using hot air 
 or cold, unless by the application of an 
 artificial blast, which commonly costs as 
 much to work as the heat it creates is 
 worth. 
 
 14. It being impossible to consume 
 smoke without great heat, which requires a 
 good draught, and difficult to get a good 
 draught without a large chimney, I here 
 set down a table of chimney proportions, 
 which have been practically proved to 
 answer well with the inferior steam coal of 
 the manufacturing and midland districts 
 for many years past. It is true that some- 
 what smaller dimensions might serve where 
 the extravagant use of Newcastle coal is 
 still continued, as in London; but even 
 
75 
 
 here those dimensions and proportions 
 ought to be adhered to, because of the con- 
 stant tendency to increase the engine and 
 boiler power, while the same brick chim- 
 ney remains. For similar reasons I com- 
 mence with a chimney suitable for a 10- 
 horse boiler, although a 5, or even a*2- 
 horse engine only, may be required. 
 
 Height of Chimney. 
 
 Inside 
 Diameter at 
 Top. 
 
 Nominal 
 Horse-power 
 of Boiler. 
 
 25 - 
 
 1 ft. 6 in. 
 
 10 
 
 1 8 " 
 
 12 
 
 30 " 
 
 1 *'10 
 
 16 
 
 33 " 
 
 2 0 " 
 
 20 
 
 35 
 
 2 6 
 
 30 
 
 40 
 
 3 " 0 " 
 
 50 
 
 40 " 
 
 3 " 6 " 
 
 70 
 
 40 " 
 
 4 0 " 
 
 90 
 
 45 
 
 4 6 " 
 
 120 
 
 50 
 
 5 " 0 " 
 
 160 
 
 55 " 
 
 5 6 
 
 200 
 
 60 
 
 6 0 " 
 
 250 
 
 15. A common low-pressure condensing 
 engine is usually overloaded when it has 
 less than 25 circular in. in the cylinder 
 for each nominal horse-power ; and a high- 
 pressure non-condensing engine ought to 
 
76 
 
 have from 10 to 12^, and to be worked at 
 double the effective pressure, at the least, 
 of the former, — say 30 to 40 lbs. per square 
 inch in the boiler. 
 
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