| Show Ir I < + Iri i B t JK I t I 11ORfU w t > f CYGIM3 ivmcii ntws WITHOUT risToys AND JL XAUVULOUS sTELVJi EGL WUIcr WIUGU XULYELUS A 3CAKX2S S5OQO HEVOLTT1OXS PER 3UXWE TIHJ AVC1RK OF A GREAT SWEDISH rvvExrrton HE is GALLED IMS SWEDISH EDOSOX AXD is SII MW EXGAGED JV A GIGASTZC CnIOX IX WAIIHIt FOVE GEMUS 1OLITICIAX AND 1IHLAX THiROPJBT 3r Quite the most wonderful steam engine In Quie world has been brought to this country for trial by the Edison Electric Jllumlnatlng company of New York City It Is known as the De Laval steam tur I foine and although the two Imported were made In France its inventor is a < celebrated Swede who in his own country i coun-try at least is regarded as the most remarkable in all Europe markable man al In order to understand precisely what I i the De Laval steam turbine represents in the advance of steam engine con i structlon it should be understood that I < it Is in effect a rotary engine and furthermore fur-thermore that a ruiary steam engine is I the inventors of the I less what more or les last lat century have been striving for Tec latter indeed has been more or less II the ignus fatuus of mechanical engineering te IsnuB neering The thing aimed at in a nut eerllg tIng shell has been to produce an engine In I bas which the impact eor the steam should be I directly upon the motor agency itfaeif i instead of as at present communicating the force derived from the steam to the latter by means of a driving roa i There was further the question of economy econ-omy m cdiilenhuiiou Uie ucs ot povvcr not to speak of the wear and tear upon the engine itself from rapid alternate healing ant toomiE lbs bee one ot tile standing pioblems of steam engine construction problc struction and to reduce this engne resort baa been made to compound triple and oven quadruple expansion engines The I 1 latter however are expensive to build and from this added expense do not represent a gain in economy except in engines of large horse power Small engines i en-gines are to this day chiefly of the simple sim-ple type The simplicity compactness and direct i r ho action pf the turbine water wheel long ago suggested the construction of a steam engine in which a jet of steam stem replace the jet of water of the o turbine But tho question has always jfqj su2us we jonJisuoo oj ou uaaq would be economical and at the same time able to withstand the strain which tmo expanding steam would put upon It Just how many have been the attempts ut how the fail in thIs direction and many fal ures may be gauged from the fact that b e up to tho day the De Laval turbines were set up In New 1ork there was not in this country l least a single successful success-ful engine of this type while the patent offlce at Washington alone shows that patents have been issued for more than 10 latent types or steam turbines Although the JJe l > iai engine i s new I it was Invented in 1691 and has only Just been introduced into this country it nas come Into rapid use in Europe hundreds of them Indeed being In operation In c tlem alone I Is a demonstrated success I suc-cess and for low horsepower has driven out all its rivals Only the perfected al types of triple and quadruple expansion engines are able to compete with it In point of econom and here again the De Laval has an Immense advantage in that the best types l of triple and quadruple expansion engines cost three four and five times as much a the turbines A CYCLOPS IN PAVOO The two engines which have been imported im-ported to this country by the Edison company are of 3 horsepower each and in point of speed and compactness of construction are little short or marvelous marvel-ous Imagine ae you will a 300 horsepower horse-power engine that Is only two and one nine half feet in diameter and its revolving haJ inch thick mechanism less than half an thick In form the DC Laval engine looks like nothing so much as a thin disc of steel a notIng In diameter and set on its edge 3 with a steel shaft about a inch thick t thrust through Its center A very fair working idea of its construction con-struction may be had by bearing In mind lAm is ii Uh < a detpoi ii < Mn ana l u most precisely like the ala jet water turbine The wheel Itself consists of segments of steel set round with little curved discs or blades on its periphery In order to give It the tremendous strength required to withstand the cyclonic cy-clonic onset of the steam a I issues corJc from the vents the wheel Is strengthened by other thin sheets of steel which make a cross section of i look like the section of a blunt cone This wheel is enclosed in a steam tight chest which tits closely and offers no free space for the steam except the little spaces between the < < > > 1 touvlf ai < Ut e < me 01 the wheAt whe-At regular intervals In Iu circumference r fixed six needlelike valves or steam I vents through which tha steam is admitted ad-mitted The latter are i > ular in form somewhat resembling the flare of a bighorn big-horn That is to say the inlet Is small and the mouth large The idea of this is to permit the expansion of the steam before be-fore 1 strikes the blade Thus if the vales has an eighth of an Inch inlet its vent or mouth will be about three inches acrossDRIVEN DRIVEN BY A CYCLONE Steam is admitted through these valves at varying Pressures depending upon the size of the engine Those imported by the Edison company the 3 horse power engines utilize the steam at from 120 to ill pounds pressure When this enters the valves i expands enormously so that l its work to employ a technical piiras Is converted into momentum The steam strikes the blades like a small cyclone Indeed the effect of the expan sion 1 that of a mild explosion The speed at which the steam hits the valves In the larger engines is computed at something like three miles per second Thifc however depends entirely upon how far The expansion is carried I it ls reduced from a high pressure to one atmosaherc that is 1 pounds to the feqaare Inch Its speed at 7o pounds original origi-nal preisui1 iUl b 2000 feet per second while if tile iressure is reduced to a loath of a amosphere by exhaustion the speed will be increased to 4000 feet J1ee or nearly doubled With higher pressures mented pres-sures this speed is correspondingly aug Tteso vents or valves are fixed In the Iso I side t the rim of the wheel at an angle i so tnat when the steam is admitted it I strides the blades with a blow that is lfehiiy downward and at an angle of I 33 degrees J follows the blades only for a moment passng in between the latter and out on the opposite side In short 1 tne toivc vi < ie I der < nics D Inc < L 1 acute angle with the blades at the point of the turn 1 the steam struck I the blades at such e blade squarely a pressure I would simply smash them but by I taking them at an angle and making the blades in a semicircular form the latter receive a short indirect blow that gives them enormous speed while at the same time the strain put upon them is commensurate com-mensurate with their strength TWENTY MILES A MINUTE It Is difficult to realize the speed which the wheel In the De Laval engine attains at-tains A thousand revolutions per minute a min-ute is a high rate for the ordinary re ciprocaiinir engine but the wheel of the De Laval turbine In the engine imported by the Edison company makes 11000 revolutions per minute while in the smaller tur Ines say of four or live horsepower power 1 makes 35000 revolutions per minute It needs but a moments computation com-putation io discover that the periphery of the wheel of the larger engines with I diameter but So iro es moves at tne ratiTcfiO miles a minute A wheel revolving at such an extra ordinary rate is un exceedingly difficult thins to take care of I I were fixed to a rigid shaft the latter would be subjected I sub-jected to a tremendous strain and would I wry quickly wear itself out by the cutting I cut-ting i and heaving which would ensue This > indeed has been one of the sticking I points In all similar contrivances In order t overcome this difficulty Dr De I Laval lias employed a flexible shaft That is to say one end of the shaft is fixed hUe the outer revolves within a bal axle which has much the came effect a fctho ordinary ball bearing nrinciple With ftthis device the turbine shaft revolving Kt 3 high rate of speed adjusts itself to H l own center of gravity that is to say oscillates slightly with the result that Almost any speed can be maintained that does not overtax the strength of the toted It would of course be Impossible to s utilize s high a rate of speed directly ana the latter Is sp may be desired by fine toothed spiral cogs As the 5j > eed is get the tension Is slight and the cogs can therefore be made comparatively com-paratively small In the till hone power engine the turbine shaft is geared < to < heel 1 limes their diameter FO that the speed of the latter Is just onetwelfth that ttf the turbine wheel 1 would Interest only mechanics to k Jcscribelle various fine points of met J anism which make this engine a thins of admiration mae all who see It It is susceptible of the most delicate control by means or the needle valves through Thch just u much steam may be admitted ad-mitted a may bp desired and its acton ac-ton is automatically by a beautiful governing gov-erning mechanism that the inventor devised de-vised for himself The Dc Lavat turbine may be employed for all the uses to which the ordinary reciprocating steam 1 cnirfne is put but i Is of especial value for running electric dynamos and similar I work where perfect evenness is recmlred along wIth great speed i AuCiK at tHe machine Itself It seems almost impossible to believe that so slight an affair can develop such immense I power A five horsepower engine which In the ordinary reciprocating ew will occupy I a cube of several feet is only six inches in diameter while the 300 horsepower engine I gine as already noted is less than an inch thick DEVELOPED PROM A SEPARATOR The Inventor of this remarkable contrivance con-trivance Is Dr Guslar De Laval of Stockholm Stock-holm Sweden He has already become knows in this country through the De Laval separator for tho extraction of cream from milk The latter has como f i widely into use here and has taken precedence prece-dence over othef devices for this purpose Curiously enough I was from the cream separator that the invention of the steam turbine came The separator cl is indeed little more than a milk can set Jnsde a c oszd space and rapidly turned the cream being extracted from tho milk through the difference in weight of the two substances sub-stances In devising the separator Dr De Loyal was called upon construct an apparatus which would revolve the jar containing the milk at high speed and after trying numerous plans ho constructed con-structed I machine in which steam In the form of a jet was used much the same manner as a jet of water In a turbine Constantly improving the latter it needed only the inventors quick eye and Imagination to see that if this steam turbine would turn his cream separator economically it could be built separately and used for power purposes generally I He perfected his work in hIll and so apparent ap-parent was the value of his engine that I it was rapidly introduced throughout that although Europe It is rather curious I though this country Is quick to take up with new count and one of the De I Laval engines was in operation In the Swedish building at the Worlds fair it has been an utter stranger here AN ALLROUND GENIUS The construction of the steam turbine following I Ions line of successful in yentlons of less importance placed Dr De Laval in the front rank of European inventors He Is Indeed regarded in his own country as its greatest mechanical and metallurgical genius and Is often called The Edison of Sweden Just now he has come forward with a new process for electrical iron smelting which seems to promise great things He has been at work upon this process for reducing re-ducing Iron ore to metallic Iron by means of an electric ac for the last four or five years commencing his experiments at the falls of Trollhattan The details of the process have not a yet been made public but It is stated that It doc not contemplate the manufacture of iron sponge I Is proposed to either manufacture ponse prpsed ufacture steel direct or else make a cast product which can afterwards be utilized in the SiemensMartin furnace Roughly speaking the process consists in mixing spekinh pulverized iron ore with carbon perhaps cr in the form of pulverized peat and subjecting sub-jecting the same enclosed In a rotating cylinder to heat after which it is brought Into direct contact with a electric arc I of tremendous power which reduces the g tfgn metallic Iron The melted Iron then flows into a large and highly heated fra where it can either b manufactured manufac-tured directly Into steel or cast In any suitable form for further treatment For the eronprallon of the tremendous current required Iii De Laval will em I ntrec pl r water power and forhis own plant he ha purchased one entire side of the I falls of Trollhattan whose aggregate water power is from COOOO to 70000 Foreseeing Fore-seeing pwer immense value of his process to the Iron industry which Is an important one In Sweden the inventor has formed a huge syndicate for the purchase pur-chase of all the available water power in his country and competition for the latter lat-ter has of late been brisk Other iron and steel works of Sweden have become E Interested In the possibilities of this process pro-cess that they too have laid hold of all the water power they could obtain A company Jwer a capital of 20000000 kronar has been formed to back Dr De Laval in his enterprise and it Is an evidence evi-dence of the standing of the inventor In his own country that the banks of Stockholm Stock-holm have taken all the preferred stock of this company with an agreement not to sell the same for a period of two years IncIdentl to the work of perfecting the new electric smelting process Dr De Laval has recently brought out a machine for automatically milking cows which Is descrueu as a highly Ingenious and really valuable invention He Is indeed constantly at work upon several infen tions at the same time and his extraordinary extraor-dinary industry seems similar to that of ojjr own Edison A STRANG CTER Personally Dr De Laval Is a extraordinary extraor-dinary character He Is short silent wears glasses and is of an exceedingly nervous temperament When he speaks his words come like a torrent and indeed in-deed ho tries to talk so fast that he splutters He seems simply a bundle of i nerves and all of these kept at the highest I high-est tension of activity He would utterly wear himself out were I not for his wer ability to sleep well and long and it is thus he recuperates himself for the expenditure I ex-penditure recuprte dissipation it might be called energ makes in his daily work The inventor comes from an od and wll known Swedish family of remote French extraction is finely educated and In addition ad-dition to his standing as a mechanical in x r > tnt hi is 1 a prominent figure in the social and politcal world of Stockholm we is a warm friend of the Swedish king is one of the leaders of the monarchlal party and is or has been until recently a prominent member of the Swedish senate He Is now about 4S or 5 years old and to the surprise of all his friends has Just been married He Is as intense in all his Ideas and beliefs as he is in his methods of work and in regard to his own country he is Chauvinist to a degree de-gree Under no considerations can he be induced to leave Sweden now although six or eight years ago he made a visit to this country to Introduce his separator Here he fell In with a crowd of promoters of the approved type who succeeded in relieving him of all his available money before he got away His experience In New York inspired him with an Intense distrust of American financiers although to personal acquaintances from this country coun-try he is exceedingly cordial Dr De Laval is rl to be a very rich man and his inventions have almost al-most without exception brought him in tery large sums of money But although his personal habits are simple in the extreme I ex-treme he lets money slip through his lagers and probably now la nothing like a vealthy as he might be Very lately he ass engaged in a philanthroplcal enterprise enter-prise I for the 11 Improvement of the condition condi-tion of workingmen by founding I manufacturing of ufacturing colony outsIde Stockholm This be expects to make a model of Us kind and show what may be done In the way of bringing capitalists and workingmen I working-men into harmonious relations By the Swedish people generally he is regarded with warmly mingled feelings of pride I admiration and affection in short a their I greatest all around genius CARL SNYDER |
