Scientific American Supplement, No. 446, July 19, 1884 by Various
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Various >> Scientific American Supplement, No. 446, July 19, 1884
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In November last a wind mill 18 feet in diameter was erected over a coal
mine at Richmond, in this State. The conditions were as follows:
The mine produces 11,000 gallons of water every twenty-four hours. The
sump holds 11,000 gallons. Two entries that can be dammed up give a
storage of 16,500 gallons, making a total storage capacity of 27,500
gallons. It takes sixty hours for the mine to produce this quantity of
water, which allows for days that the wind does not blow. The average
elevation that the water has to be raised is 65 feet, measuring from
center of sump to point of delivery. A record of ninety days shows that
this mill has kept the mine free from water with the exception of 6,000
gallons, which was raised in the boxes that the coal is raised in. The
location is not good for a wind mill, as it stands in a narrow ravine or
valley a short distance from its mouth, which terminates at the bottom
lands of the Missouri River. This, taken in connection with the fact
that the grit in the water cuts the pump plunger packing so fast that in
a short time the pump will not work up to its capacity, accounts for the
apparent small amount of power developed by this mill.
There has been some discussion of late in regard to the horse power of
wind mills, one party claiming that they were capable of doing large
amounts of grinding and showing a development of power that was
surprising to the average person unacquainted with wind mills, while the
other party has maintained that they were not capable of developing any
great amount of power, and has cited their performance in pumping water
to sustain his argument. My experience has has led me to the conclusion
that pumping water with a wind mill is not a fair test of the power that
it is capable of developing, for the following reasons:
A pumping wind mill is ordinarily attached to a pump of suitable size to
allow the mill to run at a mean speed in an 8 to 10 mile wind. Now, if
the wind increases to a velocity of 16 to 20 miles per hour, the mill
will run up to its maximum speed and the governor will begin to act,
shortening sail before the wind attains this velocity. Therefore, by a
very liberal estimate, the pump will not throw more than double the
quantity that it did in the 8 to 10 mile wind, while the power of the
mill has quadrupled, and is capable of running at least two pumps as
large as the one to which it is attached. As the velocity of the wind
increases, this same proportion of difference in power developed to work
done holds good.
St. Louis is not considered a very windy place, therefore the following
table may be a surprise to some. This table was compiled from the
complete record of the year 1881, as recorded by the anemometer of the
United States Signal Office on the Mutual Life Insurance Building,
corner of Sixth and Locust streets, this city. It gives the number of
hours each month that the wind blew at each velocity, from 6 to 20 miles
per hour during the year; also the maximum velocity attained each month.
_Complete Wind Record at St. Louis for the Year 1881._
_______________________________________________________________________________
|No. |No. |No. |No. |No. |No. |No. |No. |
|hours |hours |hours |hours |hours |hours |hours |hours |Maximum
|wind |wind |wind |wind |wind |wind |wind |wind |velocity
YEAR |blew 6 |blew 8 |blew 10|blew 12|blew 14|blew 16|blew 18|blew 20|during
1881. |miles |miles |miles |miles |miles |miles |miles |miles |each
MONTHS|or over|or over|or over|or over|or over|or over|or over|or over|month.
______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|____
|H. M.|H. M.|H. M.|H. M.|H. M.|H. M.| H. M.| H. M.|
Jan. | 545 45| 429 45| 289 00| 198 15| 131 30| 87 15| 56 00| 38 45| 31
Feb. | 619 30| 533 15| 449 15| 374 15| 287 00| 207 15| 151 15| 110 30| 32
March.| 604 15| 534 30| 449 45| 368 45| 296 30| 243 45| 191 00| 158 45| 37
April.| 577 15| 468 45| 342 45| 359 30| 175 00| 121 00| 62 45| 36 00| 28
May. | 553 00| 375 00| 226 15| 138 00| 74 45| 42 30| 23 45| 11 30| 31
June. | 614 15| 463 45| 303 30| 215 15| 123 45| 76 30| 29 45| 17 45| 32
July. | 556 45| 378 00| 228 15| 136 15| 55 30| 22 30| 6 00| 2 30| 22
Aug. | 536 30| 345 00| 176 00| 80 30| 35 45| 22 15| 17 15| 15 00| 34
Sept. | 564 15| 445 45| 326 45| 224 45| 145 30| 96 45| 70 00| 46 45| 30
Oct. | 617 30| 501 45| 368 45| 363 00| 170 00| 93 45| 40 30| 27 45| 27
Nov. | 642 45| 537 30| 428 45| 328 30| 226 00| 151 45| 100 30| 74 00| 30
Dec. | 592 15| 516 30| 390 00| 308 45| 224 45| 167 45| 110 45| 67 00| 30
------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-----
Totals|7,024 |5,529 |3,981 |2,995 |1,946 |1,335 | 868 | 606 | --
| 00| 30| 00| 45| 00| 00| 30| 15|
Max. | | | | | | | | |
for | ----- | ----- | ----- | ----- | ----- | ----- | ----- | ----- | 37
year | | | | | | | | |
______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|____
The location of a mill has a great deal to do with the results attained.
Having had charge of the erection of a large number of these mills for
power purposes, I will refer to a few of them in different States,
giving the actual results accomplished, and leaving you to form your own
opinion as to the power developed.
In 1877 a 25-foot diameter mill was erected at Dover, Kansas, a few
miles southwest of Topeka. It was built to do custom flour and feed
grinding, also corn shelling, and is in successful operation at the
present time. We have letters frequently from the owner; one of recent
date states that it has stood all of the "Kansas zephyrs," never having
been damaged as yet. On an average it shells and grinds from 6 to 10
bushels of corn per hour, and runs a 14 inch burr stone, grinding wheat
at the same time. During strong winds it has shelled and ground as high
as 30 bushels of corn per hour. Plate 2 is from a photograph of this
mill and building as it stands. One bevel pinion is all the repairs this
mill has required.
In the spring of 1880 there was erected a 25-foot diameter mill at
Harvard, Clay County, Neb. After this mill had been running nineteen
months, we received the following report from the owner:
"During the nineteen months we have been running the wind mill, it has
cost us nothing for repairs. We run it with a two-hole corn sheller, a
set of 16-inch burr stones, and an elevator. We grind all kinds of feed,
also corn meal and Graham flour. We have ground 8,340 bushels, and would
have ground much more if corn had not been a very poor crop here for the
past two seasons; besides, we have our farm to attend to, and cannot
keep it running all the time that we have wind. We have not run a full
day at any time, but have ground 125 bushels in a day. When the burr is
in good shape we can grind 20 bushels an hour, and shell at the same
time in the average winds that we have. The mill has withstood storms
without number, even one that blew down a house near it, and another
that blew down many smaller mills. It is one of the best investments any
one can make."
The writer saw this mill about sixty days ago, and it is in good shape,
and doing the work as stated. The only repairs that it has required
during four years was one bevel pinion put on this spring.
The owner of a 16-foot diameter mill, erected at Blue Springs. Neb.,
says that "with a fair wind it grinds easily 15 bushels of corn per hour
with a No. 3 grinder, also runs a corn-sheller and pump at the same
time, and that it works smoothly and is entirely self-regulating."
The No. 3 grinder referred to has chilled iron burrs, and requires from
3 to 4 horse-power to grind 15 bushels of corn per hour. Of one of these
16-foot mills that has been running since 1875 in Northern Illinois, the
owner writes: "In windy days I saw cord-wood as fast as the wood can be
handled, doing more work than I used to accomplish with five horses."
The owner of one of these mills, 20 feet in diameter, running in the
southwestern part of this State, writes that he has a corn-sheller and
two iron grinding mills with 8-inch burrs attached to it; also a bolting
device; that this mill is more profitable to him than 80 acres of good
corn land, and that it is easily handled and has never been out of
order. The following report on one of these 16-foot mills, running in
northern Illinois, may be of interest: This mill stands between the
house and barn. A connection is made to a pump in a well-house 25 feet
distant, and is also arranged to operate a churn and washing machine. By
means of sheaves and wire cable, power is transmitted to a circular saw
35 feet distant. In this same manner power is transmitted to the barn
200 feet distant, where connection is made to a thrasher, corn-sheller,
feed-cutter, and fanning-mill. The corn-sheller is a three horse-power,
with fan and sacker attached. Three hundred bushels per day has been
shelled, cleaned, and sacked. The thrashing machine is a two horsepower
with vibrating attachment for separating straw from grain. One man has
thrashed 300 bushels of oats per day, and on windy days says the mill
would run a thrasher of double this capacity. The saw used is 18 inches
diameter, and on windy days saws as much wood as can be done by six
horses working on a sweep power. The owner furnishes the following
approximate cost of mill with the machinery attached and now in use on
his place:
1 16-foot power wind mill, shafting, and tower. $385
1 Two horse thrasher. 70
1 Three horse sheller. 38
1 Feed grinder. 50
1 18-inch saw, frame and arbor. 40
1 Fanning mill. 25
1 Force pump. 27
1 Churn. 5
1 Washing machine. 15
Belting, cables, and pulleys. 45
----
Total. $700
The following facts and figures furnished by the owner will give a fair
idea of the economic value of this system, as compared with the usual
methods of doing the same work. On the farm where it is used, there are
raised annually an average of sixty acres of oats, fifty acres of corn,
twenty acres of rye, ten acres of buckwheat.
Bushels.
The oats average, say 30 bushels per acre. 1,800
Corn " 30 " " 1,500
Rye " 20 " " 400
Buckwheat " 20 " " 200
Grinding for self and others. 1,000
It will cost to thrash this grain, shell the corn, and
grind the feed with steam power. $285
And sawing wood, 121/2 cords. 18
Pumping, one hour per day, 365 days. 36
Churning, half hour per day, 200 days. 10
Washing, half day per week, 26 days. 26
----
Total. $375
This amount is saved, and more too, as one man, by the aid of the wind
mill, will do this work in connection with the chores of the farm, and
save enough in utilizing foul weather to more than offset his extra
labor, cost of oil, etc., for the machinery. The amount saved each year
is just about equal to the cost of a good man. Cost of outfit,
$700--just about equal to the cost of a good man for two years,
consequently, it will pay for itself in two years. Fifteen years is a
fair estimate for the lifetime of mill with ordinary repairs.
The solid-wheel wind mill has never been built larger than 30 feet in
diameter. For mills larger than this, the latest improved American mill
is the "Warwick" pattern.
A 30-foot mill of this pattern, erected in 1880, in northwestern Iowa,
gave the following results, as reported by the owner:
"Attachments as follows: One 22-inch burr; one No. 4 iron feed-mill; one
26-inch circular saw; one two-hole corn-sheller; one grain elevater; a
bolting apparatus for fine meal, buckwheat and graham, all of which are
run at the same time in good winds, except the saw or the iron mill;
they being run from the same pulley can run but one at a time. With all
attached and working up to their full capacity, the sails are often
thrown out of the wind by the governors, which shows an immense power.
The machines are so arranged that I can attach all or separately,
according to the wind. With the burr alone I have ground 500 bushels in
48 consecutive hours, 100 bushels of it being fine meal. I have also
ground 24 full bushels of fine meal for table use in two hours. This
last was my own, consequently was not tolled. This was before I bought
the iron mill, and now I can nearly double that amount. I saw my fire
wood for three fires; all my fence posts, etc. My wood is taken to the
mill from 12 to 15 feet long, and as large as the saw will cut by
turning the stick, consequently the saw requires about the same power as
the burrs. With a good sailing breeze I have all the power I need, and
can run all the machinery with ease. Last winter I ground double the
amount of any water mill in this vicinity. I have no better property
than the mill."
A 40-foot mill, erected at Fowler, Indiana, in 1881, is running the
following machinery:
"I have a universal wood worker, four side, one 34-inch planer, jig saw,
and lathe, also a No. 4 American grinder, and with a good, fair wind I
can run all the machines at one time. I can work about four days and
nights each week. It is easy to control in high winds."
A 60-foot diameter mill of similar pattern was erected in Steel County,
Minnesota, in 1867. The owner gives the following history of this mill:
"I have run this wind flouring mill since 1867 with excellent success.
It runs 3 sets of burrs, one 4 feet, one 31/2 feet, and one 33 inches.
Also 2 smutters, 2 bolts, and all the necessary machinery to make the
mill complete. A 15-mile wind runs everything in good shape. One wind
wheel was broken by a tornado in 1870, and another in 1881 from same
cause. Aside from these two, which cost $250 each, and a month's lost
time, the power did not cost over $10 a year for repairs. In July, 1833,
a cyclone passed over this section, wrecking my will as well as
everything else in its track, and having (out of the profits of the wind
mill) purchased a large water and steam flouring mill here, I last fall
moved the wind mill out to Dakota, where I have it running in
first-class shape and doing a good business. The few tornado wrecks make
me think none the less of wind mills, as my water power has cost me four
times as much in 6 years as the wind power has in 16 years."
There are very few of these large mills in use in this country, but
there are a great many from 14 to 30 feet in diameter in use, and their
numbers are rapidly increasing as their merits become known. The field
for the use of wind mills is almost unlimited, and embraces pumping
water, drainage, irrigation, elevating, grinding, shelling, and cleaning
grain, ginning cotton, sawing wood, churning, running stamp mills, and
charging electrical accumulators. This last may be the solution of the
St. Louis gas question.
In the writer's opinion the settlement of the great tableland lying
between the Mississippi Valley and the Rocky Mountains, and extending
from the Gulf of Mexico to the Red River of the North, would be greatly
retarded, if not entirely impracticable, in large sections where no
water is found at less than 100 to 500 feet below the surface, if it
were not for the American wind mill; large cattle ranges without any
surface water have been made available by the use of wind mills. Water
pumped out of the ground remains about the same temperature during the
year, and is much better for cattle than surface water. It yet remains
in the future to determine what the wind mill will not do with the
improvements that are being made from to time.
* * * * *
THE PNEUMATIC DYNAMITE GUN.
It is here shown as mounted on a torpedo launch and ready for action.
The shell or projectile is fired by compressed air, admitted from an air
reservoir underneath by a simple pressure of the gunner's finger over
the valve. The air passes up through the center of the base, the pipe
connecting with one of the hollow trunnions. The valve is a continuation
of the breech of the gun. The smaller cuts illustrate Lieutenant
Zalinski's plan for mounting the gun on each side of the launch, by
which plan the gun after being charged may have the breech containing
the dynamite depressed, and protected from shots of the enemy by its
complete immersion alongside the launch; and, if necessary, may be
discharged from this protected position. The gun is a seamless brass
tube of about forty feet in length, manipulated by the artillerist in
the manner of an ordinary cannon. Its noiseless discharge sends the
missile with great force, conveying the powerful explosive within it,
which is itself discharged internally upon contact with the deck of a
vessel or other object upon which it strikes, through the explosion of a
percussion fuse in the point of the projectile. A great degree of
accuracy has been obtained by the peculiar form of the projectile.
[Illustration: PNEUMATIC DYNAMITE GUN TORPEDO VESSEL.]
The projectile consists of a thin metal tube, into which the charge is
inserted, and a wooden sabot which closes it at the rear and flares out
until its diameter equals that of the bore of the gun. The forward end
of the tube is pointed with some soft material, in which is embedded the
firing pin, a conical cap closing the end. A cushion of air is
interposed at the rear end of the dynamite charge, to lessen the shock
of the discharge and prevent explosion, until the impact of the
projectile forces the firing pin in upon the dynamite and explodes it.
Many charges have been successfully fired at Fort Hamilton, N.Y. As the
center of gravity is forward of the center of figure in the projectile,
a side wind acting upon the lighter rear part would tend to turn the
head into the wind and thus keep it in the line of its trajectory. A
range of 11/4 miles has been attained with the two inch gun, with a
pressure of 420 lb. to the square inch, and one of three miles is hoped
for with the larger gun and a pressure of 2,000 lb.
* * * * *
ROPE PULLEY FRICTION BRAKE.
A novel device in connection with rope pulley blocks is illustrated in
the annexed engravings, the object of the appliance being to render it
possible to leave a weight suspended from a block without making the
tail of the rope fast to some neighboring object. By this arrangement
the danger of the rope slipping loose is avoided, and absolute security
is attained, without the necessity of lowering the weight to the ground.
The device itself is a friction brake, constructed in the form of a clip
with holes in it for the three ropes to pass through. It is made to span
the block, and is secured partly by the pin or bolt upon which the
sheaves run, and partly by the bottom bolt, which unites the cheeks of
the block. Thus the brake is readily attachable to existing blocks. The
inner half of the clip or brake is fixed solidly to the block, while the
outer half is carried by two screws, geared together by spur-wheels, and
so cut that although rotating in opposite directions, their movements
are equal and similar. One of the screws carries a light rope-wheel, by
which it can be rotated, the motion being communicated to the second
screw by the toothed wheels. When the wheel is rotated in the right
direction the loose half of the clip is forced toward the other half,
and grips the ropes passing between the two so powerfully that any
weight the blocks are capable of lifting is instantly made secure, and
is held until the brake is released.
A light spiral spring is placed on each of the screws, in order to free
the brake from the rope the moment the pressure is released. The hand
rope has a turn and a half round the pulley, and this obviates the need
of holding both ends of it, and thus leaves one hand free to guide the
descending weight, or to hold the rope of the pulley blocks.
_Engineering_ says these brakes are very useful in raising heavy
weights, as the lift can be secured at each pull, allowing the men to
move hands for another pull, and as they are made very light they do not
cause any inconvenience in moving or carrying the blocks about.
Manufactured by Andrew Bell & Co., Manchester.
* * * * *
WIRE ROPE TOWAGE.
We have from time to time given accounts in this journal of the system
of towage by hauling on a submerged wire rope, first experimented upon
by Baron O. De Mesnil and Mr. Max Eyth. On the river Rhine the system
has been for many years in successful operation; it has also been used
for several years on the Erie Canal in this State. We publish from
_Engineering_ a view of one of the wire rope tug boats of the latest
pattern adopted for use on the Rhine.
The Cologne Central Towing Company (Central Actien-Gesellschaft fuer
Tauerei und Schleppschifffahrt), by whom the wire rope towage on the
Rhine is now carried on, was formed in 1876, by an amalgamation of the
Ruehrorter und Mulheimer Dampfschleppshifffahrt Gesellschaft and the
Central Actien-Gesellschaft fur Tauerei, and in 1877 it owned eight wire
rope tugs (which it still owns) and seventeen paddle tugs. The company
so arranges its work that the wire rope tugs do the haulage up the rapid
portion of the Rhine, from Bonn to Bingen, while the paddle tugs are
employed on the quieter portion of the river extending from Rotterdam to
Bonn, and from Bingen to Mannheim.
[Illustration: ROPE PULLEY FRICTION BRAKE.]
The leading dimensions of the eight wire rope tugs now worked by the
company are as follows:
Tugs No. I. to Tugs No. V. to
IV. VIII.
Meters. ft. in. Meters. ft. in.
Length between
perpendiculars 39 = 126 0 42 = 137 10
Length over all 42.75 = 140 3 45.75 = 150 1
Extreme breadth 7.2 = 28 8 7.5 = 24 5
Height of sides 2.38 = 7 11 2.38 = 7 11
Depth of keel 0.12 = 0 5 0.15 = 0 6
All the boats are fitted with twin screws, 1.2 meters (3 feet 111/4
inches) in diameter, these being used on the downstream journey, and
also for assisting in steering while passing awkward places during the
journey up stream. They are also provided with water ballast tanks, and
under ordinary circumstances they have a draught of 1.3 to 1.4 meters (4
feet 3 inches to 4 feet 7 inches), this draught being necessary to give
proper immersion to the screws. When the water in the Rhine is very low,
however, the water ballast is pumped out and the tugs are then run with
a draught of 1 meter (3 feet 3 3/8 inches), it being thus possible to
keep them at work when all other towing steamers on the Rhine are
stopped. This happened in the spring of 1882.
Referring to our engraving, it will be seen that the wire rope rising
from the bed of the river passes first over a large guide pulley, the
axis of which is carried by a substantial wrought iron swinging bracket,
this bracket being so pivoted that while the pulley is free to swing
into the line on which the rope is approached by the vessel, yet the
rope on leaving the pulley is delivered in a line which is tangential to
a second guide pulley placed further aft and at a lower level. This last
named guide pulley does not swing, and from it the rope is delivered to
the clip drum, over which it passes. From the clip drum the rope passes
under a third guide pulley; this pulley swings on a bracket having a
vertical axis. This third pulley projects down below the keel of the tug
boat, so that the rope on leaving it can pass under the vessel without
fouling. Suitable recesses are formed in the side of the tug boat to
accommodate the swinging pulleys, while the bow of the boat is sloped
downward nearly to the water line, as shown, so as to allow of the
rising part of the rope swinging over it if necessary.
The hauling gear with which the tug is fitted consists of a pair of
condensing engines with cylinders 14.17 inches in diameter and 23.62
inches stroke, the crankshaft carrying a pinion which gears into a spur
wheel on an intermediate shaft, this shaft again carrying a pinion which
gears into a large spur wheel fixed on the shaft which carries the clip
drum. In the arrangement of hauling gear above described the ratio of
the gear is 1:8.44, in the case of tugs Nos. I. to IV.; while in tugs
Nos. V. to VIII. the proportion has been made 1:11.82. In tugs I. to IV.
the diameter of the clip drum is 2.743 meters (9 feet), while in the
remaining tugs it is 3.056 meters (10 feet).
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