(157.)

In the most effectual of these methods, the task of replenishing the boiler should still be executed by the engineer; and the utmost that the boiler itself was made to do, was to give due notice of the necessity for the supply of water. The consequence was, among other inconveniences, that the level of the water was subject to constant variation.

To remedy this a method has been invented, by which [Pg268] the engine is made to feed its own boiler. The pipe G ( fig. 77.), which leads from the hot water pump, terminates in a small cistern C in which the water is received. In the bottom of this cistern, a valve V is placed, which opens upwards, and communicates with a feed-pipe, which descends into the boiler below the level of the water in it. The stem of the valve V is connected with a lever turning on the centre D, and loaded with a weight F dipped in the water in the boiler in a manner similar to that described in fig. 75., and balanced by a counterpoise A in exactly the same way. When the level of the water in the boiler falls, the float F falls with it, and pulling down the arm of the lever raises the valve V, and lets the water descend into the boiler from the cistern C. When the boiler has thus been replenished, and the level raised to its former place, F will again be raised, and the valve V closed by the weight A. In practice, however, the valve V adjusts itself by means of the effect of the water on the weight F, so as to permit the water from the feeding-cistern C to flow in a continued stream, just sufficient in quantity to supply the consumption from evaporation, and to maintain the level of the water in the boiler constantly the same.

By this arrangement the boiler is made to replenish itself, or, more properly speaking, it is made to receive such a supply, as that it never wants replenishing, an effect which no effort of attention on the part of an engine-man could produce. But this is not the only good effect produced by this contrivance. A part of the steam which originally left the boiler, and having discharged its duty in moving the piston, was condensed and reconverted into water, and lodged by the air-pump in the hot well ( fig. 77.), is here again restored to the source from which it came, bringing back all the unconsumed portion of its heat preparatory to being once more put in circulation through the machine.

The entire quantity of hot water pumped into the cistern C, is not always necessary for the boiler. A waste-pipe may be provided for carrying off the surplus, which may be turned to any purpose for which it may be required; or it may be discharged into a cistern to cool, preparatory to [Pg269] being restored to the cold cistern, in case water for the supply of that cistern be not sufficiently abundant.

Fig. 78.