(83.)

Besides these direct sources of economy, there were other advantages incidental to Watt's engine. An atmospheric engine possessed very limited power of adaptation to a varying load. The moving power being the atmospheric pressure, was not under control, and, on the other hand, was subject to variations from day to day and from hour to hour, according to the changes of the barometer. In the first construction of such an engine, therefore, its power being necessarily adapted to the greatest load which it would have to move, whenever the load upon its pumps was diminished, the motion of the piston in descending would be rapidly accelerated in consequence of the moving power exceeding the resistance. By this the machinery would be subject to sudden shocks, which were productive of rapid wear, and exposed the machinery to the danger of fracture. To remedy this inconvenience, the following expedient was provided in the atmospheric engine: whenever the load on the engine was materially diminished, the quantity of water admitted through the injection valve to condense the steam was proportionally [Pg152] diminished. An imperfect condensation being therefore produced, vapour remained in the cylinder under the piston, the pressure of which resisted the atmosphere, and mitigated the force of the machine. Besides this, a cock was provided in the bottom of the cylinder, called an air cock, by which atmospheric air could be admitted to resist the piston whenever the motion was too rapid.

These expedients, however, were all attended with a waste of fuel in relation to the work done by the engine; for it is evident that the consumption of steam was necessarily the same, whether the engine was working against its full load or against a reduced resistance.

On the other hand, in the improved engine of Watt, when the load, to work against which the engine exerted its full power, was diminished, a cock or valve was provided in the steam pipe leading from the boiler, which was called a throttle valve, by adjusting which the passage in that pipe could be more or less contracted. By regulating this cock the supply of steam from the boiler was checked, and the quantity transmitted to the cylinder diminished, so that its effect upon the piston might be rendered equal to the amount of the diminished resistance. By this means the quantity of steam transmitted to the cylinder was rendered exactly proportional to the work which the engine had to perform. If, under such circumstances, the boiler was worked to its full power, so as to produce steam as fast as it would when the engine was working at full power, then no saving of fuel would be effected, since the surplus steam produced in the boiler would necessarily escape at the safety valve. But in such case the fireman was directed to limit the fuel of the furnace until the discharge at the safety valve ceased.

By these expedients, the actual consumption of fuel in one of these improved engines was always in the exact proportion of the work which it performed, whether it worked at full power or at any degree under its regular power.