On the utilisation of the water of condensation from steam pipes and cylinders / by Peter Fyfe.

  • Fyfe, Peter.
Date:
1890
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the utilisation of the water of condensation from steam pipes and cylinders / by Peter Fyfe. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    you a few considerations on steam raising and the utilisation of its heat when spent as steam, and also introduce to your notice a new apparatus, which I designed, in order to stop the waste which was being caused by the hot condensed water continually passing away into the drains and sewers. I am afraid, from what I have seen in several of our manu- factories and Avorlcshops, that not only is an enormous amount of the practical thermal value of the steam raised in them lost when it finds its way skyward through the exhaust pipe, but that a serious loss is also experienced daily, through the water of condensation from the various pipes and cylinders finding its way earthward by way of the drains. In the earlier days of steam, the products of manufacture under steam treatment commanded such prices as handsomely repaid the manufacturer for his outlays, and he could afford for a long time to ignore the constant drain upon his oncost through such losses as were caused by direct exhaust, imperfect combustion, and hot water . tvaste. But now, except Avhere the manufacturer has the good luck to possess a monopoly, none of these items of waste must be lost sight of. Competition is the mother of improvement in applied mechanics, and real improvement is the mother of economy. To have any chance now in making the sale of his products pa}', the average manufacturer has to guard well every outlet in his factory which may be a useless drain upon his resources. It is well enough known that the steam engine cannot produce in work one-fourth of the practical thermal value of the coal burned in his furnace. So also when the steam is applied for heating and drying purposes, a waste is caused if the condensed Avater is per- mitted to flow away through cocks or atmospheric traps. Before considering the amount of this waste, I would like to take you through the old story for a few minutes of the quantity of fuel Avhich must be consumed in order to obtain the heat necessary to evaporate water to a pressure of one atmosphere.