Blowing engine

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Allis vertical blowing engine Allis blowing engine (New Catechism of the Steam Engine, 1904).jpg
Allis vertical blowing engine

A blowing engine is a large stationary steam engine or internal combustion engine directly coupled to air pumping cylinders. They deliver a very large quantity of air at a pressure lower than an air compressor, but greater than a centrifugal fan.

Contents

Blowing engines are majorly used to provide the air blast for furnaces, blast furnaces and other forms of smelter.

Waterwheel engines

The very first blowing engines were the blowing houses: bellows, driven by waterwheels.

Smelters are most economically located near the source of their ore, which may not have suitable water power available nearby. There is also the risk of drought interrupting the water supply, or of expanding demand for the furnace outstripping the available water capacity.

These restrictions led to the very earliest form of steam engine used for power generation rather than pumping, the water-returning engine. With this engine, a steam pump was used to raise water that in turn drove a waterwheel and thus the machinery. Water from the wheel was then returned by the pump. These early steam engines were only suitable for pumping water, and could not be connected directly to the machinery.

The first practical examples of these engines were installed in 1742 at Coalbrookdale [1] and as improvements to the Carron Ironworks on the Clyde in 1765. [2]

Beam blowing engines

The 1817 Boulton & Watt blowing engine, formerly used at the Netherton ironworks of M W Grazebrook, now preserved on the A38(M) in Birmingham, UK Grazebrook Beam Engine.jpg
The 1817 Boulton & Watt blowing engine, formerly used at the Netherton ironworks of M W Grazebrook, now preserved on the A38(M) in Birmingham, UK

Early steam prime movers were beam engines, firstly of the non-rotative (i.e. solely reciprocating) and later the rotative type (i.e. driving a flywheel). Both of these were used as blowing engines, usually by coupling an air cylinder to the far end of the beam from the steam cylinder. Joshua Field describes an 1821 trip to Foster, Rastrick & Co. of Stourbridge, [3] where he observed eight large beam engines, one of 30 hp working a blowing cylinder of 5 feet diameter and 6 feet stroke.

Where the later beam engines drove flywheels, this was useful for providing a more even action to the engine. The air cylinder was still driven by the beam alone and the flywheel was used solely as a flywheel, not driving an output shaft. A well-known surviving example of this type are the paired beam engines "David & Sampson", now preserved at Blists Hill open-air museum, Ironbridge Gorge. [4] [5] These are a pair of single-cylinder condensing beam engines, each driving an air cylinder by their own beam, but sharing a single flywheel between them. They are notable for their decorative Doric arches. [6] The engines had a long working life: 50 years of primary service from 1851 providing the blast for the Priors Lee furnaces of the Lilleshall Company, [7] [8] then a further 50 years until the plant's closure as reserve engines, still being worked occasionally. [9]

Semi-rotative blowing engines

The large vertical blowing engine illustrated at the top was built in the 1890s by E. P. Allis Co. of Milwaukee (later to form part of Allis-Chalmers). The steam cylinder (lower) is 42 inches (1.1 m) diameter, the air cylinder (upper) 84 inches (2.1 m) and both with a stroke of 60 inches (1.5 m).

The steam cylinder has Reynolds-Corliss valve gear, driven via a bevel-driven auxiliary shaft beneath, at right-angles to the crankshaft. [10] This also means that the Corliss' wrist plate is at right-angles to the flywheel, rather than parallel as is usual. Edwin Reynolds was the designer of the Allis company and in 1876 had developed an improved version of the Corliss valvegear, with improved trip gear capable of working at higher speeds. [11] The air valves are also driven by eccentrics from this same shaft.

Like the beam engines, the main force of the piston is transmitted to the air cylinder by a purely reciprocating action and the flywheels exist to smooth the action of the engine. To permit adjustment, the steam piston rod only goes as far as the crosshead. Above this are twinned rods to the air piston. The flywheel shaft is mounted below the steam piston, the paired connecting rods driving downwards and backwards to make this a return connecting rod engine.

Internal combustion blowing engines

Cockerill engine of 1900 Machine soufflante John Cockerill 1900.jpg
Cockerill engine of 1900

In the late 1800s, internal combustion gas engines were developed to burn gasses produced from blast furnaces, eliminating the need for fuel for steam boilers and increasing efficiency. Bethlehem Steel was one such company to employ this technology. [12] Huge, usually single-cylinder horizontal engines burned blast furnace gas. SA John Cockerill of Belgium and Körting of Hannover were both noted makers of such engines.

There are some efforts underway to restore a few of these engines. [13] A few firms still manufacture and install multi cylinder internal combustion engines to burn waste gasses today. [14]

Replacement by rotary blowers

As blast furnaces re-equipped after World War II, the favoured power source was either the diesel engine or the electric motor. These both had a rotary output, which worked well with contemporary developments in centrifugal fans capable of handling the huge volumes of air. Although the reciprocating steam blowing engine continued where it was already in use, they were rarely installed after the war. These older plants began to close in the 1950s and numbers were drastically reduced throughout the West during the 1970s. Blowing engines of this form are now rare.

Surviving examples today

Horizontal blowing cylinder connected to a steam engine at Backbarrow ironworks Backbarrow blowing engine.jpg
Horizontal blowing cylinder connected to a steam engine at Backbarrow ironworks

Examples of both a beam blowing engine [4] [5] and a vertical engine [5] may be seen at the Blists Hill open-air museum, Ironbridge Gorge. The beam engines "David & Sampson" are scheduled monuments. [4]

An 1817 beam blowing engine by Boulton & Watt, formerly used at the Netherton ironworks of M W Grazebrook, now decorates Dartmouth Circus, a traffic island at the start of the A38(M) motorway in Birmingham (see picture above, location: 52°29′33″N1°53′17″W / 52.492537°N 1.888189°W / 52.492537; -1.888189 ).

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Reciprocating engine</span> Engine utilising one or more reciprocating pistons

A reciprocating engine, also often known as a piston engine, is typically a heat engine that uses one or more reciprocating pistons to convert high temperature and high pressure into a rotating motion. This article describes the common features of all types. The main types are: the internal combustion engine, used extensively in motor vehicles; the steam engine, the mainstay of the Industrial Revolution; and the Stirling engine for niche applications. Internal combustion engines are further classified in two ways: either a spark-ignition (SI) engine, where the spark plug initiates the combustion; or a compression-ignition (CI) engine, where the air within the cylinder is compressed, thus heating it, so that the heated air ignites fuel that is injected then or earlier.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steam engine</span> Heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid

A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a cylinder. This pushing force can be transformed, by a connecting rod and crank, into rotational force for work. The term "steam engine" is generally applied only to reciprocating engines as just described, not to the steam turbine. Steam engines are external combustion engines, where the working fluid is separated from the combustion products. The ideal thermodynamic cycle used to analyze this process is called the Rankine cycle. In general usage, the term steam engine can refer to either complete steam plants, such as railway steam locomotives and portable engines, or may refer to the piston or turbine machinery alone, as in the beam engine and stationary steam engine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Newcomen atmospheric engine</span> Early engine invented by Thomas Newcomen.

The atmospheric engine was invented by Thomas Newcomen in 1712, and is often referred to as the Newcomen fire engine or simply as a Newcomen engine. The engine was operated by condensing steam drawn into the cylinder, thereby creating a partial vacuum which allowed the atmospheric pressure to push the piston into the cylinder. It was historically significant as the first practical device to harness steam to produce mechanical work. Newcomen engines were used throughout Britain and Europe, principally to pump water out of mines. Hundreds were constructed throughout the 18th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Watt steam engine</span> Industrial Revolution era stream engine design

The Watt steam engine design became synonymous with steam engines, and it was many years before significantly new designs began to replace the basic Watt design.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crank (mechanism)</span> Simple machine transferring motion to or from a rotating shaft at a distance from the centreline

A crank is an arm attached at a right angle to a rotating shaft by which circular motion is imparted to or received from the shaft. When combined with a connecting rod, it can be used to convert circular motion into reciprocating motion, or vice versa. The arm may be a bent portion of the shaft, or a separate arm or disk attached to it. Attached to the end of the crank by a pivot is a rod, usually called a connecting rod (conrod).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blists Hill Victorian Town</span> Open-air museum in Telford

Improvements to the steam engine were some of the most important technologies of the Industrial Revolution, although steam did not replace water power in importance in Britain until after the Industrial Revolution. From Englishman Thomas Newcomen's atmospheric engine, of 1712, through major developments by Scottish inventor and mechanical engineer James Watt, the steam engine began to be used in many industrial settings, not just in mining, where the first engines had been used to pump water from deep workings. Early mills had run successfully with water power, but by using a steam engine a factory could be located anywhere, not just close to a water source. Water power varied with the seasons and was not always available.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Reciprocating motion</span> Repetitive back-and-forth linear motion

Reciprocating motion, also called reciprocation, is a repetitive up-and-down or back-and-forth linear motion. It is found in a wide range of mechanisms, including reciprocating engines and pumps. The two opposite motions that comprise a single reciprocation cycle are called strokes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beam engine</span> Early configuration of the steam engine utilising a rocking beam to connect major components.

A beam engine is a type of steam engine where a pivoted overhead beam is used to apply the force from a vertical piston to a vertical connecting rod. This configuration, with the engine directly driving a pump, was first used by Thomas Newcomen around 1705 to remove water from mines in Cornwall. The efficiency of the engines was improved by engineers including James Watt, who added a separate condenser; Jonathan Hornblower and Arthur Woolf, who compounded the cylinders; and William McNaught, who devised a method of compounding an existing engine. Beam engines were first used to pump water out of mines or into canals but could be used to pump water to supplement the flow for a waterwheel powering a mill.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Corliss steam engine</span> Type of steam engine using rotary steam valves

A Corliss steam engine is a steam engine, fitted with rotary valves and with variable valve timing patented in 1849, invented by and named after the US engineer George Henry Corliss of Providence, Rhode Island.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dead centre (engineering)</span> The positions of an engines piston at the top or bottom of its stroke

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of the steam engine</span> Heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid

The first recorded rudimentary steam engine was the aeolipile mentioned by Vitruvius between 30 and 15 BC and, described by Heron of Alexandria in 1st-century Roman Egypt. Several steam-powered devices were later experimented with or proposed, such as Taqi al-Din's steam jack, a steam turbine in 16th-century Ottoman Egypt, and Thomas Savery's steam pump in 17th-century England. In 1712, Thomas Newcomen's atmospheric engine became the first commercially successful engine using the principle of the piston and cylinder, which was the fundamental type of steam engine used until the early 20th century. The steam engine was used to pump water out of coal mines.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Whitbread Engine</span>

The Whitbread Engine preserved in the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, Australia, built in 1785, is one of the first rotative steam engines ever built, and is the oldest surviving. A rotative engine is a type of beam engine where the reciprocating motion of the beam is converted to rotary motion, producing a continuous power source suitable for driving machinery.

Internal combustion engines come in a wide variety of types, but have certain family resemblances, and thus share many common types of components.

A water-returning engine was an early form of stationary steam engine, developed at the start of the Industrial Revolution in the middle of the 18th century. The first beam engines did not generate power by rotating a shaft but were developed as water pumps, mostly for draining mines. By coupling this pump with a water wheel, they could be used to drive machinery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Single- and double-acting cylinders</span> Classification of reciprocating engine cylinders

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Return connecting rod engine</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">High-speed steam engine</span> Steam engine designed to run at comparatively high speed

High-speed steam engines were one of the final developments of the stationary steam engine. They ran at a high speed, of several hundred rpm, which was needed by tasks such as electricity generation.

Resolution was an early beam engine, installed between 1781 and 1782 at Coalbrookdale as a water-returning engine to power the blast furnaces and ironworks there. It was one of the last water-returning engines to be constructed, before the rotative beam engine made this type of engine obsolete.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Internal combustion engine</span> Engine in which the combustion of a fuel occurs with an oxidizer in a combustion chamber

An internal combustion engine is a heat engine in which the combustion of a fuel occurs with an oxidizer in a combustion chamber that is an integral part of the working fluid flow circuit. In an internal combustion engine, the expansion of the high-temperature and high-pressure gases produced by combustion applies direct force to some component of the engine. The force is typically applied to pistons, turbine blades, a rotor, or a nozzle. This force moves the component over a distance, transforming chemical energy into kinetic energy which is used to propel, move or power whatever the engine is attached to.

References

  1. Hills, Richard L. (1989). Power from Steam. Cambridge University Press. p. 37. ISBN   0-521-45834-X.
  2. Rolt, L T C; Allen. Steam Engine. p. 122.
  3. Joshua Field (24 August 1821). "Foster, Rastrick & Co. of Stourbridge". Author's tour through the Midlands. Archived from the original on 12 October 2008. The third engine is very handsome a 6 column engine [a beam engine with a horizontal frame raised on columns] of 30 H Power working a blowing cylinder of 5 feet, 6 feet stroke"
  4. 1 2 3 "David and Sampson - a vintage beam engine and a scheduled Ancient Monument at the Blists Hill Site". Archived from the original (image) on 9 November 2007.
  5. 1 2 3 Jameson, John H. (2004). David & Samson at Blists Hill. p. 182. ISBN   0-7591-0376-3.{{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  6. Mike Ashton. "David & Sampson: Doric arch" (photograph).
  7. "Lilleshall Collection at Blists Hil". Archived from the original on 22 February 2012.
  8. "The Lilleshall Company".[ permanent dead link ]
  9. "Blists Hill, Ironbridge Gorge Museum, Madeley, Shropshire". Viewfinder. English Heritage. Archived from the original on 6 June 2011.
  10. Hawkins, Nehemiah (1897). New Catechism of the Steam Engine. New York: Theo Audel. pp.  335–337.
  11. Hawkins, New Catechism of the Steam Engine, p.225, p.172
  12. "Gas Blowing Engine Room (at Bethlehem Steel)".
  13. "Bethlehem Blowing Engines".
  14. "Furnace Gas for Power Production".