Injectors have a dangerous rival in the Moore Steam Pump or boiler
feeder for traction engines, and the reason this little pump is not in
more general use is the fact that among the oldest methods for feeding a
boiler is the independent steam pump and they were always unsatisfactory
from the fact that they were a steam engine within themselves, having a
crank or disc, flywheel, eccentric, eccentric yoke, valve, valve stem,
crosshead, slides, and all the reciprocating parts of a complete engine.
Being necessarily very small, these parts of course are very frail and
delicate, were easily broken or damaged by the rough usage to which they
were subjected while bumping around over rough roads on a traction
engine. The Moore Pump, manufactured by The Union Steam Pump Company,
of Battle Creek, Mich., is a complete departure from the old steam
engine pump, and if you take any interest in any of the novel ways in
which steam can be utilized send to them for a circular and sectional
cuts and you can spend several hours very profitably in determining just
how the direct pressure from the boiler can be made to drive the piston
head the full stroke of cylinder, open exhaust port, shift the valve
open steam port and drive the piston back again and repeat the operation
as long as the boiler pressure is allowed to reach the pump and yet have
no connection whatever with any of the reciprocating parts of the pump,
and at the same time lift and force water into the boiler in any
quantity desired.
Another novel feature in this "little boiler feeder" is that after the
steam has acted on the cylinder it can be exhausted directly into the
feed water, thus utilizing all its heat to warm the water before
entering the boiler. Now it required a certain number of heat units to
produce this steam which after doing its work gives back all its heat
again to the feed water and it would be a very interesting problem for
some of the young engineers, as well as the old ones, to determine just
what loss if any is sustained in this manner of supplying a boiler. If
you are thinking of trying an independent pump, don't be afraid of this
one. I take particular pride in recommending anything that I have tried
myself, and know to be as recommended.
And a boiler feeder of this kind has all the advantage of the injector,
as it will supply the boiler without running the engine, and it has the
advantage over the injector, in not being so delicate, and will work
water that can not be handled by the best of injectors.
We have very frequently had this question put to us: "Ought I to grease
my gearing?" If I said "yes," I had an argument on my hands at once. If
I said "no," some one would disagree just as quickly, and how shall I
answer it to the satisfaction of most engineers of a traction engine?
I always say what I have to say and stay by it until I am convinced of
the error. Now some of you will smile when I say that the only thing
for gear where there is dust, is "Mica Axle Grease." And you smile
because you don't know what it is made of, but think it some common
grease named for some old saint, but that is not the case. If these
people who make this lubricant would give it another name, and get it
introduced among engineers, nothing else would be used. You have seen
it advertised for years as an axle grease and think that is all it is
good for; and there is where you make a mistake. It is made of a
combination of solid lubricant and ground or pulverized mica, that is
where it gets its name, and nothing can equal mica as a lubricant if you
could apply it to your gear; and to do this it has been combined with a
heavy grease. This in being applied to the gear retains the small
particles of mica, which soon imbed themselves in every little abrasion
or rough place in the gearing, and the surface quickly becomes hard and
smooth throughout the entire face of the engaging gear, and your gear
will run quiet, and if your gearing is not out of line will stop cutting
if applied in time.
It will run dry and dust will not collect on the surface of your cogs,
and after a coating is once formed it should never be disturbed by
scraping the face of the gear, and a very little added from time to time
will keep your gear in fine shape. Its name is against it and if the
makers would take a tumble to themselves and call it "Mica Oil" or some
catchy name and get it introduced among the users of tight gearing, they
would sell just as much axle grease and all the grease for gearings.