=Traction Farm Engines= are becoming more generally used each year, and
to supply the increasing demand for traction engines, the manufacturers
have spared no expense or mechanical skill to place upon the market
the latest improvements in this line, and a great many kinds of this
class of engine now made in the United States are simply perfect. They
travel over the roughest roads, up and down steep hills with heavy
loads, and the engine is at all times entirely under the control of the
engineer. In fact, there is no class of engines that has had a more
marked advancement toward perfection in the past few years than the
farm traction engine.
As this class of engines in the majority of cases goes into the hands
of men inexperienced in the handling of machinery, they are subjected
to the very hardest usage and neglect, which, of course, hastens their
destruction. Every purchaser of an engine should acquire sufficient
knowledge of the operating and handling of it so that he will know when
it is properly cared for.
No engine has to run at more variable speeds than a traction engine.
It is very important for this reason that the steam ports should be of
sufficient area to admit of a very high piston speed, and allow the
steam to follow the piston at the necessary velocity. Small ports are
useless, as when the link is notched up, and the travel of the valve
thereby reduced, the openings are too cramped for the steam to pass
in and out of the cylinder comfortably. The result is, that the slide
valve is forced off its seat and the engine primes as soon as any great
speed is attained. It is easy to tell by the sound of the exhaust if
the ports are rightly proportioned, and whether running at high or low
speed, the engine should give a clear and distinct exhaust at every
stroke of the piston.