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General Steam Car topics
Steam gauge history
Posted by: SSsssteamer (IP Logged)
Date: June 20, 2004 05:44PM
<HTML>I found it interesting in reading Mark Twains writings"..The steam boat was the 1810 invention of Robert Fulton.... By 1850 there were 3,000 steam boat arrivals at Saint Louis." The Bourdon tubed steam gauge wasn't invented until Eugene Bourdon filed a patent in 1852. That means that before Bourdon tubed gauges: for the best idea of what steam pressure was in the boiler at that moment, it was determined by when the safety pop off valve vented. By adding more weights to the pop off valve, meant more steam, more speed. No wonder that there were over 200 steam boat boiler explosions in those early years of steam boating. I would guess that by 1860, most all boilers then had steam gauges installed on them. I sure am thankful for gauges on our Stanley steam cars.</HTML>
Re: Steam gauge history
Posted by: David K. Nergaard (IP Logged)
Date: June 20, 2004 08:52PM
<HTML>The first Bourdon patent, in France, was 1849. Earlier steam boats often used rather low pressures so mercury column gauges were frequently used. Picture a mercury filled barometer five feet long measuring the boiler's pressure, not the atmosphere's. Later, boilers were fitted with two safety valves, one of which had a callibrated and adjustable spring balance so the operator could "feel" the steam pressure.
The "Pop" safety valve is a much more recent invention than the bourdon gauge, about 1875, I think.</HTML>
The "Pop" safety valve is a much more recent invention than the bourdon gauge, about 1875, I think.</HTML>
Re: Steam gauge history
Posted by: Rolly (IP Logged)
Date: June 20, 2004 10:54PM
<HTML>Even though these gauges were available they were rarely used. Almost all western river steamboats relied solely on the weighted arm type safety. These boats were made very cheaply and the avenge life was only two or three years. The safety arm had a hook on the end called the death hook. It was used to hang a bucket of bricks or section of old grate. Sometimes to beat the weather or make up time after getting stuck on a snag. But mostly for a good race. The biggest problem was the poor quality of the plate. Stern-wheelers had three or four long drums three two four feet in diameter eighteen to thirty feet long connected with a mud drum under and a steam drum on top. Side-wheelers would have two boilers on the deck one near each wheel. They tended to be larger in diameter. I believe the first rolling mill in the United States was in Bridgewater MA and the foundations are still in the woods behind the old Bridgewater foundry. The Perkins foundry, around the corner, the oldest in the United States is still in business with all modern inductions furnaces.</HTML>
Re: Steam gauge history
Posted by: SSsssteamer (IP Logged)
Date: June 21, 2004 02:59AM
<HTML>David, Thank you. You did a very nice job on the last SACA Bulletin. According to the "Antique American Steam Gauge", by Barry Lee David, On August 3, 1852, Eugene Bourdon of Paris France, received his patent from the United States Patent Office for his "Pressure Gauge". It was Patent number 9,163 His very first gaugewas built in 1851, and was built by accident While a workman in his shop was trying to straighten a flattened curved piece of tubing that was closed at one end, pressure was applied to the open end and they noticed a repeated movement which was predicated by how much fluid pressure was applied. This first Bourdon tubed gauge made its debut at the 1851 World' Fair in London. Bourdon called it a New Metallic Manometer. Edward H. Ashcroft seen this new gauge at the London World's Fair and recognized the value of the Bourdon tube gauge. He then bought the rights to manufacture the Bourdon tube gauge and he made the gauges in Boston. With improvements and marketing, his gauge was very successful by 1860.</HTML>
Re: Steam gauge history
Posted by: Dick Vennerbeck (IP Logged)
Date: June 22, 2004 01:19AM
<HTML>OK Ok,
I don't want to start a big debate but the first steamboat was built by John Finch and operated on Collect Pond in Philadelphia around 1775. It had a mechanism to dip multiple paddles into the water and stroke them like an indian canoe. One of my older books "The Steam Engine", "Famililary Explained and Illustrated; 1836 with an Historical Sketch of it's Invention and Progressive Development etc etc." by the Reverend Dionysus Lardner, LL.D F.R.S (remember they were the ones who could read and write) has a beautiful etching of an "American High Pressure Engine" It was rated at 8 horse power with an 8" cylinder and a 2.5 foot stroke! The key thing that made this a "High Pressure" engine was the fact that it operated with steam above atmospheric pressure. All earlier engines were atmospheric engines. Bouton and Watt filled their cylinders with steam from a teakettle boiler, then closed the valves and sprayed cold water into the cylinder. The steam condensed and the resulting vacuum (atmospheric pressure) was the pwer stroke. These early engines were used to dewater the coal mines and there are several still in existance in museums in Europe. They probably did not need gauges for the atmospheric engines and as mentioned "Mercury Column" gauges sufficed for the very early engines
Dick Vennerbeck</HTML>
I don't want to start a big debate but the first steamboat was built by John Finch and operated on Collect Pond in Philadelphia around 1775. It had a mechanism to dip multiple paddles into the water and stroke them like an indian canoe. One of my older books "The Steam Engine", "Famililary Explained and Illustrated; 1836 with an Historical Sketch of it's Invention and Progressive Development etc etc." by the Reverend Dionysus Lardner, LL.D F.R.S (remember they were the ones who could read and write) has a beautiful etching of an "American High Pressure Engine" It was rated at 8 horse power with an 8" cylinder and a 2.5 foot stroke! The key thing that made this a "High Pressure" engine was the fact that it operated with steam above atmospheric pressure. All earlier engines were atmospheric engines. Bouton and Watt filled their cylinders with steam from a teakettle boiler, then closed the valves and sprayed cold water into the cylinder. The steam condensed and the resulting vacuum (atmospheric pressure) was the pwer stroke. These early engines were used to dewater the coal mines and there are several still in existance in museums in Europe. They probably did not need gauges for the atmospheric engines and as mentioned "Mercury Column" gauges sufficed for the very early engines
Dick Vennerbeck</HTML>
Re: Steam gauge history
Posted by: Bill Blakeslee (IP Logged)
Date: October 25, 2005 04:34PM
<HTML>I stumbled on your notes on the Stanleyt Steamer phorum and I thought you might be able to shed some light on a mystery I am trying to solve. I have a number of standard gauges and I purchased the Barry David book which helped provide identies to my collection. I have two small portable gauges that fit into velvet-lined boxes that don't show up anywhere in my searching of the internet. The earlier is labeled with Bourdon's name and Manometre Metallic (or something like that - I don't have it in front of me). It has a cast iron clamp and a flat seal so it appears to be a test item. It doesn't seem to be very finely calibrated so I can not imagine that it would be a recent test instrument, but that is as far as my speculation goes. Any information or references you could offer would be greatly appreciated.</HTML>
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