Chapter 49
Section 49 of A Thousand Things Worth Knowing. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by phone.
A Thousand Things Worth Knowing by Nathaniel C. Fowler Jr. Steam Engine The principle of the steam engine is very simple. Stripped of all technicality, it may be described as follows. Take a can with a height somewhat longer than its width, and close up both ends.
Make a hole in the centre of one of the ends large enough for the insertion of a rod about the diameter of a small poker. Fasten one end of this rod to the centre of a disc which will fit closely into the can. Insert this disc in the can with the poker passing through the hole. The hole apparatus will be similar to that of a churn.
Bore two holes in the side of the can, at top and bottom. Allow steam to pass into the can through the first hole, which will force the disc to the other end of the can, and draw the poker with it. Then introduce steam through the other hole. This will drive the disc to the other end of the can, and at the same time the steam
entering the first hole will pass out. This gives a motion to the poker rod, which continues so long as steam is forced in and out. The rod is, of course, connected with a crank which works on a shaft, and from this shaft power is transmitted.
The steam is let into the cylinder automatically. A flywheel is maintained where there is not more than one cylinder, and even where there is more than one, so as to create momentum, which carries the crank beyond its dead centre. The modern steam engine makes from 100 to even 1000 revolutions a minute. Its power is measured by its capacity to equal that of one or several horses, and is known
as horsepower. Steam engines are made with a capacity of only a small fraction of horsepower, and up to several thousand. But usually where great power is required, more than one cylinder is used, all of them working upon the same shaft.
The so-called turbine steam engine is similar to the ordinary turbine waterwheel, except that steam, instead of water, is forced against it. See turbines. Strikes The strike is an agreement upon the part of workmen to refuse to work until their demands
are accepted. The first strike in the United States took place in New York City in 1803, and was confined to sailors. In 1888 there were 697 strikes, involving over 210,000 employees. In 1886 the number of strikes increased 52%, and in 1888 the increase was 22%.
In the early days nearly half of the strikes were in Pennsylvania. The Great Coal Strike of 1902 was probably the most disastrous and largest strike on record. It involved about 150,000 men, with a loss of wages of nearly 40 million dollars. Sub-Rosa
The term under the rose implies secrecy. It had its origin BC 477, when Pausanias, commander of the fleet of Spartans and Athenians, was intriguing with Xerxes for the subjugation of Greece to Persia and for the hand of the king's daughter in marriage. The business was transacted in the brazen house, the roof of which was a garden making
a bower of roses. Hence the term sub-Rosa. Sugar Industry The United States consumes each year nearly 3.5 million tonnes of sugar, or about 80 pounds per capita. End of section 49.
Recording by phone.
