2010 On Line Technocracy Study Course
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We have traced the rather slow and tortuous evolution of the human species in the struggle for energy. With the learning to use the energy contained in coal, we noticed in the last lesson that there seemed to be a quickening of the tempo of human affairs. Coal provided heat for domestic purposes, and for glass-making...
Lesson 11
...After 1745 coal was made into coke for the smelting of iron. The increasing uses for coal created a greater and greater demand for more coal. The increased rate of mining operations caused mining to be carried on at greater depths, with consequent pumping problems of continuously increasing magnitude. As we have pointed out, the use of as many as 100 horses, working on treadmills, created costs of upkeep for the horses which threatened to overbalance the proceeds from selling the coal. It was imperative that a better and cheaper method of pumping be devised. One of the first of these was that of Thomas Savery.
Development of
the Steam Engine.
Savery, in 1698, devised an engine
consisting of a boiler and two steam expansion chambers, equipped with suitable
valves operated by hand. These chambers were filled with water, and when the
steam was turned into each of them alternately, water was forced upward; then,
with the bottom valve open, and the steam inlet turned off, the condensation of
the steam in the chamber produced a vacuum which sucked more water from the
mine.
This engine was not very satisfactory, and was followed shortly after by the 'atmospheric engine' of Newcomen and Cawley in the year 1705. This engine consisted of a rocking beam, to one
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end of which was attached a pump rod and to the other a piston in a vertical cylinder. When steam was admitted to the cylinder the piston was lifted, and the pump rod lowered; next, water was injected into the cylinder to condense the steam, thus creating a vacuum below the piston, so that the atmospheric pressure on the top side of the piston forced it back down, lifting the pump rod, and thereby pumping water. Thus, the work stroke was done, not by the steam, but by the pressure of the atmosphere, hence the name 'atmospheric engine.' At first the valves of this engine were operated by hand, but this became tedious; and later, so the story goes, the boy who operated the valves became tired, and devised a system of strings attached to the rocking beam in such a manner that they opened and closed the valves automatically.
Such was the rate of progress at this time that it was not until 1769 that any material improvement was made on this engine. In that year James Watt invented a condenser so that the hot steam could be exhausted from the cylinder and condensed in a chamber outside, instead of cooling the cylinder down' each time, as had been previously done. In 1782, Watt still further improved the steam- engine by making it double acting, that is, steam was admitted alternately, first at one end of the cylinder, and then at the other, thus driving the piston in both its up and down strokes. At about this time the fly-wheel was added to the simple rocking beam.
By this time the age of power was well begun, and more and more uses were found to which the steam engine could be applied as will be pointed out presently. Individual engines were made continuously larger. First there was only the single cylinder, then there developed successively the double, triple and quadruple expansion types of engines. The reciprocating engine reached its climax toward the end of the nineteenth century in the Corliss type. These largest units as stationary engines reached upwards of 10,000 kw., and stood with their cylinder heads approximately 30 feet above the axis of their cranks.
In 1889, De Laval, of Sweden, devised a steam turbine to operate his cream separator. In 1884 Sir Charles Parsons built a steam turbine which delivered 10 h.p. at 18,000 revolutions per minute. In 1897 steam turbines were installed in a small steamship named the 'Turbinia.' In 1903 a 5,000 kw. turbine was installed in one of the central electric power stations of Chicago. From that time on this form of steam engine has increased rapidly in size and usefulness. By 1915 a 35,000 kw. unit was installed in Philadelphia. In 1929, in the Hell Gate Station, New York City, units of 160,000 kw. each were installed. These represent the largest single engines ever built.
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If one horsepower for eight hours represents the work of ten strong men, then for 24 hours one horsepower would represent the work of 30 men working eight hours each. One kilowatt is one and one-third horsepower, and hence represents the work of 40 men for one day. Thus, one of these engines does the work in one day's time of 6,400,000 strong men. There are five of these engines in New York City at the present time. These five engines when running to capacity, do work equivalent to 32,000,000 strong men working at hard labor for eight hours a day each.
Not only did mining coal create a problem of pumping water, but the coal had to be hauled varying distances over bad ground, either to the market or else to the seashore to be loaded in ships and transported by water. This created a serious problem in transportation, and early in the 16th century rails of timber were laid at the coal mines of Newcastle-on-Tyne. Carts carrying four to five tons of coal each were drawn by horses on these rails. These first rails were secured to cross timbers. In 1735 it was found that the rails could be made stronger and to wear longer if iron bars were fastened to their tops. In 1767 east iron rails, four to five feet long, were substituted for the entire wooden rail. These cast iron rails were brittle and troublesome, because of their short length and numerous joints. In 1820 these were replaced by wrought iron rails, 15 feet in length. Such were the first railroads.
The Railroad.
The development of the steam engine and the
rapid rate of increase in the use of coal led naturally to the casting about
for a new kind of motive power other than horses. In 1804 Richard Trevithick
built a steam locomotive which hauled 10 tons of coal at five miles per hour.
In 1814 George Stevenson built an important locomotive that hauled 35 tons of
coal four miles per hour up a 1 to 450 grade. By 1825 there were all together
28 railroads in Great Britain, mostly mine roads, with a total mileage of 450
miles. In that year the Stockton & Darlington Railway, 25 miles long, was
put into operation. This may be considered the. first modern steam operated
railway.
At the opening of this road, a Stevenson engine hauled a train consisting of 22 wagons of passengers and 12 wagons of coal, totaling 90 tons, at an average speed of five miles per hour. Later this road reverted largely to horses for motive power, reserving the steam locomotives for hauling freight, chiefly coal. By 1830 the Liverpool & Manchester Railroad, 35 miles long, was operating with an improved type of locomotive, and from that time on mechanical motive power has been indisputably established.
In the United States, as in England, railroads were first built for horse-drawn vehicles. In 1829 a 16-mile road from Honesdale to Carbondale, Pennsylvania, was built, and a steam locomotive of English manufacture introduced. The following year a 13-mile road from Baltimore to Prescott, Maryland, was opened.
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The Steamboat.
Similar advances were made in water
transportation. In 1785 John Fitch ran the first successful steamboat in America. After this followed, in rapid succession, numerous other small steamers in inland
and coastwise waters, both in Europe and the United States. In 1819 the S.S.
Savannah was the first steam-propelled ship to cross the Atlantic Ocean. By
1838, two ships, the S.S. Great Eastern and S.S. Sirius, were in regular
service. In 1837 and 1838 John Ericson introduced in England the stern
propeller. This gradually replaced the paddle wheels, so that by 1870 all
ocean-going steam-driven vessels were propelled by screws.
While the advances made in both railroads and in steamships since 1900 have been great, the trend has been one more of orderly evolutionary development, rather than of radical departures. Electrification of steam railroads was under way prior to 1910. This has been followed by Diesel electric engines, and by steam locomotives of continually greater size, and of greater thermal efficiency. At the present time we seem to be on the threshold of a major departure in railroad equipment in the form of high speed, lightweight, streamlined trains propelled by Diesel engines.
The Automobile.
The more modern forms of transportation are
the automobile and the aeroplane. The beginnings of efforts to construct a
self- propelled road vehicle were practically coincident with the locomotive.
In the period from 1827 to 1836 Walter Hancock, in England, constructed several
steam wagons that carried passengers over carriage roads. One of these is
reported to have run 20 weeks, travelling a distance of 4,200 miles, and
carrying 12,000 passengers. With the rise of railroads, motor vehicles for road
use were virtually abandoned until about 1885, when the development of the gas
engine by Daimler and others led to the motorization of the bicycle and then of
the carriage. About 1895 the development of motor vehicles propelled by
internal combustion engines or by electric motors began in earnest, leading to
the modern flare of automotive transportation.
Transportation by
Air.
The first abortive attempts at
transportation by air date back to the early balloons, about the year 1783.
Finally, in 1896, Langley's heavier-than-air machine made the first successful
flight of its kind. In 1903 the Wright Brothers were the first to take off in a
heavier-than-air machine propelled by its own power. Since that time aviation
has developed by leaps and bounds, gaining particular impetus during the World
War. Planes have become bigger and faster, and the cruising radius has
progressively increased.
Summary.
In the space here it is manifestly
impossible to more than scratch the surface of the vast field of technological
developments that have taken place since the first feeble beginnings.
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Among the first industrial equipment to use power from steam engines was that of the textile industry. The changes wrought here were so great as to be characterized in history as the Industrial Revolution of the latter part of the eighteenth century. Corresponding developments beginning at various times can be traced in communications-telegraph, telephone, radio and television.
It becomes evident that our Industrial Revolution of the last two hundred years is a development radically different from that of any preceding period of the earth's history, and compared with which all earlier developments are insignificant in magnitude. Each development has come, not as a thing of itself, but only as a part of the picture as a whole. Steam or water turbines could not effectively be utilized until electrical equipment had been developed. This latter, in turn, had to wait until Faraday, Maxwell and others had discovered the fundamental principles of electricity.
Viewed with regard to the multiplicity of its details it would appear to be an endless and hopeless task for a single individual to obtain even approximately a comprehensive grasp of our modern industrial evolution. When one considers, however, that all of the equipment is composed almost entirely of a small number of the chemical elements-iron, copper, lead, zinc, etc., and that furthermore, the manufacture and operation of the equipment requires energy in strict accordance with the laws of thermodynamics, the problem is evidently greatly simplified. In other words, if it be known at what rate the industrial system has required the basic materials such as iron, copper, tin, lead, zinc, and if it be known at what rate it dissipates energy from the energy sources of coal, oil, gas, water power and plants, all of the innumerable details are automatically included.
References:
History
of Mechanical Inventions, Usher.
Behemoth,
The Story of Power, Hodgins and Magoun.
TABLE 7
Prime Movers
1698-Savery steam engine
1705-Newcomen and Cawley, steam engine
1769-Watt, steam engine condenser
1782-Watt, double acting piston engine
1820 W. Cecil, engine, 60 r.p.m.
1823 Brown, gas vacuum engine
1849-Francis, water turbine (size 6 in. to 18 ft. diameter)
1876-Otto cycle internal combustion engine
1882-Pearl Street, New York, generating station
1883-De Laval, steam turbine
1884-Parsons, steam turbine
1895--Diesel, internal combustion engine
1903-First 5,000 kw. central station steam turbine, Chicago, Ill.
1929-160,000 kw. turbines installed. Mercury turbine
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Transportation---Water
1885-Hertz, Hertz's
oscillator; the real beginning of radio-telegraphy
1785-First successful steamship, John Fitch
1819-First steam-driven ship crossed Atlantic
1837-Screw propeller introduced (Ericson)
1897-Turbine engine used in steamships
Transportation---Land
Railroads
1750-Cast iron rails, 4 to 5 ft. long, first used (1767)
1800-Trevithick's steam locomotive (1804) George Stevenson built improved
locomotive (1814) Wrought iron rails, 15 ft. long, first used (1820) First
modern railroad, Stockton to Darlington, England (1825) First railroad in U.S.,
Honesdale to Carbondale, Penna. (1829) George Stevenson introduced the
'Rocket,' improved locomotive (1829)
1850-First transcontinental railroad system in U.S. (1869) First working
electric railroad, Germany (1879)
1900-Electrification of steam railroads Diesel-electric locomotives
Other
Vehicles
1800-Steam wagons, Walter Hancock, England (1827-1836)
1850-Gottlieb Daimler high-speed gas engine, Germany (1884) Motorized bicycle
(1885) Benz, three-wheeled gas carriage (1886) Geo. B. Seldon, patent on clutch
and transmission system (1895)
Transportation---Air
1783-Montgoflier, first balloon, using heated air
1852-Gifford, first successful spindel-shaped gas bags, driven by steam engines
1884-M. M. Renard and Keebs, gas bag driven by electric motors, fed by electric
batteries
1896-Prof. Langley, model aeroplane, driven by steam. Flight of three-quarters
mile. First time in history that a motor-driven, heavier-than-air machine
accomplished a successful flight
1900-Count Zeppelin, rigid form; capacity 399,000 cubic feet gas; driven by two
Daimler benzine engines, 16 h.p. each. First means of passenger service in the
air
1903-Orville and Wilbur Wright, glider fitted with a 16 h.p., four-cylinder
motor. This machine made the first successful Right in which the machine
carrying a man had ever risen of its own power from the ground
1908-Louis Bleriot, the Bleriot monoplane. This was the first successful mono-
plane. It was also the first machine to cross the English Channel from Bragues
to Dover
1910--Fabre, first practical hydroplane By the time of the World War it was
recognized that aviation was strictly an engineering science. Since then some
of the most remarkable advances in the field of engineering have been made in
this branch
Communication
1820-Oerstedt, made the
discovery that an electric current flowing through a wire built up a magnetic
field around the wire
1831-Faraday and Henry, discovered the converse of Oerstedt, i.e., that a
magnetic field can be cut by a wire, and cause current to flow in the wire
1837-Morse invented telegraph system. This was the basis of most modern land
systems
1876-Bell, telephone
1882-Dolbear developed wireless telegraph system, using electric static
induction
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1888--Lodge, developed a
method of synchronizing two circuits, i.e., placing them in resonance
1896-Marconi developed a system, using the Hertzian oscillator, of
radio-telegraphy for sending and receiving messages
1898-Braun developed the coupled circuit
1902-Poulsen and Tessenden, radio-telephone
1903-First trans-Atlantic wireless transmission
1907-DeForrest invented the three-element tube, permitting tubes to detect as
well as amplify
1921-Broadcasting
1922-Freeman and Dimmel, A.C. tube, radio
1926-J. L. Baird, television
Textile Inventions
1733--John Key, flying shuttle
1770-James Hargraves, spinning jenny
1775-Richard Arkwright, roller spinning frame, using water power
1779-Samuel Crompton, spinning
1785-Edward Cartwright, power looms, using Watt engine, first for spinning and
then for weaving
1793--Eli Whitney, cotton gin
NOTE: No attempt has been made here to include the numerous inventions that have revolutionized the textile industry in the last century. The above merely indicates the initial steps that were responsible for the Industrial Revolution.
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