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ALL ABOUT STEAMERSTHE BOILERS and THE ENGINES
 The
basic parts
of a steam engine are thus
 
-
the fuel system, the water-feed system,the boiler and condenser, the cylinders or turbine
and
the coupled shafts
-
 
to thepaddle-wheels or propellor(s).
Stoking The Fires
While cold boilers must be warmed through very slowly to avoid damage to the plates and joints, that taking anything from 24 to 48 hours, an already warm boiler, its fire banked, theashpan and funnel dampers closed overnight, can quickly raise steam to working pressure in acouple of hours or so if necessary.In the case of these small steamers and the like of the old steam fishing drifters, the generalpractice was to rake one half of the grate clear of any clinker and, halving spread theremaining glowing coals evenly out again, cover these with half-a-dozen shovels of fresh coal.Five minutes later and the fresh coals now lit, these would all be raked down evenly and,after another ten or so minutes, with the fire now burning clearly, the process repeated onthe other half of the fire-grate, the idea being that the smoke and gases from the freshlyshovelled coal would be burnt by the fierce and clear fire on the other half of the grate and theamount of black smoke coming from the funnel would be minimised. By this procedure,twelve shovels would be added to the fire every 30 minutes or so and, in the course of anaverage summer day’s ‘dawn-to-dusk’ run, the boiler fire would consume about ¾ ton of coal,boiler’s ash-pan being emptied, thanks to the slow build up of steam coal ash, perhaps every1
 
other day and all the while, in between stokings, the engineer too would be constantly,lubricating the constantly turning machinery of the main engine, running about 138 r.p.m. ona puffer at about 6 knots and too lubricating all the auxiliary equipment !
LIGHTING FIRES
. Fires should not be started until the boiler has been pumped full. If toomuch water has been pumped in, blow off by the bottom valve, after the water is partlyheated. This will withdraw cold water from the bottom and start the circulation. Start the firesin ample time and do not force them with cold water in the boiler. The grate should be keptwell covered with a thin fire. Do not feed with large lumps or too much at a time, or keep thefire door open too long. Keep the grate free from clinker, so that the draft may not beimpaired. The fires are started by splitting a quantity of wood and distributing it with shavingsand oily cotton waste over the grate. When this has reached a blaze and the ashes glow,introduce a little fine coal without smothering the wood fire. Cotton waste should not be keptstored up for this purpose, however, as it is liable to spontaneous combustion.A slow rate of cumbustion with moderate draft produces a better evaporative result than whenthe fires are urged. The test of a good fire is in the glow of the ashpit. When the ashes in thepit appear dull, the fire needs cleaning, but it should not be broken up. The bars should beevenly covered and no space left bare, as a cold current of air would draw up and sweep overthe fire, cooling it down. In boilers with two furnaces attend one at a time. Bituminous coal isapt to form a crust on the surface, and before feeding should be broken. Avoid heaping thefuel at the front, and do not clean a fire down too low, as it will take some time to come upagain.
SAFETY VALVE
. Raise the safety valve to permit hot air to escape. When a few poundspressure are shown on the gauge, open stop and throttle valve and allow steam to passthrough the engine to warm up its parts. Sudden admission of high steam to the cold enginewould cause such expansion to packing of piston and other light parts that free working will beendangered. When steam is up, the fires should be so managed that the safety valve will notblow off, although the point of blow-off should first be compared with the steam gauge.If the boiler steams too fast, close the damper and shut off draft, but do not throw open thefurnace door if it can be avoided.
The Basic Arrangement of the Fuel Burning System -
As the temperature of heavy‘boiler’ oil must be raised before it will ignite, other means are used to start raising steamfrom cold. Though in the old days a small coal fire would have been lit to start the boiler -coke, instead of coal, being used if the boiler was still warm from the previous day,nowadays, a gravity fed supply of ‘light’ diesel oil will be led to start the boiler fire(s) - lit of course by applying an ordinary household match to an oil-soaked rag.As steam temperatures and pressures rose, steam was run into the
heating coils
in the
oil fuel bunker storage tanks
to allow the cold fuel oil to be pumped, through a
suctionfilter 
to remove grit and heavy impurities, to a
fuel heater 
, externally heated by steam,which raised the temperature of the fuel oil to some 20° or 30° lower than its
‘flash point’ 
 
i.e.its ignition point (about 190° F) and the fuel oil, after possibly being passed through the
fuelheater 
several times to raise its temperature sufficiently, then being pumped, at somewherebetween
100-150 p.s.i.
(pounds per square inch), to the boiler’s
oil burners
, the number of burners varied according to the size and type of boiler and the burners, about 18 inches longand 1½ inches in diameter, are quickly changed, from diesel to boiler oil, using a vice-gripand spanner. The
steam heating
the
bunker heating coils
and the
fuel heater 
passed through a
windowed inspection tank 
which allowed a
visual inspection
to ensure that no fuel oil had2
 
entered the
water system
(and consequently the steam itself) that might be fed to the mainboiler, the now rapidly condensing
‘heating steam’ 
then returned to the main
water feed system
.
The Water Feed System -
circulates and tops up the water supplies to the main
boiler(s)
and
water 
 
feed heaters
, these operating in the same fashion as the
oil fuel heater (above)
and raising the temperature of the water
before
it reaches the
boiler(s
)
 
! Previously heatedwater reduces internal stresses on the boiler(s), gives easier steaming and reduces fuelconsumption and thus water might enter the
water 
 
feed heaters
at between 140° and 150° Fand leave, on its road to the boiler at 200° F.
The Boiler -
The greater the contact that the water has with the heat from a fire, the fasterthe water will evaporate to make steam and, for that very reason, many tubes run through,often several times through, boilers and chambers before the steam eventually reaches the
engine(s)
.
The Condenser -
takes all the surplus and previously used steam from the main andauxiliary engines, the steam then being passed many times over the
condenser tubes
,these
salt water filled 
and supplied constantly with
sea water 
by means of a
circulating pump
. The
condensed steam
, now again water and any air and vapour removed from thecondenser by an
air pump
which discharges to the outside atmosphere, is in turn
filtered 
and fed to the
hotwell 
- an intermediary point in the
water feed system
which, as previouslydescribed,
again
begins to heat the water in the
water 
 
feed heaters
.Of the various
water temperatures
, given the
boiler 
at say
212° F
, then the
return tothe
 
condenser 
at about
126° F
, the
air pump
then further reducing the watertemperature to between perhaps
90°
and
110° F
and the
hotwell 
then raising the watertemperature to perhaps some
150° F
before returning the water to the
water 
 
feed heaters
to be heated up again for the boiler(s) etc. again at around
200° F
.While
steam
acts against all sides of cylinders equally,
both
 
temperature and pressure
drop. A drop in
temperature
means, essentially, that ‘work’ is lost. By dividing thetemperature drop between a number of cylinders,
condensation losses
are proportionatelydecreased, cylinder cooling is minimised and the advantages of pressures are maximised.Understanding that
1 p.s.i.
(pound per square inch)
equals
about
 
2”
(inches) of 
vacuum
 
and 
that
barometric pressure at sea level 
is about
30”
(inches)
may 
make it easier to followthe
workings of the engine
as the
engine gauge readings
indicate
 pressures relative tothe prevailing ‘atmospheric’ pressures
!
If 
there was
no
 
vacuum
e.g. if the
barometric pressure
was
30”
(inches)
and 
the
vacuum gauge
was reading
15 p.s.i.
, it being remembered that
1 p.s.i.
 
equals
about
 
2”
(inches) of 
vacuum
, the engine would of course
slow down
as the engine is essentially an
‘atmospheric engine’ 
and consequently the
vacuum gauge
should always
read lower 
thanthe
‘outside’ barometric pressure
if the engine is expected to work !And so to
The Engine(s) -
The likely sequence of events in the case of a
triple expansionengine
, given that the
boiler 
is supplying
steam
to the
throttle
at say
180 p.s.i.
(poundper square inch), would be that the
high pressure cylinder 
(usually the middle cylinder of the engine) would receive at a slightly reduced pressure, perhaps about
170 p.s.i.
, the
exhausted steam
 
from
the
high pressure cylinder 
being fed to the
medium pressurecylinder 
, at perhaps between
58
and
60 p.s.i.
and, in turn, this
exhausted steam
beingfed to the
low pressure cylinder 
at about
1
or
2 p.s.i.
and the steam then returned to the
condenser 
(and, in turn, as hot water) to the
water feed system
etc. etc..3
of 00

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