[D8934AAC], Letter from Gardiner C Sims to Thomas Alva Edison, February 22nd, 1889
https://edisondigital.rutgers.edu/document/D8934AAC
→ View document with UniversalViewer
→ View document on Archive.org
→ Re-use this digital object via a IIIF manifest
Title
[D8934AAC], Letter from Gardiner C Sims to Thomas Alva Edison, February 22nd, 1889
Editor's Notes
Armington and Sims Engine Company, Providence February 22nd, 1889####Dear Edison--Enclosed find a gentle reminder of Geo. Washington####Also report on speed of our double engine which to connect by flexible coupling, direct to your No. 1 Multipolar Marine Dynamo 80 Volts 100 Am. 400 Rev. We have built several Compound, Double Engines for the Government. Each pulley have four grooves for 1 1-2 inch cotton rope. Speed about 5000 feet per minute. An Electrical Paper published in Boston, recently compared our engines in your New York and Philadelphia Stations, with compound condensing engines of the Corliss type, giving preference to the leater. I am quite anxious to read the paper of Prof. Marks at last Edison Convention and get his views. We are constantly on the look out for information on this subject, and find some French Engineers have gone daft on Verticle High Speed Compound, for connecting direct to dynamo as we have done for Ship lighting, and several have been built for the French Navy. A great claim has been made for this ombination, but a letter just received from a prominent engineer who is througohly posted as regards continental practice says, "the compound engine which has been all the go in France for electric lighting, in not a success."####I quote from London Engineering, Feb. 9th, 1889 page 137 on Compound Locomotives.####"A letter from Mr. S.W Johnson, of the Midland Railway, was first read by the secretary. The writer said he had had no personal experience with compound locomotives, but had watched their development very closely. He found the results such as he would expect to be obtained by higher pressures and greater expansion, even if not accompanied by compounding. He had seen no data by which a comparison could be formed between the respective merits of simple and compound locomotive engines in which the same pressure and same number of expansions had been used in both cases. He considered data otherwise obtained of no alue. The increased pressure used in compound engines had resulted in an economy of fuel, but the real question was, Would that economy have been obtained had the higher pressure steam been expanded to an equal ratio in an ordinary engine? If this question were answered in the affirmative, where was the advantage of compounding? The writer gave some particulars of coal consumption etc., which had come under his experience in an ordinary engine using steam at a high pressure, and these, it appeared, came out about the same as these recorded in connection with Mr. Webb's compounds.####Enclosed find copy of letter, a practical one on the subject, that is of interest. Much has been said of late on the subject of compounding, without condensing. Our Philadelphia engines will demonstrate which is the best.####Sincerely Yours, Gardiner C. Sims####[Enclosure]: Providence, R.I., Feb. 11th, 1889.####Report of Test of Armington & Sims Engine for Gun-boat 'Yorktown' by Lieut. T.E De Witt Veeder, U.S.N.####1st. Test for Regulation of speed at varying loads. 20 per. Cent. Of Load, 417 Revolutions####50, 416####0, 420####75, 416####100, 416#### 2nd. Test of Speed variation for varying boiler pressures and from full load to 20 per. Cent. Of full load.####Boiler Pressure, Load Speed####80 lbs., Full, 415#### 80, 20 per cent, 417####105, Full, 416####105, 20 per cent, 420####Extreme variation equal to 5 Rev. equal to 1.25 per. Cent.### Frank Bourne, Edison United Mfg. Co.,####[Name mentions: Frank Bourne, Edison United Mfg. Co., Gardiner Sims, Thos Edison, William Dennis Marks, Armigton & Sims Engine Company, Gunboat Yorktown,. T.E De Witt Veeder, U.S.N, Geo. Washington, Mr. Webb, S.W Johnson]
Author
Recipient
Mentioned
Date
1889-02-22
Type
Folder/Volume ID
D8934-F
Microfilm ID
126:234
Document ID
D8934AAC
Publisher
Thomas A. Edison Papers, School of Arts and Sciences, Rutgers University