DMahalko
09-08-2008, 08:15 PM
Hmm it appears you could get lost for weeks in Google's scanned collection of old technical books and magazines with expired copyrights.
Here's an intensely detailed discussion of the Corliss valve gear, from a 1903 magazine called "Machinists Monthly Journal", article titled "Improvements in the Steam Engine":
It says this valve gear may be found on the "Sioux-Corliss machines manufactured by the Murray Iron Works Company of Burlington, Iowa" and illustrations of what appears to be your exact Villaume valve gear on the second page of the article.
http://books.google.com/books?id=Q8EUAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&cad=1_2#PPA91,M1
Just look at the diagrams and mechanisms on the following pages of this article, with cross sections of the dash pots and a long discussion of how they function.
"THE USE OF DASH POTS"
"There are several things about a Corliss engine that prove to be a great mystery to the uninitiated, and the remarks made about them, as well as the questions asked concerning their use, are always a source of amusement to those who have been in the engine room long enough to fully understand the purpose for which they are designed, but none of these parts seem to equal the dash pots as stumbling blocks in the path of the unwary..." (Holy run-on sentence, batman!)
This public domain article would probably be awesome if it were blown up as huge laminated posters around the Villaume engine. Google says these scans can be used free for non-commercial use and I would think WMSTR qualifies.
- Dale
Here's an intensely detailed discussion of the Corliss valve gear, from a 1903 magazine called "Machinists Monthly Journal", article titled "Improvements in the Steam Engine":
It says this valve gear may be found on the "Sioux-Corliss machines manufactured by the Murray Iron Works Company of Burlington, Iowa" and illustrations of what appears to be your exact Villaume valve gear on the second page of the article.
http://books.google.com/books?id=Q8EUAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&cad=1_2#PPA91,M1
Just look at the diagrams and mechanisms on the following pages of this article, with cross sections of the dash pots and a long discussion of how they function.
"THE USE OF DASH POTS"
"There are several things about a Corliss engine that prove to be a great mystery to the uninitiated, and the remarks made about them, as well as the questions asked concerning their use, are always a source of amusement to those who have been in the engine room long enough to fully understand the purpose for which they are designed, but none of these parts seem to equal the dash pots as stumbling blocks in the path of the unwary..." (Holy run-on sentence, batman!)
This public domain article would probably be awesome if it were blown up as huge laminated posters around the Villaume engine. Google says these scans can be used free for non-commercial use and I would think WMSTR qualifies.
- Dale