Page:Reflections on the Motive Power of Heat.djvu/223

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MOTIVE POWER OF HEAT.
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boiler be 3½ atmospheres (temperature 140°) the amount of work for each unit of heat will be found, by dividing this by 618, to be 130.7 foot-pounds, which is or 29.7 per cent of the theoretical duty.[1]

(5) The actual average of work performed by good Cornish engines and boilers is 55,000,000 foot-pounds for each bushel of coal, or less than half the experimental performance of the Fowey Consols engine, more than half the actual duty performed by the United Mines engine in 1840; in fact, about 25 per cent of the theoretical duty.

(6) The average performances of a number of Lancashire engines and boilers have been recently found to be such as to require 12 lbs. of Lancashire coal per horse-power per hour (i.e., for performing 60 × 33,000 foot-pounds), and of a number of Glasgow engines such as to require 15 lbs. (of a somewhat inferior coal) for the same effect. There are, however, more than twenty large engines in Glasgow at present[2] which work with a

  1. If, in this case again, the pressure required in the boiler to make the engine work according to the contract were only 15 lbs. on the square inch, we should have a different estimate of the economy, for which see Table B, at the end of this paper.
  2. These engines are provided with separate expansion