Popular Mechanics Plans-Small Horizontal Steam Engine.pdf

Building a Small Horizontal Steam EngineBY HAROLD E. BENSONHE small engine described in thisarticle was built by the writer inhis spare time—about an hour a day forfour months—and drives the machineryin a small shop. At 40-lb. gauge pres-sure, the engine runs at 150 ., underfull load, and delivers a little over .4brake horsepower. A cast steam chest,with larger and more direct steam ports,to reduce condensation losses; less clear-ance in the cylinder ends, and largerbearing surfaces in several places, wouldbring the efficiency of the engine up to amuch higher point than this. In thewriter's case, however, the engine is de-livering ample power for the purpose towhich it is applied, and consequentlythese changes were not made, but, if theengine is to be used forcontinuous rather thanintermittent service, itwould be foolish to wastepower costing more thanthe changes needed toconserve might be remarked,at this point, that nomethod of constructiondescribed here is to betaken as the best; manybetter methods of mak-ing each part will doubt-less occur to the improvements thatwere thought of too lateto be incorporated in theengine will be mentionedin the proper cylinder, shown inFig. 1, is made from apiece of steel pipe, se-lected with special re-gard to the condition of the inner sur-face. This may be bored to size, andlapped, or ground. A standard insi