THE EVAPORATIVE CONDENSER.

Moreover, all the parts of the engine are self-contained; they no longer depend upon the foundation, and in many cases the condensing is effected either by surface condensers, or, where there is not sufficient water, the condensation is, in a few instances, effected by the evaporative condenser—­a condenser which, I am sorry to say, is not generally known, and is therefore but seldom used, although its existence has been nearly as long as that of the association.  Notwithstanding the length of time during which the evaporative condenser has been known to some engineers, it is a common thing to hear persons say, when you ask them if they are using a condensing engine, “I can not use it; I have not water enough.”  A very sufficient answer indeed, if an injection condenser or an ordinary surface condenser constituted the sole means by which a vacuous condition might be obtained; but a very insufficient answer, having regard to the existence of the evaporative condenser, as by its means, whenever there is water enough for the feed of a non condensing engine, there is enough to condense, and to produce a good vacuum.

The evaporative condenser simply consists of a series of pipes, in which is the steam to be condensed, and over which the water is allowed to fall in a continuous rain.  By this arrangement there is evaporated from the outside of the condenser a weight of water which goes away in a cloud of vapor, and is nearly equal to that which is condensed, and is returned as feed into the boiler.  The same water is pumped up and used outside the condenser, over and over, needing no more to supply the waste than would be needed as feed water.  Although this condenser has, as I have said, been in use for thirty or forty years, one still sees engines working without condensation at all, or with waterworks water, purchased at a great cost, and to the detriment of other consumers who want it for ordinary domestic purposes; or one sees large condensing ponds made, in which the injection water is stored to be used over and over again, and frequently (especially toward the end of the week) in so tepid a state as to be unfit for its purpose.  The governing is now done by means of quick-running governors, which have power enough in them to raise not merely the weight of the pendulum ball, which is now small, but a very heavy weight, and in this way the governing is extremely effective.  I propose to say no more, looking at the magnitude of the whole of my subject, upon the engine used for manufacturing purposes, but rather to turn at once to those employed for other objects.

STEAM NAVIGATION.