In fact, it was necessary to treat the engine
room in the way in which a fiery colliery would be treated. The
lighting, for instance, was by lamps external to the engine room, and
shining through thick plate-glass. The hand lamps were Davy's. The
ether engine was a bold experiment in applied science, and one that
entitles Du Tremblay's name to be preserved, and to be mentioned as it
was by our president.
THE QUICKSILVER ENGINE.
These was another kind of marine engine that I think should not be
passed over without notice; I allude to Howard's quicksilver engine.
The experiments with this engine were persevered in for some
considerable time, and it was actually used for practical purposes in
propelling a passenger steam-vessel called the Vesta, and running
between London and Ramsgate. In that engine the boiler had a double
bottom, containing an amalgam of quicksilver and lead. This amalgam
served as a reservoir of heat, which it took up from the fire below
the double-bottom, and gave forth at intervals to the water above it.
There was no water in the boiler, in the ordinary sense of the term,
but when steam was wanted to start the engine, a small quantity of
water was injected by means of a hand-pump, and after the engine was
started, there was pumped by it into the boiler, at each half
revolution, as much water as would make the steam needed.
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