Engineering at the British Association

Abstract

ON Thursday, September 11, after the president's address, a paper by Mr. H. A. Humphrey on recent progress in large gas engines was read. This paper, which was illustrated by lantern slides, gave an account of the extraordinary development of large gas engines which has taken place during the past few years, and which has, as the author said, had, but few parallels in the history of engineering enterprise. In the Paris Exhibition of 1900, a 600 h.p, Cockerill gas engine was, from its size, the object of much interest. The same makers are now building engines of 2500 h.p., and they are prepared to under take one to develop 5000 h.p. In this country it is only as recently as 1900 that engines above 400 h.p. have been made, the first two being constructed for Messrs. Brunner, Mond and Co.'s works at Winnington, yet when the paper was written (August) the two chief manufactories in Great Britain had under contract or had already delivered no less than fifty-one gas engines tanging in size between 200 and 1000 h.p.. But it is on the Continent and in America that the most remarkable advance has been made. The author gave in a very complete table particulars of all engines of more than 200 h.p. capacity which have been built abroad or are under construction, the total amounting to 327 engines, developing 181,605 h.p. Slides shown by the author illustrated the various uses to which these large gas engines have been put so far, such as dynamo driving, air compression for blast-furnace work, and other similar uses. Perhaps the most interesting detail in connection with this in crease in the size of gas engines has been the use of blast-furnace gas for working them. The author in the latter part of his paper explained in some detail the improvements in construction and governing which have made these large engines possible, in particular the changes which have been necessary in the old “hit and miss” governor mechanism, where, as in dynamo driving, perfect uniformity of speed is necessary. As several large engineering firms in. this country have now acquired the rights for manufacturing some of the most successful, foreign types of these engines, there is little doubt that we are on the eve of important developments in this country in the gas-engine industry, especially in the utilisation of producer and of blast furnace gases.