Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 90.djvu/200

 184

��Popular Science Monthly

���The steam engine is of the two-cylinder locomotive type with slide valves. It is controlled by a small switch and lever

Substituting Steam for Gasoline in Automobiles

GASOLINE is high. Next year its price may be even higher. Herein lie the possibilities of the new steam-driven auto- mobile shown on this page. Like an ordi- nary gasoline car in appearance, the new steamer and its power plant eliminate the clutch and gearset, thus making for easy driving. The car is controlled by a small switch and throttle lever aside from the usual functions of steering and braking.

It is said that the car can run 1,400 miles without replenishing its water supply and that one gallon of lubricating oil will last for 8,000 miles.

Mechanically, the power plant of the car consists of a kerosene-fired boiler, a steam condenser and a two-cylinder double-acting steam engine. The water is pumped from a storage tank beneath the driver's seat to the boiler placed under the hood.

The water is then heated and turned into steam by means of a kerosene-burner below the boiler. The kerosene supply is piped from a tank at the rear of the car. It is ignited by means of an electric hot point controlled from the switch in the driver's cab. The air with which the burning kerosene must combine is automatically supplied in the proper ratio by means of an electrically-driven blower.

From the boiler the steam is carried aft to the steam engine which is mounted in a unit with the rear axle, driving the wheels direct. The exhausted steam is then carried back to the condenser, which takes the place of the ordinary gasoline car radi- ator. It is there turned back into heated water which is fed to the boiler.

��The Popularity of Liquid- Measuring Pumps THE great amount of gas- oline consumed as a motor fuel has been respon- sible for the wide use of the liquid-measuring pump. In Greater New York alone there are seven thousand measuring pumps in use. There are thirty-nine firms engaged in making them at the present time. Briefly described, a measur- ing pump is a pump adapted for the measurement of fluids in definite quantities by vol- ume. In many instances the pump itself is the measuring device, and in other types the pump is only used to fill a measuring chamber such as a pail or can. The ordinary piston-pump discharges a volume of liquid equal to the space volume generated by the piston in its travel. The pumps may discharge only on the upstroke or on both the up and down strokes.

��OUANTin STOPS

���The pump delivers gasoline to the automobile with a minimum of waste and evaporation. It is usually a measuring device in itself

�� �