ARMSTRONG, R. A practical essay on steam engine boilers, as now used in the manufacturing district around Manchester: containing a new method of calculating their power, with instructions respecting their general construction and management; including observations on railway locomotive engines - incrustations, explosions, etc. Manchester, Thomson 1838
8vo. (iv) + 102pp, 4 folding litho plates. Contemporary marbled boards, neatly rebacked in calf and with new calf corners. Presentation inscription from the author. A wholly practical book on the design and management of boilers, frequently the Achilles heel of the steam engine, preventing their efficient and economic running. The book is largely concerned with boilers for mill engines, though there is a small section describing locomotive boilers, and the author carried out a number of experiments to arrive at the guidelines he recommends here. He deals with high and low pressure boilers, form and proportions, the effects of malconstruction, the enlarging of the furnace and so on. He covers the capacity of the steam chamber and what happens when the boiler is too small, together with rules for alteration and improvement. There is advice on re-setting boilers in order to save fuel, methods of estimating power, the best form of fire-grate, boiler cleansing machinery and ways to get rid of scale and boiler balls, which clogged up pipes and flues, cause and prevention of explosions and so on. Various types of boiler, such as the Boulton and Watt boiler or Durham and Cornish boilers are referred to and some leading contemporary books, such as Tredgold and Pambour, are cited. Above all, the author, a Manchester engineer, has clearly gathered much first-hand information from the cotton manufacturers and other proprietors of steam engines in the city and its vicinity, to whom he gives a warm acknowledgement. This is the first edition of the work, printed on cheap paper and with crude illustrations because, as Armstrong ruefully observes, his publisher clearly had little faith in its sale and thus there was a small print run. However, a second enlarged edition appeared in 1839.
£450
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