418
EXPOSITION AT VIENNA.
navigable water, except their own little lake, by their experience, their good workmanship, and above all, by the reputation which their engines of this style have acquired for their economy, have contrived to gain a trade which extends all over Europe, onto the Rhine and the Danube, and to the Black and Mediterranean seas, and even to South America. From 1860 to May, 1873, they built one hundred and thirty steamboat engines ; of these ninety-one were compounded.
Of the stationary engines a very small exhibition w r as made by the English, and although compound engines are largely in use w T ith them, their leading manufacturers did not generally appear. Of the two engines built especially for economy, one by Galloway, was on the compound principle. The French had only two stationary engines, of which one was compounded. A portable, whose size and weight would entitle it to rank among the stationaries, was also compounded, the cylinders being in the steam-dome.
In the German department were several compound engines.
The compound upright blowing engine, exhibited by the Cockerill works of- Liege, in Belgium, was the most striking machine in the Exposition ; it has been described on page 413 of this report. But few compounded engines were shown by the Austrians or other nations of eastern Europe, though they were not without examples.
In reviewing this whole subject, it seems probable that as the economy arising from the introduction of steam-jacketed compound engines into the marine of this country is perceived, and as our large manufacturers investigate the advantages of this type of engines, as shown in Europe, that these improvements will be demanded here and will be carefully studied into by our engine-builders, and that'economy in steam during the next twenty years, will be sought more by these modifications, and less by complicated and expensive- running valve-gear.
A few general facts may be noticed in regard to the engines of all the European nations. Wherever their governors or their valve-gear -were driven by gears, one of the pair was always made Avitli inserted wooden teeth. Nearly all the engines carried their piston-rods completely through the cylinder, so that the heads Avero as far as possible supported