Class 5
MACHINES FOR DIRECT USE, INCLUDING CARRIAGES, RAILWAY
AND MARINE MECHANISM.
INTRODUCTION.
The objects contemplated by this Class form the most important series exhibited._ They develop the appli-cation of a source or sources of power, either derived by man from simple combinations ot elementary things,or supplied to him in the active forces of nature—in the winds, tides, and rivers—or obtained by him fromadaptations of dynamical laws. They represent also the means employed in effecting change of place, whetheroi inanimate matter or of man himself. The Class is a very large one, occupies a considerable amount of space,and, as the most direct representation of one of the principal sources of the industrial success and prosperityof Great Britain, it must receive a large amount of study and attention. _
The Class is subdivided into machines for direct use, including Carriages, Railway and Naval Mechanism,and Carriages generally, not including Railway Carriages, or similar vehicles. The first of these divisions isthe most important, and comprehends—A. Steam-engines and Boilers, Water and Wind Mills , and variousother Prime Movers; B. the separate parts .of Machines, specimens of Workmanship, &c.; C. PneumaticMachines such as Air-pumps ; D. Hydraulic Machines ; E. Locomotives and Railway Carriages ; F. RailwayMachinery and Permanent Way ; and G. Weighing, Measuring, and Registering Machines for commercialjiurposes. The several divisions include—A. Carriages for Town use ; B. Travelling Carriages; C. Carriagesfor general use ; D. Public Carriages ; and E. Carts and Waggons—not agricultural.
The arrangement of the objects included in this Class, within the Building, extends over a large area.Commencing at Avenues C. D., Prime Movers in action will be found scattered in different positions down thoseavenues, and on entering Avenues A. B. C. lower down, they are still found as low as Area 30. AvenuesD. E. and F. from Area 19 to 30, contain some highly interesting Engines and Machines comprehendedwithin this Class. Avenues F. G. are occupied hy Locomotives , Railway Carriages, and Railroad Apparatusgenerally. Avenue G. to I., from Area 1 to 14, are filled with Carriages of every description. In Areas G. PI.and I., from 19 to 22, are found the largest specimens of Prime Movers exhibited, representing that peculiarform of steam-engine applied to the purposes of marine propulsion. The Prime Movers being employed incommunicating motion to machines belonging to the next Class, are necessarily distributed among thosemachines; but the other objects regarded by the Class have, as far as possible, been grouped in immediateproximity to each other. A number of Models, illustrative of Class 5, are found at the eastern end of thatpart of the Building containing machinery in motion.
Steam-engines are so directly in relation with the prosecution of manufactures and locomotion, that theymust always demand a certain degree of superior interest. A great variety is exhibited : these belong chieflyto the high-pressure class; and motion is communicated to them by steam conveyed in pipes clothed withliair-felt running under the flooring. These p>ipes derive their supply from five boilers, arranged in the boiler-house, at a little distance from the north-west comer of the Building. The system adopted of clothing thepipes with thick liair-felt, and over that with a casing of painted canvas, has rendered it possible to carry high-pressure steam to a distance before thought to be impracticable. The pipes are supplied at intervals with .globular water-traps, in which the water resulting from the condensation of the steam is collected, and. whenceit can he readily removed. The system of non-conduction is so complete, that no. perceptible heat is expe-rienced rising through the open flooring.
The beam engines of a former period appear to he becoming replaced, in high-pressure engines, by thoseforms in which a direct communication of power is made from the piston to the crank, cither mediatelythrough connecting arrangements, or immediately by the attachment of tlie piston rod to the crank itself. Iothe latter class belong the steam-engines with vibrating or oscillating cylinders; to the former, those inwhich the cylinder is fixed, and in which the rectilinear movement of the piston rod is converted into thecurvilinear one of the crank and shafting, through the medium of vibrating mechanism attached to it. . Severalvarieties of both these kinds of steam-engine are exhibited in motion driving cotton-spinning, weaving, andother machines. Rotatory steam-engines of different kinds are also exhibited: in most of these the curvilinearmotion necessary for driving machinery is obtained without the intervention of the crank, and power is led offby bands from the shafting directly operated upon by the engine. Some of these machines present the mostsingular and anomalous forms. There arc some examples of new methods of converting rectilinear into curvi-linear motion.
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