News

September 1886 Four years after this magazine was launched, the editors reviewed the latest improvements to industrial boilers, beginning with the Backus furnace (Figure 1). 1. The Backus furnace. “This furnace is provided with a brick arch placed just back of the fire-doors, that is intended to deflect the currents of air that are admitted […]

August 1886 POWER reported on one of the first twin-cylinder "Otto" natural gas–fired engines that had recently appeared in the U.S. power market. The report notes that "engines of 100 horsepower are being now economically used where gas is low in price, as in England and other European countries" (Figure 1). 1. A twin-cylinder "Otto" […]

The Energy Policy Act of 2005 gave the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) the authority to override state and local opposition to the construction of interstate transmission lines if the agency determines that they will reduce system congestion. In April, the Department of Energy designated two regions that might qualify for such treatment as "national […]

June 1886 POWER reported on the art and science of water treatment and its effect on boiler performance in the cover story this month. "Dr. J.G. Rogers, an authority on steam generation, is quoted as stating that one-sixteenth of an inch of scale in a boiler will require the extra consumption of 15% more fuel; […]

  In 1882, Americans talked of John L. Sullivan, the bare-knuckles boxing heavyweight champion of the world, as horse-drawn carriages jingled along city streets. The spidery cables of the Brooklyn Bridge spanned the East River and hundreds of workmen scrambled to complete the great project. Railroads crossed the continent, but sporadic Indian warfare still plagued […]

April 1884 POWER reported on the latest offering from Philadelphia-based Southwark Foundry and Machine Co. (Figure 1) as its lead story. "This is a self-contained, high speed auto­matic cut-off engine. It has been designed with special reference to simplicity, and solidity of parts, and to heavy and continuous work. 1. The Southwark engine was the […]

March 1886 POWER reported on the latest development of a new and improved engine: "The chief feature of the Corliss engine [from Kendall & Roberts, Cambridgeport, Mass.] is the valve gear, which consists of four cylindrical valves, two each for admission and exhaust, operated from a central swing or stud plate; the steam valves being […]

February 1885 The cover story examined the latest in reciprocating engine technology: the Greene automatic cut-off engine (Figure 1). Here is how the editors described it: "The engine has a girder frame; guides case separate and dowelled and bolted to the bed plate; four-part main boxes; Porter governor. There are two steam and two exhaust […]

January 1885 The cover story of this issue reviewed the latest power generation technology then entering the market. "The Fishkill vertical direct acting condensing engine . . . has a heavy bed-plate of box form, with pillow-block for main journal cast on. The upright frames are A-shaped, with hollow cylindrical legs, which rest on the […]

—Dr. Robert Peltier, PE Editor-in-Chief During every summer hot enough to break peak demand records, the rhetoric heats up as well, with calls to rid the U.S. bulk-power system of bottlenecks. As the eternal optimist, I see large transmission projects showing signs of life and grid reliability improving. But not everyone is happy about that. […]