Another Case in the Flathead Valley besides Jimmy's and mine was this 75hp engine at the Trap Zoo. It sold and went into Canada in the early 1990s.
I'd done a lot of talk about piping injectors lately, having just finished on the 20hp Reeves yesterday. I'm sure that's "Greek" to some of you. An injector is an amazing invention. I don't know who invented the first one? There were many brands built in the steam era and some were better than others. The most prominate name was Penberthy, as these three in this picture. I scrounged these three at the scrapyard on one day! I'll never do that again, as long as I live. The top is a 1-1/2 inch, the middle is a 1 inch and the bottom one is a 1/2 inch injector. "Injector talk" has gone on as long as I've been dabbling in steam (over 57 years now). It is a difficult task to express with words how an injector works. The technical explanation is: "The velocity of the steam and the condensation of the water" is what makes an injector work. What an injector does in a steam engine that has, let's say, 150 psi on the steam gauge. You're down to 1/4 of a glass of water in your gauge glass and you want to add water to bring it up to half of a glass. I open the steam valve generously, then with the other hand open the water valve. You hear the suction in the piping as the injector "takes" (sometimes this is wishful thinking) and the injector is pushing water into the boiler, using 150 psi and pushing water in AGAINST 150 psi. There are two venturi in an injector. One blows steam into the other and between them is the cold water inlet. That jet of steam sucks water into the second venturi and with the aid of a check valve in the line, pushes water through the check valve and on into the front area of the boiler barrel, away from the hotter water of the firebox area of the boiler. Since steam feeds in with the water, the water is naturally warmed before reaching the boiler's water, however it does cool the water temperature in the boiler. Air pressure couldn't do this like steam does. Air doesn't disapate like steam which cools and condenses back to water.
Now the test.... Just kidding.
Something that is VERY fascinating to me is the "Inspirator" as in this picture. I've only run one in my life of steaming. My friend Don Bradley had one on his 30hp Alberta Special undermounted Avery one year at Belgrade, Montana. I got to plow with the engine and use that inspirator. Locomotives used them very frequently. They are basically an injector, but used one handle to open the steam and the water simultaneously with the movement ot that one lever. They are preset by the needs of the engineer, as to percentage of steam and water entering and exiting the imspirator. So when you want to add water, you just push the lever and wah-lah! Water! (theoretically). They don't ALWAYS work either! Gary
