Topic starter
10/09/2011 1:05 am
Novice question here: on sidewheelers, were engines always placed forward of the wheels? I'm guessing yes - it wouldn't make much sense to have to run a steam line further than necessary.
This brings up another question then ... for sidewheelers where the wheels are close to halfway along the hull rather than further aft, was the machinery difficult to balance out with hog chains, etc?
10/09/2011 11:00 pm
Generally speaking, the wheels on a Mississippi River style side wheeler were about three quarters of the way aft. Maybe the earliest boats had their wheels 'midships, but by 1848 the wheels were certainly farther back.
Robert H. McCann maintained that sidewheel boats didn't need hogchains as the weight of the machinery and boilers were more centered. Nevertheless the last J.M. WHITE certainly had hog chains, and the fast sidewheelers on the Atlantic Coast had a system to support their hulls and keep them from hogging. Also their wheels were more towards the middle.
10/09/2011 11:28 pm
Jon (and everyone), if you have not seen it, the latest issue of INVENTION & TECHNOLOGY has a great article about sidwheelers and their hogchain systems, engines, etc. This article is about East Coast boats, written by S&D member and Cincinnati author Jack White, who is a frequent contributor to that magazine.
INVENTION & TECHNOLOGY is a quarterly publication of American Heritage. The main thing I do not like about it is that it is quarterly...if only it were monthly! I recommend you go to a newsstand and find a copy. You will NOT be sorry!
14/09/2011 2:52 pm
*RE: Sidewheels/Prof. Jack White*
Hi, Bob & Steamboatinc colleagues:
Thanks for the mention of the above publication featuring Prof. Jack White etc. Jack's research/writings stellar from start to finish with him providing insights not previously known. Some time back Jack provided 'grist' on the topic of lubrication products for steamboat engines that received great attention and comments. Jack has been featured in the S&D REFLECTOR numerous times in addition to his own publications. At times I wonder if Jack 'lurks' on .org and wonder what he thinks of our ruminations?
Interesting comments on location of sidewheels on boats. Seems a long time back Alan Bates also enlightened us on this matter RE: river steamboats with him mentioning the wheels catching the big wave rolling out and back. I'm no expert in liquid dynamics but appreciate comments on those more familiar. Sidewheelers with walking beam engines were, as stated, mounted more in the center. The huge D&C LINE steamers [Really ships] on the Great Lakes like this with incline reciprocating ones. The walking beams--and other incline engines--to the center for control of weight. Also the walking beams conserved more deck space for cargo etc. Yet, they did run up through the decks taking center space towering above with the diamond shaped beam 'walking' up and down, down and up. Usually only one main huge cylinder with some boats having two: high and low pressure and condensors. They were delicate jobbies to operate in starting up called 'dropping the hook.' One account of a big walking beam engine on a boat shattered due to a tablespoon of water in the cylinder while laid up in the winter. Those attending an S&D meeting in Marietta some years ago recall seeing the footage of the ALEXANDER HAMILTON roaring up the Hudson with her wheels chewing the water. Some in the audience gasped asking if the film footage was, perhaps, running too fast. It wasn't with the narrator stating the HAMILTON could hit 22 mph. 'Some' old sidewheel boats back east did have their engines mounted behind the wheels. Well, what do I know?
R. Dale Flick
Coal Haven Landing, Ohio River, Cincinnati.