Syphons

Might Find Something Here...

Try:

http://www.history.rochester.edu/steam/thurston/1878/Chapter1.html

Thank you. That is certainly a comprehensive history of the use of steam up to the date of it's publication. Unfortunately I could not find any discussion of the auxiliary uses and machines for which I was looking.

The reason for my question concerns the steamer Heroine which the INA and OHS are excavating on the Red R. She was built in 1832 and lost in 1838, and is the oldest western rivers vessel found and studied to date. (At least as far as I am aware.) Most of her decking is gone, but the hull is reasonably intact. No evidence of a pump well such as would have been required for the traditional hand operated bilge pump was found in her hull. That lead me to speculate on whether syphons were in use at that early date as a system of syphons, or a portable syphon might not require the sort of well that a piston pump would.

Another question raised concerns the pump required to fill the boilers when steam was not up. She was built long before the "doctor" came into use, and her feedwater pump probably ran off the main (single) engine. Some method of filling the cold boilers had to exist. Only a single hull opening for intake was found. It was connected to a pipe that turned up and came through the deck near the port wheel. There was no sea chest or cold well. It is possible that they simply dropped a hose overside and used a portable hand pump, though that seems cumbersome. It is also possible that the pump was on the guards, though that seems as though it would be easily damaged.

I post questions like this here because while I have a good bit of "book learning", there is no substitute for actual hands-on operating experience, nor for the oral traditions passed on among working engineers. This board is the best source that I know to tap into that knowledge.