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38-558: The company was established with $ 40,000 in capital in March 1813 by David Anthony, Dexter Wheeler, Abraham Bowen, and several associates. Much of the money was raised in nearby towns. In the same month of March 1813, the Troy Cotton & Woolen Manufactory was also founded at the high end of the falls along the Quequechan , about 1/4 mile to the east. The Troy opened for business in March 1814. By

76-508: A 75 percent drop in the cost in the picking process. Initially, the company produced only cotton yarn, which was sent out to local farm women for weaving into cloth. However, in 1817, Wheeler built the first power loom to operate in Fall River. Although the first looms were rather clumsy and imperfect in their operation, they were gradually improved over time. By 1820, the mill contained 30 looms operated by 15 weavers. The Fall River Manufactory

114-460: A mile in length. Switched on by President Ulysses S. Grant and Emperor Pedro II of Brazil , the engine was in public view for the duration of the fair. The engine was configured as two cylinders side by side. Each cylinder was bored to 44 inches (112 cm) with a stroke of 10 feet (3.0 m). The Centennial Engine was 45 feet (14 m) tall, had a flywheel 30 feet (9.1 m) in diameter, and produced 1,400 horsepower (1,000 kW). After

152-402: A vertical cylinder beam engine , and it used individual slide valves for admission and exhaust at each end of the cylinder. The inlet valves are pulled open with an eccentric-driven pawl ; when the pawl trips , the rapid closure is damped using a dashpot . In many engines, the same dashpot acts as a vacuum spring to pull the valves closed, but Corliss's early engines were slow enough that it

190-760: The American & British Manufacturing Corporation  [ de ] . In 1925 the company merged into Franklin Machine Company. By then Franklin Machine Company was already owned by the William A. Harris Steam Engine Company. The Corliss Centennial Engine was an all-inclusive, specially built rotative beam engine that powered virtually all of the exhibits at the United States Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia in 1876 through shafts totaling over

228-618: The Route 79 viaduct. Troy Cotton %26 Woolen Manufactory The Troy Cotton & Woolen Manufactory was a textile manufacturing company located Fall River, Massachusetts . Founded in 1813 by Oliver Chace , it was the second textile mill to be built over the Quequechan River , after the Fall River Manufactory . It was located at what is now Troy Street between Pleasant and Bedford Streets. The company, originally known as

266-475: The "Troy Manufacturing Company", was incorporated in March 1813 for $ 50,000. ( Fall River was known as "Troy" between 1804 and 1834). The company's first mill was built over the uppermost falls of the Quequechan River , on the site of a former saw mill. It measured 108 feet long by thirty-seven feet wide with four stories and a low hip roof. It was constructed from field stone collected from the surrounding fields. The mill opened for business in March 1814. In 1821,

304-531: The 1820s, the successful operation of these two pioneering cotton mills would lead to the establishment of several others along a short stretch of the Quequechan River . By 1850, Fall River would rank as one of the leading textile centers in the United States. The impetus for establishing a new cotton mill on the Quequechan River at Troy was brought about largely by the ongoing War of 1812 , which led to widespread shortages and increased prices of cotton goods in

342-591: The Pocasset Mills, the property of the Fall River Manufacturing Company was occupied by various small businesses until the early 1960s, when the property was taken by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for construction of Interstate 195 . The 1869 mill was scheduled to be demolished with it was destroyed by fire on August 15, 1961. The location now contains part of the interchange between I-195 and

380-507: The United States. By this time, the textile industry was well established in nearby Rhode Island and in other parts of New England . David Anthony, a native of the nearby town of Somerset had gained experience in the cotton textile industry while working for Samuel Slater in Pawtucket . In April 1812, Anthony worked for a short time in the cotton mill of his cousin Dexter Wheeler, across

418-496: The William A. Harris Steam Engine Company, the Worthington Pump and Machinery Company , and Allis-Chalmers . In general, these machines were referred to as Corliss engines regardless of who made them. In 1895 the company was shut down under the burden of $ 800,000 debt, and in 1900 it was sold to International Power Company controlled by industrialist Joseph H. Hoadley . In 1905 it was transferred to another Hoadley's firm,

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456-531: The area of a Corliss valve is small compared to the port area, the effects of gas flow generate relatively little torque on the valve axle compared to some other sorts of valve. These advantages have led to the Corliss form of valve being used in other roles, apart from steam engines with Corliss gear. The Rolls-Royce Merlin aero-engine used a rectangular butterfly valve as a throttle. Gas-flow forces acting asymmetrically on this butterfly could lead to poor control of

494-476: The company had acquired the adjacent Quequechan Mills (originally built as Robeson Print Works). The Fall River Manufacturing Company property was acquired in 1905 by the Pocasset Manufacturing Company , and became known as that company's Mill No. 5. The Quequechan Mills property was acquired by William J. Dunn and leased to several small businesses. After the closing and subsequent 1928 fire of

532-634: The cutoff can be regulated, the virtue of doing so lies in the fact that most of the power stroke is powered by the expansion of steam in the cylinder after the admission valve has closed. This comes far closer to the ideal Carnot cycle than is possible with an engine where the admission valve is open for the length of the power stroke and speed is regulated by a throttle valve. The Corliss valve gearing allowed more uniform speed and better response to load changes, making it suitable for applications like rolling mills and spinning, and greatly expanding its use in manufacturing. Corliss valves open directly into

570-534: The cylinder to warm up the metalwork. Turning the engine slowly during this process ensures that the entire engine is uniformly warmed, and it ensures that oil is uniformly distributed through the mechanism before applying power. Again, barring may be used to do this, although operators sometimes do this by careful manual manipulation of the valves. For large engines, muscle powered barring is sufficiently difficult that barring engines are frequently installed. These are small engines with gear teeth cut to mate with

608-403: The cylinder. The valves connect the cylinder to separate steam and exhaust plenums . Initially, Corliss used slide valves with linear actuators, but by 1851, Corliss had shifted to semi-rotary valve actuators, as documented in U.S. Patent 8253. In this engine, the wrist plate was moved to the center of the cylinder side, as on later Corliss engines. This was still a beam engine , however, and

646-407: The cylinder. These passages are exposed to wide temperature swings during engine operation, and there are high temperature gradients within the valve mechanism. Clark (1891) commented that the Corliss gear "is essentially a combination of elements previously known and used separately, affecting the cylinder and the valve-gear". The origins of the Corliss gear with regard to previous steam valve gear

684-527: The early 21st century. See, for example, the engines at the Hook Norton Brewery and the Distillerie Dillon in the list of operational engines. Corliss engines have four valves for each cylinder, with steam and exhaust valves located at each end. Corliss engines incorporate distinct refinements in both the valves themselves and in the valve gear , that is, the system of linkages that operate

722-427: The engine during starting is most obvious on single-cylinder engines, where a careless engine operator might stop the engine with the piston in or near dead center . Once stopped in this state, the engine cannot be started under its own power, so it must be barred to a more favorable position for starting. Large Corliss engines cannot be safely started cold, so it is common to admit low-pressure steam to both sides of

760-593: The first treasurer of the company. The Fall River and Troy mills had barely begun operation when the Treaty of Ghent was signed on December 24, 1814, ending the War of 1812 . During the period that followed, many of the recently established textile mills in New England struggled or failed due to a sharp drop in demand and prices for their goods, brought on by resumed shipments of cheaper products from Great Britain . Nevertheless,

798-528: The industrious Yankee owners of the Fall River Manufactory persevered, and sought to improve their business with new technologies. In 1814, the mill acquired a Blair picking machine, which had just been introduced in the United States. This machine was used to clean and process the raw cotton prior to spinning, a process that until then had been done by hand at considerable time and expense. The new device resulted in greatly increased production and about

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836-434: The key features of what we now know as the Corliss engine were in place. Patents granted to Corliss and others incorporated rotary valves and crank shafts in-line with the cylinders. See, for example, Corliss' U.S. Patent 24,618, granted July 5, 1859. Competing inventors worked hard to invent alternatives to Corliss' mechanisms; they generally avoided Corlis's use of a wrist plate and adopted alternative releasing mechanisms for

874-1193: The original invention from Frederick Ellsworth Sickels (1819- 1895), who held the patent (1829) in the US patent office. Engines fitted with Corliss valve gear offered the best thermal efficiency of any type of stationary steam engine until the refinement of the uniflow steam engine and steam turbine in the 20th century. Corliss engines were generally about 30 percent more fuel efficient than conventional steam engines with fixed cutoff. This increased efficiency made steam power more economical than water power, allowing industrial development away from millponds. Corliss engines were typically used as stationary engines to provide mechanical power to line shafting in factories and mills and to drive dynamos to generate electricity. Many were quite large, standing many metres tall and developing several hundred horsepower , albeit at low speed, turning massive flywheels weighing several tons at about 100 revolutions per minute. Some of these engines have unusual roles as mechanical legacy systems and because of their relatively high efficiency and low maintenance requirements, some remain in service into

912-463: The original mill was destroyed by fire. Some machinery was rescued however, and moved to a recently completed nearby building known as the "Little Mill". The main mill was rebuilt and opened in 1823. Oliver Chace remained agent of the mill until 1822, when he moved to the newly formed Pocasset Manufacturing Company . Oliver's son Harvey Chace became the agent at the Troy, and remained until 1842. The mill

950-503: The power in some circumstances. Late models, from the 134, used a Corliss throttle valve instead to avoid this problem. A common feature of large Corliss engines is one or two sets of narrow gear teeth in the rim of the flywheel . These teeth allow the flywheel to be barred , that is, turned with the aid of a crowbar . This may be needed during engine maintenance, for example, to set the cutoff and admission valve timing, and it may be needed during engine starting. The need for barring

988-512: The river in Rehoboth, Massachusetts (now part of Pawtucket). Dexter Wheeler was an experienced machine builder, who had established a small horse-powered yarn mill at Rehoboth in 1807. The Fall River Manufactory's mill was completed in October 1813. Built directly over Quequechan River at the third falls above tidewater, it measured just 60 feet long by 40 feet wide, with three stories. The lower story

1026-412: The semi-rotary valve actuators operated linear slide valves inside the four valve chests of the engine. Corliss valves are in the form of a minor circular segment , rotating inside a cylindrical valve-face. Their actuating mechanism is off along the axis of the valve, thus they have little "dead space" such as the stem of a poppet valve and the entire port area can be used efficiently for gas flow. As

1064-552: The steam valves, as in Jamieson's U.S. Patent 19,640, granted March 16, 1858. Corliss' 1849 patent expired in 1870; the term of this patent had been extended by U.S. Patent reissue 200 on May 13, 1851, and U.S. Patent reissues 758 and 763 on July 12, 1859. B. Hick and Son were first to introduce the Corliss engine into the United Kingdom about 1864. After 1870, numerous other companies began to manufacture Corliss engines. Among them,

1102-407: The teeth on the flywheel. Generally, the drive gears of the barring engine are designed to automatically disengage if the engine begins running under its own power while the barring gears are engaged. The Corliss Steam Engine Company was originally known as Fairbanks, Clark & Co. in the 1830s. In 1843 it was renamed Fairbanks, Bancroft & Co. when Edward Bancroft joined the company. In 1846 it

1140-463: The valves. The use of separate valves for steam admission and exhaust means that neither the valves nor the steam passages between cylinders and valves need to change temperature during the power and exhaust cycle, and it means that the timing of the admission and exhaust valves can be independently controlled. In contrast, conventional steam engines have a slide valve or piston valve that alternately feeds and exhausts through passages to each end of

1178-407: Was constructed from field stone acquired from nearby, while the upper two stories were finished in wood. It became known as the "yellow mill", and had capacity for about 1,500 spindles. Dexter Wheeler built much of the machinery for the new mill, with some of it being transferred from his Rehoboth factory. Dexter Wheeler served as the company's first president, from 1813 to 1824. David Anthony served as

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1216-453: Was demolished in the 1960s as part of urban renewal and to make way for Interstate 195 . The site now contains a parking lot that is used by the nearby post office. Corliss engine A Corliss steam engine (or Corliss engine ) is a steam engine , fitted with rotary valves and with variable valve timing patented in 1849, invented by and named after the US engineer George Henry Corliss of Providence, Rhode Island . Corliss assumed

1254-597: Was expanded in 1843 and again in 1853, when the old wooden portions were removed. In 1860, the rebuilt 1823 mill was removed and replaced with a large addition, 296 feet long by 70 feet wide and five stories high, stretching north to Bedford Street. By 1917, the Troy Cotton & Woolen Manufactory contained a capacity of 52,544 spindles and 1,170 looms. It produced plain cotton weaves from print cloth yarns. The company operated until 1929. The mills were later occupied by various businesses, including garment industries. It

1292-643: Was incorporated in 1820 with $ 150,000. In 1827, the company built the Nankeen Mill, which was leased to Azariah and Jarvis Shove for the manufacture of nankeen cloth. In 1839, both the original 1813 "Yellow Mill" and the 1827 Nankeen Mill were demolished for the construction of a new, larger factory, which became known as the "White Mill". By 1850, the Fall River Manufactory contained 9,240 spindles and 209 looms, employing about 143 people. It consumed about 828 bales of cotton per year, to produce 1,742,400 yards of print cloth. The second mill burned on May 14, 1868, and

1330-548: Was renamed Bancroft, Nightingale & Co. when George H. Corliss joined the company, and in 1847 it was renamed Corliss, Nightingale and Co. In 1848 the company moved to the Charles Street Railroad Crossing in Providence, Rhode Island . In 1857 the company was renamed for the last time to Corliss Steam Engine Company. By 1864 Corliss bought out his partners and was the sole owner of the company. By 1859, all of

1368-402: Was replaced by a third mill, 275 feet long by 74 feet wide with 5 stories. The 1869 mill contained 640 looms and 27,080 spindles. This mill was powered by two turbines of 140 horsepower each. Supplemental power was also provide by a 300-horsepower Corliss engine , fed by steam from two upright boilers. This mill was later extended in 1891, to increase spinning capacity to 41,000 spindles. By 1893,

1406-479: Was the weight of the dashpot piston and rod that closed the valve. The speed of a Corliss engine is controlled by varying the cutoff of steam during each power stroke, while leaving the throttle wide open at all times. To accomplish this, the centrifugal governor is linked to a pair of cams, one for each admission valve. These cams determine the point during the piston stroke that the pawl will release, allowing that valve to close. As with all steam engines where

1444-449: Was traced by Inglis (1868). George Corliss received U.S. patent 6,162 for his valve gear on March 10, 1849. This patent covered the use of a wrist-plate to convey the valve motion from a single eccentric to the four valves of the engine, and it covered the use of trip valves with variable cutoff under governor control that characterize Corliss Engines. Unlike later engines, most of which were horizontal, this patent describes

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